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Morris,  Edward  D.,  1825- 

1915. 
Theology  of  the  Westminster 


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Theology 


OF 


The  JVestminster  Symbols. 


A  COMMENTARY 
HISTORICAL,  DOCTRINAL,   PRACTICAL, 

ON   THE 

CONFESSION   OF    FAITH   AND    CATECHISMS  AND 

THE  RELATED  FORMULARIES  OF  THE 

PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES. 


BY 

EDWARD  D.  MORRIS,  D,  D„  LL.  D 

Emeritus   Professor  of  Systematic    Theology 
In  Lane    Theological  Seminary. 


COLUMBUS,   OHIO, 
igoo 


©<H»itVtfXitt 


/oliimtmsia^ 


As  to  what  relates  to  the  prefent  Treatife,  lam  not  ignorant,  that 
many  eminent  and  learned  Divines,  far  beyond  Jfhate'ber  I  could 
vrofeff,  have  beatten  this  path,  and  travelled  round  the  'foortd  of 
Polemick  Divinity.  But  their  Writings  being  fo  Voluminous  and 
large,  that  be  who  de fires  to  have  a  full  fight  at  one  look  of  the  chief 
controverfies,  can  no  more  have  it,  than  a  man  from  the  'Peak  of 
Teneriff,  can  get  a  clear  fight  of  the  Ifrhole  Globe  of  the  Earth.  Which 
things,  though  they  be  principally  %orth  the  knowing,  nevertheleff, 
for  fo  much  as  their  number,  and  "bariety  are  an  impediment  to  tbem- 
f elves,  and  the  multiplicity  of  matter,  makes  the  mind  abruptly  flit 
from  one  thing  to  another,  therefore  I  have  imitated  Geographers, 
%ho  after  they  have  furveyed  the  %hole  Globe  of  the  Earth,  dravj 
Universal  defcriptions  thereof,  and  comprehend  the  %hole  image  of 
that  great  Terra- queous  Body  vjithin  a  narrow  circumference  of 
a  Card  or  Mapp.  In  so  doing,  I  may  perhaps  contribute  fome  what 
towards  the  fatisf action  of  fome,  who  neither  can,  nor  are  able,  to 
trace  the  %earifome  foot  fteps,  of  thofe  eminent  Divines,  %ho  ha'be 
Written  fully* 


*From  the  Epistle  Dedicatory  to  Truth's  Victory  over  Error,  the  first 
Commentary  on  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  ;  as  published  by 
George  Sinclare,  1684,  from  notes  of  the  Latin  lectures  of  Dr.  David  Dickson, 
Professor  of  Divinity,  delivered  in  Edinburgh,  1650-1663.  Dr.  Dickson  was 
also  the  chief  author  of  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge. 


The  Seal  of  the  Assembly. 


Original   preserved  in   a   private   collection   in   England* 


PREFACE. 


This  volume  aims  to  set  forth  in  systematic  form  the  substance 
Ot  the  Theology  embodied  in  the  series  of  confessional  documents 
drafted  and  promulgated  by  the  Westminster  Assembly.  In  order 
to  present  that  Theology  in  its  completeness,  it  has  been  found 
essential  not  only  to  include  the  doctrinal  teaching  of  the  two 
Catechisms  as  well  as  that  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  but  also  to 
introduce,  wherever  obviously  contributory,  the  theological  mate- 
rial furnished  in  the  Form  of  Government  and  the  Directory  for 
Worship.  Frequent  use  has  also  been  made  of  the  Sum  of  Sav- 
ing Knowledge,  a  brief  compendium  of  Christian  doctrine  which, 
although  without  known  ecclesiastical  warrant,  was  early  incor- 
porated with  the  Symbols  in  Scotland,  and  has  for  two  centuries 
retained  its  place  among  them  as  an  illustrative  exposition. 

It  will  be  obvious  that  the  comprehensive  system  of  doctrine 
contained  in  these  documents  can  be  fully  appreciated  only  as 
the  Westminster  Symbols  are  placed  in  their  proper  historical 
setting — in  their  vital  relationship  to  the  antecedent  development 
and  formulation  of  doctrinal  beliefs  in  Great  Britain,  and  also  to 
the  teachings  of  preceding  Protestant  symbolism  on  the  Continent. 
The  major  creeds  of  both  these  groups  have  therefore  been  freely 
utilized  by  way  of  illustrative  comparison,  with  respect  partly  to 
their  occasional  antagonisms,  but  mainly  to  their  more  funda- 
mental and  striking  points  of  agreement.  The  chief  formularies 
of  the  Roman  church,  those  of  the  Greek  church,  and  also  the 
three  ancient  creeds  of  ecumenical  Christendom,  have  in  like 
manner  been  brought  into  service,  so  far  as  they  could  be  made 
helpful  in  the  exposition  of  specific  doctrines.  Some  of  the  more 
or  less  defective  or  erratic  creeds  which  sprang  into  existence 
during  the  agitations  and  conflicts  of  the  Reformation,  have  also 
been  quoted  by  way  of  illustration. 

The  emendations  which  in  more  recent  times  have  been  made 
in  the  Symbols,  especially  by  American  Presbyterianism,  and  also 


7*  PR  EI"  ACE. 

the  important  deliverances  and  declarator}'  acts  of  Scotch  and 
English  Presbyterianism  concerning  matters  of  doctrine,  and  all 
suggested  revisions  of  the  Symbols,  have  so  far  as  serviceable  been 
incorporated  or  indicated  in  this  exposition.  Previous  commen- 
taries on  the  Confession  or  Catechisms,  and  also  the  theological 
writings  of  the  more  conspicuous  members  of  the  Assembly,  so 
far  as  accessible,  and  those  of  later  Presbyterian  authors,  British 
and  American,  have  likewise  been  carefully  consulted  in  its  prep- 
aration. 

In  compressing  the  studies  of  many  years  in  a  single  volume 
such  as  this,  the  author  has  been  constrained  for  the  most  part 
rather  to  set  forth  conclusions  than  to  present  in  detail  the  evi- 
dences and  reasonings  on  which  such  conclusions  are  based.  Nor 
has  he  deemed  it  advisable,  except  in  a  few  conspicuous  instances, 
to  name  the  various  authorities  by  which  these  conclusions  are  in 
his  judgment  sustained  or  fortified.  The  most  important  litera- 
ture of  the  subject  is  not  difficult  of  access  to  any  diligent  student. 
In  addition  to  the  numerous  references  appearing  in  the  index,  a 
brief  bibliography  may  be  found  at  the  close  of  the  volume. 

In  such  presentation  of  the  Westminster  Theology,  the  author 
has  hoped  first  of  all  to  contribute  to  a  more  intelligent  acquaint- 
ance with  the  contents  of  this  important  group  of  confessional 
documents,  to  correct  current  prejudice  and  inconsiderate  criticism 
respecting  them,  and  to  secure  some  just  appreciation  of  their  large 
historical  and  theological  significance,  as  among  the  most  conspic- 
uous formularies  of  Christendom.  He  has  also  desired  not  merely 
to  set  forth  the  Presbyterian  theology  of  the  seventeenth  century 
as  embodied  in  these  Symbols,  but  as  well  to  indicate  though  only 
in  outline  the  interesting  evolution  of  that  theology  from  the  his- 
toric germ,  to  describe  its  normal  growth  through  the  succeeding 
ages,  and  to  exhibit  as  far  as  practicable  its  remarkable  effect  and 
fruitage  as  seen  in  the  beliefs  and  teachings  of  living  Presbyteri- 
anism. And  it  may  r5e  added  that  in  this  exposition  it  has  been 
his  constant  purpose,  not  merely  to  describe  the  articles  of  a 
creed  or  the  dicta  of  a  church  or  school,  however  interesting  or 
important,  but  rather  by  this  method  to  make  more  manifest  in 
its  comprehensiveness  what  he  believes  to  be  the  essential  truth 
of  the  common  Christianity. 

He  has  also  hoped  that  this  excursion  in  the  field  of  particular 


PREFACE.  vii 

symbolism  may  both  incite  to  similar  excursions  in  other  equally 
interesting  fields,  and  serve  to  direct  attention  more  strongly  to 
that  broader  domain  of  comparative  and  general  symbolism,  which 
in  his  judgment  constitutes  at  present  the  most  interesting  and 
nutritious  department  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church.  It 
is  his  firm  belief  that  such  symbolic  studies,  diligently  and  con- 
scientiously pursued  in  an  irenic  spirit,  will  tend  more  and  more 
helpfully  to  bring  into  clearer  light,  not  the  small  distinctions  and 
controversies  of  Protestantism,  but  rather  those  grand  underlying 
unities  which  constitute  its  chief  strength  and  excellence, — unities 
which  must  be  appreciated  in  much  larger  measure  before  Prot- 
estantism can  accomplish  its  supreme  mission  of  evangelizing  the 
world  for  Christ. 

That  this  commentary  may  be  found  to  be  free  from  all  narrow 
partizanship  or  offensive  dogmatism,  and  at  the  same  time  from 
all  tendency  to  compromise  or  disparage  any  among  the  essential 
elements  in  evangelical  belief,  and  may  therefore  tend  to  stimulate 
a  like  moderation  in  others,  has  been  the  constant  and  earnest 
aspiration  of  the  author.  In  this  spirit  and  hope  he  commends 
it  first  of  all  to  those  who  for  a  generation  have  been  his  pupils 
in  the  department  of  Christian  Doctrine,  and  to  the  younger 
ministers  in  the  various  Presbyterian  communions, — trusting  that 
it  may  prove  a  valuable  help  in  the  apprehension  and  the  procla- 
mation of  that  supreme  Truth  of  God,  which  it  is  the  solemn  voca- 
tion of  their  lives  to  make  known  to  men.  Nor  is  he  without 
hope  that  this  volume  may  find  its  way  into  our  theological  sem- 
inaries, as  a  helpful  manual  or  book  of  reference,  treating — 
though  summarily— all  or  nearly  all  of  the  doctrinal  topics  ordi- 
narily studied  in  such  institutions. 

After  half  a  century  of  sincere  and  diligent  investigation,  the 
writer  of  these  pages  rests  in  the  matured  conviction  that  Sys- 
tematic Theology,  clearly  apprehended,  well  organized,  positive 
in  essential  substance,  irenic  in  temper,  and  as  impregnable  as 
supreme  loyalty  to  inspired  Scripture  can  make  it,  is  as  indis- 
pensable to  the  vigor  and  success,  and  even  to  the  healthful  life 
of  evangelical  Christianity,  as  the  osseous  structure  is  to  the 
human  frame.  He  is  profound^  convinced  that  all  attempts  to 
decry  or  compromise  or  exclude  such  theology,  whether  by  the 
disparaging  or  ignoring  of  the  venerated  creeds  of  Christendom 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

or  otherwise,  will  end  only  in  disappointment  or  in  irreparable 
mischief.  Especially  does  he  cherish  the  hope  that  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  all  its  branches  may  continue  to  be,  as  for  two 
centuries  and  more  it  has  eminently  been,  the  Church  of  the  Doc- 
trines ;  holding  forth  through  all  the  future  in  their  breadth 
and  majesty  and  convincing  power  those  divine  truths,  that 
lofty  and  substantial  system  of  theology,  by  which  it  has  been  so 
singularly  nourished  and  strengthened  in  the  past.  And  in  that 
grand  sphere  of  service  for  the  common  Christianity,  the  ven- 
erable Symbols  of  Westminster,  expanded  and  improved  by  widen- 
ing thought  and  experience,  and  held  forth  in  that  temper  of 
sweet  reasonableness  commended  by  the  Apostle,  must  always 
hold  a  central  and  vital  place. 


*W*A11  specially  important  citations  from  the  Symbols  are  printed  in 
italics.  Quotations  from  other  creeds  are  indicated  by  particular  reference. 
Other  references  to  authorities  appear,  for  the  convenience  of  the  student, 
in  the  body  of  the  text  rather  than  at  the  bottom  of  the  page. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  FIRST.  -HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

Symbolism:  Nature  and  Uses  of  Creeds  :  The  Creeds  of  Christen- 
dom :  The  Symbols  of  Westminster.  1.  Symbolism  as  a  branch  of 
scientific  theology  :  particular  and  comparative  symbolism  :  aim  of  these  Lec- 
tures. 2.  The  term,  doctrine,  defined  :  primary  and  secondary  meanings  : 
history  of  doctrine.  3.  Creeds,  confessions,  symbols,  as  expositions  of 
doctrine  described.  4.  The  necessity  for  creeds,  exterior,  interior  :  illustra- 
tions of  each  class.  5.  Formation  of  creeds  :  limitations  and  conditions  of 
the  process  :  the  ideal  creed.  6.  Imperfection  of  creeds  ;  its  nature  and 
necessity  :  question  of  emendation.  7.  Their  degree  of  authoritativeness  : 
boundaries  to  such   authority  :    loyalty  to  creeds  :    two   antithetic    errors. 

8.  Objections  to  creeds  :   sources  of   objection  :    the  appropriate  answer. 

9.  Historic  Creeds  :  the  creed  element  in  Scripture  :  declarations  of  faith, 
individual  and  general.  10.  The  first  creed  period  :  the  three  ancient  creeds 
described.  11.  These  creeds  studied  comparatively:  their  contents  and 
limitations.  12.  Creedless  period  ;  A.  D.  500  to  A.  D.  1500  :  no  progress  of 
doctrine:  Scholasticism.  13.  Second  creed  period  :  creeds  of  the  Reforma- 
tion grouped  into  classes  ;  enumeration.  14.  Protestant  creeds  studied  com- 
paratively :  contrast  with  the  ancient  symbols  :  different  aim  and  function. 
15.  Heretical  creeds  of  this  period  :  Greek  and  Papal  confessions.  16.  Sec- 
ond creedless  period,  since  the  Reformation  :  explanation.  1 7.  Comparative 
symbolism  illustrated  by  this  historic  review  :  its  scope  and  value.  18.  The 
Westminster  Symbols  to  be  specially  examined  :  general  character  of  the 
British  Reformation  :  antecedent  confessions.  19.  A  new  creed  needful  : 
political  and  ecclesiastical  occasions.  20.  The  Westminster  Assembly,  its 
constitution,  membership  and  aims  :  questions  before  it.  21 .  Doctrinal  work 
of  the  Assembly  :  the  Confession  and  Catechisms:  process  of  formulation. 
22.  Difficulties  confronted  :  temper  and  value  of  the  work.  23.  The  West- 
minster Symbols  in  Britain:  English  and  Scotch  acceptance:  their  subsequent 
position  and  effect.  24.  The  Symbols  in  America  :  the  Adopting  Act :  con- 
flicting theories  of  subscription.  25.  Their  general  position  :  extensive 
influence  :  sources  of  their  power.  26.  Proposed  analysis  :  order  of  doc- 
trine :  method  of  inquiry  :  general  object  in  view.  /  1-65. 

LECTURE  SECOND.— THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 

Revelation,  its  Nature  and  Process  ;  Contents  of  Scripture  :  Its 
Authenticity,  Authority  and  Adequacy  :  Right  and  Duty  of  Private 
Interpretation.  1.  Protestantism  and  Scripture  :  the  Symbols  start  from 
the  point  of  Revelation.     2.     Man  capable  of  receiving  a  revelation  :  the 


5.  CONTENTS. 

light  and  law  of  nature.  3.  Nature  and  Revelation,  how  related  :  natural 
theology  and  religion  :  Revelation  essential.  4.  Fact  and  nature  of  the  Rev- 
elation given  :  objections  invalid  :  God  the  final  Judge  here.  5.  Process  of 
Revelation  :  Inspiration,  its  nature  and  extent :  grades  of  inspiration.  6. 
Alleged  errancy  of  Scripture  :  the  Bible  essentially  inerrant.  7.  This  Rev- 
elation progressive,  historic,  final  :  no  other  revelation  requisite.  8.  Contents 
of  Scripture  :  particular  books  included  :  question  of  the  Canon.  9.  The 
apocryphal  books,  their  position  and  claim  :  Protestant  reasons  for  rejecting 
them.  10.  CanoniciTy  further  considered  :  tests  objective  and  subjective: 
state  of  the  question.  11.  Preservation,  genuineness,  translation  and  dif- 
fusion of  the  Scriptures  :  Providence  and  the  Bible  :  right  of  translation  and 
circulation.  12.  AuThoritaTiveness  and  credibility  of  Scripture:  internal 
and  external  evidences  :  consequent  mandatory  power.  13.  Contrast  with 
churchly  traditions,  with  decrees  of  councils  :  adequacy  of  the  Bible  :  no 
additional  revelation  needful.  14.  Interpretation  :  right  and  duty  of 
private  study  of  Scripture  :  foundations  of  this  right :  grounds  of  this  duty : 
Church  interpretations,  how  far  authoritative:  the  Roman  assumption  con- 
futed. 15.  Interpreting  Scripture  by  Scripture:  province  of  reason  in  inter- 
pretation :  Bible  beyond  reason.  16.  The  Spirit  interpreting  the  Word  : 
natural  and  saving  knowledge  contrasted  :  communion  with  the  Spirit  essen- 
tial. 17.  Closing  survey:  completeness  and  value  of  the  Symbols  on  this 
doctrine:  their  permanent  authoritativeness.  66-123. 

LECTURE  THIRD.— GOD  IN  HIS  BEING. 

The  Divine  Existence  and  Nature  :  Attributes  of  God  :  The 
Trinity  in  God.  1.  The  divine  existence  affirmed  :  qualities  of  this 
affirmation.  2.  Arguments  incidentally  suggested  :  proofs  from  nature, 
from  man  :  significance  of  the  latter.  3.  The  unity  of  God  taught :  poly- 
theism in  all  forms  illicit.  4.  God  a  self-existent  Spirit;  personal,  fontal, 
creative.     5.     God  an  absolute  Spirit  :  His  dominion  original  and  complete. 

6.  God  an  infinite,  eternal,  unchangeable  Spirit.  7.  Morae  ATTRIBUTES 
and  Nature  :  knowledge  of  these  attributes.  8.  The  divine  wisdom  :  intel- 
ligence, knowledge,  wisdom  distinctively  described.  9.  The  divine  power: 
God  as  Cause,  and  as  Will  :  His  original  sovereignty.  10.  Other  moral 
attributes  :  divine  justice,  goodness,  truth  :  analysis  of  each.  11.  Holiness  in 
God:  His  moral  perfection  :  general  doctrine  of  the  attributes.  12.  Trinity 
in  the  Godhead  :  divine  unity  the  underlying  fact :  such  unity  taught.  13. 
The  term,  Person,  its  significance  :  its  relations  to  Being  :  limitations  of  the 
term.  14.  Differentiating  properties  :  likeness  and  unlikeness  in  the  Divine 
Persons.  15.  The  Trinity  interior  and  exterior  :  Trinity  in  the  work  of 
redemption.  16.  Proof  of  the  doctrine:  Scripture  and  experience:  objec- 
tions noted.  17.  Concluding  remarks  :  characteristic  qualities pPthis  gen--— .. 
eral  doctrine  of  God  :  its  spiritual  elevation  and  influence.       /      124-1  Jf?. 

LECTURE  FOURTH.— GOD  IN  HIS  ACTIVITIES. 

Divine  Decrees  :  Creation  :  Providence  :  Morae  Administration. 
1.  Relations  of  this  general  topic  to  preceding  doctrine  and  to  the  doctrinal 
scheme  consequent :   God  essentially  active.     2.     DECREE  :   conception  and 


CONTENTS.  Xi 

analysis  of  the  term  :  an  eternal,  conclusive,  effectual  purpose.  3.  Decree 
and  decrees  :  significance  of  this  distinction  :  debates  in  the  Assembly.  4. 
Order  of  the  decrees  :  supralapsarian  and  sublapsarian  statements  :  the  ques- 
tion of  election.  5.  Modes  of  executing  the  decrees  :  second  causes  efficient: 
human  agency  and  the  divine  decrees.  6.  Spirit  in  which  the  decrees  are 
executed  :  the  moral  qualities  revealed  :  divine  goodness  especially  charac- 
teristic. 7.  Creation,  the  first  form  of  divine  activity:  God  as  Creator:  the 
Trinity  in  creation:  false  theories  of  creation.  8.  Method  of  creation  :  the 
word  of  power  :  the  phrase,  of  nothing:  the  six  days  or  eras  in  creation. 
9.  Extent  of  the  creation :  the  universe  material  and  moral  :  creation  of  the 
angels  and  of  man.  10.  Quality  of  the  creation  :  the  existence  of  evil, 
natural  and  spiritual  :  divine  relations  to  such  evil,  and  especially  to  sin. 
11.  End  of  God  in  creation,  the  manifestation  of  his  glory  :  harmony  with 
other  related  ends  :  its  legitimacy  as  supreme  end.  12.  Providence  :  defi- 
nition of  the  term  :  preserving  and  governing  described  :  other  definitions. 
13.  Method  of  God  in  providence:  providence  and  miracle:  providence  and 
secondary  causes.  14.  Providence  and  human  freedom:  sin  a  fact  occurring 
in  providence:  the  fall  permitted  in  providence:  God  not  the  author  of  sin. 
15.  Providence  over  saints,  and  over  the  Church:  providential  discipline  and 
nurture.  16.  Prayer  a  duty  and  a  factor  in  providence:  various  theories. 
17.  Relations  of  providence  to  the  wicked  :  discipline  and  retribution  occur- 
ring providentially.  18.  Providence  and  moral  administration :  God  also  a 
moral  Governor:  the  doctrine  of  Moral  Government  introduced:  deficiency 
of  the  Symbols  at  this  point.  178-236. 

LECTURE  FIFTH.— MAN. 

His  Origin  and  Nature  :  His  Probation — Covenant  of  Works  : 
The  Fall  and  its  Issues:  Original  Sin:  Mankind  as  Depraved  :  Free 
Wile:  Man  under  Taw.  1.  Creation  of  man:  true  and  false  concep- 
tions. Unity  of  the  race:  its  relative  antiquity.  2.  Constitution  of  man  as 
created  :  his  physical,  mental,  moral  endowments:  the  phrase,  image  of  God, 
defined  :  original  righteousness.  3.  The  place  of  man  in  nature:  dominion 
over  the  creatures  :  divine  estimate  of  man.  4.  Two  specific  questions  : 
origin  of  the  soul  in  man :  immortality  on  the  earth.  5.  Probation  :  man 
created  under  moral  law:  his  power  to  fulfill  law:  his  will  and  its  mutability. 
6.  The  covenant  of  life,  its  nature  as  a  transaction  under  law:  its  conditions 
and  objects.  7.  Reach  of  this  probation:  Adam  as  a  public  person  :  limits 
of  this  representation.  8.  The  Fall:  an  event  in  the  divine  decree:  divers- 
ities of  view  in  the  Assembly.  Permission  of  sin  defined  :  divine  authorship 
of  sin  denied.  9.  The  Fall  as  a  transaction,  its  historic  quality:  the  temp- 
tation, in  its  nature,  incidents  and  results.  10.  The  triple  curse:  its  several 
elements:  death  the  resultant  of  sin:  the  earth  and  humanity  involved.  11. 
Original  Sin  :  sinfulness  transmitted  in  the  race:  theories  of  transmission: 
the  essential  fact.  12.  Depravity,  its  actual  nature:  terms  and  phrases 
employed  in  describing  it.  13.  Objections  to  the  doctrine:  value  of  morality 
recognized  :  case  of  infants  dying  in  infancy,  and  of  the  heathen.  14.  Sin 
defined  :  its  essential  qualities — transgression,  want  of  conformity,  disobedi- 
ence, selfhood.  15.  Strength  of  this  conception:  other  views  of  sin  com- 
pared :  defective  statements.  16.  Free  will  in  man:  confessional  state- 
ments: conflicting  theories.     17.     Man  under  law:   Moral  government,  its 


X1J  CONTENTS. 

nature  and  scope,  18.  Duty  of  obedience,  personal  and  perpetual  :  respon- 
sibility defined.  19.  Failure  of  man  under  law:  miseries  of  disobedience  : 
deliverance  possible.  237-301. 

LECTURE  SIXTH.— CHRIST,  THE  MEDIATOR. 

His  Incarnation  :  His  Person,  Divine  and  Human  :  His  Mission — 
Mediation  :  His  Mediatorial  Offices — Prophet,  Priest,  King  :  His 
Humiliation  and  Exaltation.  1.  The  Christology  of  the  Reformation : 
affirmation  of  ancient  doctrine:  fullness  of  statement.  2.  Eternal  existence 
of  Christ  as  Son  of  God  :  the  phrase,  only  begotten.  3.  The  Incarnation: 
its  necessity,  nature  and  characteristics.  Significance  of  the  incarnation  in 
theology:  fundamental  in  Christianity:  the  kenosis.  5.  The  two  natures  in 
Christ:  one  personality  complete  in  the  Immanuel.  6.  Perils  of  error  on 
either  side:  composite  view  indispensable:  mystery  involved.  7.  Media- 
tion: its  nature  and  necessity,  toward  both  God  and  man.  8.  Christ  as 
Mediator  :  his  qualities,  personal,  official  :  complete  adaptation.  9.  The 
Three  Offices  :  mediation  thus  distributed  :  reasons  and  objections.  10. 
Christ  as  Prophet:  supreme  teacher:  perfect  example.  11.  Christ  as  Priest, 
and  also  Sacrifice  :  source  of  this  conception  :  its  central  place  in  Christian 
symbolism.  Qualifications  of  Christ  as  priest,  as  sacrifice.  12.  Satisfaction  : 
the  term  defined  :  the  essential  fact.  13.  Christ  as  King  :  development  of 
the  doctrine:  biblical  warrant.  14.  Nature  of  his  kingship,  earthly  and 
heavenly:  its  extent  and  glory.  15.  The  Two  Estates:  His  estate  of  hu- 
miliation :  the  earthly  life:  death  and  descent  into  the  grave.  16.  His  estate 
of  exaltation:  the  resurrection  and  ascension:  his  function  as  Advocate  and 
Intercessor.  18.  Final  survey:  true  doctrine  vital  in  Christianity:  personal 
faith  requisite.  302-351. 

LECTURE  SEVENTH.— THE.  PLAN  OF  SALVATION. 

Salvation  :  The  Divine  Plan  :  Covenant  of  Redemption  :  The 
Gospel:  Election:  Reprobation.  1.  Salvation  defined  :  its  need  and 
nature.  2.  Plan  of  Salvation,  the  phrase  defined  :  plan  formed  in  sov- 
ereignty, in  grace.  3.  Covenant  of  redemption  defined  :  errors  noted. 
4.  Covenant  of  works  ineffectual  :  a  scheme  of  deliverance  necessary:  the 
covenant  of  grace.  5.  Historical  unfolding  of  the  plan  of  salvation:  types 
and  promises  realized  in  Christ.  6.  The  Gospel  defined,  as  a  system  of 
revealed  truth  concerning  salvation.  7.  This  Gospel  contrasted  with  other 
schemes  of  salvation  :  its  manifest  superiority.  8.  The  Gospel  as  an  offer  : 
its  aim  and  scope.  9.  Later  conceptions  of  the  Gospel  in  both  aspects  : 
improvements  noted.  10.  Plan  of  Salvation  applied  :  doctrine  of  ELECTION 
introduced:  order  of  the  decrees  again  considered.  11.  Election  defined: 
election  in  providence,  and  in  grace.  12.  Divine  motive  in  election  :  the 
divine  purpose  formed  in  love.  13.  Ends  sought  in  such  election :  holiness- 
usefulness:  false  views  corrected.  14.  Human  relations  and  agency:  election 
in  some  sense  conditioned  :  human  responsibility.  15.  Reprobation,  an 
election  unto  condemnation  :  fact  of  reprobation — its  ground  :  Preterition  : 
teaching  of  the  symbols.  16.  Concluding  view  of  the  divine  Plan  :  God 
justified  in  the  issues  of  his  gracious  purpose.  352-404. 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

LECTURE  EIGHTH.— THE  PROCESS  OF  SALVATION. 

Salvation  a  Process:  The  Holy  Spirit  as  Agent:  Man  asSalvable: 
Effectual  Calling — Regeneration:  Justification:  Sanctification. 
1.  Preliminary  suggestions:  the  process  personal  throughout:  agents  en- 
gaged. 2.  The  Spirit  as  a  personal  agent:  his  full  personality  established. 
3.  Development  of  doctrine  concerning  the  Spirit:  proposed  addition  to  the 
Symbols.  4.  His  special  agency  in  the  sphere  of  salvation :  his  supremacy 
therein.  5.  Objections  answered:  the  doctrine  fundamental  in  Christianity. 
6.  The  human  person  in  this  process:  Man  as  salvable.  7.  Common  ope- 
rations of  the  Spirit:  common  grace,  its  nature  and  extent.  8.  Effectual 
CALLING:  regeneration  by  the  Spirit,  its  nature:  Conversion.  9.  Revealed 
truth  as  related  to  regeneration:  sacraments  and  other  instrumentalities. 
10.  Justification  defined:  its  ground  in  Christ  only:  justifying  faith.  11. 
Elements  of  justification — pardon  and  acceptance.  12.  False  theories  of 
justification:  historic  sketch  of  the  doctrine:  its  vital  moment.  13.  Adop- 
tion, its  nature:  relations  to  justification.  14.  Sanctification,  its  nature 
as  a  process:  the  human  agent  concerned.  15.  Specific  questions  suggested : 
the  answers  given.  16.  Concluding  summary:  Roman  and  Protestant  doc- 
trine of  salvation  compared.  405-460. 

LECTURE  NINTH.— THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 

Christianity  a  Life  :  Faith  :  Repentance  :  Good  Works  :  Perse- 
verance: Perfection. — 1.  The  Christian  life:  Papal  and  Protestant  doc- 
trine compared:  form  and  spirit.  2.  General  Conception  of  the  Christian 
life:  its  essential  elements:  its  ideal,  motive,  law,  fruitage.  3.  Dependence 
on  the  Spirit:  trust,  obedience,  communion  requisite.  4.  Saving  Faith 
defined:  creed  statements:  the  Protestant  doctrine.  5.  Such  faith  reason- 
able :  its  potency  in  character  and  life.  6.  REPENTANCE  defined :  its  essential 
elements:  false  conceptions.  7.  Protestant  and  Papal  doctrines  of  repent- 
ance compared  :  auricular  confession  and  absolution.  8.  Good  Works, 
their  nature  and  worth:  Catholic  and  Protestant  statements.  9.  Good  works, 
doctrine  of  the  Symbols  analyzed:  recent  explanations.  10.  PERSEVERANCE 
of  the  saints:  the  Christian  life  permanent:  grounds  of  belief.  11.  ASSUR- 
ANCE of  salvation,  its  nature  and  relations  to  saving  faith.  12.  PERFECTION 
in  the  Christian  life:  theories  of  perfection.  Final  survey  of  the  whole 
subject:  practical  inferences.  461-505. 

LECTURE  TENTH.— THE  LAW  OF  GOD. 

Moral  Law:  Moral  Government:  The  Ten  Commandments:  Christ 
and  Law:  Law  and  Morality:  Law  and  Grace. — 1.  Place  of  law  in  the 
Symbols:  prominence  of  this  element.  2.  Place  of  law  in  the  Protestant 
symbols  generally,  and  in  Protestant  thought.  3.  Moral  Law  defined: 
distinguished  from  providential  administration  :  Moral  law  in  nature,  in 
Scripture.  4.  Uses  of  the  moral  law:  principles  of  interpretation.  5.  The 
Ten  Commandments:  general  view:  specific  features:  the  two  tables.  6. 
First  table  of  the  law:  first  three  commandments:  duties  toward  God  :  the 
sins  forbidden.  7.  First  table  continued:  fourth  and  fifth  commandments: 
the  latter  transitional :  its  special  character.     8.     Second  table,  duties  toward 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

man  murder,  adultery,  theft,  false  witness  forbidden :  influence  of  the  Mosaic 
code.  9  The  tenth  commandment  transitional :  Law  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment: the  divine  evolution  in  Scripture.  10.  Law  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment: three  special  characteristics:  Christ  the  supreme  revealerof  law.  11. 
Law  of  God  and  human  morality,  affiliations  and  contrasts:  Christian  moral- 
ity supreme.  12.  Law  and  Grace,  faith  and  obedience,  their  essential 
harmony:  concluding  view.  506-555. 

LECTURE  ELEVENTH.— CIVIL  RELATIONS  AND  DUTIES. 

Christian  Liberty — Liberty  of  Conscience  :  Civil  Magistracy  : 
Papal  Jurisdiction:  Lawful  Oaths:  Vows:  Marriage — Polygamy — 
Celibacy:  Divorce:  Christianity  in  the  State. — 1.  Christian  lib- 
erty denned — freedom  as  toward  God :  its  nature  and  extent.  2.  Liberty 
OF  conscience — freedom  as  toward  men:  the  State  and  freedom.  3.  Failure 
of  the  Assembly  in  applying  the  doctrine:  instances  and  explanations.  4. 
Civil  Magistrate,  his  sphere  and  functions:  the  State  and  the  Church: 
later  view.  5.  The  Pope  in  the  State — denial  of  civil  jurisdiction.  6.  Law- 
ful Oaths — their  nature  and  obligation:  limitations  noted:  Jesuitic  errors. 

7.  Religious  Vows — nature  and  worth:  legal  limitations:  monastic  vows. 

8.  Marriage,  divine  foundation  and  warrant:  limitations:  polygamy:  con- 
cubinage. 9.  Celibacy:  its  historic  development:  adverse  arguments.  10. 
Divorce — dissolution  of  marriage  relation:  grounds  of  divorce:  adultery — 
willful  desertion:  other  grounds:  civil  divorce.  11.  Christianity  and 
The  State,  their  mutual  duties:  religion  a  social  force:  bearings  on  living 
issues.     The  Church  supreme  in  human  life.  556-600. 

LECTURE  TWELFTH.— THE  CHURCH  OF  GOD. 

Church  Visible  and  Invisible:  Communion  of  Saints:  Constitution 
and  Membership  :  Officers  and  Government  :  Denominations  : 
Church  Councils:  Headship  of  Christ:  Church  Growth. — 1.  Prot- 
estant doctrine  of  the  Church:  confessional  statements:  marks  of  the  true 
Church.  2.  Westminster  doctrine :  Church  visible  and  invisible:  distinctions 
noted.  3.  Church  in  the  divine  plan;  its  historic  evolution,  Patriarchal, 
Hebraic,  Christian.  4.  Communion  of  Saints,  its  nature  and  extent:  obli- 
gations involved.  5.  Sects  and  denominations:  how  far  justifiable.  6.  The 
particular  church:  constitution  and  membership — infant  membership. 
7.  Particular  church,  its  endowments:  ministry,  oracles,  ordinances.  8. 
Particular  church,  its  organization  and  government:  officers  needful.  9.  Par- 
ticular church:  power  of  the  keys — right  of  discipline:  church  censures. 
10.  Ecclesiastical  organizations:  synods  and  councils,  their  constitution 
and  object.  11.  The  Presbyterian  polity  described:  its  essential  qualities: 
its  special  values.  12.  Headship  of  Christ  in  the  Church:  the  Bible  the 
supreme  law.  13.  Purity  of  the  Church:  impure  churches:  papal  supremacy 
condemned.  14.  The  Church,  its  permanence  and  growth:  laws  of  growth 
defined:  illicit  growth:  conditions  of  success.  601-666. 

LECTURE  THIRTEENTH.— SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES, 
WORSHIP. 

Sacraments,  Baptism,  The  Eucharist:  Sabbath,  Sanctuary,  Means 


CONTENTS.  XV 

of  Grace,  The  Ministry  :  Worship,  Preaching  and  Hearing,  Praise, 
Prayer  :  Ritual  and  Liturgy. — 1.  Christian  sacraments  defined — 
their  nature  and  authority  :  papal  error.  2.  Baptism  :  its  nature,  design 
and  mode.  3.  Baptism  :  proper  subjects  :  baptism  of  infants ;  biblical 
warrant ;  its  values.  4.  Lord's  Supper  :  its  design  and  uses  :  Roman  and 
Protestant  doctrine  :  proper  participants  :  other  observances.  5.  Chris- 
tian ordinances  defined  :  the  Sabbath,  the  Santuary.  6.  Ordinances  : 
the  Means  of  grace,  Patriarchal,  Hebraic,  Christian  :  Protestant  usage.  7. 
Ordinances  :  the  Ministry  an  ordinance  of  God  :  place  and  functions  in 
the  church.  8.  Christian  Worship,  nature  and  grounds  :  its  essential 
elements.  9.  Worship  :  reading,  preachirg,  hearing  the  divine  Word.  10. 
Worship  :  praise,  thanksgiving,  confession,  prayer.  11.  Concluding  sur- 
vey :  ritual,  liturgy,  sacred  times,  the  Christian  year.  667-720. 

LECTURE  FOURTEENTH— ESCHATOLOGY. 

Millennium  :  Death  :  Immortality  :  Particular  Judgment  :  The 
Intermediate  Life  :  Salvation  After  Death  :  Final  Advent  :  Res- 
urrection :  General  Judgment  :  The  Eternal  Estate  :  The  Con- 
summation.— 1.  Eschatology  defined  :  general  Protestant  doctrine.  2. 
Westminster  Eschatology  :  The  Millennium  :  general  view.  3.  Millen- 
nium, particular  statements  :  preceding  and  concurrent  events.  4.  Death  : 
nature,  its  theological  significance.  5.  Immortality  :  general  evidences : 
speculative  and  biblical  :  creed  statements.  6.  Conditional  immortality  : 
annihilationism.  7.  The  intermediate  life  :  its  general  characteristics.  8. 
Opposite  theories  :  purgatory  :  restorationism  :  probation  after  death.  9. 
Particular  judgment  at  death  :  nature  and  effects.  10.  Final  Advent : 
occurrence,  nature,  results.  11.  Resurrection  of  Christ,  of  the  righteous, 
of  all;  evidences.  12.  General  judgment,  necessity  and  nature  :  Christ  the 
Judge.  13.  The  eternal  estate  :  Hell  and  Heaven,  nature  and  duration. 
14.     The  ultimate  Consummation  :  the  Kingdom  surrendered  :  God  over  all. 

721-788. 

LECTURE  FIFTEENTH.— THE  WESTMINSTER  ASSEMBLY. 

Estimates  of  the  Assembly  :  Its  Work  Reviewed  :  Specific  Excel- 
lences and  Defects  :  Authority  of  the  Symbols — Toleration  :  Con- 
tinental Relations  and  Influence  :  Their  Permanency  and 
Propagation:  Rule  of  Subscription:  Revision.  1.  Estimates  of  the 
Assembly  :  its  general  character.  2.  Its  work  reviewed  :  worship,  govern- 
ment, doctrine — general  quality.  3.  Its  doctrinal  system,  characteristic 
excellences  :  extent,  order  and  proportion,  moderation,  spiritual  and 
ethical  quality.  4.  Its  defects  :  rules  in  estimating  these  :  defects  inherent 
in  Calvinism  :  some  special  defects  named,  explanation.  5.  Ecclesiastical 
authority  of  the  Symbols  :  question  of  toleration.  6.  Relation  of  the  Sym- 
bols to  Protestant  symbolism :  to  continental  Protestantism.  7.  Their 
permanence  and  propagation  :  rise  of  hindrances  :  British  Moderatism.  8. 
Rule  of  subscription  :  loyalty  to  the  Symbols,  its  nature  and  demands.  9. 
Revision  and  emendation,  when  desirable  :  requisite  conditions.     789-840. 

index  and  References       .......        841-858 


THE   WESTMINSTER  SYMBOLS. 


LECTURE  FIRST— HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION. 

Symbolism  as  a  Study  :  Nature  and  Uses  of  Creeds  : 
The  Creeds  of  Christendom  :  The  Symbols  op  West- 
minster. 

Symbolism  may  be  defined  as  that  branch  of  general  theology 

which  treats  of  the  history,  contents,  teaching  and  influence  of 

the    accepted    creeds    of    the    Christian 

Church.     In  such  treatment  these  historic        *•   Symbolism  defined ; 

symbols  are  to  be  studied  generally  with  _ ..      e"  °SJ*     ur~ 

.  .  .  p0se  0f  tnese  Lectures. 

respect    to    their    sources,    position    and 

issues,  and  also  specifically  with  respect  to  their  statements  of  par- 
ticular doctrines,  and  to  their  special  presentations  of  the  Christian 
Truth.  As  each  of  these  creeds  or  confessions  has  an  individual 
history,  and  exhibits  peculiar  characteristics  in  structure,  contents 
and  spirit,  the  examination  of  the  individual  formulary  with  refer- 
ence to  such  elements,  may  be  styled  Particular  Symbolism.  As 
the  creeds  or  confessions  of  the  Church,  originating  at  various 
periods  in  its  development,  sustain  many  interesting  relations  to 
each  other,  both  in  their  outer  connections  ecclesiastically,  and  in 
their  interior  teaching  and  tendency,  the  study  of  these  creeds  in 
such  relations,  with  special  reference  to  their  mutual  affiliations 
and  contrasts,  may  be  styled  Comparative  Symbolism.  The  gen- 
eral aggregate  of  divine  truth  obtained  by  these  processes,  and 
especially  the  scheme  of  Christian  Doctrine  thus  derived,  is  in  a 
proper  sense  of  the  word,  Symbolic  Theology. 

Standing  between  Biblical  Theology  on  the  one  side,  and  Dog- 
matic or  Systematic  Theology  on  the  other,  the  department  of 
study  just  defined  has  uses  and  values  peculiar  to  itself.  Though 
it  deals  with  past  rather  than  present  beliefs,  and  with  terse  form- 
ularies rather  than  extended  doctrinal  systems,  it  is  not  on  such 
account  to  be  regarded  as  either  obsolete  or  unimportant.     A 


2  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

distinct  and  positive  creed,  originating  in  the  deepest  experience  of 
some  Christian  body,  and  representing  its  most  fundamental  con- 
victions respecting  the  essential  truths  of  our  holy  religion,  is  in 
fact,  however  remote  it  may  be  in  date  or  place,  far  more  significant 
than  any  system  of  theology  can  be,  however  complete  in  itself 
or  however  eminent  in  its  authorship.  And  there  are  many  ways 
in  which  the  study  of  such  creeds,  intelligently  and  carefully  pur- 
sued, makes  special  and  unique  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of 
the  Christian  Doctrine.  Such  study  brings  into  view  the  various 
modes  and  forms  in  which  particular  truths  have  at  different  peri- 
ods been  stated  and  received  within  the  Church.  It  illustrates  the 
various  methods  of  combining  such  truths  structurally,  according 
to  their  historic  or  theologic  relations.  It  reveals  the  ordained 
succession  and  vital  interdependency  of  the  Christian  symbols, 
and  exhibits  in  and  through  them  that  sublime  evolution  of  sacred 
doctrine  from  the  biblical  germ,  of  which  systematic  theology  is  in 
every  age  the  culminating  expression.  The  generic  progress  of 
Christian  truth  and  Christian  faith  through  the  centuries  is  often 
most  happily  discerned,  as  it  is  thus  made  manifest  in  the  forma- 
tion and  the  bright  succession  of  the  Christian  creeds.  Such  study 
also  illustrates  and  interprets  the  external  history  of  the  Church 
by  bringing  into  just  prominence  those  critical  eras,  those  decisive 
movements  and  struggles,  in  which  such  creeds  have  their  origin. 
Ln  fact,  the  story  of  the  genesis,  formation,  implanting  and  dif- 
fusion of  creeds  is  sometimes  the  most  important  illustrative 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  period  in  which  they  originated. 
Further,  it  is  only  as  we  duly  estimate  their  authoritative  affirma- 
tions, that  we  comprehend  or  are  prepared  to  refute  the  errors  or 
heresies,  which  in  many  instances  were  their  originating  occasions, 
and  against  which  they  bear  their  enduring  protest.  Still  further, 
we  may  note  their  practical  contribution  to  ministerial  culture  and 
service  ;  no  one  can  adequately  apprehend  or  expound  the  accepted 
doctrines  of  his  own  branch  of  the  Church,  unless  he  understands 
the  historic  evolution  of  such  doctrines,  and  appreciates  their  con- 
fessional as  well  as  their  intrinsic  meaning  and  value.  Symbolic 
studies  also  broaden  the  mind  of  the  Christian  scholar,  expand  his 
intellectual  and  moral  sympathies,  cultivate  in  him  an  irenic  tem- 
per, and  set  him  in  more  practical  and  loving  relations  to  all  phases 
of  Christian  belief,  while  at  the  same  time  they  teach  him  to  be 
supremely  loyal  to  the  truth  as  revealed  in  Scripture,  and  to  Him 
who  is  the  true  light  and  life  of  men.  For  such  reasons  it  is  hardly 
a  mistake  to  classify  symbolic  with  biblical  and  dogmatic  theology 
as  an  equally  important  factor  in  ministerial  culture,  and  an  inval- 


SYMBOLIC    THEOLOGY.  3 

nable  help  in  the  skillful  and  effective  proclamation  of  the  divine 
Truth. 

The  main  purpose  of  the  present  series  of  Lectures  is  to  describe 
in  detail  the  doctrinal  contents  of  the  Symbols  of  Westminster, 
including  not  only  the  teachings  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  and 
the  Larger  and  Shorter  Catechisms,  but  also  such  theological 
material  as  appears  in  the  Form  of  Government,  Book  of  Disci- 
pline and  Directory  for  Worship.  Such  doctrinal  contents  will  1  e 
so  arranged  as  to  present  in  full  outline  and  in  logical  order,  the 
general  system  of  theology  incorporated  in  these  Symbols  —  a 
system  which  has  been  widely  recognized  as  among  the  most 
notable  theologies  of  Christendom.  Such  modifications  or  emen- 
dations of  that  system  as  have  secured  extensive  acceptance  within 
the  Presbyterian  communions,  as  the  result  of  more  recent  dis- 
cussions and  discoveries,  will  also  be  included  in  this  descriptive 
survey.  It  is  intended,  further,  to  indicate  at  all  important  points 
the  historic  relations  of  the  Symbols  of  Westminster  to  Christian 
symbolism  in  general,  and  especially  to  the  other  doctrinal  form- 
ularies originating  in  the  fruitful  period  of  the  Reformation. 
Through  such  studies  it  is  hoped  on  the  one  hand  that  broader 
and  juster  views  of  the  doctrinal  teachings  of  the  Symbols,  as  thus 
defined  and  organized,  may  be  attained  ;  and  on  the  other  hand 
that  a  more  intelligent  appreciation  of  that  comprehensive  body 
of  sacred  doctrine,  represented  alike  by  these  and  other  cognate 
Protestant  symbols,  may  be  gained.  It  is  also  hoped  more  broadly, 
that  such  investigation  will  result  in  enlarged  conceptions  and  a 
worthier  estimate  of  the  saving  truth  which  constitutes  the  Gospel 
in  its  essence,  as  accepted  and  cherished  by  evangelical  Christen- 
dom universally.  As  introductory  to  the  studies  thus  proposed, 
some  brief  consideration  of  the  nature  and  offices  of  creeds  in 
general,  and  a  condensed  historical  survey  of  the  Christian  creeds, 
and  particularly  of  the  Westminster  Symbols  as  to  their  origin  and 
position  and  influence,  will  be  requisite.  These  preliminary  topics 
will  be  the  theme  of  the  present  Lecture. 

As  sacred  doctrine  constitutes,  together  with  essential  fact,  the 

material  or  substance  of  all  Christian  creeds,  some  brief  reference 

to  the  meaning  of  that  term,  and  also  to 

the  history  of  Christian  doctrine  seems        2;    Doc<rine'    Primar7 
,.  .  .  ,c     .■,       ■  \    a     4.-      4.       and  secondary  meanings : 

needful,  by  way  of  further  introduction  to     Historj  of  D0Ctrine. 

the  proposed  study.     Primarily  the  term, 

doctrine,  refers  to  the  didactic  element  in  Scripture  itself,   and 

especially  to  the  body  of  essential  and  saving  truths  revealed  in 


4  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

the  Scriptures.  The  Bible  is  not  indeed  a  book  of  doctrine  exclu- 
sively :  it  is  biographic,  historic,  prophetic,  poetical,  preceptive 
and  legislative  as  well  as  doctrinal.  These  various  constituents  are 
for  the  most  part  the  divinely  arranged  vehicles  by  which  its  dog- 
matic teachings  are  conveyed  to  the  mind — the  widely  diversified, 
often  picturesque  and  impressive  modes,  whereby  the  truth  essen- 
tial to  salvation  is  transmitted  through  the  intellect  to  the  con- 
science and  the  heart.  Beneath  all  varieties  of  form  and  aim,  the 
Bible  contains  a  series  of  instructive  disclosures  concerning  God 
and  man  and  salvation,  which  are  properly  described  as  its  doc- 
trines, and  on  which  its  entire  structure  as  a  supernatural  com- 
munication is  founded.  This  doctrinal  element  is  not  indeed 
formulated  in  the  written  Word,  but  is  rather  held  in  solution  and 
distributed  throughout  that  Word  in  boundless  variety,  and  with 
primal  reference  to  spiritual  rather  than  intellectual  effect.  The 
doctrines  of  the  Bible  at  no  point  are  articulated,  or  presented  to 
view  in  one  systematic  construction,  for  the  reason  that  the  moral 
and  practical  ends  sought  in  their  disclosure  forbid  such  system- 
atization,  and  require  rather  that  the  divine  truth  should  be  given 
to  man  in  the  free,  flowing,  diffused  form  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  in  fact  chosen  to  present  it.  Yet  we  are  not  to  regard  these 
doctrines  as  any  less  valuable  or  vital  because  of  this  peculiarity  in 
their  form.  Doctrine  is  still  the  primordial  basis  on  which  the 
entire  scheme  of  grace  reposes  ;  it  is  still  the  explaining,  substan- 
tiating, comprehending  element  in  the  great  scheme  of  salvation 
revealed  in  the  inspired  Word. 

In  a  secondary  sense  of  the  term,  doctrine  may  be  defined  in 
general  as  any  human  statement  or  expression  of  the  dogmatic 
element  thus  contained  primarily  in  the  Scriptures.  In  this  sub- 
ordinate sphere,  the  term  may  be  employed  to  describe  even  such 
theological  results  as  individual  minds  may  have  reached  through 
personal  study  of  the  divine  Oracles, — especially  if  these  have 
been  in  some  measure  accepted  by  other  minds  as  valuable  expo- 
sitions of  the  truth  of  God.  It  is  more  frequently  used  to  indicate 
such  statements  of  that  truth  as  have  commanded  the  assent  of 
many  minds,  or  have  found  more  or  less  authoritative  acceptance 
in  any  Christian  body.  Still  more  broadly,  the  term  refers  to 
those  statements  of  biblical  truth  which  have  been  received  by 
extensive  sections  of  the  Church  as  containing  the  more  vital  or 
essential  elements  in  the  Gospel,  and  eminently  to  those  which 
have  been  so  regarded  and  approved  by  the  Church  Catholic  and 
Universal. 

One  of   the  signal  qualities  of   Christianity,  as  distinguished 


DOCTRINE    DEFINED.  5 

from  the  natural  faiths  of  the  world,  appears  in  the  fact  that  it  is 
supremely  a  doctrinal  and  indoctrinating  religion, — resting  pri- 
marily on  the  body  of  profound  and  saving  truth  revealed  in  the 
Scriptures  respecting  God  and  man,  and  eminently  respecting 
salvation  as  the  great  need  and  desire  of  the  race, — resting  secon- 
darily on  that  body  of  truth  as  progressively  discerned  and  evolved 
authoritatively  by  the  living  church.  The  study  of  the  history 
of  such  doctrinal  discovery  and  evolution,  in  all  the  diversified 
aspects  which  it  has  assumed  in  the  developing  life  of  Christen- 
dom, is  an  indispensable  preliminary  to  the  intelligent  apprehen- 
sion of  the  contents  and  purpose  of  the  Christian  confessions. 
The  process  which  Hagenbach  describes  as  the  formation,  the 
deformation,  and  the  reformation  of  dogma — the  first  discovery 
of  sacred  truth  as  set  forth  in  the  Bible,  the  progressive  unfolding 
of  such  truth  in  the  presence  of  error  and  often  in  conflict  with  it, 
and  the  gradual  expansion  and  completion  of  truth  in  its  more 
essential  and  enduring  forms — must  of  necessity  precede  any  au- 
thoritative statement  of  such  truth  in  church  formularies.  How 
much  is  involved  in  this  study,  in  all  its  departments,  can  be  known 
only  to  one  who  has  zealously  undertaken  and  faithfully  pursued 
it.  It  includes  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  external  his- 
tory of  the  church,  and  especially  with  those  significant  eras  when 
questions  of  doctrine  excited  universal  interest,  and  vitally  influ- 
enced the  life  and  career  of  that  divine  organism.  It  includes 
specific  knowledge  of  the  men  who  became  the  representatives  of 
sound  doctrine  or  of  heresy  respectively,  and  of  the  parties  which 
from  time  to  time  arose  within  the  church  around  such  doctrinal 
issues.  It  includes  specific  knowledge  also  of  the  multiplied  forms 
of  opposition  and  unbelief,  which  at  various  periods  have  assailed 
the  church,  and  against  which  its  creeds  have  been  erected  as  com- 
manding barriers.  It  includes  also  such  knowledge  of  dogmatic 
theology  as  will  enable  the  student  not  only  to  locate  and  estimate 
rightly  the  particular  issues  involved,  but  likewise  to  discern  the 
relation  of  such  issues  to  that  aggregate  of  sacred  doctrine  in  which 
the  specific  truths  of  religion  find  their  legitimate  place.  Much 
more  than  this,  which  cannot  now  be  named,  is  involved  in  such 
historic  study.  It  is  important  here  merely  to  note  the  general 
fact  that  it  is  only  as  such  development  of  doctrine  is  known  and 
appreciated,— as  the  credcnda  of  the  Christian  system  are  thus 
properly  discerned  in  their  progressive  manifestations,  that  it 
becomes  practicable  to  estimate  duly  the  extensive  confessional 
material  which  constitutes  so  unique  an  element  in  organic 
Christianity. 


6  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

Creeds  or  confessions  may  be  defined  as  concrete  expressions  of 
sacred  doctrine,  so  far  as  such  doctrine  has  been  comprehended 
and  determined  authoritatively  within  the        ^  ^^  Confessions^ 
church.      They  may  be  limited   to   the     Symbols  defmed. 
statement  of  such  main  facts,  or  of  such 

cardinal  principia  of  faith,  as  are  believed  by  the  church  to  be 
fundamental  in  the  Christian  scheme.  They  may  express,  in  some 
accepted  form  of  words,  the  belief  of  the  church  in  certain  par- 
ticular truths,  or  departments  of  truth,  or  in  the  entire  series  of 
truths  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  Gospel.  They  may  be 
so  far  narrowed  in  contents  and  aim  as  to  set  forth  simply  what 
is  peculiar  in  the  belief  of  some  branch  or  division  of  the  church,  as 
distinguished  from  other  like  organizations.  In  general,  the  creed 
of  any  body  of  believers  may  be  described  as  the  joint  belief  of  that 
body  respecting  some  doctrine  or  doctrines  taught  in  Scripture, 
expressed  in  set  form,  and  authoritatively  presented  by  it  to  the 
world.  It  will  be  noted  that,  whatever  their  scope  or  their  object, 
creeds  are  essentially  churchly  in  their  origin  and  associations  : 
they  emanate  from  the  church,  are  designed  primarily  for  the 
church,  and  are  sealed  and  sanctioned  by  church  endorsement. 
Even  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  Symbolum  Quicunque  are  not 
exceptions,  although  individual  rather  than  churchly  in  their 
form,  since  they  have  come  into  authoritativeness  only  through 
their  almost  universal  acceptance  in  the  various  organized  divisions 
of  Christendom. 

The  term,  Creed,  is  sometimes  employed  in  a  subordinate  sense 
to  describe  the  three  symbols  of  the  ancient  Church,  in  contrast 
with  the  more  elaborate  symbols  of  the  period  of  the  Reformation, 
which  for  the  sake  of  distinction  are  styled  Confessions.  The 
former  are  brief,  simple,  chiefly  historical :  the  latter  more  exten- 
sive, complex,  dogmatic.  The  former  are  more  private  and 
personal :  the  latter  more  general  and  churchly,  representing 
organized  rather  than  individual  testimony.  The  former  were 
employed  chiefly  in  connection  with  worship  :  the  latter  were  theo- 
logical documents,  designed  to  expound  or  to  sustain  some  existing 
belief.  The  Creeds  originated  chiefly  during  the  era  when  the 
church  was  defining  and  clarifying  its  faith  in  its  fundamental 
unities  :  the  Confessions  were  the  outgrowth  of  a  period  when  the 
churches  were  announcing  or  defending  their  respective  faiths, 
amid  comparative  contrasts  and  antagonisms.  Yet  both  alike  are 
summaries  of  what  was  believed  to  be  essential  truth  as  revealed 
in  the  divine  Word,  and  are  regarded  as  obligatory  upon  those 
who  profess  to  be  guided  by  that  Word  in  their  belief. 


CREEDS    DEFINED.  7 

111  modern  usage,  creeds  or  confessions  are  viewed  chiefly  as 
formularies  to  be  assented  to  in  connection  with  admission  into  the 
church,  or  with  the  assumption  of  official  responsibility  within 
the  church.  In  the  first  instance  they  involve  a  formal  expres- 
sion of  personal  faith  in  the  doctrines  incorporated  in  the  form- 
ulary ;  in  the  second,  a  covenant  of  personal  or  official  loyalty 
to  these  doctrines  as  thus  formulated.  In  most  Protestant  com- 
munions the  latter  is  the  chief  use, — many  of  these  communions 
requiring  from  private  members  no  declaration  of  belief  beyond 
the  acceptance  of  a  few  primary  truths,  such  as  are  held  in  com- 
mon by  all  Christians.  In  a  broader  sense,  a  creed  or  confession 
is  a  declaration  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  church  itself — a  declar- 
ation made  in  the  presence  of  other  Christian  churches,  or  in 
opposition  to  some  current  form  of  heresy,  or  as  an  acknowledge- 
ment of  Christian  truth  in  the  presence  of  the  unbelieving  world. 
Regarded  as  regulative  guides  of  the  church  or  of  its  officers, 
creeds  or  confessions  have  been  styled  Rules  of  Faith  or  Rules  of 
Doctrine  or,  as  in  the  early  church,  Canons  of  Belief.  Viewed  as 
marks  or  badges  of  discipleship  or  as  outward  testimonies  like 
banners,  creeds  have  been  styled  Symbols,  as  representing  sym- 
bolically, or  in  concrete  and  suggestive  form,  the  distinguishing 
belief  and  teaching  of  the  church. 

Creeds  as  thus  defined  are  hardly  less  essential  than  are  doc- 
trines to  the  life  and  welfare  of  the  church.  There  are  both 
exterior   and   interior   necessities   which 

call  for  their  construction  and  their  pro-  4'  Necessit/  for  feeds< 
■     .       .  _  .  r  .       exterior     and     interior ; 

mulgation.      One  prominent  element  m     thejr  vaiue# 

the  exterior  necessity  may  be  seen  in  the 

relation,  whether  of  likeness  or  of  contrast,  which  any  particular 
church  may  sustain  to  other  Christian  churches,  or  to  the  whole 
body  of  believers.  In  many  instances,  creeds  have  been  the  ex- 
pressions or  indices  of  agreement ;  occasionally  they  have  been 
expressions  and  indices  of  differences  more  or  less  extensive,  sep- 
arating the  body  making  such  confession  from  other  branches  in 
the  one  household  of  faith.  In  such  cases,  they  may  become 
earnest,  powerful  testimonies  to  truth  which  other  communions 
are  failing  to  regard,  or  even  solemn  and  effective  protests  against 
errors  which  have  been  admitted  or  harbored  in  such  communions. 
For  example,  the  confessions  of  the  Reformation  were  largely 
framed  on  one  side  to  indicate  the  special  doctrines,  or  conceptions 
of  the  common  doctrine,  as  held  by  particular  bodies  of  Protes- 
tants, and  on  the  other  to  set  forth  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  as  held 
by  all  alike,  in  opposition  to  the  heresies  and  corruptions  of  Rome. 


S  HISTORICAL,   INTRODUCTION. 

The  object  of  these  creeds,  as  a  high  authority  has  well  said,  was 
to  give  an  authentic  account  of  the  doctrine  which  each  church 
regarded  as  sanctioned  by  the  Scriptures,  and  would  be  understood 
as  prepared  to  teach  among  the  people, — and  this  in  order  to  bring 
out  clearly  the  Christian  and  evangelical  character  of  the  Refor- 
mation teaching  in  general,  and  wipe  off  aspersions  and  slanders. 
Such  an  object  can  not  cease  in  any  age  to  be  important. 

Another  form  of  exterior  necessity  may  be  seen  in  the  peculiar 
function  of  creeds  with  respect  to  the  unbelieving  world.  The 
church  of  Christ  needs  always  to  protect  itself  against  the  misrep- 
resentation of  what  it  believes,  and  against  the  imputation  to  it  of 
what  it  does  not  believe,  as  well  as  against  all  slanderous  arraign- 
ment of  its  spirit,  purposes  and  character.  To  defend  itself 
against  such  injurious  statements  of  its  faith,  the  church  must 
make  that  faith  clearly  and  authoritatively  known  to  all  men.  It 
has  indeed  many  other  methods  of  securing  this  end  ;  its  ministry, 
its  sacraments,  its  constitution  and  life  certify  constantly  and 
effectively  to  the  substance  and  influence  of  its  cherished  belief. 
Yet  a  written,  definite,  authoritative  creed  has  some  special  values 
in  this  direction  which  are  easily  discerned.  Here  the  Christian 
scheme  of  doctrine  takes  on  its  crystalline,  its  more  matured  form  ; 
here  what  is  most  central  and  controlling  in  Christianity  is  brought 
into  vivid  prominence  ;  here  error  and  falsehood  receive  their  most 
decisive  refutation.  And  this  testimony  is  the  more  effective 
because  it  is  so  permanent,  continuing  to  make  itself  heard  when 
other  teachers  may  have  ceased  to  speak, — because  it  is  so  faithful, 
when  other  teachers  may  be  led  through  fear  or  through  defection 
to  be  silent, — because  it  often  convinces  and  educates  where  other 
teachers  are  ignored  or  resisted. 

The  interior  necessity  for  creeds  appears  in  the  important  func- 
tions which  they  sustain  to  the  inward  condition,  experience  and 
growth  of  the  church.  I'n  their  catechetical  form  they  furnish 
invaluable  aid  in  the  instruction  and  training  of  the  young  within 
the  household  of  faith  :  it  may  indeed  be  questioned  whether  the 
catechisms  of  Protestantism  have  not  done  more  to  determine  the 
accepted  faith  of  evangelical  Christendom,  than  the  more  elaborate 
symbols  which  have  more  conspicuously  represented  the  doctrines 
held  by  the  churches  during  the  Reformation.  Creeds  serve  also 
in  the  indoctrination  of  the  church  at  large,  guiding  disciples  of 
every  grade  in  their  apprehension  and  statement  of  the  common 
truth,  and  aiding  them  in  the  defense  and  the  conservation  of  that 
truth.  They  assist  the  church  in  estimating  current  opinion,  in 
detecting  and  eliminating  error,  in  sustaining  itself  against  heresy. 


CREEDS — THEIR   NECESSITY  0 

They  both  regulate  and  test  the  teaching  of  the  ministry,  furnish 
a  safeguard  against  false  doctrine,  aid  in  unifying  the  common 
faith,  and  do  much  both  to  make  the  church  one,  and  to  inspire 
and  confirm  it  in  its  appointed  work.  These  interior  ministries  of 
creeds  are  even  more  valuable  than  are  the  exterior  sendees  already 
named.  Whatever  objection  may  be  urged  against  the  formation 
or  use  of  such  symbols,  or  whatever  mischiefs  may  have  resulted 
from  their  perversion  or  abuse,  there  can  be  no  real  question  as  to 
their  priceless  worth  as  elements  in  the  constitution  and  life  of  the 
church.  Nor  are  these  necessities  any  less  real  or  essential  be- 
cause the  influence  of  such  confessions  is  so  largely  silent  and 
unobserved.  The  simple  presence  of  a  strong,  massive,  propor- 
tionate, authoritative  creed  is  itself  a  most  potent  element  in 
church  life,  even  though  that  power  be  never  invoked  to  put  down 
error,  or  to  control  pernicious  tendencies  in  doctrine.  Churches 
which  have  such  creeds  know  their  value,  and  would  be  slow  to 
dispense  with  them  :  churches  which  have  no  creeds,  or  but  slight 
or  vague  creeds,  too  often  find  that  the  liabilities  from  which  they 
suppose  themselves  to  be  free,  are  far  less  significant  than  the  evils 
to  which  their  comparatively  creedless  condition  exposes  them. 

Bannerman  (Church  of  Christ)  defines  the  function  of  creeds 
or  confessions  as  threefold, — holding  the  truth,  teaching  the  truth, 
and  witnessing  and  protesting  in  behalf  of  the  truth.  Within  its 
own  pale,  the  church  holds  the  truth  of  Scripture  in  its  creed, — 
as  he  says — as  the  basis  of  its  union,  the  formal  representative  of 
its  faith,  and  the  assurance  of  the  soundness  of  its  profession. 
Within  that  pale,  it  also  teaches  the  truth  authoritatively  by  such 
public  summary  of  the  doctrine  it  holds,  as  being  in  accordance 
with  the  Word  of  God.  Outside  of  that  pale,  he  adds,  the  church 
by  its  creed  bears  important  testimony  for  the  truth  as  against  the 
error  or  unbelief  of  the  world.  The  extent  and  the  purpose  of 
such  formulation  and  exposition  of  church  belief  will  vary  widely 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  inward  or  outward  exigency  ;  and 
also  according  to  the  position  and  prominence  of  the  church  on  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  to  the  accuracy,  fullness,  and  spiritual 
effectiveness  of  the  belief  thus  formulated. 

Under  the  pressure  of  such  necessities,  external  and  internal, 
the  Christian  church  has  been  constrained  in  every  age  to  mold  or 

to  proclaim  its  conscious  faith  in  forms 

5.  Formulation  of  creeds;  sumcieutly  full  and  definite  to  meet 
limitations  and   conditions:     r  ,.        ,     ,.        .,  •  i„ 

from  time  to  time  its  growing  needs. 

The  question  whether  it  could  maintain 

its  existence  without  such  formularies  is  practically  answered  by 


10  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

the  historic  fact  that  it  has  never  chosen  to  exist  without  them, 
and  by  the  further  fact  that  the  periods  in  which  it  has  been  most 
indifferent  to  creeds,  have  invariably  been  periods  of  decline  into 
lethargy  or  into  error.     The  general  truth  is  that  the  church  has 
effloresced  into  creeds  as  naturally  as  a  healthful  oak  expresses 
and  represents  itself  in  acorns.     The  process  in  all  its  forms  and 
stages  has  been  one  of  transcendent  interest.     The  confessions 
found  in  Scripture,  brief,  concerned  with  central  facts  only,  suf- 
fused with  spiritual  feeling,   are  chiefly  a  suggestive  series  of 
declarations  of  individual  faith  or  trust.     In  like  manner  the  oldest 
Christian  creed,  especially  in  its  earlier  forms,  is  simply  a  recital 
by  the  individual  believer  of  the  great  central  facts  or  verities  of 
the  Christian  system.     When  heresies  began  to  arise  within  the 
church,  and  these  central  facts  or  verities  came  to  be  perverted  by 
speculation  or  set  aside  for  the  sake  of  theologic  theory,  the  creeds 
such  as  that  of  Nicaea,  framed  in  order  to  sustain  or  preserve  vital 
doctrine,  became  more  ample,  elaborate  and  didactic.     During  the 
period  of  the  Reformation,  the  church  confessions  assumed  a  still 
more  elaborate  and  doctrinal  character,  growing  in  some  instances 
almost  to  the  dimensions  of  a  system  of  theology.     The  warm 
glow  of  feeling,  the  mere  clinging  to  fact,  the  simplicity  of  struc- 
ture, gave  way  to  an  unimpassioned  statement  of  truth,  to  balanced 
propositions  and  comprehensive  combinations  in  structure,  and  to 
a  dogmatic  quality  quite  in  contrast  with  the  more  primitive  sym- 
bols.    Among  these  later  formularies  a  striking  law  of  growth  is 
also  apparent,  not  only  joining  each  creed  by  living  cords  to  its 
predecessors  in  the  series,  but  often  introducing  in  each  successor 
some  fresh  aspect  of  doctrine  or  belief  not  heretofore  distinctly 
affirmed. 

Numerous  limitations  which  can  not  be  named  here,  must  appear 
at  every  stage  in  a  process  so  complex  and  delicate.  Brief  refer- 
ence to  one  or  two  of  these  may  suffice.  The  most  fundamental 
lies  in  the  nature  of  human  language,  regarded  as  the  medium  for 
the  expression  of  spiritual  truth.  At  the  best,  the  language  of 
man  can  only  incorporate  in  very  inadequate  measure  the  great 
verities  of  the  Gospel.  In  Revelation  itself  the  Holy  Spirit  ap- 
pears to  struggle  with  the  inadequacies  of  human  speech,  and  to 
seize  on  a  wide  variety  of  phrases,  images,  similitudes,  in  order  to 
set  forth  through  their  combination  what  no  words  of  man  seem 
able  fully  to  express.  And  in  even  the  most  elaborate  compila- 
tions of  doctrine,  fashioned  on  the  basis  of  Scripture,  the  inade- 
quacy of  words  becomes  still  more  apparent.  The  physical  element 
in  language  limits  and  discolors  the  spiritual  fact,  and  at  the  last 


CREEDS — THEIR    LIMITATIONS.  11 

we  are  obliged  to  confess  that  the  truth  has  been  rather  shadowed 
forth  than  fully  expressed.  All  creeds,  like  all  theological  sys- 
tems, are  formed  under  this  limitation  of  speech,  and  like  the 
dogmas  they  embody  or  represent,  are  at  best  but  partial  declara- 
tions of  what  is  really  believed. 

A  kindred  limitation  is  apparent  in  all  human  thinking  on 
divine  themes.  The  mind  of  man,  the  mind  even  of  the  church, 
can  never  justly  claim  that  it  has  adequately  possessed  itself  of 
the  truth  of  God  as  revealed  in  his  Word.  The  embarrassments  of 
a  finite  intellect,  and  of  such  intellect  as  affected  by  sin,  are  far 
deeper  than  those  growing  out  of  human  language.  These  em- 
barrassments force  themselves  painfully  into  view  whenever  the 
attempt  is  made  to  formulate  any  cardinal  element  in  our  faith. 
The  atonement,  for  illustration,  stands  out  prominently  as  a  cen- 
tral fact  in  the  Gospel ;  and  men  may  succeed  in  throwing  the 
great  fact  into  some  form  of  words  :  they  may  describe  it  under 
some  varieties  of  imagery  or  illustration,  which  will  in  some 
degree  enable  us  to  apprehend  and  hold  it  as  a  cardinal  tenet  of 
grace.  Yet  every  thoughtful  student  realizes  that  there  are  mys- 
teries in  the  sublime  reality  of  the  atonement,  peculiar  and  inex- 
plicable relations  shadowed  forth  in  it,  which  no  human  mind  has 
ever  comprehended, — before  which  the  highest  thought  of  man  is 
forever  baffled.  And  if  a  truth  like  this  is  to  be  formally  stated 
in  a  doctrinal  symbol,  the  fact  must  be  recognized  at  the  outset 
that  every  such  statement  will  carry  in  it  not  only  evidences  of  the 
inadequacy  of  language,  but  also  traces  of  the  finiteness  and  the 
imperfectness  of  the  minds  that  unite  in  framing  it.  The  claim 
of  the  Roman  church  that  it  is  so  inhabited  by  the  Holy  Spirit  as 
to  be  lifted  above  such  limitatations — so  guided  by  him  that  its 
confessional  declarations  are  in  themselves  complete  and  irreform- 
able,  is  one  which  is  contradicted  alike  by  history  and  by  sound 
philosophy.  On  the  other  hand  the  objection  of  current  agnosti- 
cism, based  on  the  fact  that  all  human  knowledge  of  divine  things 
is  only  relative  and  approximate,  can  not  be  regarded  as  forever 
precluding  all  attempts  at  creed  formulation.  The  rational  and 
practical  rule  in  the  case  lies  between  these  two  delusive  extremes 
of  infallibility  and  impossibility. 

Waiving  all  reference  to  various  limitations  in  circumstance  and 
condition,  we  may  pause  for  a  moment  to  contemplate  in  outline 
the  ideal  of  a  perfect  Christian  creed, — one  freed  so  far  as  possible 
from  all  such  narrowing  limitations.  As  to  its  material,  such  a 
creed  will  incorporate,  not  religious  truth  in  general,  but  the  most 
essential  truth  and  doctrine  contained  in  Holy  Scripture  ;  especially 


12  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

such  elements  of  sound  doctrine  as  are  most  cardinal  in  themselves, 
and  most  vitally  tributary  to  the  support  and  nurture  of  faith 
within  the  church.  In  a  subordinate  sense,  it  may  properly 
contain  also  those  more  particular  aspects  of  sacred  truth,  or  of 
correspondent  duty,  which  are  especially  held  and  cherished  as 
important  by  any  branch  or  division  of  the  church.  As  to  form 
and  style,  the  ideal  creed  will  present  such  truth  in  just  propor- 
portions  and  in  due  method  and  order  :  it  will  be  neither  technical 
nor  abstract  nor  highly  elaborated,  but  plain  and  popular  in 
structure  ;  its  statements  simple  rather  than  complex,  its  language 
largely  biblical,  and  its  composition  adjusted  throughout  to  the 
apprehension  of  those  for  whom  it  is  framed.  As  to  extent,  it 
will  be  neither  so  brief  as  to  fail  of  defining  adequately  the  truth 
or  doctrine  professed,  nor  so  expanded  as  to  become  burdensome 
or  bewildering  to  those  who  avow  it :  terse,  positive  and  compre- 
hensive in  its  affirmations,  and  every  way  sufficient  and  com- 
manding as  an  exposition  of  the  accepted  faith.  As  to  spirit,  such  a 
creed  will  be  neither  dogmatic  nor  partisan,  but  irenic  and  winning 
in  influence  :  composed  in  no  mood  of  antagonism  toward  other 
types  of  evangelical  thought ;  considerate  even  in  dealing  with 
heresy  or  with  pernicious  error  ;  carrying  in  it  no  undue  tone  of 
assumption,  but  gentle  and  peaceable  in  temper,  and  contributing 
not  to  warfare  but  to  peace — a  crystalized  expression  of  the  true 
Communion  of  Saints.  As  to  purpose,  such  a  creed  will  aim 
supremely  to  express  the  truth,  to  commend  and  defend  the  truth, 
and  to  attract  men  toward  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ :  becoming 
at  once  a  banner  around  which  the  church  can  gather  with  lojTal 
enthusiasm,  and  a  fortress  which  foes  assail  in  vain  ;  a  light 
steadily  shining  in  a  dark  place,  and  a  steadfast  voice  of  both 
counsel  and  warning;  a  sacred  rule  or  canon  of  belief,  representing 
in  enduring  form  that  which  differentiates  Christianity  doctrinally 
from  all  other  religions. 

In  the  presence  of  such  an  ideal  concept,  all  existing  creeds  are 

easily  seen  to  be  marked,  in  material  or  form  and  range,  in  spirit 

or  purpose,  by  more  or  less  of  incomplete- 

6.    Incompleteness    of    ness     it  is  obvious  that,  like  all  theology, 

'     . ,         „  they  are  developed  under  a  law  of  growth 

ment ;  problem  of  emen-  ->  ^  b 

dation#  and  progress,  and  that  such  development 

can  never  be  regarded  as  finished.  All 
theology,  regarded  simply-  as  the  human  statement  or  expression 
in  more  or  less  scientific  form  of  what  God  has  first  revealed  in 
his  inspired  Word,  is  constantly  varying  and  widening  in  both  con- 
tent and  structure,  as  the  human  mind  gains  larger  views  of  the 


CREEDS  —  THEIR   INCOMPLETENESS.  13 

truth,  or  sees  that  truth  in  wider  and  juster  relations.  Even 
when  the  constructive  principles  of  theology  have  been  appre- 
hended, and  after  the  main  elements  in  the  system  have  been 
drawn  from  the  Scriptures,  new  definitions  of  doctrine  and  new 
combinations  of  doctrine  are  still  possible.  What  is  seen  prepares 
the  way  for  a  clearer  discernment  of  what  at  first  can  not  be  seen  ; 
what  has  been  grouped  together  at  one  time  may  by  its  own  imper- 
fection suggest  some  better  method  of  grouping  ;  what  seems  at 
one  stage  to  be  perfect,  comes  to  be  viewed  as  imperfect  under  the 
light  of  further  study  and  experience.  Christian  theology  thus 
exists  under  a  law  of  growth,  and  can  never  be  said  to  be  com- 
plete. The  affirmation  of  Macaulay  that  theology,  revealed  as 
well  as  natural,  is  not  of  the  nature  of  a  progressive  science,  is 
clearly  unwarranted.  For  while  the  cardinal  teachings  of  Scrip- 
ture can  not  be  altered  or  improved  by  human  ingenuity,  the 
volume  of  teaching  in  the  Bible  is  found  to  be  steadily  expanding, 
as  the  human  intelligence  increases  in  capacity  ;  and  both  the  forms 
and  the  cogency  of  revealed  doctrine  are  constantly  developing 
through  progressive  inquiry  and  widening  knowledge  of  the  Word 
itself.  Christian  theology  is  thus  not  a  stationary  and  finished, 
but  a  steadily  advancing  science  ;  ever  setting  the  truth  of  God  in 
fresh  lights  and  relations,  discovering  new  harmonies  in  that  truth, 
and  thus  building  up,  century  by  century,  a  temple  of  sacred 
doctrine,  whose  full  completion  it  may  not  be  given  to  mortal  man 
to  behold.  The  manifest  fact  is  that  no  century  can  frame  a 
scheme  of  doctrine  which  should  justly  limit  the  belief  and  teach- 
ing of  succeeding  centuries.  Each  period,  each  generation,  each 
body  of  believers  may  and  in  some  sense  must  make  a  theology 
for  itself.  To  suppose  otherwise  is  to  confuse  the  rudimentary 
distinction  between  theology  and  revelation  :  it  is  to  fancy  each 
and  every  council,  each  and  every  theologian,  infallible. 

Creeds  are  developed  under  a  similar  law  of  growth,  and  partake 
of  similar  incompleteness.  A  confession  adopted  as  sufficient  at 
any  one  period  may  be  too  brief  and  rudimentary  to  describe  the 
more  comprehensive  or  more  philosophic  faith  of  a  later  period. 
A  symbol  formed  in  an  era  distinctly  theological,  when  the  mind 
of  the  church  is  largely  occupied  with  speculative  question  or 
debate,  may  have  much  in  it  which  an  era  of  greater  practical 
activity,  or  of  comparative  indifference  to  the  more  recondite 
aspects  of  divine  truth,  will  either  reject  or  regard  as  of  little 
practical  moment.  A  creed  shaped  during  some  period  of  intense 
controversy,  and  drafted  for  the  special  purpose  of  contradicting 
or  of  crushing  out  some  rising  heresy,  will  inevitably  carry  with 


14  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION, 

it  traces  of  the  conflict  in  which  it  arose,  and  may  consequently 
fail  to  command  the  intelligent  and  cordial  assent  of  the  church 
after  the  period  of  excitement  is  over,  and  the  controversy  has 
come  to  a  decisive  close.  In  like  manner,  a  creed  which  may  be 
regarded  as  the  best  possible  expression  of  the  belief  of  the  church 
in  any  given  land  or  age,  will  indicate  at  many  points  its  particular 
place  and  date,  and  may  consequently  become  inadequate  to  repre- 
sent the  living  convictions  of  other  churches  in  other  lands  and 
times.  And  beyond  all  this,  what  is  illustrated  in  all  theology  as 
a  growth  largely  personal  and  provincial,  and  always  limited  by 
human  narrowness,  must  appear  no  less  really  or  vividly  in  all 
creeds.  In  the  broadest  sense,  to  affirm  that  such  creeds  are 
imperfect,  is  simply  to  assert  that  they  are  human.  The  Placuit 
Spiritui  Sancto  et  Nobis,  of  the  primitive  Council  at  Jerusalem, 
though  appropriated  by  the  Vatican,  can  not  rightly  be  employed 
to  describe  the  decisions  of  any  subsequent  council,  whether  in 
the  early  church  or  in  more  modern  times. 

It  is  a  just  inference  from  this  view  of  the  imperfectness  of  all 
human  compilations  of  belief,  that  no  church,  in  planting  itself  on 
any  given  formula,  agrees  by  that  act  to  hold  the  said  formula 
unchanged  and  unrevised  through  all  time.  There  is  indeed,  as 
we  have  seen,  a  certain  sacredness  attaching  to  old  symbols  like 
those  of  the  ancient  church — symbols  that  have  come  to  be  ac- 
cepted widely,  and  are  held  in  common  by  many  different  branches 
of  the  one  church  of  Christ — which  seems  to  forbid  attempts  to 
alter  or  expand  or  improve  them  by  whatever  process.  A  creed 
which  has  become  the  heritage  in  some  sense  of  the  common 
Christianity,  ought  not  to  be  torn  to  pieces,  or  changed  by  the 
introduction  of  improvements  according  to  the  judgment  of  this 
or  that  particular  denomination,  until  its  historical  quality  is 
destroyed,  and  the  aroma  of  antiquity  in  it  is  altogether  exhaled. 
The  same  principle  would  apply  in  the  case  of  a  confession  held 
extensively  even  by  any  main  division  of  the  church,  such  as  the 
Lutheran  or  the  Reformed,  or  in  the  case  of  such  doctrinal  sym- 
bols as  those  of  Westminster,  as  now  received  and  held  by  many 
Presbyterian  bodies.  It  would  be  more  in  harmony  with  the  fit- 
ness of  things  for  any  such  communion  to  make  a  new  creed  or 
declaration  for  itself,  presenting  in  its  own  chosen  words  the 
accepted  scheme  of  doctrine,  than  to  alter  at  essential  points  such 
historic  symbols  so  as  to  suit  its  own  specialties  in  belief. 

Yet  the  general  right  of  emendation  is  one  which  can  not  be 
denied.  This  right  may  be  exercised,  as  in  some  historic  instan- 
ces, by   the  adoption  of   additional  definitions  or  declarations, 


CREEDS — THEIR    AUTHORITATIVENESS.  1  5 

designed  to  meet  objection  or  to  remove  obscurity.  In  any  such 
case,  the  original  creed  is  to  be  received  in  the  light  of  such  explan- 
atory additions,  and  is  obligator}'  only  so  far  as  these  extend. 
This  right  is  certainly  admissible,  even  if  carried  much  farther 
than  this.  The  Westminster  Assembly  itself  at  first  undertook 
such  revision  and  emendation  of  an  existing  symbol,  and  only 
abandoned  the  effort  after  discovering  that  the  framing  of  a  new 
confession  would  be  an  easier  and  more  acceptable  task,  than  so 
radical  an  alteration  of  that  symbol  as  was  judged  to  be  needful 
in  order  to  make  it  a  fit  exponent  of  what  was  then  regarded  as 
the  national  belief.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  the  justifying 
reasons  for  such  emendation  must  be  clear,  urgent,  decisive.  Some 
degree  of  permanence  is  essential  to  the  usefulness  or  influence  of 
any  creed.  Slight  or  frequent  changes  are  to  be  avoided  as  prac- 
tically destructive.  The  frequent  agitation  of  the  question  of 
amendment  is  certain  to  unsettle  popular  confidence  in  the  creed 
itself.  Errors  or  defects  which  are  minor  may  therefore  be  borne 
with  ;  even  serious  imperfections  in  statement  or  in  construction 
may  be  endured,  when  the  alternative  is  likely  to  be  ecclesiastical 
agitation  or  conflict,  or  the  wide  disturbance  of  popular  faith.  It 
has  been  urged  that,  as  in  the  case  of  some  state  constitutions,  the 
matter  of  creed  amendment  should  be  brought  up  at  stated  inter- 
vals, in  order  to  test  the  confidence  of  the  church  in  its  accepted 
standards,  or  to  furnish  an  orderly  and  peaceful  mode  of  improving 
them.  But  the  general  instinct  of  the  Protestant  communions  is 
adverse  to  any  such  provision,  and  their  obvious  choice  is  to  hold 
their  standards  in  their  primitive  form  as  nearly  as  possible,  and 
to  modify  that  form  only  when  some  serious  emergency  may 
demand  it.  Whenever  such  an  emergency  arises,  some  churches, 
like  our  own,  have  provided  in  their  constitution  a  legitimate 
method  for  making  alterations  in  creed,  as  in  matters  of  polity  or 
worship. 

The  degree  of  authoritativeness  attaching  to  all  church  symbols 
must  be  measured  by  the  facts  as  to  their  origin,  contents  and 

nature.     The  doctrine  of  church  infallibil-  ,     5i  „ 

«,,,',  ,     *  ,  7.  Their  authoritative- 

ly as  held  by  the  papacy,  whether  such     n£SS.  degrees  in  weight 

infallibility  lies   in    the   councils  of    the     an(j   ciaim:   loyalty   de- 
church,  or  in  the  pope  as  spiritual  head     fined, 
over  the  church,  leads  inevitably  to  the 

conclusion  that  all  canons,  decrees,  doctrines  once  enunciated  by 
the  church  in  either  way,  are  beyond  all  challenge  or  question. 
Additions  may  be  made  to  such  decrees,  as  the  developing  con- 
sciousness of  the  church  may  make  new  discoveries  of   truth  : 


16  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

further  proclamations  of  doctrine  may  be  needful,  to  complete  the 
system  already  held,  or  to  meet  errors  arising  in  opposition  to  the 
truth.  But  a  creed  once  proclaimed,  resting  on  the  Scriptures, 
inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  endorsed  by  the  voice  of  the  church, 
must  according  to  Rome  be  viewed  as  forever  infallible,  and  should 
be  received  by  all  with  implicit,  unquestioning  faith.  Protestant- 
ism finds  infallibility  nowhere  but  in  the  inspired  Word.  It  main- 
tains in  the  language  of  the  Confession  of  Westminster  not  only 
that  all  synods  and  councils  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles  may  err, 
but  that  many  of  them  have  erred  ;  and  therefore  that,  while  such 
synods  or  councils  may  be  helpful  in  the  elucidation  of  divine 
truth,  their  affirmations  however  entitled  to  respect  are  never  to 
be  made  the  implicit  rule  of  faith  or  of  practice.  No  other  posi- 
tion than  this  is  consistent  with  the  Protestant  doctrine  as  to  the 
supreme  authority,  the  perfect  truthfulness  and  the  absolute  suf- 
ficiency of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  perils  involved  in  that 
position,  such  as  false  interpretation  or  indifference  to  church 
authority  or  the  extreme  individualism  of  reason,  are  far  less  seri- 
ous than  the  perils  involved  in  the  papal  view,  or  in  the  absolute 
acceptance  of  any  earthly  standard,  personal  or  impersonal,  as 
infallible. 

The  degree  of  authoritativeness  in  any  particular  creed  may  be 
determined  by  a  variety  of  tests.  Among  extrinsic  sources  of  such 
authoritativeness  may  be  named  the  number  and  ability  and  posi- 
tion of  the  persons  who  framed  the  symbol,  the  circumstances  and 
conditions  regulating  its  formation,  the  extent  to  which  it  has  been 
received  and  acknowledged,  the  degree  of  its  present  prominence 
and  influence  as  an  accepted  representative  of  the  faith  of  the 
ch'urch.  The  intrinsic  authority  of  a  creed  lies  in  what  it  is  as  a 
statement  of  truth,  when  studied  in  the  light  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
tested  by  the  best  results  of  exegetical  and  theological  inquiry 
The  authoritativeness  of  some  creeds  obviously  wanes  with  time, 
even  among  those  who  have  vowed  allegiance  to  them  ;  and  not 
infrequently  they  are  held  up  rather  as  historical  insignia  of  a  past 
faith,  or  as  representatives  of  old  controversy,  than  as  expressions 
of  living  thought  and  present  experience.  Such  symbols  may  still 
be  insisted  upon  as  strict  tests  of  loyalty  to  the  church,  or  as 
standards  of  individual  teaching  in  the  church  ;  they  may  be  in- 
vested with  an  extraneous  authority  derived  from  the  concentrated 
will  of  the  body  that  avows  them  ;  and  yet  their  claim  to  accept- 
ance may  be  a  waning  claim,  and  they  may  have  little  real 
authoritativeness  over  the  individual  mind  or  conscience.  To  be 
authoritative  in  the  best  sense,  a  creed  must  be  the  cherished 


LOYALTY   TO    CREEDS.  17 

expression  of  living  belief — the  utterance  and  confession  of  the 
church  as  it  actually  is.  It  must  also  be  so  thoroughly  biblical, 
so  saturated  throughout  with  both  the  teaching  and  the  temper 
of  Scripture,  that  those  who  study  it  shall  be  drawn  spontaneously 
into  acceptance  of  it  by  the  continuous  and  positive  consciousness 
that  its  declarations  are  substantially  the  voice  and  message  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

The  general  question  of  loyalty  to  church  creeds  is  indicated 
sufficiently  in  what  has  already  been  said.  Viewed  simply  in  their 
abstract  form  as  statements  of  Christian  doctrine,  made  and  avowed 
by  some  section  of  the  church  of  Christ,  they  are  entitled  to  the 
respect  of  all  who  receive  that  doctrine,  and  have  a  right  to  be 
accepted  and  honored  as  deliberate  expressions  of  the  judgment 
of  the  household  of  faith.  Acceptance  of  them  in  this  sense  is 
simply  a  personal  endorsement  and  acceptation  of  the  truths  they 
contain.  But  when  viewed  as  doctrinal  bases  or  foundations  of 
an  organized  church,  creeds  assume  a  different  character,  and  are 
entitled  to  allegiance  of  another  sort.  Here  they  become  a  coales- 
cing factor  in  the  organization,  a  permanent  representative  of  the 
distinguishing  principles  on  which  the  organization  is  based,  a  test 
of  individual  teaching  and  especially  of  official  qualifications,  and 
a  standard  around  which  all  who  are  connected  with  the  organiza- 
tion may  properly  be  expected  to  gather.  Apart  from  any  abstract 
question  as  to  the  use  of  creeds  in  such  connections  and  ways,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  obligation  of  all  who  acquiesce  in  that 
use,  and  who  connect  themselves  with  any  church  under  these 
conditions.  The  acceptance  of  the  creed  here  assumes  in  part  the 
character  of  a  covenant ;  the  confession  is  made  by  the  individual 
to  and  before  the  church  ;  and  loyalty  to  that  church  therefore 
involves  true  and  honest  loyalty  to  the  symbol  on  which  the  church 
is  based. 

There  are  two  practical  errors  to  be  avoided  here.  The  first 
calls  for  an  acceptance  of  every  section  and  clause  of  the  endorsed 
creed — an  avowal  of  personal  allegiance  to  every  word  or  phrase, 
and  of  obligation  to  maintain  and  defend  the  symbol  in  each  par- 
ticular. This  may  be  carried  so  far  as  to  include  a  tacit  agreement 
not  to  believe  anything  that  lies  outside  of  the  creed  or  is  in 
conflict  with  it ;  it  may  be  regarded  as  involving  an  obligation  tc 
resist  all  proposed  revisions  or  emendations  ;  it  may  even  assume 
a  more  or  less  conscious  veneration  of  the  creed  as  if  it  were  per- 
fect, and  possibly  in  some  degree  inspired.  There  is  a  blind 
allegiance  which  goes  to  such  extremes  as  these,  and  which  would 
require  similar  blindness  in  all  who  should  seek  admission  to  the 


18  HISTORICAL,   INTRODUCTION. 

church,  or  undertake  to  represent  the  church  officially.  But  no 
argument  is  necessary  to  show  that  such  a  theory  is  not  only 
contrary  to  the  spirit  and  teaching  of  Protestantism,  but  is  alto- 
gether at  variance  with  supreme  loyalty  to  the  Word  and  Truth 
of  God.  The  attempt  to  enforce  any  such  theory  within  the 
Presbyterian  church  has  always  failed,  and  must  always  fail,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  it  is  at  variance  with  the  fundamental 
position  of  our  Symbols  respecting  the  supremacy  of  Scripture,  the 
fallibility  of  human  councils,  and  the  superior  obligation  of  fidelity 
to  personal  conscience  in  all  matters  of  belief. 

The  opposite  error  is  a  latitudinarian  indifference  to  the  specific 
teaching  of  the  creed  avowed,  or  to  the  covenant  implied  in  a  true 
subscription.  While  such  subscription  can  obligate  no  one  to  be 
indifferent  to  the  errors  or  defects  of  a  creed,  or  to  accept  that 
creed  in  any  other  way  than  as  an  expression  or  exponent  of  the 
doctrine  supremely  taught  in  Holy  Scripture,  as  discerned  and  held 
by  the  church,  that  subscription  honestly  made  will  not  permit 
indifference  to  the  recognized  rights  of  such  creed,  or  disregard  of 
its  plain  and  decisive  teaching  on  any  essential  point  of  doctrine. 
If  the  authoritativeness  of  such  symbols  be  earthly  and  human,  it 
is  still  real  and  is  entitled  to  respect  even  from  those  who  conscien- 
tiously differ  in  belief.  Certainly  such  authoritativeness  ought  to 
be  binding  on  all,  and  especially  on  all  in  official  station,  who  have 
once  voluntarily  accepted  any  symbol  as  their  own, and  have  entered 
into  formal  covenant  to  support  and  proclaim  it.  No  right  mind 
can  be  in  sympathy  with  that  loose,  reckless,  revolutionary  temper, 
which  disregards  such  obligations,  or  which  uses  a  position  within 
any  given  church  to  subvert  the  foundations  on  which  that  church 
is  conscientiously  standing.  Honest,  open,  manly  loyalty  to  these 
as  to  all  other  recognized  obligations  is  a  cardinal  constituent  in 
every  worthy  character. 

With  these  definitions  and  under  such  limitations,  it  would  seem 

that  no  just  objection  could  be  raised  to  the  formation  or  adoption 

of  church  creeds.     There  is  indeed  a  class 
8.  Objections  to  creeds:       r  ,  ,     , 

theseobjections answered.    of  Persons  whose  °PPosltl°*  to  such  doc' 
trinal  symbols   is   only  one   phase  of   a 

broader  opposition  to  all  definite  and  positive  statements  of  biblical 

truth.     In  some  instances  the  real  feeling  in  the  case  is  doubtless 

one  of  hostility  to  the  truth  itself — not  merely  to  the  formulated 

expression  of  the  truth  ;  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  inspired  Word 

that  is  opposed,  whatever  form  that  doctrine  may  assume.   In  others 

the  objection  springs  rather  from  a  general  impression  that  the 

Bible  itself  is  sufficient  as  a  creed,  or  from  a  kindred  impression 


OBJECTIONS   TO   CREEDS.  19 

that  there  is  danger  lest  these  merely  human  statements  shall  crowd 
out  or  impair  the  supreme  force  of  the  Divine  Original.  It  is  al- 
leged that  creeds  thus  tend  both  to  weaken  the  dominant  claim 
of  Scripture,  and  to  bring  the  church  under  subordination  to  some 
human  system,  to  the  injury  rather  than  to  the  nurture  of  faith. 
An  adequate  answer  to  such  objection  may  be  found  in  the  obvious 
fact  that  the  Bible  itself  is  so  variously  interpreted,  and  that  so 
many  forms  of  error  are  claiming  scriptural  warrant.  In  the  pres- 
ence of  such  error,  the  just  interpretation  of  Scripture  can  be 
recognized  and  attained  only  by  careful  analysis  and  condensation 
of  the  truth  as  revealed,  in  the  exact  language  of  philosophy — in 
scientific  form  and  proportions.  Viewed  simply  in  this  light, 
church  creeds  as  .systematic  statements  of  the  biblical  teaching, 
are  often  of  immeasurable  value  :  in  some  periods  or  conditions  of 
the  church  they  may  be  absolutely  indispensable,  both  as  a  protec- 
tion against  the  incursions  of  unbelief,  and  as  a  source  of  strength 
and  nutriment  to  those  who  believe. 

Objection  is  sometimes  based  specifically  on  the  recognized  im- 
perfection in  all  such  symbols.  It  is  to  be  admitted  that  as  human 
constructions  all  creeds  are  imperfect, — that  many  of  them  are 
deficient  either  in  their  constructive  principle,  or  in  their  definitions 
or  their  phraseology, — that  some  are  too  cumbrous  to  be  available 
as  practical  tests  of  belief,  others  too  abstract  and  speculative,  and 
others  too  narrow  and  meager,  to  meet  the  ends  sought  in  their 
formulation  or  their  use.  But  some  of  these  criticisms  apply  with 
equal  force  to  all  human  expositions  of  the  truth  of  God  :  some 
are  illustrations  of  deficiency  such  as  lies  in  the  nature  of  all 
human  products  :  some  give  occasion  merely  for  correction  and 
improvement,  and  therefore  are  arguments,  not  for  rejection  but 
for  emendation.  Moreover,  however  defective  such  symbols  are, 
they  are  still  useful  ;  though  they  fail  to  express  the  totality  of 
truth,  they  yet  express  much  which  is  not  only  truthful  but  full 
of  spiritual  significance.  And  while  it  may  be  easy  to  reject  them 
because  of  their  imperfection,  it  will  be  found  far  more  difficult 
than  is  imagined  either  to  do  without  them  or  to  provide  any 
worthier  substitutes. 

Objection  is  also  urged  on  the  further  ground  that  such  creeds 
are  not  merely  human  and  in  themselves  imperfect,  but  also,  even 
in  their  best  forms  and  especially  when  largely  specialized  and  mi- 
nute in  contents,  are  fetters  upon  liberty  of  thought,  and  therefore 
hindrances  to  the  free  and  full  development  of  the  truth,  as  con- 
tained in  the  Bible.  It  is  alleged  that  men  are  unduly  hampered 
by  such  confessional  declarations, — that  they  are  sometimes  held 


20  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

back  from  legitimate  investigation,  and  in  others  are  led  to  conceal 
their  real  beliefs,  or  are  tempted  into  an  advocacy  which  is  not 
entirely  sincere.  So  far  as  creeds  do  in  fact  produce  such  results, 
they  may  become  injurious,  rather  than  beneficial  to  the  church. 
But  these  are  by  no  means  necessary  consequences,  nor  are  the 
creeds  always  at  fault  when  they  do  occur.  A  true,  clear,  just 
creed  is  far  more  likely  to  be  a  stimulant  than  a  hindrance  to  lib- 
erty of  thought ;  it  is  more  likely  to  quicken  investigation  than 
to  repress  it.  Is  it  not  an  obvious  fact  in  the  history  of  Protest- 
antism, that  the  churches  which  possess  the  broadest  and  strongest 
creeds,  have  been  the  churches  in  which  the  largest  freedom  of 
thought  has  been  not  only  granted  but  exercised  ? 

Still  further  objection  is  based  upon  the  wrong  use  of  creeds, 
and  especially  upon  the  help  they  may  afford  to  an  assuming 
dogmatism  and  to  ecclesiastical  tyranny.  It  is  admitted  that 
church  symbols  have  in  some  instances  been  so  used, — that  they 
have  been  put  forward  and  exalted  by  bigots  as  if  perfect, — that 
church  authorities  have  wielded  them  as  scourges  to  repress  free 
conviction  or  punish  personal  error, — that  they  have  at  times 
played  no  small  part  in  that  experience  of  religious  tyranny 
through  which  our  Christianity  has  passed,  and  in  some  measure 
is  still  passing.  But  these  issues  are  hardly  more  attributable  to 
creeds  than  to  the  Bible  itself,  or  to  the  church  of  Christ  viewed 
as  a  living  organism.  Like  all  other  divine  instrumentalities  put 
into  human  hands,  such  as  the  holy  sacraments,  or  the  ministerial 
office,  or  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  creeds  may  be  thus 
misused — may  be  perverted  into  instruments  of  injustice.  But  it 
is  against  the  perversion  of  creeds  that  such  objections  lie.  This 
possible  issue  neither  destroys  their  true  design  nor  justifies  their 
rejection  :  in  their  proper  place  and  office,  they  may  still  prove  an 
inestimable  help  and  blessing  to  the  church.  Miller  (Creeds  and 
Confessions)  argues  in  defence  of  creeds  as  contributing  to  church 
unity,  as  illustrating  the  position  of  the  church  as  a  depository 
and  witness  to  saving  truth,  as  candid  testimonials  of  belief 
addressed  to  other  churches,  and  as  promoting  the  study  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine  and  the  increase  of  religious  knowledge.  He  argues 
also  from  the  experience  of  the  church  as  to  the  helpfulness  of 
creeds,  and  from  the  latitudinarian  character  and  tendency  of  those 
who  oppose  them,  and  answers  effectively  various  specific  objec- 
tions urged  by  such  opponents. 

Historic  Creeds  :    From  this  general  view  of  the  nature  and 
uses  of  creeds,  and  of  the  conditions  under  which  they  are  framed 


CREED   ELEMENT    IN    SCRIPTURE.  21 

and  are  to  be  received,  we  may  now  turn  to  glance  summarily  at 
the  historical  succession  of  such  symbols,  enumerating  them  as 
they  were  evolved  in  chronologic  order  from  the  study  and  ex- 
perience of  the  church,  and  considering  them  in  some  of  their 
more  obvious  connections  and  bearings.  Such  a  brief  glance  at 
the  material  of  what  has  already  been  defined  as  Comparative 
Symbolism,  will  prepare  the  way  for  a  more  specific  and  intelligent 
examination  of  the  Symbols  of  Westminster  in  their  historic 
position  and  relations. 

The  creed  element  in  Scripture  itself  may  serve  as  a  proper 
introduction  to  such  survey.     It  has  already  been  suggested  that 

the  Bible  is  not  a  book  of  doctrinal  form- 

,       .  ..       ,  i        9.    Creed    element    in 

ulas,  but  presents  itself  rather  as  a  record     Scripture .  Biblical  decla. 

of  faith  already  in  exercise, — of  beliefs     rations  of  faith, 
already  cherished  in  experience,  and  in 

that  form  regulating  human  lives.  In  the  spiritual  sphere  it  is 
not  in  the  nature  of  the  human  mind  first  to  formulate  and  then 
to  believe.  Divine  truth  enters  into  men  first  as  a  living  power, 
subduing  the  soul  into  obedience  and  devotion,  and  assuming  the 
shape  of  objective  doctrine  only  when  the  soul  has  contemplated 
its  own  experience  reflectively,  and  has  discerned  the  truth  as  it 
shines  forth  in  personal  consciousness.  And  the  Scriptures  in 
general  follow  this  law,  approaching  man  chiefly  on  the  side  of  his 
spiritual  nature,  and  making  their  teachings  manifest  in  religious 
effects  rather  than  in  didactic  formulas.  The  doctrinal  element  is 
indeed  everywhere  present,  but  diffusively  rather  than  in  concrete 
shape — as  life  rather  than  proposition. 

Yet  even  in  the  Old  Testament  we  may  discern  the  antetypes 
and  germs  of  much  Christian  symbolism.  Individual  confessions, 
for  example,  such  as  are  apparent  in  the  Davidic  psalms,  in  the 
dedicatory  prayer  of  Solomon,  in  the  profound  petition  of  Daniel, 
may  be  found  half  formulated  in  many  of  the  sacred  books.  More 
general  declarations,  such  as  the  confession  of  the  people  at  Sinai 
or  in  conjunction  with  the  great  miracle  of  Elijah,  occur  both  in 
the  historical  sections  and  in  the  prophetical  writings.  The  entire 
Mosaic  ceremonial,  as  observed  by  the  nation,  was  a  continuous 
confession  of  its  faith  in  Him  by  whom  that  ceremonial  was  insti- 
tuted, and  toward  whom  it  was  ever  pointing  the  soul  of  the 
worshiper.  Advanced  Judaism,  as  it  calls  itself,  has  in  nothing 
more  fully  betrayed  its  lack  of  loyalty  to  the  holy  Word  than  in 
its  refusal  to  be  bound  by  that  clear  and  solemn  system  of  doctrine, 
which  is  thus  embedded  actually  though  in  unelaborated  statement 
in  the  Old  Testament. — But  in  the  New  Testament  this  creed 


22  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

element,  as  might  be  anticipated,  exists  in  forms  more  distinct 
and  more  precious,  as  all  sacred  doctrine  centralizes  and  glorifies 
itself  in  the  personal  Christ.  The  Christian  church  indeed  pre- 
sents itself  to  our  view  at  first  as  existing  without  creeds.  The 
reasons  for  this  are  easily  seen.  The  basis  of  fact  on  which  the 
primitive  Christianity  rested,  was  so  clearly  understood  alike  by 
the  church  and  its  enemies, — the  simple  verities  of  the  Gospel 
were  so  distinctly  known  and  avowed  by  all  believers,  that  there 
was  no  real  necessity  for  the  statement  of  these  in  confessional 
form,  whether  for  apology  or  for  confirmation.  Even  during  the 
latest  decades  of  the  apostolic  century,  though  antichrists  were 
already  appearing,  this  necessity  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  had 
an  existence.  The  church  reposed  in  its  traditional  faith,  as  de- 
fined in  the  apostolic  writings,  until  the  rising  heresies  and  the 
philosophic  oppositions  of  the  centuries  succeeding  constrained  it 
to  the  formal  expression  of  its  cherished  belief. 

The  creed  element  in  the  New  Testament  consists  therefore 
chiefly  of  individual  declarations  of  faith,  called  out  by  something 
in  personal  experience,  or  of  ascriptions  of  trust  uttered  by  the 
church,  resembling  hymns  rather  than  formal  creeds.  Of  the  first 
class  we  have  illustrations  in  the  avowal  of  Nathaniel,  John  i :  49  ; 
in  the  emphatic  utterance  of  Peter,  Matthew  xvi :  16  ;  in  the  trust- 
ful declarations  of  the  apostles  generally,  Matthew  xiv  :  33  ;  John 
vi :  68-69  ;  in  the  confession  made  by  the  eunuch  to  Philip,  Acts 
viii :  37  ;  in  the  declaration  of  Paul  to  the  jailor,  Acts  xvi :  31. 
Of  the  second  class  instances  may  be  seen  in  several  summaries  of 
apostolic  teaching  bearing  the  confessional  form,  as  in  Romans 
x  :  9  ;  I.  Corinthians  xv  :  3-8  ;  I.  John  iv  :  2.  The  most  elaborate 
of  these  is  found  in  I.  Timothy  iii :  16  :  in  which  the  mystery  of 
godliness,  or  the  true  faith,  receives  its  fullest  exposition  in  a  recital 
of  the  main  facts  respecting  the  incarnation,  life,  death  and  res- 
urrection of  our  Lord.  Further  allusion  to  such  principia  or 
foundations  of  belief  may  be  found  in  Hebrews  vi:l-2  ;  and  Rev- 
elation ii:13  ;  and  possibly  in  the  form  of  sound  words  referred 
to  by  Paul,  II.  Timothy,  i :  13.  Jude  also  speaks  of  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints  ;  Peter  alludes  to  the  present  truth,  as 
in  holy  contrast  with  all  human  errors  ;  and  Paul  regards  himself 
as  a  steward  of  certain  divine  mysteries,  I.  Corinthians  iv  :  1  ; 
Ephesians  iii  :  9  ;  and  as  having  a  dispensation  or  deposit  of  truth 
committed  unto  him,  I.  Corinthians  ix:17.  The  baptismal  form- 
ula also  may  be  regarded  as  a  confession  of  faith  in  the  funda- 
mental mystery  of  the  Trinity,  on  the  part  of  those  who  submitted 
to  that  ordinance  ;   and  the  kindred  formula  to  be  used  at  the 


FIRST    CREED   PERIOD.  23 

eucharistic  supper  according  to  the  instruction  of  Christ,  is  in 
some  sense  a  like  confession  of  that  cardinal  truth  of  grace,  which 
the  bread  broken  and  the  wine  poured  forth  so  vividly  symbolize. 
The  apostolic  benedictions  certainly  embody  the  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

But  these  examples  are  not  to  be  pressed  too  far.  While  such 
illustrations  indicate  clearly  the  presence  in  Scripture  of  what  may 
properly  be  called  a  creed  element,  it  still  is  true  that  the  Bible 
furnishes  no  complete  formula  of  religious  belief  ;  and  that  the 
church  existed  during  the  apostolic  era  and  for  nearly  a  century 
afterward,  without  any  such  organized  confession  of  its  faith. 
The  tradition  that  the  apostles  agreed  in  preparing  the  creed  which 
bears  their  name,  is  without  historic  warrant  and  is  to  be  set  aside 
as  a  tradition  merely  :  Fisher,  Hist.  Doct.  So  long  as  living  men 
were  found  who  could  testify  to  what  the  Lord  had  spoken, — so 
long  as  there  were  actual  witnesses  to  the  great  facts  as  well  as 
the  fundamental  teachings  of  the  common  Christianity,  more 
formal  creeds  than  those  just  mentioned  were  needless,  and  the 
church,  so  far  as  we  know,  made  no  effort  to  supply  them.  The 
suggestion  that  the  apostolic  church  had  no  creed  because  it  could 
not  agree  upon  any  common  and  acceptable  statement  of  doc- 
trine— a  suggestion  based  on  the  alleged  disparities  between  the 
Pauline  and  Petrine  and  Johannine  conceptions  of  the  Gospel— is 
clearly  without  historic  warrant. 

The  first  creed  period  may  be  regarded  as  including  the  third, 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries.   During  the  second  century  and  probably 

shortly  after  the  decease  of  John,  various 

J    ,  .  ,    .  A  ,      '       .  .  10.  First  Creed  Period: 

forms  of  antichrist  appeared,  breaking  The  three  ancient  creeds, 
in  openly  upon  the  doctrinal  unity  of  the 

church,  and  imperiling  the  common  faith.  Some  allusions  by 
John,  and  also  by  Paul  and  Peter,  (  I.  John  ii  :  18-22;  iv  :  3;  II. 
Thess.  ii :  3-7;  II.  Peter  ii :  1;  see  Epistle  of  Jude)  seem  to  suggest 
either  the  actual  rising  of  such  heresies,  or  at  least  the  subtle 
development  of  tendencies  toward  heresy  even  in  the  first  century. 
It  is  matter  of  history  that,  shortly  after  the  departure  of  the 
apostolic  college,  external  opposition  became  more  formidable  in  its 
aspects,  and  much  more  decisive  in  its  assaults.  It  was  natural 
that  the  first  center  of  conflict  should  be  found  in  the  person  of 
the  Immanuel,  and  in  the  associated  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  If 
Christ  could  be  shown  to  be  something  less  than  he  had  declared 
himself  to  be  as  a  divine  Mediator, — if  the  churchly  conception 
of  his  person  could  be  shaken  or  overthrown, — if  the  supernatural 
element  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  could  be  rejected,  and 


24  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

the  divine  Fatherhood  in  nature  and  in  grace  could  be  proved 
unworthv  of  acceptation,  then  the  entire  scheme  of  Christianity, 
resting  on  these  foundations,  would  crumble  into  dust.  Error 
within  the  church  or  opposition  from  without,  succeeding  at  points 
so  cardinal  as  these,  would  subvert  and  destroy  the  whole  system, 
and  the  church  and  the  Christian  religion  would  inevitably  perish 
together. 

The  oldest  of  the  three  ancient  creeds,  bearing  the  name  of  the 
apostles,  but  not  originating  with  them  membratim  articulatimque , 
was  the  first  formal  attempt  by  the  church  to  protect  herself  from 
such  perils  by  the  definite  formulation  and  proclamation  of  her 
essential  belief  at  these  vital  points.  It  can  be  traced  in  its  earliest 
forms  to  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century.  Springing  appar- 
ently from  the  baptismal  formula,  following  the  order  of  the  holy 
trinity,  confining  itself  to  the  main  facts  of  the  Gospel, — simple  in 
structure,  suffused  with  devotional  feeling  and  fitted  alike  to  be  a 
standard  of  belief  and  a  song  of  adoration, — it  still  remains,  as 
Augustine  described  it,  a  regula  of  faith  both  brief  and  grand, 
brief  in  the  number  of  its  words,  grand  in  the  weight  of  its 
declarations.  Accepted  by  both  the  Eastern  church  and  the 
Western,  and  by  Romanist  and  Protestant,  incorporated  in  the 
Lutheran  confessions,  and  more  widely  used  than  any  other  symbol 
for  both  testimony  and  worship,  it  will  probably  stand  through  all 
time  as  alike  the  primary  representative  of  sacred  doctrine,  the 
germ  of  succeeding  creeds,  and  the  uniting  and  distinguishing 
confession  of  all  in  every  age  who  truly  believe  in  Christ. 

Associated  with  this  primitive  symbol  are  the  Nicene  and  the 
Athanasian  creeds ;  not  including  as  fully  as  the  preceding  the 
general  field  of  divine  doctrine,  but  relating  especially  to  Trini- 
tarianism  and  Christology.  The  first  represented  eastern  more 
than  western  thought ;  was  prepared  at  Nicaea,  A.  D.  325  ; 
perfected  at  Constantinople,  A.  D.  881;  and  modified  for  the 
western  church  at  the  council  of  Toledo  A.  D.  589,  by  the  addition 
of  the  term,  Filioqae.  The  second,  also  oriental  in  origin,  some- 
times called  from  its  opening  words,  Symbolum  Ouicunque,  of 
uncertain  authorship  although  ascribed  to  Athanasius,  was  ac- 
cepted by  no  action  of  the  ancient  church,  yet  was  widely  received, 
especially  for  its  elaborate  exposition  of  the  deity  in  Christ  and  of 
the  doctrinal  decisions  of  the  first  four  ecumenical  councils  gen- 
erally, and  is  now  ranked,  aside  from  its  damnatory  clauses,  with 
the  other  two  primitive  symbols  as  expressing  still  the  faith  of 
extensive  sections  of  the  Christian  church,  both  Catholic  and 
Protestant.     To  these  may  be   added   the   explanatory   clauses 


THE   THREE    ANCIENT    CREEDS.  25 

appended  to  the  Nicene  creed  by  the  council  of  Chaleedon,  A.  D. 
451  ;  which  were  designed  to  exclude  still  more  carefully  certain 
remaining  forms  of  error,  and  to  define  still  more  exactly  the 
orthodox  belief  respecting  the  union  of  two  natures  in  one  person 
in  Christ. 

Studying  these  three  ancient  creeds  comparatively,  we  may  note 
the  following  particulars.  First:  they  are  alike  in  resting  imme- 
diately on  the  words  of  Scripture,  and 

more  specifically  on  the  baptismal  form-        1 1 '    These  Creeds  studied 
i  j   *u     x— •  m.    ■        u       j-.l-  comparatively:    Their  con- 

ula  and  the  tnnitanan  benedictions.     tents  and  liraitations. 

Recognizing  as  we  have  done  a  certain 

confessional  element  specially  in  the  New  Testament,  both  as 
indicated  in  individual  utterances  of  belief  and  as  expressed  in  the 
forms  of  sacred  devotion,  we  may  readily  appreciate  this  early 
upspringing  of  that  seed  or  germ  in  these  more  formal  affirmations 
of  the  accepted  faith.  Had  there  been  no  outward  exigencies  im- 
pelling to  such  affirmations,  we  still  might  presume  that  the  inward 
needs  of  the  household  of  faith,  such  as  the  training  of  the  young 
and  their  entrance  into  public  covenant,  and  the  investiture  of  per- 
sons appointed  to  office,  would  have  led  in  time  to  such  symbolic 
statements  of  the  truth,  especially  as  these  were  so  immediately 
suggested  though  not  formally  given  in  the  divine  Word. 

Second  :  these  creeds  were  peculiar  in  adhering  mainly  to  the 
historic  facts  on  which  the  Gospel  reposes.  In  the  two  latter,  we 
have  indeed  the  results  of  the  prolonged  controversies  touch- 
ing such  abstruse  and  speculative  questions  as  the  trinity  in  the 
divine  constitution,  and  the  union  of  divine  and  human  elements 
in  the  composite  personality  of  Christ.  Yet  even  in  these  state- 
ments we  see  a  close  adherence  to  the  historic  method  followed  so 
rigidly  in  the  earliest  symbol ;  the  divine  facts  however  mysterious 
are  ever  kept  in  the  foreground.  In  reality  we  find  but  little  in 
them  after  all  beyond  the  simple  teaching  of  Scripture  concerning 
the  Father  and  the  work  of  creation,  concerning  the  Son  in  his 
incarnation  and  mission  for  our  redemption,  and  concerning  the 
Spirit  in  his  official  relations  to  the  church  and  to  the  prime 
blessings  of  the  Christian  life. 

Third  :  compared  with  the  later  symbols,  these  original  creeds 
are  brief,  terse,  pointed  ;  stating  simply  what  is  most  central  and 
omitting  much  which  subsequent  confessions  have  sought  to  state 
or  to  expand.  This  peculiarity  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  the 
great  anthropological  and  soteriological  controversies,  and  espec- 
ially the  latter,  had  not  yet  arisen, — that  the  grave  errors  in  these 
departments  of  theology  which  figured  so  largely  in  subsequent 


26  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

thought  and  discussion  were  as  yet  undeveloped.  The  great 
conflict  between  Augustinianism  and  Pelagianism  in  their  several 
varieties,  near  as  it  was  in  point  of  time,  is  hardly  recognizable 
in  these  creeds.  Of  the  momentous  issues  which  subsequently 
arose  respecting  the  nature  and  scope  of  the  work  of  Christ,  and 
which  have  so  decisively  affected  all  later  symbolism,  we  discover 
nothing.  So  far  as  these  later  issues  are  concerned,  these  ancient 
creeds  are  altogether  inadequate  :  they  do  not  define  where  dis- 
crimination is  now  indispensable  :  they  open  or  leave  open  avenues 
along  which  the  most  dangerous  error  might  now  enter. 

Fourth  :  they  obviously  represent  simply  an  existing  stage  of 
doctrinal  development  ;  they  only  mark  the  precise  point  at  which 
the  church  had  then  arrived  in  its  comprehension  and  exposition 
of  divine  truth.  They  contain  no  provision  for  their  own 
enlargement  and  embody  no  law  of  growth,  such  as  would  make 
them  by  simple  expansion  the  sufficient  confessions  of  the  church 
for  succeeding  times.  Therefore  while  they  can  never  be  superseded 
in  their  exposition  of  the  truths  they  affirm,  they  may  and  must 
make  room  for  other  creeds  of  broader  scope  and  greater  complete- 
ness, whenever  the  oppositions  of  unbelief  or  the  expanding 
convictions  of  the  people  of  God  may  require.  They  are  styled 
ecumenical  or  catholic  because  they  are  either  formally  or  tacitly 
accepted  by  nearly  every  division  of  nominal  Christendom.  Greek 
and  Roman  Christianity  agree  in  accepting  them  with  the  exception 
of  the  single  word,  Filioque  ;  and  both  are  united  with  the  various 
Protestant  communions  in  acknowledging  them  as  in  all  else 
authoritative.  But  while  in  some  sense  they  thus  form  a  bond  of 
union  between  all  nominally  Christian  churches,  they  betray  their 
imperfection  in  the  fact  that  they  provide  no  adequate  lines  of 
distinction  for  later  ages  between  what  is  evangelical  and  much 
that  is  now  seen  to  be  formal  or  even  fatally  corrupt. 

Passing  beyond  the  fifth  century,  we  come  upon  a  vast  creedless 
period,  extending  to  the  sixteenth  century,  and  terminated  only 

12.  Creedless  Period,  A.  D,     hY  the  decisive  developments  of  the 
500:  A.  D.  1500.    No  Prog-     Reformation.     In    general,  periods  of 
ress  of  Doctrine  :   Scholasti-     theological  activity  and  conflict  are  nat- 
sm'  urally  followed  by  eras  of  comparative 

quiescence, — the  faith  of  the  church  reposing  in  the  truths  decided, 
and  religious  thought  concerning  itself  rather  with  the  contem- 
plation or  the  application  of  doctrine  than  with  the  problem  of 
further  expansion.  The  history  of  the  dark  ages  illustrates  the 
additional  truth  that  this  process  may  degenerate  even  into 
reaction  or  retrogression, — that  such  quiescence  may  change  into 


CREEDEESS   PERIOD — SCHOLASTICISM.  27 

indifference,  torpor,  decadence,  worse  even  than  the  presence  of 
heresy  or  open  unbelief.  The  fact  is  that  from  the  sixth  or  sev- 
enth to  the  twelfth  century,  or  even  later,  the  church  for  various 
causes  hardly  retained  spiritual  vitality  enough  to  use  or  under- 
stand the  creeds  it  possessed, — had  far  too  little  to  undertake  any 
expansion  or  improvement  of  these  primitive  formularies.  It  is 
especially  to  be  noted  that  from  the  age  of  Leo  and  the  first 
Gregory,  the  thoughts  of  both  teachers  and  people  were  turned 
mainly  toward  that  composite  process  of  ecclesiastical  rather  than 
doctrinal  development,  of  which  the  papacy  was  the  immense  and 
splendid,  yet  disastrous  result.  For  obvious  reasons  the  influence 
of  the  papacy  tended  steadily  to  the  repression  of  vigorous  and 
especially  progressive  thought :  it  held  the  mind  of  the  church 
fixed  and  moveless  in  the  position  in  which  the  ancient  creeds  had 
placed  it :  it  allowed  no  opportunity  for  the  rise  of  any  semblance 
of  heresy.  The  first  centuries  of  this  period  were  also  an  era  of 
great  external  enterprises  and  outward  growth  for  the  church. 
The  standard  of  the  Cross  was  carried  throughout  Europe  ;  Africa 
became  the  seat  of  a  flourishing,  though  too  formal  and  conse- 
quently evanescent  Christianity  ;  the  nations  of  the  East  heard  of 
Christ,  and  received  the  Gospel  at  the  hand  of  his  messengers. 
The  rising  conflict  between  the  papacy  and  the  patriarchate, 
between  Rome  and  Constantinople,  also  attracted  thought  and  drew 
off  interest  from  theological  issues  :  and  when  the  great  schism 
came,  both  the  Eastern  church  and  the  Western  felt  themselves 
under  new  obligation  to  adhere  tenaciously  to  the  old  creeds,  and 
to  shut  out  whatever  might  seem  like  an  incipient  departure  from 
that  ancient  faith  to  which  each  clung  as  its  supreme  heritage. 

Scholasticism,  though  a  vast  advance  on  the  sluggishness  and 
blindness  which  for  five  or  six  centuries  had  preceded  it,  yet  did 
not  furnish  in  itself  the  basis  for  any  new  expression  of  churchly 
belief  or  experience  in  confessional  form.  For  scholasticism  was 
in  part  simply  a  revival  or  restoration  of  what  was  best  in  the 
thought  and  experience  of  the  ancient  church.  It  was  an  attempt 
to  state  afresh  what  had  long  been  believed,  and  what  had  been  em- 
bodied already  in  the  old  creeds  and  the  old  theologies.  It  was  also 
in  part  an  effort  to  analyze  this  ancient  belief, — to  define  its  phrases, 
state  and  justify  its  propositions,  and  bring  out  its  harmony  with 
current  philosophy.  It  was  rather,  in  a  word,  the  defender  of  the 
old  than  an  expositor  of  any  new  convictions  on  the  part  of  the 
church.  It  is  true  that  a  school  of  freer  thought  arose  among 
the  scholastics  as  a  natural,  perhaps  inevitable,  antithesis  to 
the  main  tendencies  of  theological  opinion  ;    and  that  this  freer 


28  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

movement  became  an  essential  antecedent  to  that  great  subsequent 
awakening,  theological  and  spiritual,  of  which  the  confessions  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  were  the  outgrowth.  It 
is  also  true  that  in  the  development  of  the  doctrine  of  redemption 
under  Anselm  we  have  the  central  germ  of  that  new  Soteriology , 
that  larger  and  better  comprehension  of  Christ  and  his  work,  of 
which  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  as  enunciated  by 
Luther  was  the  final  expansion.  Yet  Scholasticism  had  hardly 
vigor  enough  in  itself  to  produce  a  creed  :  at  best  it  could  only 
prepare  the  way  for  that  result  in  a  later  and  more  fruitful  age. 

These  facts  illustrate  the  general  truth  that  the  production  of 
creeds  by  the  church  is  a  process  peculiar  in  itself,  and  dependent 
on  a  long  series  of  conditions.  There  must  first  be  meditation, 
inquiry,  spiritual  as  well  as  mental  development ;  the  narrownesses 
or  imperfections  of  old  formulas  must  be  discovered  through  an 
expanding  experience,  or  possibly  through  collision  with  rising 
and  presumptuous  heresies.  More  extensive  study  of  the  sacred 
Oracles  must  lead  on  to  new  views  of  doctrine,  new  combinations 
or  adjustments  of  truth,  and  in  some  just  sense  to  new  faith.  But 
such  changes  can  record  themselves  in  creeds  only  after  they  have 
first  indicated  their  presence  and  power  in  such  preparatory  ways, 
or  perhaps  have  justified  their  right  to  be  accepted  through  bitter 
conflict  or  through  the  pangs  of  glorified  martyrdom.  Other 
agencies  such  as  state  influence  may  sometimes  seem  to  force  out 
creeds  ;  but  these  agencies  at  best  are  only  secondary  and  occa- 
sional. The  real  creative  forces  are  found  only  in  the  expanding 
thought,  the  broadening  experience,  the  more  matured  faith  and 
life  of  the  church. 

It  has  been  queried  why  the  great  anthropological  controversy 
of  the  fifth  century  was  not  followed,  as  had  occured  after  the 
christological  conflict  of  the  preceeding  century,  by  some  formu- 
lated expression  of  the  triumphing  Augustinian  doctrine.  There 
are  some  obvious  explanations  of  this  fact.  Among  these  may 
be  named  the  dominating  interest  of  the  Eastern  church  in  the 
trinitarian  question  in  its  various  aspects,  the  natural  sympathy  of 
the  Greek  mind  with  the  psychological  and  ethical  theories  of 
Pelagius,  the  developing  antagonism  between  oriental  and  occi- 
dental Christianity,  the  increasing  inability  to  bring  together  any 
truly  ecumenical  council,  and  the  declining  piety  and  growing 
formalism  of  the  period.  Had  the  doctrine  of  Augustine,  triumph- 
ant for  the  hour,  been  thus  crystalized  in  a  strong,  clear  creed  before 
it  began  to  subside  into  the  modified  and  weakened  forms  which  it 
assumed  a  century  or  two  later,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  such 


SECOND   CREED   PERIOD.  29 

a  creed  would  have  proved  a  great  blessing  during  the  long  and 
blank  period  which  followed.  It  would  have  checked  the  Pelagian 
currents  which  in  fact  ran  everywhere  like  poison  through  the 
veins  of  Christendom  :  it  would  have  quickened  into  life  the  vapid 
theology  of  the  dark  ages ;  it  would  have  given  Scholasticism  a 
different  sphere  and  tone,  and  have  saved  the  church  of  Rome 
from  many  of  those  false  teachings  and  tendencies  which  rendered 
necessary  the  Reformation. 

The  second  great  period  of  creed  formation  follows  the  Refor- 
mation, and  extends  from  the  earlier  part  of  the  sixteenth  to  the 

middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.     It 
13.    Second  Creed  Period :        .  ,  ,  ,  , .  .     .    ,  , ,    .         ,         . 

i>      a      t  *u    t»  *        «  might  be  anticipated  that  such  a  stu- 

Creeds  of  the  Reformation :         s  r  . 

Four  General  Classes.  pendous  movement  as  that  m  which 

Protestantism  originated,  —  such  an 
eruption  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces  long  pent  up  by  papal 
assumption, — such  a  rapid  and  unique  development  of  thought  and 
feeling  along  the  higher  planes  of  religious  experience,  would  not 
occur  without  some  manifestations  in  the  form  of  creeds  as  well 
as  of  theologies — in  new  confessions  as  wTell  as  in  new  modes  of 
worship,  or  new  varieties  of  church  organization.  History 
abundantly  confirms  the  anticipation.  The  great  mental  as  well 
as  spiritual  vigor  of  the  Reformation  demonstrated  its  qualities 
almost  from  the  outset  by  the  abundance,  by  the  richness,  by  the 
permanent  character  of  the  church  symbols  that  sprang  from  it. 
A  brief  enumeration  of  these  will  justify  this  statement. 

Grouping  these  symbols  into  classes,  the  first  to  be  noticed  is 
the  series  of  Lutheran  creeds,  originating  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation  in  Germany  and  representing  generically  the  belief 
of  that  group  of  churches  bearing  the  name  of  the  greatest 
among  the  earlier  reformers.  This  series,  incorporated  in  the 
Book  of  Concord,  embraces  the  Augsburg  Confession,  with  the 
Apology  or  explanation  of  that  Confession,  A.  D.  .1530  :  the 
Articles  of  Smalcald,  1537  ;  and  the  Formula  of  Concord,  1577, 
together  with  the  two  Catechisms  composed  by  Luther,  1529. 
With  these  are  associated  in  the  Book  of  Concord  the  three  ancient 
creeds  already  mentioned, — the  whole  constituting  the  represent- 
ative expression  of  the  Lutheran,  so  far  as  distinguished  from  the 
Reformed  belief. 

The  second  class  includes  the  earlier  Reformed  confessions  of  the 
continent,  Swiss,  French,  Belgic  and  German.  Omitting  the 
personal  declarations  of  Zwingli,  the  Swiss  symbols  are  the  Con- 
fession of  Basle,  A.  D.  1534  ;  the  first  Helvetic  Confession,  1536; 
and  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  1566.    To  these  may  be  added 


30 


HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 


as  of  secondary  importance  the  Consensus  of  Zurich,  A.  D.  1549, 
and  that  of  Geneva,  1552.  Outside  of  Switzerland,  the  Gallic 
Confession,  A.  D.  1559  ;  the  Belgic  Confession,  1561  ;  and  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism,  1563,  represent  the  main  lines  of  opinion 
and  belief  in  the  Reformed  churches  of  the  continent. 

The  third  class  embraces  the  British  creeds  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  especially  the  Scotch  Confession  of  A.  D.  1560,  with  its 
associated  Catechisms  ;  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  A.  D.  1563  ;  and 
the  Irish  Articles  which,  although  prepared  at  a  later  date  (1615) 
yet  belong  by  their  connections  to  the  symbolism  of  the  century 
preceding.  The  Ten  Articles  of  1536,  drafted  by  Convocation 
under  royal  sanction,  and  the  Lambeth  Articles,  1595,  though 
without  full  ecclesiastical  authority,  maybe  added  to  the  list, — 
being  appreciated,  in  the  quaint  phrase  of  Fuller,  for  no  more  than 
they  are  in  weight,  yet  clearly  indicating  the  received  doctrine  of 
England  in  their  day  on  the  several  topics  discussed.  These  insu- 
lar creeds  may  properly  be  separated  in  the  present  survey  from  the 
continental  symbols  of  the  same  period,  both  because  they  represent 
in  addition  to  the  general  doctrine  some  special  phases  and  varieties 
of  British  thought,  and  because  they  all  stand  in  close  historical 
relations  to  the  subsequent  Symbols  of  Westminster. 

The  fourth  class  embraces  the  creeds  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
within  the  territory  of  evangelical  Protestantism.  We  may  in- 
clude in  this  class  especially  the  Arminian  Remonstrance,  1610  ; 
the  Canons  of  Dort,  1619  ;  and  the  Catechisms  and  Confession  of 
Westminster,  A.  D.  1647-48.  So  far  as  the  direct  development 
of  the  Reformation  doctrinally  during  that  century  is  concerned, 
these  symbols  and  especially  the  last  represent  its  most  elaborate 
and  matured  results.  The  Formula  Consensus  Helve tici  (compiled 
at  Zurich,  1675,  by  the  distinguished  Heidegger)  though  justly 
characterized  as  an  able  and  interesting  theological  statement,  never 
gained  more  than  local  and  temporary  influence,  and  therefore  can 
hardly  claim  a  place  in  this  series.  Omitting  from  this  enumera- 
tion various  minor  symbols  which  originated  in  personal  opinion 
or  had  only  provincial  circulation  or  a  temporary  influence,  we  may 
note  here  the  remarkable  fecundity,  the  confessional  vigor  and 
propagativeness,  displayed  in  such  a  series  of  confessions.  Their 
abundance  and  variety  are  not  traceable,  as  has  been  alleged,  to 
the  diversities  developed  within  the  common  Protestantism  :  they 
are  rather  the  indices  of  its  amazing  vitality,  the  proofs  of  its 
loyalty  to  the  great  principle  of  private  interpretation,  the  beautiful 
evidences — when  studied  comparatively — of  the  profound  and 
conscious  unity  in  the  entire  spiritual  movement  of  which  they 


PROTESTANT   CREEDS — COMPARATIVE    VIEW.  31 

were  the  symbolic  expression.  A  hundred  ages  of  papacy  could 
never  have  originated  so  vast  and  so  vigorous  a  growth  of  Christian 
knowledge  and  doctrine  as  is  registered  in  these  creeds.  * 

Comparing  together  this  remarkable  series  of  Confessions,  and 
considering  them  in  contrast  with  the  creeds  of  the  ancient  church, 
we  may  note  the  following  points  of  interest.     First:  they  were 
confessions  rather  than  creeds.     They 
were  not  designed  primarily  to  be  re-       ,  14-/">testant    Creeds 

.^j^,.  ^    ,        /  .         viewed  comparatively :  Their 

cited  at  baptism,  or  used  at  the  reception     confessional  qualltyo 

of  members,   or  repeated  as  a  part  of 

public  worship.  With  the  exception  of  the  catechisms,  which  for 
the  most  part  were  practical  summaries  of  the  truth  already 
embodied  in  the  associated  confessions,  they  were  intended  rather 
to  be  authoritative  formulas  of  Christian  truth,  as  received  and 
held  by  the  various  churches, — formulas  designed  to  represent  the 
true  doctrine  and  testify  to  it,  in  the  presence  alike  of  other  divisions 
of  the  common  Protestantism,  and  of  both  Romanism  and  unbelief. 
Their  main  office  was  thus  external  rather  than  internal  :  they 
sprang  immediately  from,  and  were  especially  designed  to  meet, 
exigencies  which  lay  outside  of  the  witnessing  church. 

Secondly  :  as  a  natural  consequence,  these  confessions  were  more 
elaborate  and  extended  than  the  earlier  creeds.  They  were  con- 
cerned not  merely  with  those  primary  facts  and  those  fundamental 
questions  respecting  the  nature  of  God  as  triune  and  the  deity  of 
Christ,  which  the  earlier  symbols  had  embodied.  They  were 
designed  to  express  also  the  results  of  later  thought,  and  especially 
of  the  more  earnest  and  fruitful  discussions  of  the  period  of  the 
Reformation,  respecting  the  nature  of  salvation  and  the  mode  of 
justification  by  grace,  together  with  all  the  related  truths.  They 
were  therefore  more  extensive  in  content,  more  philosophic  and  ex- 
act in  definition,  more  complex  in  structure,  and  more  thoroughly 
doctrinal  throughout.  In  style  and  construction  as  well  as  in 
substance,  they  reflected  at  every  point  the  remarkable  theological 
qualities  and  conflicts  of  the  period  in  which  they  were  produced. 

Thirdly  :  these  confessions  were  agreed  substantially  in  the 
acceptance  of  all  that  was  taught  in  the  earlier  creeds.  They  based 
their  affirmations  on  the  old  Apostolic  and  Nicene  foundation  ;  they 
maintained  their  essential  harmony  and  oneness  with  the  ancient 
faith  as  therein  embodied.     This  unity  was  distinctly  asserted  in 

*For  a  full  list  of  these  Symbols,  major  and  minoi ,  see  Schaff,  Creeds  of 
Christendom,  Vol.  I.  Also,  HasF,  L,ibri  Symbolic!  ;  NiEMEYER,  Collectio 
Confessionum  ;  Winer,  Confessions  of  Christendom  ;  Hall,  Harmony  of 
Protestant  Confessions,  and  other  compilations. 


32  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

some  of  the  symbols,  as  in  the  Confession  of  Calvin,  prepared  for 
the  French  church,  1559  :  On  all  of  the  articles  which  have  been 
decided  by  ancient  councils  touching  the  infinite,  spiritual  essence 
of  God,  and  the  distinction  of  the  three  Persons,  and  the  union  of 
two  natures  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  we  receive  and  agree  in  all 
that  was  therein  resolved,  as  being  drawn  from  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. The  Lutheran  Book  of  Concord  also  formally  incorporated 
the  three  ancient  creeds  with  the  distinctive  symbols  of  Lutheran- 
ism,  as  representing  the  common  belief  of  that  division  of 
Protestantism.  On  these  ancient  declarations  regarded  as  a 
foundation,  the  whole  Protestant  scheme  of  belief  was  erected  as 
a  superstructure.  The  old  creeds  were  the  trunk  :  these  numerous 
and  varied  confessions  were  the  branches.  It  has  well  been 
suggested  that  this  is  a  fact  of  very  great  significance,  both  as  an 
illustration  of  the  continued  existence  and  unchanged  faith  of  the 
Christian  Church  through  the  ages,  and  also  as  an  evidence  of  its 
substantial  unity  in  belief,  notwithstanding  its  many  circumstan- 
tial diversities. 

Fourthly  :  while  the  earlier  symbols  presented  the  faith  of  the 
Church  in  its  simple  unities,  these  described  that  faith  in  its 
complex  varieties.  Not  only  did  they  differ  at  many  points  from 
the  avowed  tenets  of  Romanism  ;  they  differed  distinctly  at  some 
points  and  in  some  important  features  from  each  other.  While 
the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  creeds  were  alike  in  emphasizing 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  common  Protestantism,  they  were 
considerably  unlike  in  the  law  of  their  construction,  in  the  relative 
prominence  given  to  specific  elements,  and  in  the  completeness  of 
their  execution.  The  earlier  and  the  later  symbols  of  Lutheranism 
and,  in  a  still  higher  degree,  of  the  Reformed  churches  differed  not 
only  in  the  fullness  and  elaborateness  of  their  contents  and  struc- 
ture, but  also  to  some  ext<=  nt  in  their  presentation  of  the  doctrines 
themselves.  The  Reforme  d  symbols  especially  exhibited  a  marked 
and  suggestive  progress  from  the  Helvetic  Confessions  onward  to 
the  Canons  of  Dort  and  the  Westminster  Symbols.  In  all,  the  car- 
dinal truths  affirmed  w.re  the  same  for  substance,  though  the 
definitions,  forms  and  adjustments  were  often  widely  unlike. 

In  addition  to  this  series  of  creeds  essentially  evangelical,  the 

period  is  remarkable  for  the  production  of  other  symbols  varying 

more  or  less  extensively  from  the  current 

15.  Heretical  and  Greek     protestant  belief.     These  symbols  are  on 
and  Reman  Creeds  of  this     one  gide  latitudinarian  and  rationalistic, 

PCr  °  '  and  on  the  other  Greek  and  Papal.     It 

would  be  improper  to  describe  the  Arminian  Remonstrance  of  1610 


GREEK    AND    ROMAN    CREEDS.  33 

by  the  former  term,  for  while  the  Arminian  theology  as  incorpo- 
rated in  that  document  was  in  open  antagonism  at  four  or  five 
important  points  with  the  extreme  Calvinism  current  on  the  con- 
tinent at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was  at 
the  same  time  a  direct  outgrowth  from  the  common  Protestant 
stock, — embodying  in  itself  nearly  every  principle,  whether  formal 
or  spiritual,  on  which  the  Reformation  in  general  had  been  based. 
It  is  true  that  in  some  minds  the  primitive  Arminianism  assumed  a 
different  phase,  and  became  even  rationalistic  in  its  conception 
and  presentation  of  the  biblical  truth  ;  yet  at  the  outset  and  in 
the  main  it  was  substantially  evangelical,  and  while  rejecting 
Calvinism,  was  yet  in  no  just  sense  to  be  described  as  Pelagian. 
In  its  later  developments,  especially  as  accepted  by  many  English 
minds  during  the  century  following,  the  theology  which  the  Re- 
monstrance originally  represented  certainly  deserves  an  acknowl- 
edged place  among  the  positive  types  of  acceptable  Christian 
doctrine. 

Among  the  clearly  latitudinarian  or  heretical  symbols  of  the 
period  may  be  placed  the  Anabaptist  Confession,  1580;  the  So- 
cinian  Confession,  1542,  expanded  in  the  Racovian  Catechism, 
1605  ;  and  also,  in  a  modified  degree,  the  Confession  and  Cate- 
chism of  Barclay,  1675,  representing  more  fully  than  any  ante- 
cedent document  the  belief  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  The  first 
and  last  of  these  resemble  each  other  in  their  leading  tenets  and 
tendencies.  The  Socinian  symbols  define  what  was  by  far  the 
most  dangerous  departure  from  orthodox  teaching,  consequent 
upon  the  Reformation.  Of  other  minor  confessions  belonging  to 
the  same  class,  it  is  hardly  needful  to  speak,  as  none  of  these  have 
become  the  basis  of  organized  churches  under  whatever  name. 
The  aversion  of  heresy  or  of  latitudinarianism  to  embody  itself  in 
a  written  creed  receives  a  striking  illustration  here.  Whether 
springing  from  a  conscious  unwillingness  to  put  its  opposition  on 
record  in  definite  form,  or  from  an  interior  incapacity  to  formulate 
its  own  vague  or  defective  conceptions,  this  aversion  is  a  fact  as 
universal  as  it  is  suggestive.  Heresy  like  sin  is  often  an  anomaly 
to  itself. 

The  Greek  church  accepts  as  the  fundamental  statement  of  its 
doctrine  the  decision  of  the  seven  ecumenical  Councils.  Among 
its  later  symbols  of  minor  prominence  are  the  Confession  of  Gen- 
nadius,  1453  ;  of  Critopulus,  1625  ;  of  Cyril  Lucar,  1631  ;  of 
Mogilas,  1643  ;  and  of  the  Synod  of  Jerusalem,  1672.  The  Cate- 
chism of  Philaret,  adopted  in  1839  by  the  Holy  Synod  of  the 
Russian  Church,   and   approved  by  the  eastern   Patriarchs,   has 


34  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

been  pronounced  the  ablest  and  clearest  summary  of  modern 
Greek  orthodoxy.  Winer  does  not  quote  it,  but  relies  in  his 
exposition  of  oriental  doctrine  on  the  Confession  of  Mogilas  and  the 
Decrees  of  the  Jerusalem  Council.  The  chief  value  of  these 
formularies  to  us  lies  in  their  illustration  both  of  the  immobility 
of  the  Greek  communions,  and  of  their  wide  departure  from  some 
of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  Scripture  as  enunciated  by  evangelical 
Protestantism. 

The  Papal  symbols  of  the  period  are  mainly  the  Canons  and 
Decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  1545-1563,  and  the  Catechism 
authorized  by  this  Council  and  published  in  1566  ;  and  as  explana- 
tory of  these,  the  Tridentine  Profession,  1564.  To  the  formulation 
of  these  important  symbols  the  Roman  church,  while  clinging 
still  to  the  three  ancient  creeds,  and  declaring  the  immutability 
of  its  belief  as  the  sole  church  of  God  on  earth,  was  driven  by 
the  doctrinal  as  well  as  practical  exigencies  of  the  Reform- 
ation. The  whole  may  be  regarded  as  an  attempt  to  state  the 
papal  faith  in  better  form  at  those  points  where  Protestantism 
had  shown  that  faith  to  be  weak  or  erroneous.  Romanism  main- 
tained the  full  sufficiency  of  the  old  creeds,  yet  held  to  the  possibili- 
ty of  additions  or  accretions  springing  from  the  developing  spiritual 
consciousness  of  the  organized  church.  As  the  confessions  of  the 
Protestant  churches  were  successively  framed  and  scattered  ev- 
erywhere through  northern  Europe,  setting  forth  tersefy  the  great 
truths  of  Protestantism,  it  became  necessary  to  meet  these  new 
and  revolutionary  beliefs  by  fresh,  authoritative  declarations  of 
what  was  believed  at  Rome.  In  this  necessity  originated  the 
Tridentine  Council  with  its  doctrine  respecting  the  Scriptures, 
and  its  definition  of  sin,  of  the  atonement,  of  justification  and 
sanctification,  of  the  sacraments  and  ordinances,  and  of  the  true 
church.  No  creed  of  the  period  was  more  carefully  drawn,  more 
skillful  in  structure  or  form,  more  authoritatively  endorsed  and 
promulgated.  After  three  centuries  it  still  stands  as  the  final 
symbol  of  Roman  Catholicism,  to  which  nothing  can  be  added 
except  by  the  infallible  wisdom  of  the  pontificate,  and  from  which 
nothing  can  ever  be  taken  away.  The  Dogmatic  Decrees  of  the 
Vatican  Council  of  1870  and  the  Syllabus  Errorum  of  1864 
superadd  little  to  the  canons  and  decrees  of  Trent  beyond  the 
affirmation  of  papal  infallibilty,  ex  cathedra.  The  special  Decree 
respecting  the  immaculacy  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  1854,  hardly  rises 
to  the  dignity  of  an  authoritative  doctrine,  though  widely 
influential  as  a  church  dogma. 


SECOND    CREEDLESS    PERIOD.  35 

Passing  beyond  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,   we 
come  upon  another  creedless  period  which  may,  with  some  small 
exceptions,  be  said  to  extend  to  the  pres- 
ent time.     It  was  in  the  nature  of  things        16-    Second    Creedless 
.,    ,        ,  ,.    ,  .     ,  ,        .,    j       Period  since  the  Reforma- 

that  such  a  process  as  that  just  described,     .. 

extending    through    considerably    more 

than  a  century,  and  resulting  in  the  production  of  more  than 
thirty  creeds  of  distinct  importance,  as  well  as  many  minor  declar- 
ations of  faith,  should  finally  come  to  a  close.  Every  recognizable 
section  of  Protestantism  had  stated  its  belief  in  some  confessional 
form.  The  Roman  church  had  revised  its  belief,  and  given  it 
new  and  permanent  expression.  Even  the  more  erratic  tenden- 
cies born  of  the  Reformation,  and  the  heresies  that  had  arisen  in 
connection  with  the  more  legitimate  protests  of  Christian  faith 
against  Rome,  had  taken  formulative  shape.  Such  a  process 
needed  no  repetition  so  long  as  these  various  beliefs  retained  their 
primitive  character.  There  might  be  expositions,  commentaries, 
theologies,  but  there  could  well  be  no  additional  confessions.  It 
is  also  a  familiar  fact  that  the  seventeenth  century,  and  in  some 
divisions  of  Protestantism  the  eighteenth  also,  were  devoted 
largely  to  the  task  of  throwing  the  teaching  of  the  symbols  into 
the  forms  of  systematic  theology.  It  has  been  said  with  justice 
that  the  Protestant  confessions  gave  birth  to  as  noble  a  series  of 
dogmatic  writers  as  Christian  literature  has  ever  known — men  as 
subtle  as  the  schoolmen  whose  methods  they  inherited,  but  bap- 
tized richly  with  the  spirit  of  the  new  evangelical  doctrine.  The 
process  of  evolution  was  in  several  respects  analogous  to  that  of 
the  Scholastic  era.  Many  of  these  theologies  were  framed,  like 
the  Institutes  of  Calvin,  on  the  basis  and  order  of  the  ancient 
creeds:  others  were  expositions,  more  or  less  close  and  complete, 
of  the  symbols  of  the  period  just  past :  others  were  constructed 
around  some  central  principle  or  doctrine  by  methods  more  exactly 
philosophic  or  speculative.  Few  minds  if  any  wandered  far  from 
the  territory  occupied  by  these  symbols:  few  were  inclined  to 
construct  a  theological  system  on  any  other  plans  than  those  here 
suggested. 

Such  periods  are  also  likely  to  be  followed  by  eras  of  practical 
activity  rather  than  of  speculative  or  dogmatic  progress.  The 
mind  of  the  church  having  been  put  to  rest  for  the  time  in  regard 
to  what  it  believes  and  must  teach,  the  great  task  of  teaching,  of 
proclamation,  becomes  prominent:  the  work  of  making  all  men 
acquainted  with  the  truth  assumes  supreme  importance.  Ques- 
tions of  organization,    of  government,  of  activity  and  growth 


36  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

become  conspicuous  in  the  thought  and  regulate  largely  the  actual 
life  of  the  church.  In  the  century  following  the  close  of  the 
Reformation,  great  outward  revolutions,  wonderful  discoveries 
and  inventions,  developments  in  science,  art,  philosophy  and  in 
social  and  civil  life,  contributed  to  draw  away  interest  from  the 
further  formulation  of  belief,  and  to  some  extent  even  from  the 
explanation  and  defence  of  the  existing  creeds.  It  may  also  be 
true  that,  as  the  heats  and  excitements  of  the  great  conflict  of  the 
sixteenth  century  passed  off,  something  of  reaction  came  over  the 
hearts  of  men, — a  reaction  growing  in  some  quarters  even  into  a 
torpor,  a  degeneracy,  not  unlike  in  type  that  which  we  discover 
during  the  dark  ages. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  that  this  period  has  not  been 
wholly  creedless.  As  new  sects  have  been  formed  around  specific 
issues, — as  new  varieties  of  polity,  method,  worship  have  arisen, 
explanatory  declarations  or  statements  have  been  made  from  time 
to  time,  often  on  the  basis  of  some  accepted  symbol,  which  in 
turn  represent  later  variations  of  thought  and  experience.  The 
Savoy  Declaration,  1658,  the  Baptist  Confession  of  1688,  the 
Methodist  Articles  of  Religion,  1784,  may  be  taken  as  examples 
of  this  fact.  The  first  of  these  differs  from  preceding  Calvinistic 
symbols  chiefly  in  its  definition  of  the  church;  the  second,  in  its 
emphasizing  of  the  dogma  of  immersion;  the  third,  in  its  exposi- 
tion of  the  differences  between  the  Methodism  of  Wesley  and  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  of  the  Anglican  church.  Later  illustrations 
of  less  prominence,  such  as  the  Auburn  Declaration,  the  Articles 
of  Reformed  Episcopacy,  the  Declarations  of  American  Congre- 
gationalism, or  the  Old  Catholic  Creeds,  might  be  noted  as 
indicative  of  the  multiplied  divisions  which  have  arisen  among 
Protestants  around  various  issues  in  teaching,  polity  or  worship. 
These  represent,  however,  no  continuous  process  of  creed-making, 
but  rather  make  manifest  the  fact  that  this  process  had  practically 
come  to  an  end.  They  also  show  that  no  further  creed  period 
can  well  arise  until  new  and  higher  conceptions  of  the  Gospel 
have  been  attained,  or  until  the  heart  of  the  church  has  passed 
through  some  new  and  more  profound  experience  of  grace. 

This  brief  survey  of  the  symbols  of  Christianity  with  reference 

to  their  number,  their  chronologic  succession,  and  their  doctrinal 

relations,   may   well  lead  us  to  a  larger 

17.    Comparative  Sym-     conception  of  the   nature  and  worth  of 

bolism  as  a  Science  illus-  ,.  ,    ,.  , 

.  comparative     symbolism,     viewed    as    a 

branch  of  theological  science.    The  prop- 
er interpretation    of    any    single    specimen    among    the    major 


SYMBOLISM — PURPOSE    AND    SPIRIT.  37 

confessions  of  the  Reformation  requires  not  merely  careful  knowl- 
edge of  the  theological  terminology  of  the  age,  but  also  minute 
acquaintance  with  the  theologies  of  the  period,  writh  the  posture 
of  ecclesiastical  parties,  with  political  events  and  tendencies,  and 
with  the  types  of  spiritual  experience  prevailing  at  the  time. 
Recent  history  exhibits  at  many  points  the  evils  of  failure  to 
recognize  this  primary  requisition.  Instead  of  taking  the  words 
and  phrases  of  a  confession  in  their  plain  historical  sense,  other 
meanings  have  been  forced  into  them,  new  stress  or  emphasis  has 
been  laid  here  or  there,  and  the  obligation  to  receive  the  symbol 
as  thus  interpreted  has  been  urged  in  a  spirit  and  to  an  extent 
entirely  at  variance  with  the  purpose  or  temper  of  those  who 
framed  it.  The  results  of  such  perversion  or  abuse  of  creeds  are 
seen  in  some  of  those  conflicts  and  disruptions  which  have  done 
so  much  to  distract  and  dishonor  the  Protestantism  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  There  is  surely  no  wise  or 
safe  rule  but  to  interpret  each  individual  creed  in  the  light  of  its 
own  history,  and  to  accept  the  meaning  of  the  document  precisely 
as  it  stands. 

But  if  such  exposition  of  the  single  creed  be  so  delicate  and 
difficult,  how  much  greater  the  task  of  analyzing  in  like  manner 
any  group  of  creeds,  or  all  the  creeds  of  Protestantism  or  of 
Christendom,  and  presenting  them  to  view  comparatively,  with 
proper  reference  to  their  respective  contents,  their  mutual  con- 
nections and  relations,  and  their  general  worth.  It  is  one  of  the 
felicities  of  our  age  that  the  preparations  for  this  task  have 
essentially  been  made.  Collections  of  these  symbols,  practically 
adequate,  have  been  gathered  and  made  available  for  the  student. 
Some  careful  and  comprehensive  work  in  this  department  has 
already  been  done.  Yet  the  field  is  comparatively  new,  and  much 
remains  to  be  accomplished,  if  not  in  exploration,  still  in  philo- 
sophic scrutiny  and  analysis,  in  close  comparison,  in  exhaustive 
description  and  summation.  To  that  work  the  Christian  scholar- 
ship of  our  time  seems  by  many  considerations  which  need  not 
here  be  named,  to  be  especially  invited. 

The  temper — it  may  be  added — in  which  such  a  task  should  be 
undertaken  must  be  pure,  generous,  catholic,  devout.  The  creeds 
must  be  studied  for  higher  purposes  than  the  discovery  of  words 
and  phrases  with  which  to  fortify  personal  opinion,  or  to  flagel- 
late some  errorist  or  confute  some  doubting  inquirer.  The  polemic 
elements  displayed  in  them  must  be  subordinated  to  what  is 
irenic:  the  particular  must  be  merged  so  far  as  possible  in  the 
universal.     Toleration  of  all  differences  that  are  not  absolutely 


38  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

fundamental,  careful  recognition  of  all  essential  oneness  amid 
incidental  divergencies,  must  be  cherished  and  sought.  The  spirit 
of  partisan  narrowness  or  bigotry,  or  even  of  supreme  loyalty  to 
sect,  must  give  way  to  the  loftier  spirit  of  devotion  to  the  essen- 
tial truth,  and  of  love  for  all  of  whatever  name  who  receive  the 
truth  though  in  differing  form.  High  regard  for  the  Word  of 
God  as  supreme,  a  corresponding  view  of  all  creeds  as  human 
and  therefore  imperfect,  true  interest  in  the  thoughts  and  the 
struggles  of  good  men  for  the  truth  in  other  lands  and  times,  a 
keen  sense  of  the  living  laws  of  growth  under  which  all  Christian 
thought  and  experience  are  developed,  and  an  earnest  and  pure 
desire  to  use  all  that  may  be  learned  from  the  past  as  helps  toward 
still  further  advance  in  the  future, — these  are  among  the  incen- 
tives which  must  regulate  such  study,  and  inspire  the  student  at 
every  stage.  On  any  other  basis,  comparative  symbolism  or  even 
particular  symbolism  can  only  prove  embarrassing  and  injurious 
alike  to  faith  and  to  character. 

The  Westminster  Symbols  :  From  this  cursory  considera- 
tion of  the  nature,  origin  and  offices  of  the  Christian  creeds,  and 
of  the  field  and  scope  of  particular  and  comparative  symbolism, 
we  may  now  proceed  with  advantage  to  take  an  introductory 
survey  of  the  Symbols  of  Westminster,  with  reference  especially 
to  their  sources,  the  history  of  their  formation,  the  extent  of  their 
acceptance,  and  their  relative  place  among  the  great  historic  creeds. 
This  view  must  of  necessity  be  brief  and  cursory  ;  a  more  minute 
and  discriminating  estimate  will  be  practicable  at  the  close  of  the 
proposed  studies. 

It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  the  British  Reformation,  so  far  as  it 
was  doctrinal,  assumed  in  general  the  Calvinistic  rather  than  the 

Lutheran  type.      Many   of  its  leaders 

18.    The  British  Reforma-  iall    in  Scotiand  had  received  their 

tion ;  antecedent  symbols.         ,.,.,.  ,  ^      ,  ., 

theological  impress  and  tendency  rather 

from  Geneva  and  France  and  the  schools  of  Holland  than  from 
Germany.  Melville  had  been  the  disciple  of  Beza,  and  John  Knox 
who  stamped  his  own  convictions  so  ineffaceably  on  the  Scotch 
mind,  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Calvin,  and — as  his  treatise  on  Pre- 
destination shows — had  embraced  his  teaching  even  in  its  most 
positive  and  uncompromising  features.  And  as  Lutheranism  and 
Calvinism  became  by  degrees  more  distinct  as  antithetic  types  of  the 
common  Protestantism,  the  British  and  especially  the  Scotch  mind 
grew  into  stronger  sympathy  with  the  latter,  and  its  belief  and 
teaching  were  cast  more  and  more  in  the  Calvinistic  mold.     The 


EARLY    BRITISH    CREEDS.  39 

English  church  indeed  felt  this  doctrinal  impress  more  lightly  :  it- 
impulses  and  movements  were  rather  ecclesiastical  than  theolog 
ical ;  questions  of  polity  and  ritual  were  more  prominent  than 
questions  of  doctrine  or  belief.  The  Augsburg  Confession, 
which  Schaff  has  extolled  as  the  most  churchly,  the  most  catholic 
and  the  most  conservative  creed  of  Protestantism,  had  also  at  an 
early  day  obtained  some  special  standing  in  England  ;  mam 
Episcopalians  were  much  in  sympathy  with  it,  especially  in  ifc 
mediate  theological  position  and  its  liturgical  trend.  It  is  an 
illustrative  fact  that  Melancthon,  substantially  the  author  of  thai 
Confession,  was  twice  invited  to  England  as  Professor  of  Divinity. 
Yet  the  English  mind,  though  never  disposed  to  push  its  faith  ou1 
into  every  logical  extreme  or  to  hold  that  faith  in  a  positively 
dogmatic  temper,  still  by  degrees  accepted  in  general  the  Reformed 
rather  than  the  Lutheran  system,  and  affiliated  rather  with  Switz- 
erland and  Holland  than  with  Germany.  Of  this  general  fact  we 
have  sufficient  illustration  in  the  three  British  creeds  which  pre- 
ceded the  Symbols  of  Westminster, — the  Scotch  Confession  of 
1560,  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  1563,  and  the  Irish  Articles,  1615. 

The  Scotch  Confession,  prepared  by  six  theologians  with  Knox 
as  chief,  appointed  by  the  Parliament  of  Scotland,  was  intended 
to  be  a  definite  declaration  of  the  faith  of  all  within  that  realm 
who  adhered  to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation.  In  general  it  went 
beyond  several  of  the  Reformed  confessions  in  its  statement  of 
predestination  and  election,  the  utter  fall  and  ruin  of  man,  and 
the  limited  scope  of  grace,  while  in  its  exposition  of  salvation  by 
faith  and  the  related  truths  it  fairly  maintained  the  strong  position 
of  the  earlier  Protestant  creeds.  It  was,  however,  popular  rather 
than  dogmatic  in  form,  somewhat  inexact  in  language  and  state- 
ment, and  thus  unfitted  to  become  a  permanent  formulary  of  belief. 
It  is  remarkable  that  it  contained  no  distinct  Article  on  the 
cardinal  doctrine  of  justification.  Such  as  it  was,  it  became  the 
standard  and  basis  of  the  Scotch  church,  and  did  much  to  impart 
■  to  Scottish  thought  that  marked  Calvinistic  cast  which  it  retained 
through  all  the  eventful  struggles  of  the  succeeding  century. 

The  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  prepared  by  Cranmer  and  Ridley  in 
1551,  and  revised  under  Elizabeth,  and  made  in  1563  the  basis  of 
the  established  church  in  England,  were  also  essentially,  though 
less  positively,  Calvinistic  in  their  type.  Framed  as  they  were  to 
be  a  national  formulary,  and  designed  as  such  to  satisfy  persons 
and  parties  of  diverse  opinion  and  tendency, — framed  also  in  the 
presence  of  a  papal  influence  not  yet  overcome,  and  under  the  eye 
of  a  dominating  prelacy,  it  was  natural  that  these  Articles  should 


40  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

content  themselves  with  generic  rather  than  specific  statements, 
and  with  affirmations  of  plain  scriptural  facts  more  than  with 
recondite  reasonings  and  deductions  respecting  such  mysteries  as 
the  divine  decrees  and  the  election  of  grace.  Yet  in  essence  this 
important  symbol  was  Calvinistic  ;  and  under  its  training  the 
English  mind  was  led,  like  the  Scotch,  to  the  acceptance  at  least 
in  outline  of  the  general  system  of  belief  bearing  that  significant 
name. 

The  Irish  Articles,  though  less  conspicuous  in  their  authorita- 
tiveuess  than  either  of  the  preceding  symbols,  have  special  im- 
portance to  us  on  account  of  their  closer  connection,  as  to  both 
time  and  form,  with  the  Symbols  of  Westminster.  Drawn  up  by 
the  celebrated  Ussher,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Armagh  and 
primate  of  Ireland,  based  substantially  on  the  Thirty -nine  Articles 
of  the  English  church,  and  recognizing  the  prelatic  mode  of  gov- 
ernment and  the  ecclesiastical  primacy  of  the  crown,  they  still  were 
in  close  harmony  with  the  more  positive  Calvinism  of  Scotland, 
and  through  that  affiliation  did  much  to  prepare  the  British  mind 
generally  for  the  more  notable  Confession  that  followed.  It  is  a 
well  known  fact  that  in  their  form,  in  the  order  and  arrangement 
and  even  in  the  language  used,  these  Articles  were  made  the  basis 
of  that  later  formulary,  as  their  doctrine  did  much  to  shape  the 
belief  and  declarations  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  itself. 

These  creeds  representing  essentially  the  doctrinal  belief  of  the 
British  Isles,  and  sufficiently  clear  and  full  in  their  teaching, 

might  have  met  all  the  necessities  of 

19.  A  new  symbol  needed:  which  protestantism  jn  Britain  was 
political   and   ecclesiastical  .,     , ■  ,,  , 

occasions  conscious,  had  not  other  causes,  eccle- 

siastical and  political,  created  a  new 
and  urgent  need  for  some  further  formulation  of  the  popular  faith. 
Of  these  the  developing  issues  between  civil  assumption  on  the  one 
side  and  religious  independence  on  the  other,  the  related  conflict 
between  diverse  theories  of  church  order  and  worship,  and  espe- 
cially the  dominance  of  an  arrogant  ecclesiasticism,  under  such 
leaders  as  Laud,  may  be  named  as  chief  in  importance.  During 
the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  James,  extending  from  1558  down  to 
1025,  Prelacy  had  not  only  entrenched  itself  thoroughly  in  England 
as  the  state  religion,  but  had  sought  to  make  itself  such  in  Ireland 
and  Scotland.  The  Scotch  people,  still  animated  by  the  spirit  of 
Knox,  and  imbued  with  his  teachings,  could  only  resist  such 
intrusion  of  a  foreign  church  and  service;  and  the  effort  resulted 
rather  in  the  firmer  establishment  of  the  Presbyterian  faith  and 
polity  and  worship.     Even  in  England  this  enforcement  of  Epis- 


WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY.  41 

copacy  induced  the  development  of  extensive  dissent,  especially 
of  the  Puritan  type  ;  and  there  were  many,  belonging  particularly 
to  the  body  of  positive  Calvinists,  who  strongly  preferred  the 
Presbyterian  to  the  Prelatic  form  and  order.  During  the  unhappy 
reign  of  Charles  I.  from  1625  to  the  convening  of  the  Long 
Parliament  in  1640,  this  conflict  between  Episcopacy  and  Puritan- 
ism in  general,  and  especially  between  Episcopacy  and  Presbyteri- 
anism,  became  more  and  more  intense.  The  agreement  in  doctrine 
of  which  both  parties  were  more  or  less  conscious,  was  not  sufficient 
to  overcome  the  conscious  difference  of  opinion,  and  of  feeling 
also,  as  to  worship  and  government.  Many  Presbyterians  in 
England  could  without  scruple  have  accepted  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  as  expressing  at  least  the  more  essential  points  in  their 
religious  belief,  and  it  is  certain  that  some  Prelatists  could  in  like 
manner  have  fallen  in  with  even  the  Scotch  Confession,  had  not 
these  ecclesiastical  issues,  greatly  complicated  as  they  were  by  the 
mischievous  notion  of  a  state  church,  stood  in  the  way.  But  these 
issues  were  too  radical,  and  too  many  personal  elements  and  party 
tendencies  were  obstructing  the  path  of  union  ;  and  in  the  end, 
open  and  complete  rupture  became  the  only  possible  result. 

During  the  stormy  period  from  1640  to  1643,  that  result  was 
realized  in  the  practical  prostration  of  both  the  king  and  the 
national  church  of  England  at  the  feet  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
which  for  the  time  represented  the  strong  hostility  to  both, 
current  in  the  popular  mind.  Early  in  1643,  the  Parliament 
conscious  of  its  growing  power,  and  realizing  the  political  neces- 
sity for  such  an  act,  resolved  in  open  defiance  of  the  king  upon 
a  reconstruction  of  the  established  church,  with  a  view  to  the 
substitution  of  some  form  of  ecclesiastical  organization  more  in 
harmony  with  the  prevalent  sentiment  of  the  nation.  It  had 
indeed  practically  overthrown  Episcopacy  during  the  preceding 
autumn;  its  present  aim  and  purpose  were  to  provide  a  satisfac- 
tory substitute.  Such  had  been  the  degree  of  intimacy  and  of 
mutual  understanding  between  the  popular  party  dominant  in 
Parliament  and  the  General  Assembly  and  Lords  of  Estates  in 
Scotland,  that  there  was  little  room  for  doubt  as  to  what  in  sub- 
stance this  substitute  should  be.  It  was  seen  that  nothing  but 
positive  Calvinism  in  doctrine  and  Presbyterianism  in  polity,  with 
recognized  freedom  from  liturgical  bondage  in  worship,  could  meet 
the  demand  of  the  time.  Yet  in  form  the  Parliament  was  seeking 
simply,  as  it  affirmed,  to  settle  the  government  and  liturgy  of  the 
church  of  England,  and  incidentally  to  vindicate  and  clear  the 
doctrine  of  the  said  church  from  false  aspersions  and  misrepre- 


42  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

sentations.  And  in  order  to  secure  these  ends,  and  by  the  same 
process  to  establish  its  own  supremacy  in  both  church  and  state, 
the  Parliament  in  June,  1643,  passed  the  notable  Act,  convening 
the  Westminster  Assembly.* 

This  Assembly  of  learned  and  godly  divines,  to  use  the  descrip- 
tive language  of  the  Act,  was  convened  on  the  first  day  of  July, 

1643.     A  brief  glance  at  its  composition, 
20.    The   Westminster     its  main  eiements  an(}  tendencies,  its  cir- 
Asscmbly:    its   consiitu-  ,  ,  , 

tion,  membership,  aim.        cumstances  and  labors,  is  now  requisite. 

Its  membership  was  selected  by  the  same 
political  power  which  had  called  it  into  existence.  It  was  not, 
as  Clarendon  said,  a  convocation  according  to  the  diocesan  way 
of  government,  nor  was  it  called  by  the  votes  of  the  ministers, 
according  to  the  Presbyterian  way,  The  Parliament  selected  all 
the  members,  and  selected  them  merely  with  a  view  to  have  their 
opinion  and  advice  for  settling  the  government,  liturgy  and  doc- 
trine of  the  church  of  England.  Deliberation  was  to  be  strictly 
confined  to  such  topics  as  the  Parliament  proposed  ;  and  the 
ordinance  creating  the  body  expressly  forbad  its  assuming  or 
exercising  any  jurisdiction,  power  or  authority  ecclesiastical 
whatsoever,  or  any  other  power  that  was  not  particularly  ex- 
pressed in  the  ordinance.  The  presiding  officers  and  the  rules 
governing  the  proceedings  were  also  prescribed  by  the  civil 
authorities.  Parliament  also  provided  for  the  compensation  of 
the  members  at  a  rate  of  four  shillings  daily,  with  additional 
remuneration  for  losses  occasioned  by  absence  from  their  homes 
and  parishes.  Of  the  aggregate  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-one 
persons  selected,  thirty  were  lords  or  commoners,  appointed  as 
lay  assessors  to  represent  the  civil  government.  One  hundred 
and  twenty  were  divines  of  more  or  less  prominence.  As  it  was 
the  aim  of  Parliament  to  bring  together,  though  not  in  equal 
proportion,  the  representatives  of  all  reputable  varieties  of  opinion 
in  respect  to  religious  doctrine  or  church  order,  about  twenty-five 
of   the  clerical  deputies  were    Prelatists :    but   these   with   two 


*In  addition  to  the  secular  Histories  of  the  period,  (Clarendon,  Hallam, 
Froude,  Green,  Gardiner,  and  others)  and  to  the  general  Church  Histories, 
(Fuller,  Burnet,  Stoughton  and  others),  see  Minutes  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  edited  with  Introduction  by  Mitchell  ;  Hetherington,  History  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly  ;  Mitchell,  the  Westminster  Assembly  ;  Baillie, 
Letters  and  Journal  ;  Lightfoot,  Journal  ;  Gillespie,  Notes  ;  Schaff,  Creeds  of 
Christendom,  Vol.  I.  Also  McCrie,  Annals  of  English  Presbytery  ;  Neal, 
History  of  the  Puritans  ;  Marsden,  Puritans  ;  Masson,  Life  of  Milton.  Also 
Reid,  Memoirs  of  the  Divines  of  Westminster;  and  other  biographic  sketches. 


MEMBERSHIP    AND    ORGANIZATION.  43 

on  three  exceptions  declined  to  sit  in  the  Assembly.  The  Inde- 
pendent party  then  rising  into  prominence  had  but  six  or  eight 
representatives;  and  an  equal  number  were  Erastians  whose  chief 
purpose  was  to  maintain  in  every  issue  the  absolute  supremacy  of 
the  state  over  the  church.  The  great  body  were  Presbyterians, 
representing  in  general  that  strong  and  earnest  sentiment  in 
England  which,  from  the  organization  of  the  first  Presbytery  at 
Wandsworth,  in  1572,  had  steadily  grown  into  prominence  not- 
withstanding the  hostility  of  both  the  crown  and  the  established 
church.  Considerable  variety  of  opinion  as  to  both  doctrine  and 
polity  existed  among  those  who  represented  that  general  senti- 
ment ;  some  maintaining  vigorously  the  strict  Calvinism  of  Geneva 
and  Dort  and  the  divine  right  of  Presbyterianism,  others  holding 
to  a  more  moderate  Calvinism,  and  representing  rather  what  was 
termed  ihejus  humanum  as  the  true  basis  of  ecclesiastical  authority. 
Five  divines  and  three  laymen  at  first,  and  subsequently  one 
additional  minister  and  three  elders  from  Scotland,  were  also 
admitted  to  the  Assembly.  Of  these  Scotch  commissioners  the 
leading  mind  was  Alexander  Henderson,  who  was  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  divines  at  home,  and  to  whom  as  early  as  1539,  four 
years  before  the  Westminster  Assembly  met,  the  Scotch  church 
had  intrusted  the  task  of  framing  a  creed  which  should  fill  out 
the  deficiencies  of  the  old  Scotch  Confession,  and  give  to  the 
church  a  formulary  adequately  expressive  of  its  more  matured 
faith.  Three  divines  of  special  prominence  from  New  England, 
Cotton  and  Hooker  and  Davenport,  were  selected  for  membership, 
but  none  of  these  were  able  to  be  present.  According  to  Mitchell 
sixteen  additional  lay  members  and  eighteen  divines,  chiefly  to 
fill  vacancies  occasioned  by  death  or  absence,  were  afterwards  at 
different  times  appointed  by  Parliament.  But  of  the  whole  num- 
ber eleven  laymen  and  twenty-nine  divines  are  not  on  record  as 
having  attended  any  of  the  sessions,  so  that  the  actual  member- 
ship from  first  to  last,  including  the  Scotch  delegation  and  the  two 
scribes,  was  —  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained — not  far  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty.  Sixty-nine  appeared  at  the  first  convocation, 
and  the  general  attendance  probably  ranged  from  fifty  to  eighty. 
T  :  names,  the  general  standing,  the  personal  characteristics  and 
special  qualifications  of  the  members  have  been  frequently  and 
minutely  described.  Manton,  who  was  probably  one  of  them, 
in  his  striking  Preface  to  the  Confession,  describes  the  body 
as  a  synod  of  as  godty,  judicious  divines  as  England  ever  saw. 
After  alluding  to  the  bitter  opprobium  and  opposition  which  the 
Assembly   encountered,    he   adds  :    If  in  the  day     of  old  when 


44  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

councils  were  in  power  and  account,  they  had  but  had  such  a 
council  of  bishops  as  this  of  presbyters  was,  the  fame  of  it  for 
learning  and  holiness  and  all  ministerial  abilities,  would  with  very 
great  honor  have  been  transmitted  to  posterity. 

The  sessions  of  the  Assembly  were  continued  for  more  than 
five  years,  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  annually,  till  February, 
1649,  after  Charles  had  been  dethroned  and  beheaded.  The  whole 
number  of  recorded  sessions  was  eleven  hundred  and  sixty-three; 
but  some  of  the  members  continued  to  meet  as  a  committee  for 
special  purposes  for  three  years  longer,  when  the  forcible  dissolu- 
tion of  Parliament  by  Cromwell  compelled  the  Assembly  to 
disband,  even  without  formal  adjournment.  While  the  sittings 
began  in  the  main  portion  of  the  famous  Abbey  of  Westminster, 
the  Assembly  soon  adjourned  for  comfort  to  a  private  room  in 
the  Abbey,  historically  known  as  the  Jerusalem  Chamber.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  everything  which  history  has  preserved 
respecting  even  the  more  incidental  events  and  features  of  this 
remarkable  convocation.  Baillie  has  given  us  a  graphic  descrip- 
tion of  the  historic  room,  the  arrangement  of  the  seats,  the  length 
of  the  sessions,  the  order  of  business,  the  method  of  discussion, 
the  formation  and  reports  of  committees,  together  with  other  like 
details  of  very  great  interest.  Gillespie  in  his  extensive  Notes, 
and  in  his  report  to  the  Scotch  Assembly  at  the  close  of  his  ser- 
vice as  commissioner,  sheds  much  additional  light  on  the  spirit 
and  methods  as  well  as  the  work  and  productions  of  the  body. 
Mitchell  records  the  instructions  and  rules  of  procedure  prescribed 
by  Parliament  and  observed  by  the  Assembly  for  its  guidance  in 
all  deliberations.  The  MinuTBS  contain  many  illustrations  of 
the  decorous  way  in  which  the  business  was  transacted,  and  also 
of  the  freedom  with  which  discussion  was  carried  on,  and  the  re- 
markable patience  with  which  even  the  most  extreme  and  objec- 
tionable opinions  were  heard.  They  also  contain  many  interesting 
details,  such  as  the  regulations  concerning  absences  and  infrequent 
or  late  coming  or  going  away  without  leave,  concerning  the  private 
reading  of  books  and  private  communication  among  members, 
the  moving  from  place  to  place  in  the  chamber  during  the  sessions, 
and  the  propriety  of  being  uncovered,  the  hat  off,  whenever  one 
was  out  of  his  appointed  place.  The}7  also  record  the  daily 
prayers,  the  frequent  days  of  fasting  and  devotion,  the  dis- 
courses delivered  on  various  occasions,  the  funeral  services  in 
the  case  of  Twisse,  the  Prolocutor,  and  others  who  died  during 
the  prolonged  sessions,  the  parliamentary  appropriations,  and 
benevolent  contributions  received  and  distributed:  and  also  the 


PRELIMINARY    PROCEEDINGS.  45 

action  of  the  Assembly  in  licensing  candidates,  the  settlement  of 
ministers  over  parishes,  the  appointment  of  chaplains,  and  various 
other  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  like  character.  From  these  and 
other  sources  we  may  gain  a  very  distinct  conception  both  of  the 
Assembly  and  its  more  prominent  members,  and  may  almost  see 
the  venerable  body  at  work  as  it  went  on  from  week  to  week,  from 
year  to  year,  in  the  endeavor  to  accomplish  the  great  end  for 
which  it  had  been  convened. 

The  first,  though  not  the  most  important,  task  of  the  Assembly 
was  ecclesiastical  and  liturgical  rather  than  doctrinal.  The  word- 
ing of  the  Ordinance  of  Parliament  clearly  indicates  that  this  was 
the  primary  design  of  the  convocation, — to  determine  upon  a  form 
of  government  and  discipline  and  prescribe  a  mode  of  worship; 
in  a  word,  to  construct  a  state  church  with  which  all  classes  might 
be  required  to  conform,  and  which  should  take  the  place  of  Prelacy 
as  the  national  church,  rather  than  to  formulate  afresh  that  system 
of  belief  in  which  nearly  all  classes  were  already  sufficiently 
agreed.  It  is  clear  that  doctrinal  changes  or  doctrinal  affirmations 
would  hardly  have  been  deemed  desirable,  had  not  some  of  these 
more  urgent  issues  appeared  to  turn  somewhat  on  the  primal  ques- 
tion of  belief.  To  frame  a  polity,  to  determine  the  form  of 
worship,  to  create  a  state  church,  was  the  original  endeavor  ;  and 
to  this  endeavor  much  the  larger  part  of  the  time  and  thought 
of  the  Assembly,  especially  during  the  two  earlier  years,  was 
given.  The  Directory  of  Public  Worship  was  completed  and 
presented  to  Parliament  late  in  the  summer  of  1644,  and  the  Di- 
rectory (or  Form)  of  Church  Government  in  the  summer  of  1645. 
The  latter  formulary  was  modeled  largely  after  the  Directory 
prepared  chiefly  by  Thomas  Cartwright,  for  the  use  of  the  Pres- 
byterian churches  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 

The  doctrinal  work  of  the  Assembly  began  with  an  examination 
of  the  Thirty- Nine  Articles  and  the  first  ten  weeks  of  its  ses- 
sions were  spent  in  considering  the  first  fifteen  of  these  Ar- 
ticles. It  has  been  questioned  whether  this  was  intended  to 
lead  finally  to  an  endorsement  or  to  some  emendation  of  that 
symbol,  or  whether  it  was  not  rather  the  purpose  of  at  least 
some  portion  of  the  Assembly  to  occupy  time  in  this  way  until 
opportunity  should  arise  to  give  different  direction  to  the  pro- 
ceedings. Neal  expresses  the  judgment  that  the  main  purpose 
was  to  render  the  sense  of  the  Articles  more  express  and  deter- 
minate in  favor  of  Calvinism,  and  so  to  strengthen  the  church 
in  Britain  against  the  young  and  vigorous  Arminianism  of  Holland 
then  rising  into  prominence.     It  is  certain  that  after  the  signing 


46  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  in  September — a  step  which 
committed  all  parties  to  an  effort  to  secure  ecclesiastical  uniformity 
not  only  in  England  but  throughout  the  three  Kingdoms,  and 
which  was  substantially  an  agreement  that  such  uniformity  should 
be  secured  in  and  through  the  Presbyterian  system — the  consider- 
ation of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  was  abruptly  terminated  and 
never  afterward  renewed.*  From  that  time  onward  until  the 
autumn  of  1645,  the  mind  of  the  Assembly  was  engrossed  almost 
exclusively  with  what  may  be  termed  church  questions — questions 
bearing  upon  the  real  nature  of  the  church,   the  right  mode  of 

*In  the  Appendix  to  Neal:  History  of  the  Puritans,  may  be  found  in 
parallel  columns  the  original  Articles  and  the  Revised  Articles,  together  with 
the  passages  of  Scripture  adduced  as  proofs.  Some  of  the  changes  made  in 
the  titles  and  also  in  the  body  of  certain  Articles  were  verbal  merely,  and 
were  made  apparently  in  the  interest  of  order  or  clearness,  fullness  or  con- 
densation. In  several  instances  additions  were  made,  either  by  way  of 
explanation  or  for  the  sake  of  theological  completeness.  In  Art.  II.  the 
words,  most  grievous  torments  in  his  soul  from  God,  were  added  to  the  phrase, 
truly  suffered.  In  Art.  III.  the  phrase,  he  descended  into  hell,  was  explained 
by  the  words,  he  continued  in  the  state  of  the  dead,  and  under  the  power 
and  dominion  of  death.  Art.  IV.  concerning  the  resurrection  of  Christ  was 
expanded  by  the  affirmation  of  the  general  resurrection  of  the  body  —  thus 
harmonizing  it  with  the  three  ancient  creeds.  Art.  V.  was  in  like  manner 
expanded  by  the  statement  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  very  and  eternal  God. 
Art.  VI.  contained  the  important  addition  :  All  which  books,  (the  books  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  just  named, )  we  do  receive  and  acknowledge 
to  be  given  by  the  inspiration  of  God,  and  in  that  regard  to  be  of  most  certain 
credit  and  highest  authority.  In  Art.  VII.  after  the  statement  that  the  moral 
law  is  obligatory  upon  all  men,  it  was  significantly  added  :  By  the  moral 
law  we  understand  all  the  Ten  Commandments  taken  in  their  full  extent. 

Considerable  debate  occurred  in  the  Assembly  respecting  Art.  VIII.  relat- 
ing to  the  three  ancient  Creeds,  but  no  change  was  finally  adopted.  In  Art. 
IX.  on  Original  Sin,  a  number  of  changes  were  made  ;  one  introducing  the 
dogma  of  the  legal  and  immediate  imputation  of  the  sin  of  Adam  to  his  pos- 
terity ;  another  affirming  that  original  sin  deserves  the  divine  wrath  and 
damnation  ;  another,  declaring  that  concupisence  is  also  sinful  and  deserving 
of  condemnation  ;  and  still  another,  teaching  that  this  sinful  infection 
remains  in  the  regenerate.  In  Art.  X.  on  Free  Will,  besides  one  or  two 
verbal  changes,  a  clause  was  added  in  the  interest  of  the  sovereignty  and 
power  of  divine  grace  :  Working  so  effectually  in  us  as  that  it  determineth 
our  will  to  do  that  which  is  good 

The  chief  debate,  so  far  as  appears  in  the  MINUTES,  related  to  Art.  XI.  on 
Justification.  The  definition  of  Justification  —  accounted  righteous  —  was 
expanded  by  the  addition  of  the  phrase,  the  remission  of  sins  ;  the  ground 
of  justification  was  stated  negatively,  not  for  or  by  our  own  works  or  deserv- 
ings,  as  well  as  positively ;  the  imputation  of  the  whole  obedience  and 
satisfaction  of  Christ  was  given  as  the  true  and  only  ground  ;  and  it  was 
added  that  God  doth  not  forgive  the  impenitent,  who  refuse  to  exercise  faith 


ECCLESIASTICAL    QUESTIONS    DISCUSSED.  47 

public  worship,  the  scriptural  method  of  church  organization, 
the  authority  for  discipline,  and  other  kindred  matters. 

Two  of  these  church  questions,  in  view  of  their  close  relation 
to  the  doctrinal  teaching  of  the  Symbols,  may  be  briefly  men- 
tioned here.  The  first  of  these  related  to  the  real  nature  of  the 
church.  After  the  withdrawal  of  the  Episcopal  representatives, 
there  were  but  two  classes  of  opinion  upon  this  point — the 
Presbyterian  and  the  Independent.  The  advocates  of  the  latter 
opinion,  though  few  in  number,  were  men  of  marked  ability  and 
of  extensive  influence,  especially  with  the  Parliament.  To  con- 
ciliate this  element,  and  to  secure  substantial  agreement  on  this 
subject,  as  far  as  possible,  became  an  important  aim  of  the  Pres- 
byterian majority  ;  and  to  this  end  a  vast  amount  of  time  was 
spent  in  scholastic  discussion  of  such  topics  as  the  different  offices 
in  the  church  both  temporary  and  permanent,  the  relations  of 
particular  churches  to  each  other,  the  right  of  ordination,  the 
power  and  limits  of  discipline.  Though  such  discussion  was  in  the 
main  amicable,  and  though  concessions  were  made  on  both  sides, 
the  jure  divino  theory  held  by  most  of  the  Presbyterians,  and 
indeed  by  the  Independents  largely,  and  also  the  general  tendency 
toward  extreme  positions  on  all  religious  issues,  prevented  any 
actual  agreement ;  and  the  conflict  of  opinion  ended  at  last  in  the 
adoption  of  the  Presbyterian  view,  as  defined  in  the  Form  of 
Church  Government,  and  the  Directory  for  Public  Worship. 

The  other  question  related  to  the  connection  between  the  church 
and  the  state,  and  to  the  right  of  the  church  to  exercise  ecclesi- 
astical authority  apart  from  the  state.     It  being  granted   that 

in  this  gracious  mediation.  The  main  discussion  on  this  Art.  related  to  the 
theological  question  whether  the  whole  obedience  of  Christ  or  only  his  pas- 
sive obedience  is  the  specific  ground  of  justification. 

In  Art.  XII.  on  Good  Works,  it  is  said  by  way  of  explanation,  that  such 
works  done  by  believers,  notwithstanding  their  imperfection  are  in  the  sight 
of  God  pleasing  and  acceptable  in  and  for  Christ.  And  in  Art.  XIII.  where 
in  the  original  it  is  said  that  the  works  done  before  justification  have  the  na- 
ture of  sin,  it  is  declared  more  positively  that  all  such  works  are  sinful.  The 
changes  in  Articles  XIV.  and  XV.  have  no  theological  importance.  The 
Assembly  was  proceeding  in  the  consideration  of  Art.  XVI.  on  Sin  after 
Baptism,  when  in  October  it  was  instructed  by  Parliament  to  enter  at  once 
upon  the  formulation  of  a  scheme  of  government  and  discipline,  and  also  a 
directory  for  worship,  to  take  the  place  of  the  Episcopal  formularies  ;  and 
from  this  time  on,  the  plan  of  reconstructing  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  was 
abandoned, — the  proposal  to  frame  a  new  creed  taking  its  place.  There  are, 
however,  several  indications  in  the  Symbols  that  the  Assembly,  while  setting 
aside  this  earlier  creed,  still  sought  to  preserve  its  phraseology  and  to  adhere 
to  the  substance  of  its  teaching,  wherever  this  was  found  to  be  practicable. 


48  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

Presbyteriauism  was  the  true  and  divine  form  of  government  for 
the  Christian  church, — it  being  also  agreed  that  the  Presbyterian 
church  as  such  should  be  set  up  in  the  three  Kingdoms  as  the  one 
church  of  Christ  in  the  British  Isles,  there  remained  in  the  mind 
of  Parliament  and  of  the  Erastian  party  in  the  Assembly  the 
further  question  as  to  what  degree  of  authority  such  an  organiza- 
tion should  have,  and  how  far  such  an  imperium  in  imperio  could 
be  safely  admitted  within  the  English  realm.  The  discussion  of 
these  questions  was  quite  as  extensive  and  as  absorbing  as  that 
around  the  preceding  issue  ;  and  the  result,  as  in  the  former 
instance,  was  a  triumph  of  the  Presbyterian  view,  though  not 
without  bringing  the  Assembly,  again  and  again,  as  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  note,  into  serious  conflict  with  Parliament  itself. 

Three  years,  and  more,  passed  away  before  the  final  result  was 
reached.  It  was  not  until  the  summer  of  1647,  that  Presbyteri- 
anism  secured  the  position  it  had  all  the  while  coveted,  and  became 
— so  far  as  it  ever  did  become  —  the  established  church  of  the 
British  Isles.  The  illusive  conception  of  uniformity,  to  be  attained 
by  means  of  a  state  church,  and  by  the  repression  of  all  forms  of 
dissent,  constantly  attracted  and  misled  the  Assembly  ;  and  when 
that  result  was  gained  through  the  formal  act  of  Parliament,  the 
Presbyterian  party  in  both  church  and  state  regarded  the  victory 
of  Presbyterianism  over  all  other  types  of  Christianity  as  forever 
assured  in  Britain.  But  the  day  of  triumph  was  the  beginning  of 
disaster ;  so  far  as  England  was  concerned,  the  scheme  was  a 
pitiful  failure.  No  theoretical  polity  could  stand  in  the  presence 
of  shifting  popular  sentiment,  and  of  severe  political  exigency  ; 
and  in  a  brief  period,  numbered  by  months  rather  than  by  years, 
it  became  evident  that  the  practical  issue,  in  England  at  least, 
would  be  either  the  submission  of  everything  religious  and  political 
to  the  sway  of  a  loose  Independency,  under  such  leaders  as  Crom- 
well, or  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy  and  the  rehabilitation  of 
Prelacy  as  the  established  church.  It  is  a  startling  illustration  of 
the  changeful  and  revolutionary  temper  of  the  times  that,  in  less 
than  eighteen  years  from  the  memorable  day  when  the  Assembly 
and  the  Parliament  lifted  up  their  hands  to  heaven  and  together 
swore  allegiance  to  the  principles  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Cov- 
enant, that  noble  document  was  by  royal  command  publicly  burned 
in  the  streets  of  London  by  the  common  hangman. 

These  historical  glances  at  the  Westminster  Assembly  on  its 
ecclesiastical  side,  and  in  its  aspirations  and  struggles  toward 
civil  supremacy,  are  indispensable  to  any  adequate  view  of  its 
theological  position  and  teachings.     But  we  may  now  turn  to 


Till-:    SYMBOLS    FORMULATED.  49 

consider  more  immediately  its  doctrinal  labors,  and  note  the  doc 
trinal  results  attained.  It  has  well  been  said  (Gardiner:  Puritan 
Revolution)  that  in  all  the  varieties  of 

Puritanism    the    heart     was     addressed        21*     doctrinal    labors 
,     ,     .       „  ,,        ,        ,.  .      and  results:    Confession 

through  the  intellect  rather  than  through     and  Catecnisms. 

the  eye — by  means  of  doctrine  rather  than 

of  ceremony,  such  as  L,aud  and  his  associates  had  sought  to  enforce. 
This  was  eminently  characteristic  of  the  type  of  Puritanism 
represented  in  the  Assembly.  While  the  members  of  that  body 
were  anxious  to  secure  uniformity  in  worship  and  also  in  govern- 
ment, it  was  their  chief  desire  after  all  to  secure  clearness  and 
earnestness  and  harmony  of  belief  around  what  they  conceived  to 
be  the  essential  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion.  After  the 
examination  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  had  ended,  the  Assembly 
felt  itself  more  and  more  constrained  to  prepare  a  new  symbol, 
which  should  express  at  greater  length  and  in  better  form  its 
more  pronounced  Calvinism.  Yet  under  the  pressure  of  the  issues 
already  described,  this  necessity  was  postponed  for  two  years  or 
more.  Although  a  committee  had  been  appointed  in  August, 
1644,  to  prepare  and  digest  material  for  such  a  symbol,  it  was 
not  until  the  summer  of  1645,  that  the  work  of  framing  the  Con- 
fession was  actually  undertaken, — a  committee  composed  of  nine 
among  the  ablest  and  most  valued  members  being  appointed  at 
that  time,  to  whom  the  delicate  and  difficult  task  in  its  varied 
details  was  intrusted.  This  committee  was  subsequently  en- 
larged by  the  addition  of  ten  members,  and  of  the  clerical  com- 
missioners from  Scotland  as  advisory;*  and  to  it  as  a  whole,  and 
as  divided  into  sections,  were  committed  the  general  arrangement 
of  topics,  the  order  and  titles  of  the  several  chapters,  the  tentative 
defining  of  particular  doctrines,  the  special  matter  of  language 
and  expression,  and  in  fact  the  entire  work  of  formulating  the 
Confession, — subject  at  all  times  to  the  supervisory  authority  of 
the  Assembly  itself.  The  Minutes  show  that  this  supervisor)' 
function  was  faithfully  exercised,  and  that  as  each  chapter  was 
finished,  it  was  presented  to  the  Assembly  for  minute  and  final 
examination.  In  such  examination,  though  the  whole  matter 
was  carefully  considered,  only  a  few  subjects  seem  to  have  elic- 
ited prolonged  debate, — particularly  the  relation  of  the  headship 
of  Christ  to  the  civil  magistracy,  and  the    doctrines  of  decrees, 

*For  more  extended  accounts  of  the  membership  of  this  committee  and 
its  mode  of  procedure,  see  Mitchell,  Westminster  Assembly:  HeThering- 
Ton,  Hist,  inloc:  SchaFE,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  Vol.  I:  Neal,  Fuller, 
Reid,  Stoughton,  Masson,  and  others. 


50  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION'. 

predestination,  election  and  reprobation.  Concerning  the  latter 
topics,  substantial  agreement  was  at  last  secured,  at  least  in 
the  form  of  expression,  though  not  without  long  and  tough 
discussion.  More  than  a  year  was  occupied  in  these  theo- 
logical deliberations,  mingled  with  much  debate  concerning 
ecclesiastical  issues,  and  requisite  attention  to  various  matters  of 
detail;  and  it  was  not  until  October,  1646,  that  the  Assembly 
submitted  to  the  scrutiny  of  Parliament  the  first  half  of  the  Con- 
fession. In  the  following  December,  the  entire  document  was 
presented  to  that  body  under  the  significant  title  :  The  Humble 
Advice  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines  now,  by  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment, sitting  at  Westminster,  concerning  a  Confession  of  Faith. 
Parliament  called  for  scriptural  proofs  on  every  point;  and  the 
Assembly  reconsidered  the  whole,  annexed  such  proofs  to  the 
several  propositions  in  each  chapter,  and  reported  the  document 
the  second  time  during  the  month  of  April,  1647.  Various  polit- 
ical and  other  exigencies  prevented  Parliament  from  giving  time 
to  the  consideration  of  the  Confession;  and  it  was  not  until  March, 
1648,  that  after  full  conference  between  the  two  Houses,  the  docu- 
ment was  formally  approved;  the  adopting  act  giving  among  others 
the  significant  reason, — that  this  Kingdom  and  all  the  Reformed 
churches  in  Christendom  may  see  that  the  Parliament  of  England 
differ  not  in  doctrine.  Exception  was  taken,  however,  to  certain 
particulars  in  discipline,  relating  specially  to  the  matter  of  civil 
authority  over  religious  affairs,  and  to  the  independent  rights  of  the 
church  as  asserted  by  the  Assembly;  and  these  particulars  were 
recommitted.  Parliament  being  shortly  after  dissolved  by  Crom- 
well,the  Assembly  never  reported  on  these  excepted  clauses, and  the 
Confession  stands  as  originally  presented.  The  title  was  changed 
by  the  civil  authorities  to,  Articles  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
agreed  upon  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  after  Advice  had  with 
the  Assembly  of  Divines, — a  signal  illustration  of  the  mischiefs 
in  which  the  prevalent  theory  of  church  and  state  was  continually 
involving  those  who  maintained  it,  whether  statesmen  or  divines. 
This  title  has  of  course  disappeared,  though  the  theory  indicated 
by  it  in  some  of  its  phases  still  survives. 

While  the  Confession  was  thus  taking  form,  committees  were 
also  appointed  by  the  Assembly  to  prepare  at  first  a  single  Cate- 
chism, but  afterwards  two  Catechisms,  for  the  instruction  of 
children  and  of  adult  persons  ignorant  of  divine  truth.  The 
theory  of  church  growth  then  everywhere  current,  and  the 
practice  of  the  Protestant  churches  on  the  continent,  naturally 
led  to  this  step.     The  policy  of  catechetical  indoctrination,  first 


DOCTRINAL,   RESULTS   ATTAINED.  51 

developed  by  L,uther,  had  become  so  well  established  and  was  so 
extensively  carried  out  on  the  continent,  as  to  give  practical  point 
to  the  remark  attributed  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  that  the  heretics 
have  chiefly  made  use  of  catechisms  to  corrupt  the  minds  of 
Christians.  Such  use  was  common  in  Great  Britain  almost  from 
the  first;  the  number  and  quality  of  the  antecedent  English  and 
Scotch  catechisms  are  quite  remarkable:  their  name,  says  Mitchell, 
is  legion.  While  following  such  precedents  the  Assembly  deter- 
mined, however,  to  complete  the  Confession  first,  in  order  that 
the  Catechisms  might  be  modeled  after  it  in  method  and  phrase- 
logy;  and  they  were  therefore  not  presented  to  Parliament  until 
November,  1647,  nor  with  full  scriptural  proofs,  until  April, 
1648.  Nor  was, it  till  the  September  following,  seven  months 
after  the  adoption  of  the  Confession,  that  Parliament  accepted 
the  two  Catechisms  and  ordered  them  to  be  printed.  One  of  the 
leading  minds  of  the  Assembly,  Dr.  Wallis,  prepared  a  brief  and 
easy  explanation  of  the  Shorter  Catechism,  which  was  approved 
by  the  Assembly  and  also  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  Par- 
liament. 

Such  were  the  doctrinal  results  and  products  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly.  It  will  be  seen  on  closer  inspection  that  these  Symbols 
taken  together  constitute  a  full,  definite  and  valuable  statement 
of  the  predominating  theological  opinion  in  the  British  Isles  at 
the  date  of  their  adoption.  Prepared  with  more  of  deliberation 
than  any  preceding  creed  of  Protestantism,  and  without  much 
disruptive  controversy,  they  may  be  regarded  as  expressing  more 
deliberately  the  final  judgment  of  Protestant  scholarship  of  the 
Reformed  type,  in  regard  to  the  vital  topics  presented.  Each 
Symbol  should  be  studied  in  connection  with  the  rest,  as  each  is 
exegetical  of  all ;  and  all  should  in  like  manner  be  studied  in  the 
light  of  the  strong  and  peculiar  theology  of  the  period.  Thus 
contemplated,  these  formularies  are  certainly  worthy  of  the  most 
thoughtful  consideration  of  all  who  would  know  what  the  ablest 
and  purest  Calvinism  in  Europe  was,  a  little  more  than  two  cen- 
turies ago.  The  editorial  Introduction  to  the  treatise  of  Winer  is 
hardly  extravagant  in  the  statement  that  no  Confession  so  fully 
expresses  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformed  branch  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  none  has  exerted  so  much  influence  in  Christendom. 
It  remains  to  this  day  the  avowed  or  unavowed  directory  of  the 
religious  faith  of  all  who,  throughout  the  English-speaking  world, 
hold  to  the  traditions  of  Puritan  theology. 

It  may  serve  to  increase  our  sense  of  the  value  of  the  work, 
ecclesiastical  and  especially  doctrinal,  accomplished  by  the  Assem- 


52  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

bly,  if   we  glance  briefly  at   the  grave  difficulties  amid  which 
this  work  was  wrought,  and  the  temper  with  which  the  Assembly 
undertook  and  carried  through  its  weighty 
22.    Difficulties     con-     task      The  foremost  of  these  difficulties 
fronted;   Temper  of  the  ,  .     ,,  .      ,        ,   .    ,     , 

Assembly;   value  of  its     ma^  be  seen  m  the  stramed  and  mdeed 
WOrk.  painful  relations  which  by  degrees  came  to 

subsist  between  that  body  and  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  and  which  at  some  later  stages  seemed  almost  to 
reach  the  point  of  open  rupture.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
Parliament  at  first  regarded  the  body  which  it  had  created,  and 
had  entrusted  with  so  serious  a  commission — to  which  it  had  given 
such  implicit  instructions,  and  for  whose  support  it  had  made  pro- 
vision from  the  national  treasury — with  positive  friendship,  and 
even  with  a  high  measure  of  confidence.  Many  indications  of  this 
occur  in  the  Minutes  and  in  the  Parliamentary  Records  during  the 
earlier  years  in  the  life  of  the  Assembly.  Masson  tersely  describes 
the  Assembly  as  at  the  outset  a  power  or  institution  in  the  English 
realm,  existing  side  by  side  with  the  Parliament,  and  in  constant 
conference  and  co-operation  with  it.  Yet  as  events  progressed, 
and  new  causes  of  difference  and  friction  arose,  the  feeling  of 
Parliament  by  degrees  obviously  changed  ;  the  boundary  lines  of 
the  respective  prerogatives  became  matters  of  dispute  ;  the  action 
of  the  Assembly,  especially  regarding  the  church  and  its  relation 
to  the  civil  state,  was  seriously  challenged  ;  and  the  prevalent 
temper  of  Parliament,  or  at  least  of  many  members,  grew  to  be 
one  of  suspicion  if  not  of  hostility.  The  political  struggles, 
becoming  more  and  more  intense,  and  the  new  issues  arising  from 
time  to  time  within  the  civil  sphere,  helped  on  the  growing  alien- 
ation. One  of  the  most  painful  illustrations  of  this  developing 
estrangement  appears  in  the  practical  arraignment  of  the  Assem- 
bly by  Parliament  in  1646,  on  the  charge  of  an  abuse  of  privilege 
in  its  petition  to  that  body  respecting  the  supreme  right  of  the 
church  to  determine  who  should  be  admitted  to  the  sacrament — an 
arraignment  in  which  the  Christian  dignity  and  patience  of  the 
Assembly,  and  its  fidelity  to  sound  principle,  stand  out  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  domineering  spirit  and  imperative  language  of 
Parliament  and  its  representatives.  Others  are  manifested  in  the 
way  in  which  the  House  of  Commons  received  and  treated  the  first 
draft  of  the  Confession,  in  its  imperative  call  for  proof  texts,  in 
its  unsympathetic  criticism,  and  the  needless  postponement  of  the 
final  adoption,  notwithstanding  the  earnest  pleadings  of  the 
Assembly. 

It  would  be  impracticable  here  even   to  sketch  in  outline  the 


DIFFICULTIES    ENCOUNTERED.  53 

political  situation  in  general,  with  its  many  complications  and 
embarrassments,  as  that  situation  seriously  disturbed  the  Assembly 
in  the  endeavor  to  fulfill  its  appointed  mission.  The  student  of 
English  history  will  be  at  no  loss  to  discern  such  disturbing  influ- 
ences, or  to  see  how  inevitably  the  popularity  and  influence  of  the 
Assembly  declined  in  the  presence  of  such  civil  commotions.  The 
years  were  also  marked  by  the  spontaneous  rise  of  multitudinous 
sects  and  schools  of  thought,  widely  at  variance  with  each  other, 
but  all  agreeing  in  questioning  or  reviling  the  strong  doctrines 
and  the  high  spiritual  standard  of  the  Assembly,  as  well  as  its 
ecclesiastical  regimen  and  its  staid  order  of  worship.  As  the 
Savoy  Council  testified  a  few  years  later,  the  devil  in  this  small 
time  ran  through  the  whole  round  and  circle  of  delusions,  while 
men  took  the  freedom  to  vent  and  vend  their  own  vain  and  accursed 
imaginations,  contrary  to  the  great  and  fixed  truths  of  the  Gospel. 
And  there  must  have  been  seasons  when,  in  the  presence  of  such 
strange  developments  and  tendencies,  the  Assembly  was  almost 
ready  to  drop  its  high  task  in  despair,  and  to  give  England  over 
to  the  revolutionary  forces  that  seemed  to  be  seeking  to  corrupt  or 
destroy  both  state  and  church  at  once.  It  was  not  Cromwellian 
Independency  alone  that  gave  ground  for  such  discouragement, 
neither  was  it  an  aggressive  Prelacy,  steadily  seeking  to  return  to 
power.  Antichrists  were  abroad  in  the  land  :  more  dangerous 
forces  still  seemed  to  be  at  work,  both  in  society  and  within  the 
religious  sphere  :  and  the  efforts  of  the  Assembly  to  resist  or 
repress  these  seemed  as  idle  as  the  enactments  of  a  commonwealth 
to  stay  some  onward  sweeping  pestilence. 

Within  itself  the  Assembly  had  much  to  bear  in  the  way  of  em- 
barrassment and  trial.  It  was  a  serious  matter  to  call  upon  so  many 
men  of  special  prominence  to  leave  their  homes,  their  parishes  and 
bishoprics,  their  university  engagements  and  studies,  in  order  to 
give  themselves  up  for  five  long  years  to  the  work  assigned  them. 
It  is  not  strange  that  there  were  prolonged  absences,  at  home  and 
elsewhere,  and  many  failures  to  be  present,  even  when  important 
action  was  to  be  taken.  The  pecuniary  losses  involved  in  such  a 
prolonged  engagement  were  very  great,  and  the  wealthier  mem- 
bers were  more  than  once  led  to  forego  their  share  of  the  parlia- 
mentary stipend  in  order  to  help  out  their  needier  brethren. 
Sickness  frequently  invaded  their  ranks,  and  as  many  as  twelve  or 
fifteen  members  died  during  the  sessions, — one  of  whom,  Twisse, 
the  venerable  Prolocutor,  was  buried  with  special  ceremonies  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  only  to  be  sacrilegiously  exhumed  after  the 
Restoration,  and  cast  with  a  number  of  others  into  one  common 


54  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

grave,  somewhere  within  the  Abbey  grounds.  The  debates  were 
often  so  prolonged  as  to  justify  the  gentle  remonstrance  of  Hen- 
derson, during  the  interminable  discussion  on  the  power  vested 
inherently  in  the  particular  congregation  :  We  thought  we  had 
been  near  the  harbor,  but  now  we  are  sailing  out  into  the  deep  ! 
Many  more  loves  their  own  fancies  here  than  I  did  expect,  wrote 
Baillie  during  the  progress  of  one  of  these  long  debates.  He  says 
elsewhere  that  the  members  harangue  long  and  learnedly,  but 
their  longsomeness  is  awful, — that  they  are  guilty  of  prolixity  and 
infamous  slowness, — that  they  spend  time  on  scabrous  (rough, 
troublesome)  questions,  and  in  velitations  on  quiddities,— and  that 
the  church  business  drives  on  wonderful  heavillie.  Nor  were  there 
wanting  asperities  in  such  debate,  followed  by  dislikes  and  aliena- 
tions and  by  contentious  opposition  to  what  was  decided, — in  one 
or  two  instances  so  great  as  to  lead  almost  to  the  expulsion  of  con- 
tumacious members.  The  references  to  such  differences,  suggested 
in  the  Life  of  Lightfoot  and  the  Letters  of  Baillie,  are  both  sig- 
nificant and  painful. 

How  quietly  and  patiently,  amid  all  such  tumult  without  and 
within,  the  Assembly  went  on  year  by  year  with  its  allotted  task, — 
how  steadily  it  adhered  to  its  principles  in  defiance  alike  of  the  as- 
sumptions of  Parliament  and  the  oppositions  of  sectaries  of  vari- 
ous sorts, — how  confidently  it  persisted  in  the  unfolding  of  its  fixed 
convictions  respecting  worship  and  government,  and  of  its  pro- 
found conceptions  in  theology, — especially  with  what  moral 
earnestness  as  well  as  intellectual  conviction,  what  profound  and 
controlling  piety,  and  what  devotedness  to  God,  it  went  on  and  on 
in  the  discharge  of  its  recognized  duty  to  him  and  his  great 
cause,*  can   be   known  only   to  those  who  carefully   study  the 

*  We  shall  have  occasion  to  note  again  and  again  the  religious  quality  of 
the  Assembly.  One  striking  illustration  recorded  in  the  Minutes  of  Oct.  8, 
1645,  may  be  mentioned  here.  It  had  been  resolved,  on  the  previous  Friday, 
that  the  body  should  meet  to  humble  themselves  before  God  ;  that  the  ser- 
vices should  extend  from  9  A.  M.  to  4  P.  M.;  and  that  two  members 
should  be  appointed  to  preach,  and  three  to  offer  prayer.  Accordingly  Dr. 
Burges  began  with  prayer;  Mr.  Reynolds,  after  a  short  prayer,  preached 
from  Matt,  xvi :  24;  Mr.  Whitakers  prayed;  Mr.  Palmer,  after  a  short  prayer, 
preached  from  Zach  iii:  6,  7;  and  Mr.  Ash  closed  with  prayer, —  the  services 
ending  with  a  collection  for  the  benefit  (apparently)  of  certain  members 
and  their  families.  Baillie  describes  another  similar  occasion  in  1644,  when 
the  services  lasted  eight  hours  :  Mr.  Marshall  praying  large  two  hours  most 
divinely,  and  Vines  and  Seaman  each  praying  near  two  hours,  while  Arrow- 
smith  and  Palmer  each  preached  one  hour; — the  whole  followed  by  a  short, 
sweet  conference  and  confession  of  sins.  Men  who  could  thus  frequently 
spend  entire  days  in  such  devotional  services,  certainly  believed  in  the  reality 


THE    SYMBOLS    IN    BRITAIN.    "  55 

records  of  its  action,  and  take  proper  note  of  the  commanding 
influence  exerted  through  such  action  on  the  thought  and  experi- 
ence of  that  important  era  in  British  history.  That  the  Assembly 
made  mistakes  and  sometimes  fell  into  error,  and  was  occasionally 
too  sweeping  and  severe  in  its  theological  dicta  and  demands,  may 
be  readily  admitted.  Such  incidents  are  attributable  largely  to 
the  times,  and  partly — it  may  be — to  the  intrinsic  nature  of  that 
type  of  doctrine  which  the  Assembly  sought  in  all  fidelity  to  erect 
in  its  completeness.  Yet  these  defects  are  not  so  numerous  or  so 
serious  as  to  shut  out  from  view  the  remarkable  strength  and 
proportion  of  that  magnificent  temple  of  sacred  truth.  An  un- 
theologic  age,  in  which  plain  and  square  doctrine  is  ignored,  and 
biblical  truths  are  much  confused  with  human  speculation,  and 
loose  generalizations  and  airy  fancies  are  too  often  substituted  for 
the  simple  Gospel,  may  not  be  able  to  appreciate  either  the  loftier 
spirit  of  the  Assembly  or  the  solid  grandeur  of  its  work.  But  the 
observant  centuries  will  not  fail  to  estimate  rightly  either  the 
moral  elevation  of  its  temper  and  purpose,  or  the  substantial 
quality  and  value  of  its  teaching. 

Some  brief  allusion  should  be  made  in  this  introductory  survey 
to  the  remarkable  career  and  history  of  the  Symbols  in  the  British 
Isles. — Scarcely  had  the  Presbyterian 

church  been  established  in  England  in        22'    The     Westminster 
L.       ,  r  ^,    1  1       A1         1-^-     1     Symbols  in  Britain:    Their 

the  place  of  Prelacy,  when  the  political     yaried  career  ^  influence. 

scepter  passed  into  the  hands  of  Crom- 
well, and  Charles  fell  a  victim  to  his  own  folly  and  to  the  popular 
hostility.  This  event  rendered  impossible  the  maintenance  of 
the  Presbyterian  polity,  and  a  church  more  in  harmony  with  the 
mind  and  taste  of  Cromwell  and  his  party  naturally  took  its  place. 
The  Provincial  Synod  of  London  indeed  continued  to  meet  until 
1653  or  later,  without  encouragement  from  the  Protector,  yet 
without  direct  opposition.  From  that  time  till  his  death  in  1658. 
Presbyterianism  in  England  grew  weaker  and  weaker;  Presbyte- 
rians were  ejected  from  their  livings  upon  refusal  to  support  the 
Commonwealth;  Independents  were  appointed  to  fill  the  vacan- 
cies; the  power  of  ordination  and  of  appointment  was  given  to  a 
committee  of  Triers,  of  whom  a  large  proportion  were  Inde- 
pendents. In  1658,  at  the  Savoy  near  London,  the  latter  party 
were  convened  by  civil  mandate  to  prepare  a  new  formula  both  of 

of  religion  and  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  In  the  presence  of  such  records,  it 
seems  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  (Briggs  :  Amer.  Presbyterianism)  that 
such  a  band  of  preaching  and  praying  ministers  as  was  gathered  in  the 
Westminster  Assembly,  the  world  had  never  seen  before. 


5,6  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION. 

faith  and  of  order.  This  council  adopted  the  Westminster  Symbols 
substantially,  but  drafted  a  Platform  of  Church  Polity  of  which 
the  autonomy  of  the  local  church  was  the  central  feature.  Mean- 
while, the  death  of  Cromwell  and  the  brief  reign  of  his  son  were 
followed  in  two  short  years  by  the  elevation  of  Charles  II.  to  the 
throne;  and  after  that  event  both  Independency  and  Presbyteri- 
anism  retired  together,  and  Prelacy  with  all  its  theological  as 
well  as  ecclesiastical  peculiarities  became  again  the  dominant 
faith. 

In  Scotland,  the  Form  of  Church  Government  and  the  Directory 
for  Worship  were  adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  as  early  as 
1645,  and  in  1647,  the  same  body  formally  approved  the  Confes- 
sion. In  the  following  year  the  Catechisms  were  ratified  in  like 
manner;  and  from  that  date  the  Westminster  Symbols,  taking 
the  place  of  the  old  confession  of  Knox,  became  the  doctrinal 
basis  of  the  Scottish  church.  The  language  of  the  Adopting  Act 
is  full  of  significance.  After  describing  the  Confession  as  most 
agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  as  highly  conducive  to  the 
desired  uniformity  of  belief  and  the  suppressing  of  heresy,  the 
Assembly  expressed  its  thankful  acknowledgment  of  the  special 
mercy  of  God  in  that  so  excellent  a  Confession  had  been  prepared 
and  agreed  upon  in  both  Kingdoms,  as  a  great  strengthening  of 
the  true  Reformed  religion  against  the  common  enemies  thereof. 
At  the  same  time  the  Assembly  adopted  a  series  of  propositions, 
prepared  by  Baillie,  one  of  the  commissioners  to  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  which  were  designed  to  exclude  all  Erastian  interpre- 
tations of  the  language  of  the  Symbols  respecting  the  relations 
between  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  To  this  step 
they  were  doubtless  impelled  by  a  reasonable  fear  that  the  influ- 
ence of  Parliament  might  have  led  their  brethren  of  Westminster 
to  some  possible  swerving  from  the  true  doctrine  respecting  the 
headship  of  Christ,  and  the  strict  independency  of  his  church 
from  all  political  control. 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  symbols  in  the  two  Kingdoms 
presents  a  singular  and  suggestive  contrast.  In  England,  Presby- 
terian Calvinism  speedily  became  a  dissenting  fragment,  possessing 
little  influence  either  religious  or  civil.  The  glory  of  its  name  was 
early  dimmed  ;  and  the  spiritual  decline  which  followed  during  the 
century  succeeding,  was  perhaps  a  natural  consequence.  The 
English  mind  preferred  to  dwell  in  the  flowery  plains  of  Moderat- 
istn,  rather  than  to  live  amid  the  rugged  summits  of  a  positive 
Calvinism.  Multitudes  chose  easier  and  more  palatable  notions  of 
biblical  truth,  and  readily  counted  themselves  released  from  the 


ENGLISH    AND   SCOTCH    ACCEPTANCE.  57 

stern  and  searching  demands  respecting  duty  made  by  the  Presby- 
terian formularies.  It  was,  in  the  quaint  language  of  the  Savoy 
Declaration,  a  time  of  aestuation,  fluxes  and  refluxes  of  great 
varieties  of  spirits,  doctrines,  opinions  and  occurrences  .  .  ac- 
companied with  powerful  persuasions  and  temptations  to  seduce 
men  from  the  truth.  Nor  was  the  disappointing  struggle  for  polit- 
ical supremacy  and  state  patronage  calculated  to  confirm  men  in 
the  faith,  or  to  strengthen  the  religious  life  within  the  church. 
A  relapse,  first  from  the  practical  demands  of  such  a  type  of  belief 
as  had  been  formulated  at  Westminster,  and  then  from  the  car- 
dinal tenets  of  that  formula,  might  have  been  expected.  Such 
a  relapse  followed  ;  and  within  a  hundred  years  from  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Assembly,  English  Presbyterianism  had  largely  become 
Unitarian. 

In  Scotland,  where  the  political  element  was  relatively  less  and 
the  religious  element  relatively  much  more  prominent,  a  very 
different  result  followed.  There  the  doctrinal  principles  of  the 
Symbols  became  the  basis  of  church  life  as  well  as  of  church  form; 
the  Calvinistic  theology  produced  a  corresponding  type  of  reli- 
gion; the  truth  developed  itself  in  practice;  and,  with  the  local 
and  transient  exception  of  Moderatism,  the  Presbyterian  system  of 
belief  became  the  controlling  power  spiritually  within  the  Scottish 
realm.  Of  the  potency  of  these  convictions  and  experiences,  the 
vsubsequent  struggles  of  Scotland  to  maintain  the  church  she  had 
adopted,  her  determined  and  prolonged  resistance  to  the  aggression 
both  of  the  Monarchy  and  of  English  Episcopacy,  her  sufferings 
unto  blood  for  the  truth  and  her  heroic  triumphs,  bear  ample 
testimony.  Even  the  subsequent  conflicts  of  opinion  within  the 
Presbyterian  household,  the  divisions  and  subdivisions  around 
minor  issues,  the  ruptures  and  disruptions  of  the  past  two  centu- 
ries,— needless  and  painful  as  most  of  them  appear, — signally 
illustrate  the  strength  of  the  one  creed  to  which  all  parties  still 
adhered,  and  in  which  all  alike  gloried.  In  both  the  established 
and  the  voluntary  forms,  and  under  all  varieties,  the  Presbyte- 
rianism of  Westminster,  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical,  is  still  the 
strength  and  the  glory  of  the  church  of  Christ  in  Scotland.  In 
Ireland  also,  existing  Presbyterianism,  transplanted  from  Scot- 
land and  closely  affiliated  with  it,  retains  the  same  strong  charac- 
teristics, and  blossoms  out  under  conditions  more  adverse  into  the 
same  practical  and  spiritual  fruitage. 

The  record  of  the  transplantation  of  the  Westminster  Symbols 
to  America,  and  of  their  adoption  and  position  here,   deserves 


58  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

special  notice.*     During  the  closing  decades  of   the  seventeenth 
century  considerable  numbers  of  Presbyterians,   especially  from 

Scotland  and  Ireland,  emigrated  to  this 

24.  The  Westminster  Sym-     continent    bringing  with   them   their 

bols  in  America ;  the  Adopt-  ,    .    ■.    ,      f    ?     ,  , 

ing-  Act.-Theories  of  sub.     ecclesiastical    standards    and    usages. 

scription.  These  colonists  settled  principally  in 

New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Vir- 
ginia; and  wherever  they  went,  they  carried  with  them  their 
ancestral  faith.  Churches  were  formed  at  various  points  ;  and  in 
1705,  or  1706,  some  of  these  churches  were  associated  together  in 
the  original  Presbytery  at  Philadelphia.  The  question  of  a  doc- 
trinal basis  gradually  became  prominent,  especially  where  the 
immigrant  from  Britain  and  the  colonist  from  New  England  came 
to  be  associated  in  the  one  community  and  church.  On  and  after 
the  formation  of  the  first  Synod  in  1717,  this  question  became 
still  more  important, — all  indeed  accepting  the  Presbyterian  doc- 
trine as  well  as  order,  yet  differing  as  to  the  principle  of  subscrip- 
tion, and  the  extent  of  ecclesiastical  authority  in  matters  of  belief. 
In  1729,  the  Adopting  Act  was  passed,  determining  for  the  time 
the  nature  of  the  subscription  required,  and  making  the  Symbols  in 
their  totality  the  standard  of  American  Presbyterianism.  Among 
the  causes  leading  to  this  result  may  be  named  especially  the 
doctrinal  defection  already  becoming  apparent  in  some  portions  of 
Britain,  and  the  rise  of  some  new  opinions,  diverging  somewhat 
from  the  primitive  Calvinism,  on  the  part  of  those  who  had 
entered  the  Presbyterian  ministry  from  New  England. 

The  Adopting  Act  was  not  passed  unanimously  or  without 
resistance.  Some  members  of  the  Synod,  though  personally 
sound  in  the  faith,  were  opposed  to  all  creeds  drawn  up  by  unin- 
spired men,  as  involving  an  assumption  of  spiritual  authority  in 
matters  of  belief,  not  warranted  by  the  Word  of  God.  Others 
were  simply  opposed  to  such  literal  and  rigid  subscription  as  was 
demanded  generally  by  the  foreign  members,  and  also  to  the  pro- 
posal that  all  who  refused  to  sign  on  these  terms  should  be  excluded 
from  the  organization.  The  final  adoption  was  consequently  a 
compromise,  recognizing  the  force  of  these  objections,  but  calling 
for  belief  in  the  Symbols  simply  as  being  in  all  the  essential  and 
necessary  articles  good  forms  of  sound  words  and  systems  of 
Christian  doctrine.     The  spirit  of  this  compromise  was  eminently 

*Gir,LETT,  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ;  WEBSTER,  same  title  ; 
Hodge,  Constitutional  History:  Briggs,  Amer.  Presbyterianism;  Thompson, 
History  of  the  Presbyterian  Churches  in  America. 


ACCEPTANCE    IN    AMERICA.  59 

fraternal ;  room  was  left  for  differences  on  all  articles  not  essential 
and  necessary  ;  and  it  was  agreed  that  none  should  challenge  or 
criticise  another  in  respect,  as  was  said,  to  the  non-essential  and 
not-necessary  points  of  doctrine.  In  the  same  Act,  the  Synod 
further  declared  its  own  divergence  from  the  Symbols  in  regard  to 
civil  control  in  matters  of  religion  ;  denying  all  such  right  of 
interference,  whether  in  respect  to  the  exercise  of  ministerial 
authority,  or  to  prosecution  by  the  state  for  any  departure  from 
the  authorized  faith. 

In  1736,  an  attempt  was  made  to  compel  a  more  rigid  subscrip- 
tion to  the  Symbols  as  thus  modified.  It  was  maintained  that 
they  ought  to  be  accepted  without  the  least  variation  or  alteration, 
and  with  no  exception  in  favor  of  personal  scruple  or  conviction. 
Though  this  view  was  not  sustained,  the  issue  thus  raised  con- 
tinued to  present  itself  ;  and  while  all  parties  adhered  to  the 
Symbols,  they  differed  widely  as  to  the  amount  of  obligation 
incurred.  On  one  side,  the  freer  view  of  subscription  opened  the 
door  for  serious  deviations  from  sound  doctrine,  and  in  some 
instances  led  on  to  radical  departures  from  the  common  faith. 
On  the  other  side,  stress  laid  on  mere  doctrinal  soundness,  mere 
conformity  to  rules  and  ordinances,  mere  regard  for  the  letter, 
resulted  in  the  neglect  of  the  spirit,  and  in  the  decline  of  piety 
itself.  In  1741,  these  differences  culminated  in  an  open  rupture  ; 
and  American  Presbyterianism  was  for  the  first  time  rent  asunder, 
partly  on  account  of  real  difference  in  doctrine,  but  chiefly  for  dif- 
ference in  this  matter  of  subscription.  Seventeen  years  afterward, 
this  rupture  was  healed,  and  the  church  became  united  substan- 
tially on  the  former  basis, — though  perhaps  with  some  increased 
emphasis  of  the  stricter  theory. 

In  1788,  the  United  Synod  carried  through  an  important 
alteration  in  those  chapters  of  the  Confession  which  treat  of  the 
relations  between  the  church  and  the  state,  and  planted  itself 
firmly  on  the  voluntary  principle,  and  on  the  entire  independence 
of  the  church  from  all  secular  control.  Religious  liberty  became 
by  this  change  not  only  a  right  to  be  maintained  by  the  Presby- 
terian church  for  itself,  but  also  a  privilege  to  be  freely  accorded 
by  it  to  all  other  Christian  communions,  and  even  to  all  forms  of 
error  or  unbelief.  The  old  theory  of  subscription  remained  in  force, 
however,  until  the  practical  and  doctrinal  diversities,  springing 
up  during  the  first  three  decades  of  the  present  century,  gave 
occasion  for  the  introduction  again  of  the  old  issue.  The  disrup- 
tion of  1837,  while  primarily  growing  out  of  questions  of  organi- 
zation and  method,  and  partly  caused  by  real  differences  in  respect 


60  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

to  certain  doctrines  or  statements  of  doctrine,  was  also  produced 
largely  by  a  tendency  to  extreme  positions  on  both  sides  in  the 
matter  of  subscription.  In  general,  the  two  separated  bodies  may 
be  said  to  have  represented  either  the  more  strict  and  literal  or 
the  more  broad  and  substantial  theory  on  this  point.  In  the 
Reunion  of  1869,  there  was  cordial  agreement  around  the  accept- 
ance of  the  Symbols  as  containing,  in  the  language  of  the  irenic 
Synod  of  1758,  an  orthodox  and  excellent  system  of  doctrine,  to 
be  received  in  its  proper  historical  sense,  and  with  just  liberty  of 
interpretation,  in  the  true  temper  of  loyalty  and  of  love.  Under 
this  agreement,  the  leading  Presbyterian  body  in  the  United 
States  now  exists  as  a  representative  on  this  continent  of  the 
Calvinism  of  Westminster. 

The  Symbols  were  also  adopted  by  the  churches  of  New  England, 
as  the  Council  of  Savoy  had  already  approved  them,  for  substance 
of  doctrine,  at  the  Synod  of  Cambridge,  1648  ;  the  Synod  of 
Boston,  1680 ;  and  the  Synod  of  Saybrook,  1708.  The  Shorter 
Catechism  especially  was  long  received  authoritatively  as  express- 
ing the  essential  faith  of  these  churches,  and  is  still  regarded  by 
many  as  among  the  most  valuable  expositions  of  the  Calvinistic 
system.  The  Declarations  of  more  recent  national  Councils  do 
not  vary  from  that  system  in  any  essential  features  ; — though 
they  possibly  lay  greater  stress  on  the  broad  and  noble  principle, 
believed  in  at  Westminster  but  more  fully  enunciated  at  Savoy, 
that  amongst  all  Christian  States  and  Churches  there  ought  to  be 
vouchsafed  a  forbearance  and  mutual  indulgence  unto  saints  of 
all  persuasions  that  keep  unto  and  hold  fast  the  necessary  foun- 
dation of  faith  and  holiness,  in  all  other  matters  extra  funda- 
mental, whether  of  Faith  or  Order. 

Other  Presbyterian  bodies  of  later  origin,  and  organized  espec- 
ially from  representatives  of  the  varieties  of  Presbyterianism 
existing  in  Scotland,  have  either  modified  the  original  Confession 
as  to  the  matter  of  civil  control,  and  to  the  nature  and  scope  of 
ecclesiastical  authority,  or  have  received  the  Confession  in  its 
original  form,  appending  to  it  authoritative  testimonies,  setting 
forth  their  several  departures  from  it.  The  Cumberland  church, 
wholly  American  in  origin,  has  made  more  extensive  alterations, 
amounting  to  a  full  revision  in  both  the  Confession  and  the 
Catechisms, — chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  eliminating  from  them 
all  appearance  of  fatalism,  and  of  presenting  in  such  revision  a 
more  mediate,  less  decisive  type  of  Calvinism.  In  these  bodies, 
the  rule  as  to  subscription  ranges  from  extreme  rigidity  in  some 


GENERAL    POSITION    AND    INFLUENCE.  61 

to  a  simple  and  perhaps  inadequate  acceptance  for  substance  of 
doctrine  on  the  part  of  others. 

The  general  character,  position  and  influence  of  the  Westmin- 
ster Symbols  will  be  easily  realized  in  the  light  of  this  introductory 
survey,  though  the  subject  will  be  much 

more  readily  appreciated  at  the  close  of        25,    General  character 
, ,  , .       ,  ,        _TT,  and  position  of  the  Sym- 

the   studies   here   proposed.       What   we     ^   nature  of  their  in. 

have  already  seen  justifies  the  statement     fluence. 

that,  in  several  particulars,  these  Symbols 

may  be  regarded  as  the  most  significant  group  of  formularies 

produced  by  Protestantism   during  the  remarkable  period  of  the 

Reformation  : 

First:  In  respect  to  the  amount  of  time,  and  the  degree  of 
deliberation  in  their  preparation,  they  present  the  nearest  Protest- 
ant parallel  to  the  Canons  and  Decrees  of  Trent.  Most  of  the 
other  Protestant  Confessions  were  framed  in  a  comparatively 
brief  period  of  time.  The  Synod  of  Dort  held  but  one  hundred 
and  forty-four  sessions,  and  adjourned  within  six  months.  The 
Confession  of  Augsburg  was  prepared  at  intervals  during  the 
summer  of  1530.  The  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  the  most 
widely  received  among  the  Reformed  creeds  of  the  Continent, 
was  prepared  chiefly  by  the  single  hand  of  Bullinger,  and  adopted 
after  a  few  conferences  among  the  representatives  of  the  provinces 
and  churches  interested  in  its  construction.  The  Heidelberg 
Catechism,  which  approaches  most  nearly  the  Westminster  form- 
ularies in  the  statement  of  doctrine,  though  revised  and  approved 
by  a  general  synod  held  at  the  place  whose  name  it  bears,  was 
drafted  substantially  by  Ursinus  and  Olevianus  under  the  appoint- 
ment of  Frederick,  Elector  of  the  Palatinate.  After  the  time 
spent  by  the  Assembly  of  Westminster  in  ecclesiastical  debate, 
and  in  the  development  of  its  scheme  for  making  Britain  Presby- 
terian, is  deducted,  it  will  still  be  apparent  that  no  creed  of  the 
Reformation,  in  either  the  length  of  time,  or  the  number  of 
persons  concerned,  or  in  the  other  elements  calculated  to  give 
such  a  formulary  prominence  as  the  product  of  rare  deliberation, 
can  be  compared  with  the  Symbols  which  that  Assembly  gave  to 
Protestantism. 

Secondly:  This  prominence  is  no  less  apparent  when  we  con- 
sider the  extent  and  heartiness  of  the  acceptance  which  these 
Symbols,  together  with  the  form  of  polity  associated  with  them, 
have  obtained.  Among  all  varieties  of  Protestantism,  Presbyter- 
ianism  is  obviously  most  widely  diffused,  and  most  nearly 
ecumenical :  and  among  the  Protestant   Confessions,  none  is  so 


62  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

extensively  received,  none  so  widely  revered,  as  that  on  which 
this  Presbyterianism  rests.  It  may  especially  be  questioned 
whether  any  takes  such  strong  hold  on  those  who  accept  it,  or  so 
vigorously  regulates  the  thoughts  and  convictions  of  its  adherents. 
The  reverence  paid  to  it  sometimes  seems  like  idolatry  itself. 
The  unwillingness  to  revise  it,  or  even  to  adopt  explanatory 
declarations  or  testimonies  respecting  it,  is  significant  proof  of 
its  amazing  power  over  the  mind  and  the  heart.  The  Augsburg 
Confession  and  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  are  the  only  Protestant 
creeds  which  could  justly  be  compared  with  it  in  these  respects. 
Thirdly:  Much  of  this  prominence  is  due  as  well  to  the  struc- 
ture of  these  remarkable  Symbols,  as  to  the  manner  of  their 
preparation  and  the  extent  of  their  diffusion.  Prepared  after  all 
the  rest,  and  at  a  time  when  many  of  the  issues  of  earlier  Protest- 
antism had  been  settled,  they  betray  less  of  the  provincial  narrow- 
ness incident  to  those  earlier  struggles, — less  of  the  merely  partisan 
feeling  and  of  the  intense  dogmatism  which  characterized  largely 
the  preceding  century, — less  of  the  mere  antagonism  to  Rome 
which  in  some  respects  warped  all  the  earlier  creeds.  Theology, 
according  to  the  Protestant  conception  of  it,  had  been  more 
thoroughly  formulated,  and  was  capable  of  being  more  calmly, 
more  broadly,  more  conclusively  stated.  The  principle  of  tolera- 
tion had  at  least  received  its  first  recognition,  and  its  benign 
influence  was  felt,  even  amid  the  sharp  diversities  which  in  some 
cases  agitated  the  Assembly.  Traces  of  fraternal  compromise, 
even  on  points  which  at  first  were  centers  of  strenuous  discussion, 
such  as  the  order  of  the  decrees  or  the  scope  of  the  Gospel  or  the 
divine  right  of  the  Presbyterian  polity,  are  frequently  apparent. 
There  are  also  many  indications,  as  will  appear  during  these 
studies,  not  only  of  a  purpose  to  incorporate  whatever  was 
worthiest  in  the  antecedent  creeds,  but  of  a  disposition  to  harmo- 
nize in  belief,  so  far  as  possible,  with  other  Protestant  and  especially 
with  the  Reformed  communions.  Compared  with  the  Canons  of 
Dort,  their  chief  rival,  the  Symbols  are  less  technical  and  dogmatic, 
less  strictly  theological ;  while  compared  with  the  Catechism  of 
Heidelberg,  they  reveal  a  more  thorough  doctrinal  structure,  a 
more  elaborate  grouping  and  union  of  truth,  without  the  sacrifice 
of  that  fine  spiritual  tone  for  which  the  latter  formulary  is  justly 
prized.  This  combination  of  theological  construction,  with  prac- 
tical expression  and  adaptation — of  an  organic  completeness  not 
equaled  by  any  preceding  creed,  with  a  matured  and  moderated 
Christian  temper,  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  their  peculiar  excel- 
lencies.    Traces  of  the  period  with  its  special  conflicts  are  indeed 


THE    PROPOSED   STUDY.  63 

apparent,  as  we  shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  note,  both  in  the 

thought  and  in  the  spirit  of  these  Symbols,  yet  they  exhibit  much 

in  both  spirit  and  thought  which  the  common  Christianity  for  all 

time  will  continue  to  appreciate  as  the  most  consummate  flower  of 

historic  Protestantism. 

Reserving  further  statements  respecting  the  excellence  of  the 

Symbols  until  their  doctrinal  contents  shall  have  passed  under 

specific  review,,  and  the  theological  system 

,     ,.    ,   .     it  1    11  ,  i  26.    Proposed  analysis. 

embodied  m  them  shall  have  been  me-    Method   Qf  th£   Symbols. 

thodically  defined,   we  may  proceed  at    method  of  study :  general 
once  to  survey  the  broad  domain  to  be    object. 
traversed,   and  to  mark  in  outline    the 

contemplated  course  of  investigation.  The  Confession  follows  in 
general,  not  the  order  of  the  ancient  creeds,  or  the  methods  of  the 
earlier  Protestant  theologians,  but  rather  the  more  systematic  plan 
of  development  exhibited  in  the  best  theological  treatises  of  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  commences  with  the 
Bible  as  the  source  and  foundation  of  all  belief  ;  then  proceeds 
with  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  concerning  God  in  his  being  and 
attributes,  purposes  and  administration,  providential  and  moral ; 
then  discus.ses  the  creation,  character  and  fall  of  man,  with  the 
consequences  of  that  fall  ;  and  then  presents  Christ  in  his  person 
and  in  his  mediatorial  work  in  its  main  aspects  and  issues.  From 
these  fundamental  positions,  it  proceeds  to  discuss  such  saving 
truth  in  its  more  practical  relations, — to  set  forth  the  plan  of 
salvation  and  the  process  of  salvation  as  illustrated  in  the  various 
phases  and  experiences  of  the  Christian  life,  and  also  to  expound 
the  moral  law  as  the  rule  of  life,  and  present  the  duties  which  natu- 
rally spring  into  view  on  that  basis,  and  are  legitimately  required 
of  all  who  believe  in  Christ.  These  discussions  are  followed  by 
an  exposition  of  the  sacraments  and  the  church,  of  the  relations 
of  the  church  to  the  state,  of  the  authority  of  councils,  and  the 
right  and  limits  of  church  discipline;  and  the  whole  is  concluded 
with  two  chapters,  following  the  order  of  the  Apostolic  Creed,  on 
death  and  the  intermediate  life,  resurrection  and  the  final  judg- 
ment. Extensive  as  this  list  of  topics  seems,  it  is  justly  ques- 
tioned whether  there  are  not  some  important  factors  in  Christian 
theology,  such  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  in  its  scope,  and  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  person  and  work,  which  are  either  omitted 
or  too  incidentally  and  cursorily  treated.  Systematic  as  the  con- 
struction is,  and  marked  and  strong  as  is  the  method  pursued,  it 
is  also  questioned  with  some  reason  whether  this  is  absolutely  the 
best  grouping  possible, — whether  the  method  be  not  more  theo- 


04  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

logical  than  biblical,  and  whether  the  great  realities  of  grace  might 
not  be  set  in  connections,  articulated  into  a  system,  such  as  would 
bring  out  into  more  glorious  light  the  grand  central  facts  con- 
cerning Christ  and  his  Salvation.  These  are  queries  which  will 
frequently  recur  to  view  at  later  stages  in  the  studies  proposed. 

The  method  pursued  in  the  Catechisms,  while  resembling  that  of 
the  Confession,  is  yet  simpler  and  more  natural.  They  were  con- 
structed not  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  a  consistent  and  complete 
system  of  doctrine,  but  rather — to  use  the  suggestive  phrase  of 
Reynolds — in  that  way  which  is  most  for  ingenerating  knowledge ; 
or  so  as,  in  the  language  of  Gillespie,  to  condescend  to  the  capacity 
of  the  common  and  unlearned.  Thus  their  teaching  is  divided 
easily  into  the  two  main  sections,  belief  and  duty.  The  presen- 
tation of  what  we  are  to  believe,  includes  most  of  the  cardinal 
elements  in  the  theology  of  the  Confession  :  what  is  our  duty,  as 
consequent  upon  such  belief,  is  set  forth  in  an  elaborate  exposition 
of  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  of  the  form  of  Prayer  taught  by 
Our  Lord,  and  in  an  associated  exposition  of  saving  faith  and  its 
fruits.  Though  both  Catechisms  adopt  this  more  simple  divi- 
sion, the  Larger  adheres  under  it  more  closely  to  the  theological 
terminology  of  the  Confession  itself.  Both  are  to  be  regarded  as 
authoritative  as  well  as  the  Confession,  as  are  also  the  Form  of 
Government,  the  Book  of  Discipline,  and  the  Directory  for  Wor- 
ship, so  far  as  they  help  to  explain  or  emphasize  the  doctrinal 
system  incorporated  in  the  distinctively  theological  formularies.* 

In  presenting  as  is  proposed,  a  compendium  or  summary  of  this 
doctrinal  system,  it  will  be  desirable  to  group  the  chapters  of  the 
Confession  together  according  to  the  theological  scheme  followed 
by  the  compilers,  rather  than  to  comment  on  each  chapter  separ- 
ately. A  study  of  these  chapters  as  arranged  will  make  it  manifest 
that  they  are  capable  of  such  grouping,  and  that  what  may  be 
termed  a  system  of  theology  can  be  built  up  without  disruption  or 
confusion  from  the  material  thus  furnished.  By  such  treatment 
the  teachings  of  the  Catechisms  also  may  be  set  in  more  palpable 

*See  Mitchell,  Westminster  Assembly,  Lect.  XII.  and  also  his  collection  of 
Catechisms  of  the  Second  Reformation,  and  that  of  Bonar,  Catechisms  of  the 
Scottish  Reformation.  Schaff  (Creeds  of  Christ:  Vol.  I.)  pronounces  the 
Shorter  Catechism  one  of  the  three  typical  catechisms  of  Protestantism  which 
are  likely  to  last  till  the  end  of  time  :  see  his  remarks  on  the  Protestant  Cate- 
chisms generally.  On  the  authority  of  the  Catechisms  consult  Presbyterian 
Digest,  in  /or.  See  Commentaries  on  the  Catechisms,  by  Vincent,  "Fisher, 
Green,  Boyd  and  others.  The  first  extensive  Body  of  Divinity  published  in 
America,  1720,  by  Samuel  Willard,  President  of  Harvard,  was  a  series  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  discourses  on  the  Shorter  Catechism. 


THE    OBJECT   SOUGHT.  65 

relations  to  those  of  the  Confession,  and  the  real  unity  pervading 
the  entire  series  may  be  brought  more  clearly  into  view.  It  will 
also  be  more  practicable  under  this  method  to  compare  the  doc- 
trines of  these  formularies  with  those  of  the  three  ancient  creeds 
and  of  the  other  Protestant  confessions,  and  also  with  Roman  and 
Greek  symbolism,  and  with  the  chief  product  of  more  recent  inves- 
tigations in  the  general  field  of  Christian  doctrine.  Special  attention 
will  also  be  paid  in  this  connection  to  the  various  Declarations 
and  Testimonies,  and  to  the  actual  and  proposed  Revisions,  which 
bear  directly  upon  present  interpretation  of  these  venerable 
Symbols.  If  the  result  shall  be  a  clear,  just,  liberal,  comprehen- 
sive estimate  of  what  is  essential  in  the  Presbyterian  system  of 
doctrine,  and  what  is  in  fact  believed  by  those  who  now  accept 
these  formularies  as  the  standard  and  index  of  their  faith,  the 
chief  aim  of  these  Lectures  will  be  fully  attained.  It  remains 
simply  to  be  added  that  such  aim  not  only  precludes  all  dogmatic 
narrowness  and  all  controversial  purpose  or  temper,  but  requires 
also  a  broad  and  cordial  sympathy  with  all  varieties  of  the  com- 
mon Calvinism,  and  no  less  truly  with  all  other  types  of  evan- 
gelical belief.  The  doctrinal  specialties  in  which  intelligent 
Calvinists  now  differ,  are  of  very  small  moment  compared  with 
those  primal  and  commanding  truths  in  which  they  are  consciously 
and  profoundly  agreed.  Nor  is  it  any  less  true  that  the  surviving 
disagreements  of  evangelical  Protestantism  are  incomparably  less 
important  than  are  those  fundamental  doctrines  of  grace,  those 
saving  verities  of  Scripture,  in  regard  to  which  all  true  Protestants 
of  whatever  name  are  consciously  and  cordially  One. 


LECTURE  SECOND— THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 

Revelation,  its  Nature  and  Process  :  The  Contents 
of  Scripture  :  Its  Authenticity,  Authority  and  Ade- 
quacy :    Right  and  Duty  of  Private  Interpretation. 

Confession  of  Faith,  Chap.  I ;  XIV,  Sec.  ii  ;  XXI,  Sec.  i ; 
Larger  Catechism,  Answers  2-5  ;  154-160  ;  Shorter  Cate- 
chism, 2-3  ;  89-90. 

The  formal  principle  of  the  Reformation  was  the  Supremacy 

of  Scripture,  as  distinct  from  either  patristric  tradition,  or  the 

decrees  of   councils,    or   the   imperative 

U   Protestantism   and     teachings  of  the  Church  through  its  papal 

.    ,      _      .   ,  head.     The  Articles  of  Smalcald  spoke 

tation  in  the  Symbols.  .  «.      . 

for  all  Protestantism  in  tersely  affirming 

(II.)  that  the  Word  of  God  should  frame  articles  of  faith,  other- 
wise no  one,  not  even  an  angel.  It  was  on  this  basis  only  that 
Protestantism  as  a  new  and  more  intelligent  and  spiritual  type  of 
Christianity  could  safely  rest.  The  Bible,  as  supreme  above  all 
other  sources  or  authorities, — the  Bible  as  an  authenticated  mess- 
age from  God  to  each  soul  of  man,  to  be  studied  and  interpreted 
by  each  in  the  temper  of  loyalty  to  its  divine  Author,  was  there- 
fore seated  on  the  throne  as  the  great  arbitrator  of  doctrine,  the 
true  norm  of  belief,  the  regulative  factor  in  both  faith  and  life. 
Hence  the  prominence  which  is  given  to  the  Bible  and  its  claims 
m  the  various  symbols  of  the  period  :  hence  the  clear,  strong, 
decisive  affirmations  concerning  its  authenticity  and  authority, 
which  are  found  everywhere  in  both  the  creeds  and  the  theologies 
of  primitive  Protestantism.  See  Augsburg  Conf.:  Conclusion: 
Formula  Concordiae,  Introd.  I— II :  Zwinglian  Articles,  1,  5,  13: 
First  HelveticConf .  I-II  :  Second  Helv.  Cap.  I  :  Heidelberg  Cat. 
-20-21  :  French  Conf.  II-IV:  Belgic  Conf.  Art.  III-VII  :  First 
Scotch  XIX-XX  :  Thirty-Nine  Art.  VI-VII  :  and  especially  the 
Irish  Articles,  1  to  7;  from  which  the  form  and  language  of  the 
Westminster  statements  were  largely  derived. 

The  Westminster  Confession,  like  most  of  these  formularies, 
starts  not  from  the  abstract  doctrine  of  the  decrees,  nor  from  any 
other  speculative  or  philosophic  basis,  but  immediately  from  the 


GENERAL   PROTESTANT    DOCTRINE.  67 

primary  and  fundamental  fact  of  Revelation.  More  fully  than 
any  of  them  it  presents  to  view  the  vital  need  of  a  supernatural 
communication  from  God  to  man  contemplated  as  a  sinner,  the 
modes  in  which  such  a  communication  was  actually  made,  and 
the  several  writings  which  combine  to  make  up  that  communica- 
tion. As  against  the  Roman  theory  of  tradition  in  whatever 
form,  and  against  the  opposite  theory  of  an  inner  light,  whether 
derived  from  reason  or  from  the  independent  illumination  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  it  affirms  the  completeness  and  authoritativeness, 
and  the  entire  adequacy  of  this  Inspired  Word.  In  contrast  with 
all  other  teaching,  and  all  assumption  by  human  authority  in 
matters  of  belief,  it  asserts  both  the  right  of  private  interpreta- 
tion, and  the  imperative  obligation  of  every  one  to  study  the 
Scriptures  for  himself.  In  opposition  to  the  conception  of  an 
absolute  religion,  grounded  in  the  universal  reason,  in  which 
historic  Christianity  with  its  specific  disclosures  is  to  be  merged 
at  last,  it  declares  this  written  communication  from  God  to  be 
both  sole  and  final  basis  of  religion,  not  for  any  given  race 
or  period,  but  for  humanity  universally, — affirming  that  man  can 
never  outgrow  this  Revelation,  and  that  salvation  must  always 
flow  from  faith  in  this  as  the  perfect  and  the  ultimate  message  of 
God  to  the  race.  It  is  a  suggestive  fact  that  the  Symbols  start 
in  this  way,  not  from  any  philosophic  principle,  or  from  any 
specific  doctrine  in  the  Christian  scheme,  however  fundamental, 
but  directly  from  the  Word  of  God  as  the  only  rule  alike  of  belief 
and  of  practice.  It  is  also  suggestive  that  their  affirmations  on 
this  cardinal  point  are  so  full,  clear,  decisive  that  no  important 
enlargement  or  alteration  of  them  has  been  made  requisite  by  the 
investigations  and  discussions  of  the  past  two  centuries  around 
this  primal  truth. 

From  the  outset  of  the  insular  Reformation,  the  supremacy  of 
the  Bible  as  the  very  Word  of  God,  its  absolute  authoritativeness 
within  the  religious  sphere,  had  been  eminently  a  fundamental 
principle  of  British  Protestantism.  Abundant  illustrations  of  this 
fact  appear  in  the  formularies  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  both 
England  and  Scotland.  The  strong  Article  (XX)  in  the  Scotch 
Confession  on  the  Power  and  Authority  of  General  Councils,  sets 
up  the  Goddis  Worde  as  the  final  standard  of  belief  and  the 
ultimate  test  of  all  human  teachings.  The  Thirty-Nine  Articles 
(VI)  affirm  the  entire  sufficiency  and  authoritativeness  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  in  all  things  necessary  to  salvation.  Amid  all  the 
religious  and  ecclesiastical  struggles  which  marked  the  first  dec- 
ades of  the  seventeenth  century,  there  was — as  the  Irish  Articles 


68  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

clearly  indicate — no  appreciable  swerving  on  any  side  from  this 
fundamental  principle.  And  the  student  of  the  deliberations 
and  the  acts  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  will  not  fail  to  dis- 
cover such  supreme,  loving,  unflinching  loyalty  to  the  Bible 
signalizing  and  controlling  the  proceedings  of  that  venerable  body 
throughout.  Its  members  were  not  only  learned  in  the  Scriptures, 
but  devout  believers  in  all  that  Scripture  taught  them,  and  deter- 
mined in  their  purpose — according  to  the  pledge  or  vow  approved 
by  Parliament  and  solemnly  taken  by  each  member  at  the  first 
organization — that  whatever  they  affirmed  as  doctrine  should  be 
both  tested  and  sustained  by  the  Word  of  God,  and  by  that 
Word  only. 

The  existence  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  capacities  in  man, 
qualifying  him  in  some  sense  to  receive  and  appropriate  a  Reve- 
lation, is  directly  declared  in  the  Sym- 
2.    Man  capable  of  receiv-     bols      As  created,  man  had,  it  is  said, 
ing  a  Revelation :  The  light     ,~.      TT,    ...  ,,  „ 

and  law  of  Nature.  <Ch-    IV  :  u>   a  reasonable  as  well  as 

immortal  soul,  and  was  endued  with 
knoivledge  as  well  as  true  holiness;  having  the  law  of  God  wr Uteri 
on  his  heart,  and  possessing  both  intelligence  to  apprehend,  and 
capacity  of  conscience  to  feel  the  claims  of  that  law.  Nor  are 
these  high  capabilities,  though  impaired  by  sin,  so  far  ruined  as 
to  render  man  incapable  as  a  sinner  either  of  knowing  the  truth 
as  God  may  reveal  it,  or  of  appreciating  the  evidences  and  the 
authority  by  which  the  truth  is  endorsed.  There  is  an  inward 
light  of  nature  (Ch.  I  :  i)  to  which  revelation  may  and  does 
directly  appeal  :  there  is  a  native  reason,  an  inborn  conscience,  a 
soul  in  man,  which  can  and  does  respond  to  that  appeal.  The 
phrase,  light  of  nature,  makes  its  appearance  again  and  again  ; 
Conf.  I :  vi;  X  :  iv;  XX  :  iv;  XXI  :  i;  and  L.  C.  2,  60,  151.  We 
may  note  also  the  parallel  phrases,  law  wrttten  in  their  hearts,  gifts 
which  they  had,  law  of  the  religion  they  do  profess,  works  of  crea- 
tion and  providence  as  instructing  men  concerning  God  :  also,  the 
striking  statement  respecting  the  uses  and  operation  of  the  moral 
law,  If.  C.  149-151.  This  light  of  nature  is  sometimes  repre- 
sented as  simply  the  action  of  our  natural  intelligence  in  the 
sphere  of  religious  truth, — sometimes  as  a  higher  intuitional  fac- 
ulty, the  reason  distinctively, — sometimes  as  if  it  were  a  peculiar 
intellectual  or  moral  elevation  making  such  truth  more  apparent 
and  impressive.  It  is,  comprehensively,  the  capacity  to  perceive 
and  appreciate  certain  spiritual  verities,  even  without  the  aid  of 
revelation.     The  kindred  phrase,  law  of  nature,  is  sometimes  used 


MAN   AND   REVELATION.  (i(.) 

to  indicate  natural  illumination,  as  well  as  that  moral  rule  and 
guidance  which  nature  supplies. 

The  possession  of  such  endowments  is  constantly  assumed  in 
the  Symbols.  They  indeed  emphasize  very  strongly  the  dark- 
ness and  obliquity  of  mind  induced  by  sin,  and  the  inadequacy  of 
the  human  reason  to  judge  rightly  of  the  claim  of  many  specific 
truths  revealed  in  the  Scriptures;  justly  affirming  (VI  :  ii)  that  all 
the  parts  and  facilities  of  soul  and  body  are  defied  by  transgression — 
rendered  inefficient  and  inaccurate  in  their  action  concerning 
divine  things.  They  also  strongly  assert  the  corruption  of  the 
moral  sensibilities,  and  especially  of  the  conscience,  in  consequence 
of  such  transgression, — the  effectual  call  of  the  Spirit  manifesting 
itself  as  truly  in  the  heart  as  in  the  understanding,  and  carrying 
with  it  the  restoration  of  conscience  and  the  sanctifying  of  every 
ethical  capacity.  They  especially  declare  and  emphasize  the  dead- 
ness  of  the  perverted  human  will;  its  indisposition  or  aversion 
to  any  spiritual  good  (IX  :  iii) ;  its  strong  instinctive  hostility  to  all 
the  Law  and  all  the  Word  of  God.  Yet  with  equal  clearness  and 
strength  they  insist  on  such  remaining  degree  of  capacity  in  man 
as  renders  him  fully  and  forever  accountable  to  the  divine  law,  and 
which  especially  makes  it  sinful  in  him  to  turn  away  from  Christ 
as  the  eternal  Word  and  Revealer  of  divine  things.  They  present 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  as  containing  what 
man  is  to  believe  (S.  C.  3)  and  therefore  is  capable  of  believing. 
They  enumerate  the  truths  which  human  faith  is  required  to 
embrace :  they  declare  the  universal  obligation  to  hear  and  heed 
the  Gospel;  they  condemn  indifference  and  unbelief,  on  the  ground 
that  sinners  are  in  some  true  sense  capable  of  paying  attention  to 
saving  truth,  and  of  resting  upon  it  as  the  Word  of  God.  While 
they  carefully  guard  against  the  inference  that  sinful  men  will  in 
fact  exercise  these  capacities  savingly,  apart  from  the  influence 
of  the  revealing  and  convincing  Spirit,  they  never  pass  over  to  the 
opposite  extreme,  or  deny  to  man  the  possession  of  qualities  such 
as  would  enable  him  to  receive  or  to  apprehend  a  revelation,  if 
given. 

No  conception  of  Revelation  can  be  sound  or  satisfactory  which 
does  not  rest  on  these  cardinal  propositions.  Waiving  here  the 
question  whether  man,  having  such  endowments,  really  needs  anjT 
supernatural  communication  to  acquaint  him  with  truth  and  with 
duty, — waiving  also  the  remoter  question  whether  God  can  hold 
communication  with  man  supernaturally,  we  must  plant  ourselves 
once  for  all  on  the  fundamental  doctrine  that  man  even  while  sin- 
ful has  faculties  and  capacities  to  which  such  a  communication,  if 


70  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

made,  can  successfully  appeal.  We  are  to  be  guarded  on  one  side 
against  the  impression  that  these  capabilities  are  so  far  affected 
by  sin  as  to  be  worthless,  and  on  the  other  against  the  still  worse 
impression  that  they  are  in  no  degree  so  affected.  There  is  in  the 
sinner,  and  even  in  the  regenerated  soul,  a  degree  of  mental  ob- 
scuration and  deadness  in  sensibility,  as  well  as  of  weakness  in 
purpose,  which  renders  it  certain  that  left  to  themselves  both 
sinner  and  saint  will  misapprehend  and  misuse  any  revelation  when 
given  ;  and  which  makes  necessary  some  further  supernatural 
action  upon  as  well  as  for  them,  in  order  to  render  such  divine 
communication  useful  in  their  spiritual  life. 

The  existence  and  the  moral  teaching  of  an  external  world, 
revealing  to  man  certain  preliminary  truths,  and  preparing  him  to 

receive  the  higher  truths  of  Revelation, 

3.  Nature  and  Revela-  are  also  preSupposed  in  the  Symbols. 
tion,  how  related.   Natural     ,TrI    .  .        „  j  ■  .  ,  u 

Theology  and  Religion ;  Rev-  What  1S  called  in  an  OUt7&rd  as  Wf 
elation  necessary.  as  inward  sense  the  light  of  nature,  dis- 

closing to  his  view  in  all  the  varied 
aspects  of  the  material  universe  the  being  and  presence  and 
character  of  God,  and  making  him  acquainted  with  many  of  the 
primary  relations  between  God  and  man,  must  be  recognized  as 
one  of  the  fundamental  facts  in  human  experience.  What  are 
styled  the  works  of  creation  and  providence  are  here  represented  as 
manifesting,  even  to  all  men  though  sinful,  the  goodness,  wis- 
dom and  power  of  God,  (I:  i)  and  we  are  taught  that  these 
teachings  of  nature  are  so  definite  and  so  extensive  as  to  leave  men 
inexcusable  for  any  indulgence  of  sin  against  the  Being  so  made 
manifest. 

Natural  theology  and  natural  religion  are  thus  presupposed  and 
affirmed  in  the  Symbols  as  in  Scripture.  This  natural  theology 
not  only  furnishes  evidences  and  proofs  of  the  existence  of  the 
Deity,  and  suggests  at  many  points  his  qualities  and  his  character: 
it  also  brings  into  view  the  reality  and  claim  of  law  as  regnant  in 
the  universe,  the  existence  of  moral  as  well  as  natural  order  and 
government,  and  the  dependent  and  responsible  position  of  man 
as  a  part  of  this  vast  system  of  things.  And  if  to  the  testimony  of 
external  nature  on  these  points  we  add  the  decisive  confirmation 
to  be  derived  from  the  study  of  man  himself — from  thoughtful 
consideration  of  his  constitution  and  endowments  as  well  as  his 
physical  structure,  and  especially  of  his  rational  and  moral  facul- 
ties, and  the  aspirations  and  capabilities  of  which  he  seems  to  be 
possessor,  both  the  area  and  the  substance  of  natural  theology 
become  vastly  enlarged.     Indeed,  the  witness  to  the  wisdom  and 


NATURE    AND    REVELATION.  71 

goodness  and  power  of  God,  derived  from  such  investigation  of 
man  himself  regarded  as  a  creature,  is  in  some  respects  far  more 
impressive  and  conclusive  than  any  derived  from  external  nature, 
even  in  her  most  glorious  forms.  The  Symbols  seem  in  this  respect, 
as  in  some  others,  to  have  anticipated  largely  that  change  in  the 
great  argument  for  the  existence  of  God  by  which  the  proof  de- 
rived from  what  man  himself  is  as  a  rational  and  spiritual  being, 
is  taking  precedence  of  the  older  arguments  drawn  by  Paley  and 
his  successors  from  the  study  of  the  external  world — the  world 
of  nature. 

Of  a  theology  originating  in  this  way,  a  natural  religion  is  an 
essential  product  and  result ;  on  this  basis  such  a  religion  becomes 
not  only  possible,  but  in  some  degree  necessary  and  imperative. 
Such  disclosures  tend  to  develop  that  sense  of  fear  of  the  super- 
natural, which  is  the  main  sentiment  in  all  the  lower  varieties  of 
human  faith  ;  they  awaken  the  consciousness  of  dependence  also, 
both  natural  and  spiritual,  on  the  superhuman  power  thus  discov- 
ered. In  their  higher  forms,  they  afford  room  for  the  sense  of 
gratitude,  for  the  consciousness  of  obligation,  for  the  principle 
and  spirit  of  duty,  and  even  for  the  emotions  of  love  and  devotion 
and  the  hope  of  immortality.  On  this  basis  religion  as  a  species  of 
moral  sensibility,  and  even  as  a  practical  rule  of  life,  may  and 
must  exist  and  manifest  itself  in  the  human  soul.  Without  the 
more  elevated  teaching  of  the  law  of  God  as  given  in  Scripture, 
men  do  thus  in  apostolic  phrase  become  a  law  unto  themselves. 
While  as  yet  untaught  and  unvitalized  by  the  immediate  action  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  they  may  and  do  discern  within  themselves  the 
vigorous  accusings  or  excusings  of  conscience,  and  may  and  do 
tremble  in  view  of  a  possible  judgment  to  come.  A  natural  reli- 
gion as  well  as  a  natural  theology  thus  exists  ;  and  all  men  give 
evidence  of  being  in  some  degree  under  its  quickening  and  subdu- 
ing power. 

Yet  we  are  to  guard  ourselves  against  the  inference  that  man 
needs  no  other  revelation  than  this,  and  no  higher  religious  life  than 
that  awakened  by  this  process.  The  Longer  Catechism  of  the 
Graeco-Russian  church  declares  in  language  which  evangelical 
Protestantism  would  endorse,  that  man  may  have  some  knowledge 
of  God  by  contemplation  of  those  things  which  he  has  created,  but 
this  knowledge  is  imperfect  and  insufficient,  and  can  serve  only  as  a 
preparation  for  faith,  or  as  a  help  toward  the  knowledge  of  God 
from  his  Revelation.  So,  while  we  are  taught  in  the  Symbols  that 
men  are  left  in  an  inexcusable  state  on  account  of  their  sin  against 
this  light  of  nature,  and  while  they  are  justly  condemned  without 


72  THE    HOLY    SCRIPTURE. 

the  law  for  their  failure  to  do  what  natural  religion  thus  requires, 
we  are  also  taught  that  these  disclosures  though  preliminary  and 
precious  are  (I:  i)  not  sufficient  to  give  that  know/edge  of  God  and 
of  his  will,  which  is  necessary  unto  salvation.  The  Symbols  go  so 
far  in  this  direction  as  to  affirm  (X.  iv)  that  even  those  who  are 
diligent  to  frame  their  lives  according  to  the  light  of  nature — who 
are  in  fact  obedient  to  the  law  of  the  religion  they  do  profess — 
will  not  be  saved,  if  they  also  reject  when  it  is  made  known  to 
them,  the  higher  law  of  life  revealed  in  Christ.  These  natural 
revelations  may  instruct,  enlighten,  direct ;  they  may  warn  against 
sin,  and  summon  to  duty  ;  they  may  call  for  the  exercise  of  spir- 
itual sensibilities,  and  inspire  to  love  and  worship.  But  when 
man  has  failed  to  yield  to  their  sweet  influences,  and  has  become 
a  sinner  against  all  their  warnings,  they  reveal  no  way  of  escape 
from  the  guilt  so  incurred.  They  open  no  door  of  hope  to  the 
soul  thus  estranged  from  God.  While  therefore  we  are  not  to  deny 
the  reality  of  the  theology  or  the  religion  of  nature,  or  to  indulge  in 
disparagement  of  them  as  if  they  had  but  little  worth,  we  are  not 
on  the  other  hand  to  assert  their  sufficiency,  or  to  assume  that  no 
higher  revelation  is  needful.  The  human  reason,  however  clarified, 
cannot  be  regarded  as  a  source  of  authority  respecting  divine 
things,  in  any  way  co-ordinate  with  the  revealed  Word.  Butler 
wisely  says  that,  though  reason  is  the  candle  of  the  Lord  within 
us,  it  can  afford  no  light  where  it  does  not  shine,  nor  judge  where 
it  has  no  principles  to  judge  upon.  Deism,  in  its  best  varieties, 
is  to  be  commended  for  the  exposition  it  has  given  of  the  teach- 
ings and  moral  demands  of  nature.  Positivism  is  valuable  so  far 
as  it  gathers  up  these  scattered  rays,  concentrates  them  in  scien- 
tific unity,  and  presses  them  home  upon  the  human  conscience. 
The  contributions  which  both  physical  science  and  metaphysical 
philosophy  are  constantly  making  to  natural  theology  and  natural 
religion,  are  greatly  to  be  prized  for  what  they  are  ; — but  mostly, 
perhaps,  for  the  clear  evidence  they  afford  of  the  absolute  necessity 
for  some  further,  some  supernatural  knowledge  of  divine  things. 
It  is  indeed  one'  essential  part  of  their  mission  to  prove  to  the 
world,  by  every  new  discovery,  by  every  fresh  advance,  the  indis- 
pensableness  of  Revelation. 

The  fact  that  such  a  Revelation  has  actually  been  given,  is  not 
only  affirmed,  but  to  some  extent  argumentatively  sustained  in 

the  Symbols.     Postponing  all  inquiry 
4.     Fact  and   Nature    of  ...  .n  r  4.1  •    -n 

n      ...       „. .    ..  .   .      as  to  the  specific  contents  of  this  Rev- 

Revelation;  Objections  noted.  F 

elation,  or  to  the  positive  evidences  of 

its  authenticity  or  authority,  we  may  here  note  simply  the  general 


REVELATION — FACT  AND  NATURE.  73 

fact  thus  affirmed, — that  God  has  superadded  to  all  the  dis- 
closures of  nature  and  to  the  appeals  of  nature  to  the  religious 
element  in  man,  another  and  higher  communication,  peculiar  in 
method  and  in  form,  peculiarly  certified  also,  and  designed  both 
to  impart  a  larger  knowledge  and  to  stimulate  in  man  a  nobler 
faith  and  a  worthier  type  of  spiritual  life.  This  is  the  proper 
significance  of  the  term,  Revelation, — a  supernatural  disclosure 
and  impartation  of  religious  truth  rather  than  ordinary  or  scien- 
tific knowledge,  conferred  by  methods  which  are  also  mainly 
supernatural,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  certain  super- 
natural results  in  the  beliefs,  experiences  and  lives  of  men,  both 
individually  and  as  organized  in  human  society,  and  involving 
their  highest  welfare  both  for  time  and  for  eternity.  As  the 
teachings  of  nature  were  insufficient,  it  pleased  the  Lord  (I  :  i)  to 
reveal  himself  and  to  declare  his  will;  meeting  in  this  way  the 
great  religious  exigencies  of  mankind.  While  it  is  said  that  this 
manifestation  is  made  specifically  unto  his  Church  or  unto  his 
people, — a  statement  which  illustrates  the  strong  hold  of  the  doc- 
trine of  particularistic  election  upon  the  mind  of  the  Assembly, 
and  which  of  itself  might  convey  an  inadequate  conception  of  the 
nature  and  aim  of  the  Revelation, — we  have  abundant  warrant 
elsewhere  for  affirming  that  the  Bible  was  held  to  be  for  man  as 
man — for  the  church  and  for  humanity  also.  It  is  given  to 
all  as  (S.  C.  2)  the  only  rule  to  direct  them  how  they  may  glorify 
and  enjoy  Godr  which  is  the  chief  duty,  not  of  the  church  only, 
but  of  all  mankind.  It  teaches  (S.  C.  3)  what  all  alike  are  to 
believe  concerning  God,  and  what  didy  God  requires  alike  of  all. 
This  Revelation,  is  therefore,  as  described  in  the  Symbols,  uni- 
versal, perpetual,  complete. 

Objections  to  such  a  conception  of  Revelation  have  been  urged 
on  the  ground  that  such  supernatural  communication  is  both  im- 
possible and  needless.  It  is  asserted  that  God  has  chosen  to  limit 
himself  to  what  may  be  classed  as  natural  modes  of  declaring  his 
existence  and  character  and  will, — that  he  has  given  us  capacities 
for  study,  and  has  furnished  in  ourselves  and  in  the  external 
universe  a  vast  and  adequate  field  of  study  respecting  religious 
things, — and  that  by  this  arrangement  he  has  in  fact  precluded 
himself  from  the  need,  if  not  from  the  possibility  of  any  further 
or  supra-natural  disclosure.  It  is  especially  affirmed  that  there  are, 
and  even  that  there  can  be,  no  supernatural  modes  of  communi- 
cation between  him  and  men  ;  and  that  all  claims  to  such  super- 
naturalness  are  on  philosophic  grounds  to  be  rejected  as  incredible 
and  spurious.      But  surely  there  can  be  no  philosophic  objection 


74  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

to  the  proposition  that  such  a  Being  as  God  cannot  be  limited 
in  such  a  matter  except  by  his  own  choice  ;  and  that  whenever 
he  chooses,  he  may  use  any  means,  natural  or  otherwise,  which 
may  appear  to  him  best  suited  to  his  sovereign  purpose.  The 
limitation,  if  there  be  any,  is  one  which  he  has  imposed  upon 
himself,  and  which  therefore  he  may  at  any  time  remove.  Nor 
does  his  adoption  of  one  mode  or  of  one  class  of  modes  habitually, 
in  any  degree  prohibit  the  use  of  other  modes  whenever  these  are 
found  to  be  desirable.  Nor  again  can  our  inability  to  comprehend 
or  to  conceive  of  the  mode  in  which  revelation  is  made,  or  even 
our  inability  to  believe  in  such  a  revelation,  so  far  as  such  ina- 
bility has  a  moral  rather  than  a  rational  basis,  militate  against  the 
credibility  of  the  fact, whenever  such  revelation  is  actually  made. 

God  must  also  be  the  supreme  judge  as  well  as  the  sovereign 
agent,  in  the  matter  of  declaring  his  will  to  man.  It  is  not  ours 
to  say  whether  the  knowledge  received  by  the  light  of  nature  is 
adequate, — whether  man  does  or  does  not  need  more  extensive 
and  emphatic  disclosures  of  truth  and  duty.  Especially  is  this 
apparent  when  we  remember  how  far  sin  has  impaired  the  human 
powers, — how  imperfectly  man  conceives  and  uses  what  God  has 
communicated  by  natural  processes, —  how  little  at  the  best  man 
can  learn  from  nature  respecting  the  urgent  and  vital  problem  of 
salvation  from  sin  and  its  results.  Here  God  only  is  a  competent 
arbiter  ;  it  is  his  alone  to  determine  what  is  a  sufficient and  effectual 
Revelation.  One  reason  for  such  a  communication  is  expressed 
in  the  words  (XXI  :  i),  that  He  may  7iot  be  worshiped  according  to 
the  imaginations  or  devices  of  men,  or  the  suggestio?is  of  Satan. 
That  this  Revelation  is  necessary  tinto  salvatio?i  is  to  the  Divine 
Mind  the  grand  underlying  reason  for  it.  The  awful  fact  of  sin, 
with  all  its  terrific  effects  upon  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  race, 
is  the  essential  warrant  for  its  existence,  and  the  Bible  justifies 
itself  forever  by  its  demonstrated  adaptations  to  this  great,  this 
universal  need. 

Both  the  possibility  and  the  necessity  for  some  declaration  of 
the  mind  and  will  of  God  in  supernatural  as  well  as  in  natural 
method  and  form  must  therefore  be  recognized.  In  such  a  case 
a  priori  reasonings  adverse  to  such  revelation  are  clearly  invalid: 
in  fact,  a  priori  considerations,  so  far  as  available,  strongly  favor 
the  opposite  conclusion.  An  eminent  theologian  has  justly  affirmed 
that  no  insuperable  difficulty  can  be  urged  logically  ,metaphysicalfy 
or  physiologically  ;  a  revelation,  he  adds,  is  just  as  conceivable  as 
a  sun.  Such  a  Being  as  God  is,  can  use  miracles,  prophecies,  the- 
ophanies,  voices  in  the  air,  wonders  in  the  .sky,  to  show  men  his 


REVELATION   NECESSARY.  75 

will,  just  as  readily  as  he  can  use  the  familiar  facts  of  nature  or 
the  ordinary  witness  of  the  human  conscience.  If  He  could 
create  the  physical  universe  with  all  its  elements  and  energies,  it 
is  plain  that  he  can  produce  any  changes  in  that  universe,  miracu- 
ulous  or  otherwise,  which  may  in  any  way  subserve  his  own  sov- 
ereign or  gracious  purposes.  How  pressing  the  need  of  such 
added  light  and  guidance  is,  even  man  himself  in  the  bewilderment 
and  terror  of  his  sin,  and  in  the  intensity  of  his  longings  after 
deliverance  from  both  its  power  and  its  curse,  may  in  some  measure 
apprehend,  though  that  necessity  must  ever  be  one  which  God 
alone  can  fully  estimate.  The  disclosure  not  only  of  human  sin- 
fulness, but  of  grace  as  the  antithesis  of  sin,  furnishes  the 
justifying  reason  for  such  supernatural  revealment, — just  as  it 
furnishes  the  ground  for  the  gracious  incarnation  of  Him  who  was 
the  divine  Word  made  flesh  for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation. 
And  as  the  divine  resources  are  boundless,  and  this  human  need 
universal,  it  follows  that  this  Revelation,  if  given,  will  be  designed 
not  for  some  chosen  portion  of  the  human  family  specially,  but  for 
humanity  as  such.  Though  each  individual  of  the  race  may  not  be 
possessed  of  it,  and  though  the  saving  understa7iding  of  such  things 
as  are  revealed  in  the  Word  occurs  only  where(I:  vi)  the  i?iward 
illumination  of  the  Spirit  is  enjoyed,  yet  in  the  idea  of  it  Revelation 
must  be  regarded  as  sent  comprehensively  to  the  world,  and  as  sus- 
taining precious  relations  to  the  moral  state  and  destiny  of  every 
son  and  daughter  of  Adam.  This  is  true  although  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  divine  communication  to  man  in  the  Scriptures  was  given 
progressively,  through  long  centuries  of  time,  and  given  at  first 
to  a  selected  nation,  rather  than  to  mankind  universally,  to  be 
through  that  nation  finally  transmitted  to  the  race. 

Contemplating  Revelation  at  this  point  as  a  process  rather  than 
a  product,  the  term  must  be  regarded  broadly  as  including  the 
entire  procedure,  whatever  be  the  form 

or  method,  by  which  God  makes  known        5'    ProceSs  of  Revelation : 
,  , .    ,         ,  .      Nature  of  Inspiration :  gen- 

to  men  such  superadded  truth  or  such     eral  descrjption. 

enlarged  conceptions  of  duty  or  of  grace. 

The  Symbols  describe  the  divine  disclosure  as  various  and  com- 
plex in  method  as  well  as  universal  in  scope.  We  are  taught  that 
in  its  earlier  stages  the  plan  of  redemption  was  manifested  by 
promises, 'prophecies,  sacrifices,  circumcision,  the  paschal  lamb,  and 
other  types  and  ordinances  delivered  to  the  people  of  the  Jews,  all 
fore-signifying  Christ  to  come,  (VII.  v.)  which  were  for  that  time 
sufficient  and  efficacious,  to  instruct  or  build  up  the  elect  in  faith. 
So  within  the  sphere  of  physical  nature  in  divers  maimers,  as  by 


7<)  THE    HOLY    SCRIPTURK. 

the  burning  bush,  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  the  Shechinah  or 
the  Urim  and  Thummim,  as  well  as  by  the  mouth  of  man,  did  God 
make  known  his  mind  and  will.  These  remarkable  manifestations 
in  nature  seem  to  culminate  in  the  disincarnate  voice  three  times 
heard  in  the  air,  (at  the  baptism,  at  the  transfiguration,  and  just 
before  the  crucifixion)  in  attestation  of  the  person  and  mission  of 
our  Lord.  In  a  far  higher  sense  is  Christ  himself  the  incarnate 
Revelation,  disclosing  both  before  and  after  his  advent,  in  a  man- 
ner far  above  all  other  communications,  the  truths  essential  to 
salvation.  He  is  himself  the  Logos,  uttering  these  truths  not  by 
inspiration,  but  in  virtue  of  his  own  nature,  and  of  his  specific 
function  in  the  Godhead  as  the  eternal  voice  and  message  of  Deity. 
The  confessional  conception  of  Christ  as  Prophet  (L,.  C.  43;  S.  C. 
24)  implies  not  merely  that  his  prophecies  were  higher  in  quality 
and  scope  than  all  others,  or  that  he  was  the  historical  head  of  the 
prophetic  order,  but  also  that  he  was  intrinsically  and  eternally 
the  revealer  of  the  divine  mind  and  will,  and  that  in  his  person  and 
his  words  are  incorporated  all  the  treasures  of  spiritual  wisdom 
and  of  saving  knowledge.  In  him  therefore  we  see  the  process 
of  revelation,  not  as  we  behold  it  in  physical  demonstrations  or 
disincarnate  voices,  in  types  and  emblems,  but  in  the  highest 
possible  form  and  measure  ;  God  himself  directly  speaking  in  and 
through  the  Incarnate  Word. 

In  a  more  specific  sense  the  term,  Revelation,  is  used  to  des- 
cribe the  divine  agency  or  action  upon  particular  men  chosen  of 
God  in  order  that  they  might  receive  and  communicate  to  the 
world  his  revealed  will.  The  notion  of  a  general  revelation  merely , 
imparted  simultaneously  to  mankind  in  the  aggregate — a  cosmic 
disclosure  in  which  all  men  share  or  may  share  alike — is  inadequate 
here.  God  has  in  fact  chosen  rather  to  impart  the  knowledge  of 
his  will  to  elect  persons,  whom  he  uses  as  his  agents  in  the  trans- 
mission of  illuminating  and  saving  truth  to  the  world.  It  is 
impossible  to  describe  the  methods  in  which  he  first  makes  known  to 
such  men  the  truths  which  he  afterwards  guides  them  in  communi- 
cating to  the  race.  That  there  is  such  a  revealing  process,  which 
differs  in  some  essential  particulars  from  all  ordinary  varieties  of 
mental  activity,  from  the  highest  stimulations  of  religious  enthu- 
siasm, and  even  from  the  most  exalted  forms  of  spiritual  illumina- 
tion through  the  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  regenerated  minds, 
and  which  must  be  referred  to  God  rather  than  man  as  its 
immediate  source,  is  abundantly  suggested  in  the  Symbols  as  in 
Scripture.  It  pleased  the  Lord  (I  :  i)  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners   to  reveal  Himself,   and  to  declare   His  will  ;  and    this 


REVELATION    AS   A    PROCESS.  77 

process  of  revealing  and  declaration  is  expressly  distinguished  in 
the  Confession  from  the  subsequent  commitment  of  the  same  wholly 
unto  writing.  Some  hints  in  regard  to  this  process  are  given  to 
us,  as  in  the  dreams  and  visions  of  prophets,  in  the  ecstacy  of 
seers,  in  the  angelic  communications,  and  in  the  spiritual  exalta- 
tion given,  for  example,  to  Paul  or  to  John  on  the  Isle  of  Patmos. 
It  is  also  distinguishable  in  itself,  as  well  as  in  its  results,  from  all 
movements  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  grace  upon  the  minds  of  sinners, 
or  even  of  the  holiest  saints.  It  is  an  interior,  immediate,  active 
and  infallible  disclosing  to  the  recipient  of  the  truth  which  God 
desires  him  to  impart, — truth  whose  fullness  he  may  not  himself 
comprehend,  but  which  he  receives  in  order  that  he  may  proclaim 
and  afterwards  record  it  in  words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth. 
Inspiration  is  to  be  regarded  simply  as  a  superadded  supernatural 
process,  necessitated  by  the  fact  and  also  by  the  nature  of  such 
antecedent  revelation.  It  may  not  be  true  in  all  cases,  though  it 
must  be  true  in  most,  that  the  recipient  himself  recognizes  the 
supernatural  source  and  quality  of  the  truth  thus  given,  and  dis- 
tinguishes it  by  clear  lines  from  the  action  or  product  of  his  own 
mind.  Such  elements  are  clearly  perceptible  in  such  particular 
revelation,  though  beyond  this  the  process  must  be  viewed  as 
mysterious,  and  ineffable.  That  it  is  in  some  sense  miraculous,  is 
an  obvious  fact.  It  is  at  least  a  direct  descent  of  divine  potency 
into  the  sphere  of  the  natural  for  the  securing  of  certain  spiritual 
ends  ;  and  this  is  the  essential  conception  of  a  miracle.  God,  in  a 
word,  is  disclosed  in  this  process  of  making  known  to  chosen  men 
his  will,  in  a  way  and  form  in  which  he  nowhere  makes  himself 
manifest  in  ordinary  experience. 

The  term,  Inspiration,  as  distinct  from  Revelation  in  either. of 
the  two  senses  just  named,  is  defined  and  limited  by  the  language 
of  the  Confession  :  Afterward,  for  the  better  preserving  and  prop- 
agating of  the  truth  .  .  .  to  commit  the  same  wholly  unto  writing. 
There  is  indeed  an  inspiration  of  utterance,  men  of  God  being 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  speak  as  well  as  to  record  the  divine 
message.  There  is  also  an  inspiration  of  act  as  well  as  voice,  elect 
persons  being  animated  by  the  Spirit  to  the  performance  of  some 
special  work  in  the  interest  of  the  economy  of  redemption.  But 
as  more  generally  used,  the  term  implies  primarily  the  accurate 
recording  of  the  divine  revelations,  however  given,  so  far  as  such 
record  is  deemed  by  God  essential  to  the  spiritual  end  in  view 
in  these  revelations.  Secondarily  it  also  implies  the  accu- 
rate recording  of  whatever  histories,  events,  circumstances, 
laws,  doctrines,    derived   from   natural  or  human    sources,    may 


78  THE   HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 

be  regarded  by  the  Divine  Spirit  as  essential  in  the  explanation  or 
enforcement  of  these  revelations.  Inspiration  is  thus  the  broader 
term  :  it  is  applicable  not  only  to  those  portions  of  Scripture 
which  contain  direct  revelations,  but  to  all  the  sacred  books  which 
make  up  holy  Scripture,  and  to  all  the  parts  and  contents  of 
these  several  books.  It  is  nothing  less  than  a  movement  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  upon  the  minds  and  wills  of  the  men  inspired,  by 
which  they  were  led  to  produce  a  volume  that  is  properly 
\ascribed  in  its  totality  to  God  as  its  Author.  Postponing  for  the 
moment  the  speculative  problem  involved  in  this  proposition,  we 
may  properly  pause  at  this  point  to  note  the  one  remarkable  qual- 
ity, the  distinguishing  supernaturalness,  in  this  process  by  which 
it  is  decisively  separated  from  all  ordinary  activity  even  of  the  most 
intellectual  or  most  sanctified  minds.  To  regard  such  inspiration 
as  only  a  higher  variety  of  mental  power  or  of  poetic  or  religious 
fervor,  such  as  appears  elsewhere  in  human  experience,  is  to  dissi- 
pate altogether  its  divine  quality,  and  also  to  destroy  its  religious 
significance  and  worth.  It  is  to  be  specially  distinguished  from 
spiritual  illumination,  even  in  the  highest  forms  in  which  such 
illumination  may  graciously  be  induced  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Inspi- 
ration is  a  still  higher  type  of  activity,  produced  by  the  Spirit  for 
a  broader  and  loftier  purpose,  and  characterized  by  more  extensive 
and  more  permanent  results.  In  an  eminent  degree  such  as  is 
discernible  in  no  other  human  experience,  God  must  be  in  this  pro- 
cess throughout,  supernaturally,  immediately,  supremely,  or  it  is 
in  no  true  sense  of  the  term,  inspiration. 

The  speculative  query  in  the  case  is  concerned  chiefly  with  the 
relations  of  such  divine  agency  to  the  human  activities  displayed 
in  this  peculiar  process.  It  is  not  practicable  here  to  describe  the 
widely  diversified  theories  which  have  been  propounded  in  answer 
to  this  speculative  query, — theories  ranging  from  the  most  extreme 
dogma  of  literal  or  verbal  or  mechanical  dictation,  down  through 
various  gradations,  to  those  rationalistic  or  naturalistic  opinions 
which  reduce  inspiration  nearly  to  the  level  of  ordinary  human 
experience.  The  Symbols  cannot  be  said  to  present  any  distinct 
answer  to  this  question  :  they  are  limited  chiefly  to  an  assertion 
of  the  fact  that  the  Scriptures  are,  in  some  adequate  and  reliable 
way,  given  by  inspiration  of  God.  Mitchell  justly  says  that  the 
Westminster  divines  were  at  more  special  pains  than  the  authors 
of  any  other  Confession,  ...  to  leave  open  all  reasonable  ques- 
tions as  to  the  mode  and  degree  of  inspiration,  which  could  consist- 
ently be  left  open  by  those  who  accepted  the  Scriptures  as  the 
infallible  rule  of  faith  and  duty.     In  this  they  simply  followed  the 


INSPIRATION — FACT   AND    NATURE.  79 

example  of  the  Divine  Word  itself,  which  in  various  forms  and 
with  adequate  authority  affirms  the  fact  of  inspiration,  but  nowhere 
tells  us  how  or  in  what  methods  or  measures  holy  men  of  God 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  when  they  spake  or  recorded  what 
he  theopneustically  led  them  to  reveal.  There  is  in  fact  no  clear  evi- 
dence, at  least  in  the  Minutes,  that  the  Assembly  held  tenaciously 
any  specific  or  fixed  theory  on  the  subject.  Dickson  expresses 
what  was  probably  the  current  view  at  the  time  in  the  statement, 
(Truth's  Victory  over  Error)  that  by  the  Scripture  or  the  Word 
of  God  we  do  not  understand  the  bare  letters  or  the  several  words, 
.  .  .  which  the  adversaries  may  imagine  are  all  the  Word  of  God. 
But  we  do  understand  thereby  the  Doctrine  or  Will  of  God,  re- 
vealed unto  reasonable  creatures,  teaching  them  what  to  do, 
believe,  or  learn  wisdom. 

Yet  it  is  quite  obvious  that  the  Symbols  furnish  suggestions 
which  at  least  are  sufficient  to  rule  out  certain  defective  notions, 
if  not  to  lead  us  on  to  the  true  and  full  conception.  For  illustra- 
tion, they  do  not  justify  the  merely  mechanical  theory — the 
theory  of  verbal  dictation — which  regards  the  human  instrumen- 
tality in  the  case  as  wholly  passive, — the  Holy  Spirit  using  inspired 
men  as  if  they  were  so  many  musical  instruments,  silent  until 
touched  by  his  finger,  and  giving  forth  literally  and  without  con- 
scious movement  of  their  own  each  word  or  letter  of  the  revelation 
he  is  imparting.  It  may  be  possible  on  such  a  theory  still  to 
recognize  differences  among  the  sacred  writers,  signs  of  separate 
personality  and  action  among  them,  just  as  different  instruments  of 
music  sound  the  same  note  or  strain  differently,  Yet  this  theory 
fails  to  explain  adequately  those  strong  signs  and  movements  of 
human  as  well  as  divine  personality,  which  are  almost  everywhere 
apparent  in  Scripture  ;  it  fails  also  to  furnish  any  explanation  of 
differences  or  variations,  at  least  verbal  or  formal,  which  all  must 
in  some  sense  recognize  as  existing  in  the  written  Word.  No 
view  of  inspiration  can  explain  such  features,  or  meet  all  the 
essential  tests  in  the  case,  which  does  not  admit  the  existence  of  a 
free,  vigorous,  flowing  and  largely  conscious  human  factor  in  the 
holy  process.  Hodge  (Syst.  Theol. )  after  illustrating  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Spirit  in  inspiration  by  his  operations  in  sanctification, 
adds  the  statement,  that  as  the  believer  seems  to  himself  to  act, 
and  in  fact  does  act,  out  of  his  own  nature,  so  the  inspired  penmen 
wrote  out  of  the  fullness  of  their  own  thoughts  and  feelings,  and 
employed  the  language  and  modes  of  expresion  which  to  them 
were  the  most  natural  and  appropriate.  It  has  well  been  said  by 
another  high  authority,  that  the  human  is  as  really  blended  with 


80  THE    HOLY    SCRIPTURE. 

the  divine  in  Scripture,  as  humanity  is  united  with  divinity  in  the 
person  of  Christ. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Westminster  teaching  clearly  rules  out 
the  antithetic  opinion  that  inspiration  relates  merely  to  what  are 
called  the  essentials,  but  not  to  the  incidentals  of  Scripture;  or  that 
it  concerns  itself  with  spiritual  concepts,  but  not  with  the  language 
in  which  those  concepts  are  set  forth;  or  that  mistakes  and  errors 
of  various  classes  may  creep  into  the  record  from  the  human  side, 
with  the  consent  of  the  superintending  Spirit, — his  agency  not 
preserving  the  writers  from  inaccurate  or  erroneous  statement  on 
matters  not  vitally  related  to  the  main  purpose  of  the  revelation. 
The  Symbols  contain  no  suggestion  of  any  recognizable  distinction 
between  the  essential  and  the  incidental,  between  the  concept  and 
the  language  ;  or  of  an  inspiration  which  is  but  partial  and  vari- 
able, appearing  and  disappearing  in  the  same  composition,  at  one 
time  strong  enough  to  protect  the  writer  against  error,  at  another 
too  weak  to  save  him  from  those  liabilities  to  inaccuracy  to  which 
human  writers  elsewhere  are  subject.  The}'  recognize  the  fact  that 
imperfect  experiences  are  recorded  in  the  Scriptures,  but  never 
suggest  that  these  experiences  are  imperfectly  recorded.  They 
also  admit  incomplete  enunciations  of  doctrine,  partial  and  pro1 
gressing  disclosures  of  truth  and  duty,  verbal  variations  in  state- 
ment and  quotation,  obscuration  in  language  and  teaching ;  but 
they  none  the  less  claim  infallibility  in  the  record  as  well  as  in  the 
revelation,  and  an  infallibility  which  is  coextensive  with  the  entire 
Scripture,  and  is  seen  in  and  through  all  apparent  disagreements. 

It  is  not  at  variance  with  this  general  doctrine  to  admit  the  fact 
that  the  relative  manifestation,  and  even  the  proportionate  activ- 
ity of  these  two  elements,  varies  in  different  parts  of  Scripture. 
The  divine  and  the  human  work  together,  not  always  in  one  way, 
still  less  as  if  connected  together  mechanically,  wheel  within  wheel, 
but  rather  in  a  large  variety  of  ways  and  in  various  forms  of  con- 
nection;— as  is  true,  for  example,  in  the  kindred  work  of  regenera- 
tion. It  is  an  old  and  familiar  analysis  which  distributes  the  divine 
factor  into  three  such  varieties, — an  agency  of  superintendence, 
illustrated  in  that  controlling  guidance  which  secures  the  accurate 
description  of  biographical  or  historical  events, — an  agency  of 
suggestion  and  spiritual  inbreathing,  such  as  is  seen  in  the  teach- 
ing and  temper  of  the  Psalms,  or  of  some  among  the  apostolic 
Letters, — an  agency  of  direct  and  immediate  dictation,  in  which 
truths  wholly  unattainable  by  man  and  even  impenetrable  to  him 
who  utters  them,  such  as  the  Mosaic  code,  the  higher  forms  of 
prophecy,  or  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  grace,  are  disclosed  to  the 


VARIETIES    IN    INSPIRATION.  81 

mind,  and  are  transmitted  by  the  recipient  in  the  very  words  of 
God.  But  it  is  not  to  be  understood  that  even  in  the  lowest  of 
these  forms  such  divine  agency  is  less  real  or  effectual  than  in  the 
highest,  though  the  variety  in  mode  and  measure  is  obvious,  and 
the  distinctions  resulting  are  in  several  aspects  important.  More 
of  the  human  element  may  consequently  be  apparent  in  one  por- 
tion than  in  another;  things  which  are  local  or  transient,  or  which 
are  less  vital  in  their  bearings  on  salvation,  may  be  more  frequent 
or  marked;  the  infirmities  of  man  may  even  seem  to  break  in  at  some 
points,  as  if  to  mar  the  perfection  of  the  composite  Word.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  there  are  portions  of  Scripture  where  what  is 
human  seems  to  be  awed  into  almost  utter  silence, — where  the 
deep  voice  of  God  himself  is  heard  in  awful  reverberations,  and 
every  word  sounds  as  if  it  came  directly  from  the  Throne. 

But  however  far  such  distinctions  or  grades  in  inspiration  may 
be  admitted,  the  Christian  mind  must  ever  hold  that  an  infallible 
revelation  requires  in  order  to  its  acceptance  and  influence  a  record 
essentially  infallible.  If  the  divine  disclosure  is  to  be  made  in 
human  language,  such  language  must  properly  embody — so  far  as 
this  is  possible  to  human  speech — the  divine  thought  to  be  recorded. 
Nor  can  the  Christian  mind  ever  consent  to  regard  the  Bible  as 
being  a  merely  human  account,  more  or  less  complete,  more  or  less 
fallible,  of  certain  divine  communications  once  made.  Sacred 
Scripture  is  never  to  be  viewed  as  a  natural  transcript  merely,  even 
though  it  were  an  accurate  transcript,  of  supernatural  revelations 
once  given  historically  to  mankind.  The  Bible  is  something  infi- 
nitely higher  than  a  collection  of  religious  books,  a  compilation  of 
Hebrew  literature,  containing  revelations  from  God,  which  have 
been  preserved  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  It  is  in  the  deepest  sense 
his  word,  his  message,  his  book  throughout,  and  therefore  an  infal- 
lible rule  for  men.  It  may  indeed  be  true,  as  has  been  strongly 
affirmed,  that  the  supernatural  quality  and  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures could  be  maintained  apart  from  any  doctrine  of  inspiration,  or 
of  the  entire  infallibility  of  Scripture  as  resulting  from  inspiration. 
But  on  the  other  hand  it  must  be  maintained  that  inspiration 
includes  the  form  as  well  as  the  contents  of  Scripture, — that  the 
Bible  is  a  divine  construction  as  really,  though  by  another  pro- 
cess, as  the  physical  universe, — and  that  this  divine  communication 
can  have  neither  adequate  authority  nor  saving  influence,  so  long 
as  men  are  in  doubt  respecting  the  accuracy  of  the  records  which 
report  it.  The  difficulties  evaded  by  any  such  line  of  reasoning 
are  by  no  means  so  serious  as  those  which  it  introduces.  If  the 
record  be  in  anjr  part  of  it  merely  human  or  fallible,  we  certainly 


82  THE   HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 

can  have  no  adequate  guarantee  that  the  revelation  there  recorded 
is  really  from  God.  The  mistakes  of  the  writers  in  recording  may 
be  indices  of  mistakes  much  more  vital  in  apprehending  what  was 
revealed  ;  errors  in  incidental  matters  inevitably  suggest  the  pos- 
sibility of  like  error  in  the  statement  of  what  is  most  central  and 
essential.  In  a  word,  the  Bible  must  be  something  more,  in  form 
as  well  as  in  substance,  than  a  transcript  by  fallible  men  in  inac- 
curate language  of  a  revelation  once  made  on  the  earth  :  it  must 
itself  be  that  Revelation. 

The  current  discussion  whether  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  from 
God  or  only  contains  such  a  revelation,  is  very  largely  a  dispute 
about  words.  The  Symbols  use  both  expressions.  The  Bible  is 
the  Word  of  God  :  Conf.  I :  iv-v,  L.  C.  157;  the  Word  of  God  is 
contained  in  the  Scriptures,  S.  C.  2, —  evidently  from  the  Irish 
Articles,  1,  6.  Note  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  Holy  Scripture 
containeth;  First  Helvetic,  I,  Scriptura  canonica  verbum  Dei  .  .  . 
sola  perfecte  continet;  French  Conf.  V;  Belgic  Conf.  VII.  In  one 
aspect  the  Bible  contains  the  accurate  historic  record  of  a  long 
series  of  specific  revelations  :  in  another,  as  being  in  its  totality 
a  supernatural  communication  from  God  to  mankind,  it  may  prop- 
erly be  said  to  be  one  Revelation.  The  former  statement  is  objec- 
tionable pnly  when  it  seems  to  imply  that  these  specific  revelations 
stand  in  an  inexact  and  fallible  setting, — that  the  historic  record 
which  contains  them  is  not  altogether  faithful  to  fact.  The  general 
proposition  must  be  that  the  Bible  both  contains  revelations,  and 
is  throughout  a  Revelation.  But  whether  contemplated  in  the  one 
aspect  or  in  the  other,  a  real  and  efficient  inspiration  must  be 
recognized  in  it,  not  only  communicating  supernatural  and  saving 
truth,  but  transmitting  that  truth  in  language  wholly  adequate 
and  accurate — infallible,  so  far  as  the  great  purpose  of  the  Reve- 
lation is  in  any  way  involved. 

That  the  view  here  stated  was  the  general  doctrine  of  the  Prot- 
estant churches  may  be  ascertained  by  careful  examination  of  their 
creeds,  both  continental  and  insular.  The  Augsburg  Confession 
prefaces  its  Articles  with  the  statement  that  its  doctrines  are 
derived  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  pure  Word  of  God, — re- 
garded as  the  infallible  and  ultimate  test  of  all  human  opinion  and 
belief.  The  Formula  of  Concord  declares  in  the  introduction  to 
its  confessional  affirmations,  that  the  only  rule  and  norm  accord- 
ing to  which  all  dogmas  and  all  doctors  ought  to  be  esteemed 
and  judged,  is  none  other  whatever  than  the  prophetic  and  apos- 
tolic writings  of  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments;  this  dignity  as 
judge  and  rule,  norm  and  touchstone,  belonging  to  Holy  Scripture 


INERRANCY   OF   SCRIPTURE.  83 

alone.  The  First  Helvetic  Confession  affirms  that  the  Scriptures, 
having  been  transmitted  by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  set  forth  to 
the  world  by  prophets  and  apostles,  alone  contain  perfectly  the 
most  ancient  and  most  complete  philosophy,  and  the  supreme  rea- 
son or  ground  of  all  life  and  all  religion.  In  the  French  Confession 
it  is  said  that  God  has  revealed  himself  not  only  in  his  works  but 
also  in  his  Word,  in  the  beginning  made  known  through  holy 
oracles,  but  afterwards  committed  to  writing  in  the  books  which 
we  call  the  Holy  Scriptures.  In  like  manner  the  Belgic  Confession 
declares  that  this  Word  of  God  was  not  sent  or  delivered  by  the 
will  of  man,  but  that  holy  men  of  God  spoke  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost;  and  that  these  Scriptures  so  fully  contain  the  will 
of  God  that  whatsoever  man  ought  to  believe  unto  salvation  is  suf- 
ficiently taught  therein.  Similar  declarations  might  be  quoted  from 
other  continental  formularies,  and  from  the  earlier  British  Con- 
fessions also.  In  view  of  such  declarations,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  while  the  Protestantism  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  set  forth  no  specific  theory  of  either  revelation  or  inspira- 
tion, it  held  firmly  to  the  doctrine  taught  by  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  after  its  enumeration  of  the  canonical  Books:  All 
which  are  given  by  inspiratio?i  of  God  to  be  the  rule  of  faith  and  life. 

In  accepting  this  general  conception  of  an  inspired,  sufficient, 
and  authoritative  Revelation,  as  presented  in  the  Symbols,  and  as 
thus  certified  more  or  less  extensively 

in  all  antecedent  Protestant  symbolism,  ^m^ToSSS! 
we  may  not  claim  that  the  doctrine  is 

cleared  from  all  difficulties.  On  one  side  there  are  deep  mysteries 
enveloping  this  divine  process  which  it  is  not  given  to  man  to 
solve — mysteries  even  deeper  than  those  which  conceal  from  us  so 
largely  the  divine  activities  in  the  field  of  providence  and  in  the 
general  field  of  grace.  On  another  side  there  are  serious  perplex- 
ities discernible  by  us,  which  must  be  duly  considered  as  we  study 
this  recorded  Revelation,  and  endeavor  thoughtfully  to  compre- 
hend its  contents, — perplexities  which  group  themselves  chiefly 
around  the  very  practical  inquiry  whether  these  Scriptures  contain 
errors  such  as  properly  preclude  their  claim  to  be  an  infallible 
revelation. 

L,ocke  defines  error  in  a  subjective  sense  as  a  mistake  of  our 
own  judgment,  in  giving  assent  to  that  which  is  not  true.  It 
should  be  added  to  his  definition  that  error  in  certain  spheres,  and 
eminently  in  the  sphere  of  religion,  may  spring  from  an  ignorance 
that  is  willful,  as  Paul  teaches,  or  from  the  action  of  wrong  feel- 
ing, as  well  as  from  mistakes  of  the  judgment.     Objectively,  an 


84  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

error  may  be  an  unintentional  falsity  in  statement  made  by  another, 
growing  out  of  his  lack  of  adequate  knowledge.  If  there  be  an 
intention  to  deceive  or  mislead,  or  even  to  leave  the  hearer  in  the 
dark  as  to  the  real  fact,  such  objective  error  exhibits  a  moral 
quality,  and  he  who  leads  others  into  false  views  or  judgments  in 
any  such  method  is  criminal.  In  the  case  before  us  we  cannot 
suppose  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  himself  ignorant  respecting  the 
truth  which  he  professed  to  reveal,  or  that  he  fell  through  over- 
sight or  accident  into  inaccuracies  of  whatever  sort,  or  in  any 
manner  conveyed  erroneous  impressions  unintentionally.  Still 
less  can  we  suppose  that  he  intended  to  mislead  or  deceive  or  to 
leave  men  in  the  dark  respecting  the  spiritual  truth  which  he  was 
professing  to  disclose.  In  any  of  these  senses  error  can  not  be 
affirmed  of  the  Scriptures  :  if  they  are  in  truth  inspired  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  this  degree  of  inerrancy  must  be  one  of  their  cardinal 
qualities. 

This  hypothetical  view  is  strongly  sustained  by  several  pre- 
sumptions. For  example,  if  God  truly  desires  to  make  a  revelation 
to  men  concerning  things  needful  to  their  salvation,  it  is  certainly 
to  be  expected  that,  however  such  revelation  may  be  limited  in 
scope  by  the  end  in  view,  or  in  form  by  the  mental  and  moral 
condition  of  its  recipients,  there  will  be  nothing  in  it  that  would 
deceive  or  mislead,  or  would  leave  such  recipients  in  the  dark  as 
to  even  its  minuter  contents.  Again  :  the  great  end  in  view  in 
such  divine  disclosure,  which  is  nothing  less  than  human  salvation, 
certainly  justifies  the  anticipation  that  not  only  the  truths  pre- 
sented, but  also  the  very  language  used  in  expressing  them  shall 
be  free  from  all  error  in  itself,  and  even  from  all  obscurity  or  inac- 
curacy such  as  would  tend  to  lead  the  reader  astray  or  to  bring  the 
soul  into  peril.  Again  :  it  may  reasonably  be  presumed  that  if 
such  a  revelation,  designed  to  meet  such  a  vital  end,  shall  be  given 
to  the  world  through  human  agency,  the  men  selected  for  such 
service  would  be  distinguished  from  all  other  men  by  being  lifted 
supernaturally  above  exposures  to  inaccuracy  and  errancy  such  as 
are  apparent  in  ordinary  human  experience.  And  moreover,  if 
the  Holy  Spirit  be  truly  present  in  and  through  their  execution 
of  the  divine  purpose — superintending,  animating,  inspiring — it 
is  a  just  expectation  that  he  will  not  suffer  anything  to  enter  into 
such  a  record  which  would  in  any  degree  impair  its  value  as  a 
faithful  and  reliable  statement  of  the  truth, — exactly  as  God 
desires  such  truth  to  be  known  and  diffused  among  men.  Such 
suggestions — to  speak  of  no  others — make  it  evident  that  the 
hypothesis  of  inerrancy  is  not  an  a  priori  affirmation  merely,  but 


THEORY  OF  ERRANCY  EXAMINED.  85 

rather  justifies  itself  as  not  only  probable,  but  reasonable  and 
even  conclusive. 

But  we  are  called  at  this  point  to  contemplate,  not  an  ideal  iner- 
rancy which  may  on  such  grounds  be  justly  presumed  to  have 
been  an  essential  quality  of  the  inspired  Word,  as  it  came  origi- 
nally from  God  through  the  agency  of  the  infallible  Spirit,  but 
rather  the  practical  question,  whether  that  inspired  Word  as 
we  now  have  it,  after  many  centuries  of  time,  is  to  be  received 
and  cherished  by  us  as  truly  inerrant — infallible.  The  noted 
ecclesiastical  deliverance  that  the  Scripture  as  it  came  from  God 
is  without  error,  is  intelligible  only  on  the  hypothesis  that  Scrip- 
ture is  now  exactly  what  it  was  at  the  beginning — a  hypothesis 
which  is  controverted  by  some  unquestionable  facts.  And  if,  more- 
over, it  were  ascertained  that  there  are  actual  errors,  properly  so 
called,  in  the  Bible  as  we  now  have  it,  the  speculative  question 
whether  such  errors  were  in  this  Holy  Book  as  it  first  came  from 
God — serious  as  it  is — would  be  of  small  import  in  comparison 
with  the  more  immediate  question  whether,  in  case  such  errors  are 
really  discoverable  in  it  now,  we  may  still  rest  upon  it  as  a  veritable 
message  from  the  Deity  to  mankind.  There  are  no  traces  of 
debate  upon  this  question  in  the  Westminster  Assembly,  nor  is  it 
probable  that  the  hypothesis  of  errancy  found  advocates  of  any 
prominence  on  British  soil  prior  to  the  rise  of  English  Deism  in 
the  succeeding  century.  Since  that  period  this  destructive 
hypothesis  has  been  often  and  earnestly  urged,  and  is  still  a  center 
of  strenuous  and  anxious  discussion. 

The  term,  errancy,  as  employed  in  such  discussion,  at  least 
among  Christian  scholars,  relates  not  to  any  essential  teachings 
of  Scripture  respecting  either  doctrine  or  duty,  but  only  to  what 
may  be  denoted  as  its  circumstantial  or  incidental  features.  So  far 
as  the  great  truths,  the  binding  precepts,  the  glorious  promises, 
the  supreme  elements  in  the  scheme  of  salvation  are  concerned, 
all  Christian  minds  are  agreed  that  the  Bible  as  we  now  possess  it, 
is  an  absolutely  inerrant  book;  all  unite  in  receiving  it  as  being 
as  truly  the  very  utterance  and  message  of  God  now  as  it  was 
when  it  came  forth  in  its  perfection  from  his  gracious  hand.  Yet 
we  must  admit  that  we  find  in  this  divine  book,  as  we  now  have 
it,  partial  or  incomplete  statements,  variant  reports  of  the  same 
acts  or  sayings,  differing  citations  of  the  same  passages,  circum- 
stantial diversities  in  the  records  of  the  same  events,  apparent 
discrepancies  in  various  incidental  matters  which,  taken  in  the 
aggregate,  seem  to  furnish  considerable  warrant  for  the  allegation 
of  errancy.     But  here  it  should  be  noted  at  once  that  the  number 


86  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

of  these  alleged  errancies  is  found  on  critical  examination  to  be 
much  smaller  than  has  sometimes  been  claimed,  and  is  diminish- 
ing rather  than  increasing, — that  many  of  these  are  based  on  a 
specific  theory  of  inspiration,  specially  that  of  verbal  dictation, 
but  fade  away  in  the  light  of  a  more  philosophic  and  practical 
conception  of  the  theopneustic  process, — that  many  exist  only  in 
the  erroneous  apprehension  or  inaccurate  exegesis  of  those  who 
urge  them, — and  generally,  that  in  fact  much  more  has  been  made 
of  such  asserted  errancies  than  the  actual  material  in  hand  justi- 
fies. It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  use  of  such  an  abstract  or 
generic  term  as  errancy  is  seriously  misleading  and  erroneous, 
inasmuch  as  it  seems  to  imply  that  such  errancy  is  a  pervading 
characteristic  of  the  Scriptures,  or  to  suggest  that,  while  the  Bible 
is  reliable  in  its  expositions  of  truth  and  duty,  it  is  extensively 
unreliable  in  its  historic  and  circumstantial  portions.  Those  who 
have  affirmed  that  Holy  Writ  is  in  these  particulars  marked  by 
error  or  even  incidental  errancy,  have  not  always  realized  the 
depth  of  the  shadows  which  their  affirmations  throw  upon  its 
credibility  and  authoritativeness  throughout.  For  although  this 
Divine  Book  is  neither  history  nor  biography  in  the  main,  still  if 
its  historical  or  biographic  statements  were  found  to  be  in  frequent 
conflict  with  each  other  or  with  facts  obtained  from  other  reliable 
sources, — if  variation,  difference,  diversity,  discrepancy,  contra- 
diction were  discernible  on  close  investigation  as  a  general 
characteristic  of  its  records,  very  serious  doubt  would  inevitably 
be  cast  upon  its  instructions  and  counsels  within  its  own  partic- 
ular field, — the  field  of  religious  truth  and  religious  obligation. 
In  studying  the  Scriptures  as  we  now  find  them,  with  a  view 
to  determining  the  exact  amount  and  nature  of  the  errancy 
alleged,  it  is  incumbent  upon  us,  first  of  all,  to  make  due  account 
of  the  long  process  of  transcription  and  transmission  through 
which  the  sacred  Books  have  passed — a  process  running  on  through 
many  centuries,  in  different  countries  and  conditions,  conducted 
by  thousands  of  copyists,  each  one  of  whom  was  liable  to  mistake, 
and  many  of  whom  might  venture  to  attempt  correction  here  or 
there  in  the  original  text.  A  multitude  of  such  mistakes  and 
fancied  emendations  have  already  been  discovered  by  Christian 
scholars  ;  others  may  even  yet  appear  as  new  sources  come  to 
light  ;  and  if  the  original  text  were  in  our  hands,  some  changes 
might  be  detected  which  are  not  discernible  at  this  stage.  It  is 
indeed  quite  probable  that  much  of  the  supposed  discordance  in  the 
historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  the  biographies  of  Christ, 
and  the  records  of  the  labors  and  career  of  Paul,  embarrasses  us  only 


DEFECTIVE    TRANSCRIPTION:     OBSCURATION    OF    TIME.        87 

because  we  are  not  in  possession  of  the  unaltered  records.  But  as 
the  case  now  stands,  we  have  large  room  for  rejoicing  in  the  sig- 
nificant fact  that  the  alleged  errancies  of  whatever  class,  thus  far 
discovered  and  verified,  are  not  found  to  affect  seriously  the  teach- 
ing of  Scripture  in  any  matter  of  doctrine  or  of  duty.  It  is  almost 
equally  significant  and  gratifying  to  discover  that  none  of  these 
circumstantial  diversities  are  of  sufficient  moment  to  cast  any 
disastrous  shadow  on  the  essential  truthfulness  of  either  the  biog- 
raphies or  the  histories  involved.  Nor  is  it  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that,  if  we  were  in  possession  of  the  original  records,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  what  is  now  regarded  as  errancy  would  wholly 
disappear. 

It  is  incumbent  upon  us,  in  the  second  place,  to  remember  that 
some  things  in  the  Scriptures  have  become  so  obscured  through 
centuries  of  time  and  changes  that  full  explanation  of  them  has 
now  come  to  be  impracticable.  Many  illustrations  of  such  obscu- 
ration may  be  gathered  up  from  the  Gospels,  from  the  epistolary 
writings  and  from  the  Apocalypse  ;  still  others  appear  in  the  pro- 
phetic and  historical  portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  And  some  of 
these,  which  doubtless  were  entirely  plain  in  the  distant  ages  in 
which  the  sacred  books  were  written,  seem  to  us  mysterious,  or  even 
discrepant,  simply  because  we  are  not  in  possession  of  the  local  data 
and  conditions  which  determined  their  form  or  their  substance. 
If  we  take  into  account  the  wide  peculiarities  in  thought,  experi- 
ence, custom  prevailing  in  those  oriental  lauds  where  the  Bible  was 
written, — the  special  characteristics  of  the  languages  and  dialects 
employed  in  their  composition,  and  the  unique  design  and  quality 
of  the  sacred  writings, — the  vast  transformations  of  every  type 
which  so  many  revolutions  and  developments  have  wrought  in 
human  society  since  the  scroll  of  Revelation  was  closed, — the  con- 
cealing dimness  that  has  fallen  like  dust  on  so  much  of  ancient  civ- 
ilization everywhere,  we  may  easily  infer  that  at  least  some  things 
which  at  this  distance  seem  to  us  like  inaccuracies  or  contradic- 
tions, would  change  into  beautiful  harmonies,  provided  we  could 
only  see  the  facts  and  events  just  as  the  sacred  writers  saw  them. 
The  marvel  indeed  is  that  the  Book  is  so  well  understood,  its  ap- 
parent discrepancies  are  so  largely  explained,  its  grand  disclosures 
so  intelligently  apprehended,  notwithstanding  such  chronologic 
obscurations.  It  might  even  be  claimed  as  one  mark  of  its  true 
divinity  that  it  has  survived  so  remarkably  all  such  mutations,  and 
is  still  in  all  that  is  essential  to  it  as  a  guide  to  religion  and  salva- 
tion, so  fully  comprehensible  not  merely  in  the  places  where  it 
originated  but  throughout  the  earth  and  throughout  the  ages. 


88  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

Eliminating  whatever  is  properly  traceable  to  faulty  transcrip- 
tion or  interpolation,  or  to  the  obscuration  of  time,  it  is  still  further 
incumbent  upon  us  to  employ  all  the  available  principles  of  sound 
and  considerate  exegesis  in  testing  whatever  of  alleged  error 
remains  in  the  sacred  text.  Misleading  parallelisms,  for  example, 
are  to  be  avoided  ;  variations  arising  from  differing  degrees  of 
prominence  or  emphasis  merely  are  to  be  set  aside  ;  differences  in 
narrating  various  parts  of  the  same  event  are  not  to  be  pronounced 
contradictory  ;  varieties  of  view  and  statement  springing  simply 
from  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  inspired  narrators, 
are  not  to  be  regarded  as  discrepancies.  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  citations  quoted  with  greater  or  less  exactness  or  with  substan- 
tial accuracy  merely,  should  not  be  treated  as  cases  of  errancy;  the 
absence  of  logical  or  rhetorical  precision  or  of  grammatical  correct- 
ness should  not  be  viewed  as  impugning  the  infallibility  of  the 
record;  scientific  statements,  or  exact  harmony  with  scientific  facts, 
are  not  to  be  demanded  in  such  a  book  as  the  Bible.  It  is  not 
necessary,  says  Bishop  Burnet,  (Thirty-Nine  Articles)  where  dis- 
courses are  reported,  that  the  individual  words  should  be  set  down 
just  as  they  were  said ;  it  is  enough  if  the  effect  of  them  is 
reported.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that  the  order  of  time  should  be 
strictly  observed,  or  that  all  the  conjunctions  in  such  relation 
should  be  understood  merely  according  to  their  grammatical  mean- 
ing ....  The  design  of  revelation,  as  to  this  part  of  the  subject 
— he  adds — is  only  to  give  such  representations  of  matters  of  fact 
as  may  both  work  upon  and  guide  our  belief;  but  the  order  of 
time  and  the  strict  words  having  no  influence  that  way,  the  wri- 
ters might  dispose  them  and  express  them  variously,  and  yet 
all  be  exactly  true.  Failure  to  apply  such  just  exegetical 
rules,  in  the  temper  of  honest  loyalty  to  the  divine  Word,  accounts 
for  very  much  of  the  current  allegations  of  errancy.  Still  it  may 
be  necessary,  after  all  such  explanatory  processes,  to  admit  that 
there  may  remain  in  the  Scriptures  as  we  now  possess  them 
what  has  been  well  described,  (Hodge,  Syst.  Theol.)  as  here  or 
there  a  speck  of  sand-stone  showing  itself  in  the  marble  of  the 
Parthenon — an  occasional  variation,  difference  or  even  discrepancy 
of  statement  which,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  may  have  been  in  the 
original  text  as  written  by  holy  men  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Yet  the  same  revered  authority  regards  it  as  a  most  impressive, 
even  awful  fact,  that  these  Scriptures  have  been  so  miraculously 
kept  free  from  the  soiling  touch  of  human  fingers,  and  maintains 
that  any  such  instances  of  errancy  would  not  in  the  least  subvert 
the  doctrine  of  a  truly  plenary  inspiration. 


A    TRULY    DIVINE    BOOK.  89 

As  a  result  of  the  most  careful  examination  we  discern  in  the 
Bible,  notwithstanding  such  possible  blemish,  a  thoroughly 
inspired,  a  truly  theopneustic  Book,  containing  both  a  series  of 
genuine  and  precious  revelations  all  bearing  on  the  supreme 
problem  of  human  salvation,  and  a  large  series  of  facts  and  events 
which  are  of  transcendent  interest  in  view  of  their  vital  relation- 
ship to  such  revelations.  We  have  all  these  recorded  accurately, 
and  without  anything  that  can  properly  be  called  error,  by  the 
hands  of  men  who  were  moved  for  this  purpose  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  who — while  each  one  wrote,  in  the  phrase  of  Augus- 
tine, as  he  remembered  it  or  had  it  in  his  heart,  ut  cuiqiie  cordi 
erat — were  each  and  all  so  moved  and  guided  as  to  be  free  from 
the  liabilities  consequent  upon  human  ignorance  or  incapacity, 
and  free  also  from  those  incentives  to  deceive  or  mislead  by 
which  other  writers  are  sometimes  influenced.  We  discern  the 
human  factor  everywhere  present,  though  under  considerable 
variety  of  aspect,  for  the  most  part  if  not  always  conscious, 
and  always  so  acting  that  the  personality,  experience,  charac- 
teristic qualities,  style,  and  limitations  also,  of  each  writer  are 
seen  to  be  determining  in  large  degree  the  form  and  even  the 
contents  of  the  inspired  communication.  Yet  we  everywhere 
discover  the  divine  factor  dominating  in  this  peculiar  process, 
guiding  in  the  language  and  form  as  well  as  in  the  truth  expressed, 
guarding  against  everything  that  could  properly  be  called  errone- 
ous,—  the  divine  agent  dynamically  manifesting  his  presence  at 
every  point,  yet  in  such  manner  as  to  leave  the  human  agents 
free  in  uttering  the  recorded  truth  in  forms  and  terms  best  suited 
to  themselves.  In  the  Holy  Book  thus  prepared,  as  we  now  have 
it,  we  may  find  an  occasional  trace  of  what  is  described  as  errancy 
— an  occasional  instance  of  verbal  inexactness,  or  circumstantial 
variation,  or  deficiency  or  even  discrepancy  in  statement  which 
we  may  partly  but  at  this  distance  of  time  cannot  altogether 
explain,  and  which  may  in  part  have  been  even  in  the  original  man- 
uscripts. Yet  we  may  also  note  the  fact  that  the  Bible  as  we 
now  rejoice  to  possess  it,  is  found  on  thorough  and  correct  exam- 
ination to  contain  no  error  or  blemish  which  impairs  any  doctrine, 
lessens  our  sense  of  any  duty,  or  in  any  way  effects  unfavorably 
the  great  issue  of  salvation.  We  may  therefore  rest  with  confi- 
dence in  the  strong  and  just  statement  embodied  in  the  proposed 
revision  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  : 

The  Holy  Spirit  who  of  old  revealed  to  men  in  various  ways 
the  mind  and  will  of  God,  hath  fully  and  authoritatively  made 
known  this  mind  and  will  in  all  things  pertaining  to  life  and 


90  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

salvation  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  holy  men  of  God  speaking 
therein  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  these  Scrip- 
tures, being  so  inspired,  are  the  infallible  word  of  God,  the 
supreme  standard  of  faith  and  duty. 

In  conjunction  with  this  specific  conception  of  a  positive  Revela- 
tion made  to  particular  men  and  written  by  the  hand  of  inspiration, 

we  may  at  this  point  note  with  advan- 

7.  Revelation  Historic  and     tage  ^e  more  generic  conception  of 
Written:  Written  Revelation     Revelation    as   a  ss   historically 

progressive  and  final.  .     r  . 

carried  forward  in  the  moral  experience 

of  humanity,  and  made  manifest  through  a  wide  variety  of  agen- 
cies. Some  interesting  confirmations  of  this  broader  conception 
appear  in  the  phraseology  of  the  Symbols.  While  God  on  one 
hand  has  revealed  his  will  specifically  to  certain  chosen  instru- 
ments, and  has  guided  them  in  recording  that  will  accurately  for 
the  benefit  of  mankind,  so  that  we  have  as  the  result  a  veritable  and 
sufficient  Revelation,  registered  in  adequate  and  accurate  language, 
He  is  also  described  as  conducting  age  by  age  a  corresponding 
process  of  revealment  in  the  mind  and  conscience  of  the  race.  He 
discloses  himself  to  the  world  in  a  succession  of  acts  as  well  as  in 
words  :  He  makes  his  presence,  his  authority,  his  truth,  his  grace 
immediately  manifest  in  the  revealing  light  of  nature,  and  through 
the  works  of  creation  and  providence.  He  also  works  out  histor- 
ically in  the  souls  of  men  spiritual  results  which  are  revelations 
no  less  real  or  significant  in  their  degree  than  the  written  Scripture 
itself.  In  this  generic  as  well  as  in  the  more  specific  sense,  if 
pleased  the  Lord  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  to  reveal 
himself.  This  cosmic  revealment  commenced  centuries  before  the 
inspired  record  began  to  be  made.  It  was  illustrated  in  the  giving 
of  the  Messianic  promises,  in  the  divine  dealing  with  the  patri- 
archs, in  the  earlier  experiences  of  the  nascent  church,  in  the 
development  and  growth  of  piety  in  the  hearts  of  his  people,  long 
before  the  Holy  Spirit  had  begun  to  record  such  processes  by  the 
pen  of  inspiration.  Nor  is  it  true  that  God  has  put  on  record 
the  whole  of  this  antecedent,  historic  procedure  of  grace.  Only 
so  much  of  it  as  was  calculated  to  be  of  permanent  service  to  the 
race,  was  thus  transcribed  by  inspired  hands.  In  other  words,  the 
written  Revelation  follows  the  historic  revelation,  and  is  its  endur- 
ing transcript  and  representative, — the  gracious  Word  faithfully 
preserving  and  declaring  the  gracious  works  of  God.  Afterwards, 
it  is  said,  and  for  the  more  sure  establishment  and  comfort  of  the 
Church,  the  disclosures  first  made  directly  to  men  in  sundry  times 
and  divers  manners,  were  committed  unto  writing, — inspiration 


EVOLUTION   OF   SCRIPTURE.  91 

taking  up  the  story  of  grace,  and  repeating  it  in  written  form  for 
the  benefit  of  humanity  in  all  .succeeding  ages. 

And  as  this  grand  historic  revelation  was  progressive,  exhibit- 
ing itself  at  various  periods  and  in  various  forms,  so  the  written 
Revelation  which  describes  it,  is  in  its  nature  progressive, — carried 
on  through  a  series  of  stages  and  methods,  until  it  reaches  its 
final  culmination.  There  is  a  beautiful  and  an  impressive  evolu- 
tion of  truth  and  of  precept  and  obligation  in  the  Bible  —  an  or- 
derly unfolding  of  doctrine  and  duty,  like  the  unrolling  of  some 
splendid  scroll, —  which  is  enough  of  itself  to  show  that  a  Divine 
Mind  has  been  present  throughout  the  transcendent  process. 
The  being  and  will  and  grace  of  God  come  out,  in  this  divine 
record,  in  ever  increasing  luminousness  and  beauty,  just  as  they 
had  already  done  in  the  experience  and  career  of  his  chosen 
people.  A  proper  appreciation  of  this  fact  is  essential  to  any 
adequate  understanding  of  the  forms  and  varieties  under  which 
this  Divine  Word  exists  —  to  any  true  view  of  its  divisions, 
methods,  authors,  teachings.  The  historical  books,  with  their 
biographic  concomitants,  may  be  regarded  as  the  main  thread 
on  which  the  whole  is  arranged  :  these  carry  with  them  the 
successive  disclosures  of  .sin  and  of  character,  and  the  grow- 
ing series  of  symbols  and  promises  preparatory  to  the  Advent. 
In  the  person  and  work  of  the  Immanuel  all  the  past  is  gathered  up, 
and  from  him  the  apostolic  growths  and  advances  in  turn  receive 
their  explanation.  Christ  is  the  luminous  center  of  the  whole  ; 
and  every  section,  every  statement  of  fact  from  Genesis  to  Reve- 
lation, is  set  in  its  proper  position  with  reference  to  its  bearings 
on  Him  and  his  supreme  mission.  More  than  any  other  book, 
the  Bible  thus  reveals  a  vast,  comprehensive,  definite  plan,  both 
in  its  interior  organization  and  in  its  historic  evolution.  How- 
ever diversified  in  its  contents,  however  multiform  in  language  or 
authorship,  time  or  place,  it  is  thus  profoundly,  indissolubly  one 
Revelation.  Nor  is  it  permissible  to  say  that  anything  in  it,  even 
its  list  of  things  that  were  not  to  be  eaten,  or  its  genealogical 
registrations,  are  of  no  significance  to  us,  since  each  minutest 
feature  or  event  is  there  recorded  because  it  is  divinely  regarded 
as  an  essential  element  or  factor  in  the  composite  structure. 
Each  stage  in  the  remarkable  unfolding  is  joined  on  vitally  both 
with  all  preceding  and  with  all  subsequent  stages.  The  progress 
seen  in  every  part  is  progress  toward  a  definite  consummation;  and 
when  this  consummation  is  reached,  the  product  is  found  to  be 
divinely  complete  and  perfect. 

This  Revelation  is  therefore  final  as  well  as  progressive :   it  is 


92  THE    HOLV    SCRIPTURE. 

decisively  affirmed  that  these  former  zvays  of  revealing  the  will  of 
God  are  now  ceased.  The  whole  counsel  of  God  is  said  to  be  expressly 
laid  down  in  Scripture,  or  to  be  ascertained  by  proper  application  of 
principles  set  forth  in  Scripture.  Hence  we  are  told  that  nothing 
is  at  any  time  to  be  added  to  this  Divine  Word;  no  new  discover- 
ies of  truth,  whether  imparted  by  the  Spirit,  or  obtained  from 
any  other  source,  are  to  be  co-ordinated  with  the  Bible.  The 
work  of  the  Spirit  both  in  revelation  and  in  inspiration  is  viewed  as 
finished  and  complete.  He  graciously  illuminates,  teaches,  edu- 
cates, edifies,  but  he  no  longer  reveals  —  he  no  longer  inspires. 
All  assumption  of  prophetic  functions  or  of  apostolic  authority  is 
hereby  condemned:  false  communications  claiming  divine  war- 
rant are  cast  out :  even  the  inner  light  of  faith,  contemplated  as 
supplying  to  the  believer  any  further  or  higher  knowledge  than 
that  here  contained,  is  set  aside.  The  Word  thus  given  is  put  forth 
as  the  only,  the  universal  and  perpetual,  rule  alike  of  faith  and  of 
obedience, —  to  which  therefore  it  is  the  imperative  duty  of  all 
men  to  give  credence,  instant  and  entire. —  On  the  subject  of 
fidelity  to  this  finished  and  perfect  Word,  especially  as  in  contrast 
with  the  commandments  and  traditions  of  men,  or  the  dicta  of 
churches,  more  will  be  said  at  a  later  stage.  The  finality  of  this 
one  and  only  Revelation  is  all  that  needs  to  be  asserted  here. 

Passing  from  this  study  of  the  nature  and  scope  of  Revelation 

to   the   second   general    topic,    the    contents  of    Scripture,    we 

may  first    observe    the    authoritative 
8.    Contents  of  Scripture :  , .         r   , ,  , .     «      «      . 

,     v    i     «.v  «L  „        enumeration  of   the  particular  books 
particular  books;  The  Canon.  r 

which  are  said  to  be  included  in  this 
one  and  only  Revelation.  The  Westminster  Confession,  like 
some  other  Protestant  symbols,  simply  accepts  the  Canon  of 
Scripture  as  it  stood  at  the  time,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Apocrypha  whose  secondary  canonicity  it  decisively  rejects. 
We  have  no  evidence  that  the  subject  was  formally  considered  in 
the  Assembly  ;  and  it  may  be  inferred  that  no  serious  diversity 
of  opinion  existed.  It  is  a  suggestive  fact  that  the  Lutheran 
symbols  contain  no  list  of  the  canonical  books,  and  pronounce  no 
decision  against  the  Apocrypha.  This  fact  may  be  traceable  in  part 
to  the  prevalent  impression  that  the  apocryphal  writings  had,  as  the 
papacy  affirmed,  some  measure  of  secondary  authority ;  and 
partly  to  the  doubts  of  Erasmus  and  Luther,  and  probably  others, 
with  respect  to  the  canonicity  of  certain  portions  of  the  received 
Scriptures.  The  absence  of  any  such  list,  though  such  an  emi- 
nent authority  as  Dorner  regards  it  as  an  excellence,  is  certainly  a 


CANON    OF    SCRIPTURE.  93 

serious  defect.  Had  L,utheranism  from  the  first  affirmed  the 
proper  canonicity  of  each  and  all  of  the  books  generally  received  by 
Protestantism  as  rightfully  classed  among  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
much  of  the  heretical  tendency  in  biblical  criticism  current  dur- 
ing this  century  in  Germany  would  have  at  least  received  a 
salutary  check.  Two  of  the  Reformed  creeds,  the  French  Con- 
fession of  1559  and  the  Belgic  Confession,  1561,  contain  a  list  of 
the  canonical  books  ;  and  the  same  list  is  found  in  the  Thirty - 
Nine  Articles,  and  in  the  Irish  Articles.  From  the  latter  it  was 
evidently  transcribed,  together  with  most  of  the  contents  of  the 
chapter,  Of  the  Holy  Scripture,  into  the  creed  of  Westminster. 
All  of  these  symbols  agree  in  accepting  the  Canon  as  it  was  pro- 
gressively made  up  by  the  early  church,  and  at  last  authoritatively 
affirmed  by  the  Council  of  Hippo,  393,  and  by  the  Council  of 
Carthage,  397.  These  Councils,  however,  following  the  general 
usage  of  the  early  Church,  and  acting  under  the  influence  of 
Augustine,  regarded  the  Apocrypha  as  having  a  secondary  species 
of  canonicity. 

The  general  question  respecting  the  formation  of  the  Canon, 
was  not  discussed  in  the  Assembly,  and  can  be  considered  but 
incidentially  in  this  connection.  Defining  the  term  as  descriptive, 
not  of  the  sacred  literature  of  the  Jews  in  general,  or  of  books- 
more  or  less  employed  in  instruction  or  worship,  but  only 
of  such  writings  as  came  from  God  through  certified  inspiration , 
and  were  collected  together  as  the  divinely  prescribed  rule  of 
belief  and  duty,  the  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament  must  be  viewed 
as  a  growth,  following  somewhat  closely  upon  the  precedent 
growth  of  revelation  itself.  We  are  justified  by  both  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament  in  believing  that  the  several  books  of  the  Law 
were  thus  brought  together  at  an  early  period,  and  regarded  from 
the  first  as  having  peculiar  divine  warrant.  The  structure  of 
the  Pentateuch  has  recently  been  a  matter  of  earnest  discussion. 
The  existence  of  antecedent  documents  from  which  Moses  derived 
in  part  the  material  for  his  narrative,  is  now  freely  admitted  as 
probable.  The  fact  that  some  additions,  both  historical  and 
prophetic,  were  made  after  his  death,  is  also  generally  recognized. 
The  opinion  that  the  final  compilation,  especially  of  the  three 
Codes,  was  made  in  part  by  others  after  his  death,  but  within  a 
comparatively  brief  period,  has  distinct  evidences  in  its  favor. 
But  the  theory  which  postpones  some  books  of  the  Pentateuch  to 
a  period  many  centuries  subsequent  to  Moses, — which  regards 
the  L,aw  as  a  development  running  on  traditionally  down  through 
the  theocratic  and   the  royal   era,    and  at  last  finding  written 


94  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

expression  during  the  era  of  the  prophets,  rests  on  inadequate 
grounds,  and  is  questionable  if  not  destructive  in  tendency.  That 
Moses  was  essentially  the  author  of  this  division  of  Scripture,  as 
he  was  the  chief  human  agent  in  the  history  there  recorded, 
seems  to  be  established  alike  by  many  internal  evidences  and  by 
the  general  witness  of  Scripture.  The  historical  books  were  also 
preserved  and  grouped  together  in  like  manner,  as  containing  a 
divinely  authenticated  record  of  both  the  national  and  the  religious 
life  of  the  chosen  people.  Collections  of  psalms  and  proverbs, 
probably  for  purposes  of  worship  primarily,  were  also  made 
at  an  early  day.  The  Book  of  Psalms,  as  we  now  have  it,  is 
unquestionably  a  final  compilation  of  such  antecedent  collections, 
though  the  theory  that  its  contents  were  written  not  by  David 
or  his  contemporaries  or  immediate  successors,  but  at  a  much  later 
period  in  Jewish  history,  and  chiefly  after  the  Exile,  must  be  re- 
garded as  at  least  doubtful.  Jewish  tradition,  which  has  a  high 
degree  of  probability  in  its  favor,  assigns  the  final  aggregation  of 
this  inspired  material  into  one  book  to  the  age  of  Ezra,  and  specific- 
ally to  the  period  of  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  :  B.  C.  457. 
From  and  after  this  period,  it  is  certain  that  the  Old  Testament 
existed  substantially  under  its  present  form  and  arrangement,  pre- 
senting in  its  unity  the  divine  teaching  respecting  what  man  ought 
to  believe,  and  what  duty  God  requires,  so  far  as  the  Jewish  people 
were  concerned.  As  such  it  was  confirmed  in  its  totality  by  fre- 
quent references,  and  in  its  separate  divisions  by  numerous  quota- 
tions and  allusions  made  by  our  L,ord  and  by  his  apostles.  As 
such,  it  was  received  by  the  early  church  universally  ;  was  trans- 
lated into  the  Septuagint,  was  quoted  by  the  Fathers,  both  Greek 
and  Latin,  as  authoritative  in  each  and  all  of  its  main  divisions  ; 
and  by  steadily  increasing  assent  became  the  accepted  revelation 
of  truth  and  duty  for  those,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile,  who  wore  the 
Christian  name. 

A  like  principle  of  growth  or  aggregation  is  apparent  in  the 
formation  of  the  New  Testament  Canon.  For  nearly  two  centu- 
ries the  books  comprised  in  it  existed  separately,  or  in  collections 
which  were  but  partial  and  provincial.  During  the  third  and 
fourth  centuries  the  process  of  separating  the  inspired  writings 
from  all  affiliated  productions  went  on, — the  earlier  traditions  in 
their  favor  being  tested  progressively  by  critical  inquiry,  until  at 
length  the  judgment  of  the  Church  was  fully  formed,  and  an  author- 
itative decision  was  reached.  During  this  long  process,  books 
assuming  to  be  sacred  if  not  inspired  were  examined  and  rejected; 
others  which  were  less  generally  known,  or  in  regard  to  which 


THE   APOCHRYPHAL   BOOKS.  95 

partial  doubt  existed  at  first,  made  their  way  into  the  sacred  list; 
the  conception  of  inspiration  was  more  fully  defined,  and  the  theo- 
retical standard  or  test  of  inspiration  raised;  copies  of  the  aggre- 
gated volume  were  multiplied,  and  less  complete  collections  were 
set  aside,  until  at  length  entire  agreement  was  attained,  and  the 
New  Testament  took  its  place  by  the  side  of  the  Old,  as  constitut- 
ing together  with  it  the  one  sole  and  perpetual  Word  of  God. 

The  problem  of  canonicity  is  in  one  sense  a  problem  always 
open, — a  problem  which  no  section  of  the  church  in  any  given 
period  can  solve  authoritatively  for  all  other  sections  through  all 
time.  It  is  conceivable  that  evidences  might  manifest  themselves 
which  would  compel  the  exclusion  of  some  book  now  regarded  as 
canonical;  and  on  the  other  hand  it  is  conceivable  that  some  new 
writing  may  be  discovered  even  at  this  late  day,  which  the  judg- 
ment of  the  church  would  place  among  the  inspired  and  authori- 
tive  Scriptures.  Yet  these  possibilities  are  possibilities  only.  A 
very  strong  presumption  certainly  exists  in  favor  of  decisions 
reached  fifteen  centuries  ago, and  which  have  stood  the  tests  and 
scrutiny  of  the  church  universal  down  to  our  own  time.  Questions 
have  indeed  been  and  still  are  raised  by  Christian  scholarship  as 
well  as  by  deistic  unbelief,  respecting  certain  books  in  the  New  and 
also  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  all  such  questions  have  within  just 
limits  some  claim  to  candid  consideration.  Yet  the  fact  that  since 
the  fifth  century  no  book  then  admitted  to  the  sacred  Canon  has 
subsequently  been  rejected  by  any  section  of  the  church,  Cath- 
olic or  Protestant,  seems  well-nigh  to  settle  the  problem  for  all 
coming  time.  The  decisive  probability  is  that  the  Bible  as  we 
have  it,  will  be  the  Bible  of  the  Christian  Church  so  long  as  the 
Church  exists. 

Before  proceeding  to  consider  the  principles  which  underlie  this 

general  process  of  construction,  we  should  note  the  corresponding 

process  of  elimination,  as  illustrated  in 

\,  .        .  ,  .    ,  ^  9.    Apocryphal   Books ; 

the  estimation  and  treatment  of  the  apoc-     Thdr  position  and  cla,m . 

ryphal  writings.    So  far  as  any  such  writ-     Reasons  for  rejection. 
ings  were  at  any  time  associated  with 

the  New  Testament  or  appended  to  it,  the  question  is  comparatively 
unimportant.  These  writings  are  in  no  case  older  than  the  second, 
and  many  of  them  belong  to  the  third  or  possibly  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. Their  authorship  is  either  uncertain  or  unknown;  their 
contents  are  largely  trivial  and  fictitious,  and  their  spirit  and  tone 
fall  entirely  below  those  of  the  Gospels  and  the  apostolic  Letters. 
To  this  should  be  added  the  fact  that  they  have  never  had  cur- 
rency or  credence  as  inspired  in  any  division  of   the  church, 


96  THK    HOLY    SCRIPTURE. 

Protestant  or  Catholic.  The  apocryphal  writings  belonging  to  the 
Old  Testament  period,  though  possessing  largely  the  same  charac- 
teristics, have  occasioned  more  frequent  discussion,  and  given  rise 
to  wider  ecclesiastical  diversities.  Though  they  never  had  place 
in  the  Hebrew  Canon,  as  was  generally  admitted,  yet  they  seem  to 
have  passed  gradually  during  the  first  three  Christian  centuries 
into  the  list  of  sacred  if  not  inspired  writings;  and  as  such  were 
appointed  to  be  read,  if  not  for  the  purpose  of  proving  from  them 
any  divine  doctrine,  still  for  instruction  and  edification.  In  the  first 
catalogue  of  authoritative  Scriptures,  drawn  up  by  any  representa- 
tive body  in  the  Church,  the  Council  of  Laodicea,  some  of  these 
books  were  directly  named  as  canonical;  and  in  the  writings  of 
Augustine  and  other  Fathers  they  were  recognized  as  in  some  tribu- 
tary sense  parts  of  Holy  Scripture.  The  distinction  just  suggested, 
though  urged  by  Origen  and  Jerome,  hardly  represented  the  gen- 
eral conviction.  These  writings  were  not  only  judged  to  be  useful 
as  illustrative  of  inspired  Scripture;  they  were  also  regarded  widely 
as  having  a  species  of  secondary  canonicity,  and  were  sometimes 
accepted  even  as  integral  portions  of  the  true  Revelation.  Wri- 
ters of  the  Middle  Ages  generally  so  describe  and  treat  them; 
and  down  to  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  they  were  both  used 
in  worship  and  quoted  doctrinally — especially  in  support  of  certain 
papal  errors,  such  as  the  dogma  of  Purgatory. 

The  Council  of  Trent,  following  Augustine  and  the  early 
Church,  pronounced  the  apocryphal  books  in  all  their  parts,  as 
they  have  been  accustomed  to  be  read  in  the  Catholic  church,  and 
are  found  in  the  ancient  editions  of  the  Latin  Vulgate,  sacred  and 
canonical;  and  anathematized  all  who  should  refuse  so  to  receive 
them.  The  Council  also  confirmed  its  decree  by  declaring  further 
that  the  Vulgate,  which  by  the  lengthened  use  of  so  many  ages, 
as  they  said,  has  been  approved  of  by  the  church,  should  be 
regarded  and  used  as  the  only  authoritative  translation  of  the 
Scriptures.  Some  Catholic  writers  have  justified  the  distinction 
between  primary  and  secondary  canonicity,  and  have  regarded  the 
apocryphal  books  as  canonical  in  the  secondary  sense  only — useful 
rather  than  authoritative.  But  the  decision  of  Trent  makes 
these  writings  fully  authoritative, — although  since  the  exaltation 
of  tradition  to  a  place  of  co-ordinate  authority  with  Scripture,  and 
especially  since  the  enunciation  of  the  dogma  of  papal  infallibility, 
the  doctrinal  necessity  for  such  a  decision  hardly  seems  urgent. 

The  Protestant  churches  were  led  by  doctrinal  as  well  as  histori- 
cal and  exegetical  considerations  to  array  themselves  against  the 
Roman  position.    It  is  urged  by  Moehler  as  a  criticism  (Symbolism) 


REASONS    FOR    EXCLUSION.  97 

that  in  their  decision  of  the  question,  regard  was  had  to  other 
considerations  than  those  of  a  merely  historical  and  critical 
kind.  He  probably  refers  to  those  doctrinal  predilections  and 
those  personal  impulses  by  which  Luther  was  led  to  reject  the 
Epistle  of  James,  and  to  question  the  comparative  worth  of  other 
portions  of  the  canonical  Scriptures  which  did  not  harmonize,  as 
he  supposed,  with  the  Pauline  conception  of  justification.  But 
Calvin  was  equally  emphatic  with  Luther  in  setting  the  Apocry- 
pha aside  as  unauthoritative,  basing  his  judgment  on  the  specific 
ground  of  the  absence  in  them  of  the  proper  signs  of  inspiration. 
The  Belgic  Confession  in  the  same  interest  declared  that  the  can- 
onical books  are  to  be  received,  not  so  much  because  the  church 
receives  and  approves  them  as  such,  but  more  especially  because 
the  Holy  Ghost  witnesseth  in  our  hearts  that  they  are  from  God, 
whereof  they  carry  the  evidence  in  themselves.  But  with  refer- 
ence to  the  apocryphal  writings  the  same  Confession  expresses 
the  general  sentiment  of  continental  Protestantism  in  the  words  : 
All  which  the  church  ma>^  read  and  take  instruction  from,  so  far 
as  they  agree  with  the  canonical  books;  but  they  are  far  from  hav- 
ing such  power  and  efficacy  as  that  we  may  from  their  testimony 
confirm  any  point  of  faith  or  of  the  Christian  religion — much  less 
to  detract  from  the  authority  of  the  older  sacred  books.  In  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  the  same  view  (VI)  is  presented  :  The  other 
books,  as  Hierome  saith,  the  Church  doth  read  for  example  of  life 
and  instruction  of  manners,  but  yet  doth  it  not  apply  to  them  to 
establish  any  doctrine.  This  is  also  the  teaching  of  the  Irish  Ar- 
ticles, with  the  added  declaration  (3)  that  these  writings  did  not 
proceed  from  inspiration.  In  the  Westminster  Confession  we  have 
a  still  more  decisive  rejection;  it  being  affirmed  not  only  that  these 
books  are  not  of  inspiration,  and  are  no  part  of  the  canon  of  the 
Scripture,  but  also  that  they  are  of  no  atithority  in  the  Church  of 
God,  and  are  not  to  be  any  ot/ierwise  approved  or  made  use  of  than 
any  other  human  writings.  Here  the  Reformed  view  comes  into 
most  marked  and  complete  contrast  with  the  decree  of  Trent; 
canonicity,  even  in  the  most  secondary  sense,  is  expressly  denied; 
the  use  of  the  Apocrypha,  even  for  example  of  life  and  instruction 
in  manners,  is  practically  disapproved. 

The  grounds  of  this  strong  judgment  are  not  given,  but  the 
judgment  itself  stands  out  in  marked  opposition  to  the  general 
opinion  of  the  ancient  Church  and  to  the  teaching  of  Rome.  Its 
foundation  and  reason  lie  doubtless  in  the  words  of  the  Confession: 
not  being  of  divine  inspiration.  The  evidences  of  the  absence  of 
such   inspiration    here  are   antithetic   to    the   evidences   of    the 


98  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

presence  of  inspiration  in  the  canonical  Scriptures.  That  these 
writings  make  no  claim  to  inspiration, — that  we  have  no  evidence 
of  their  having  been  regarded  or  received  as  inspired  by  the  apos- 
tolic Church, — that  the  inspired  books  do  not  invest  them  with 
such  endorsement  as  they  clearly  give  to  each  other, — that  they 
had  no  place  in  the  Old  Testament  canon,  and  were  never  prized 
as  inspired  by  the  Hebrews, — and  in  addition,  that  they  teach  no 
important  doctrine,  and  impart  no  special  stimulus  to  faith,  while 
on  the  other  hand  they  contain  much  that  is  contrary  to  both  the 
teaching  and  spirit  of  the  received  canonical  books; — these  in 
general  were  doubtless  the  grounds  on  which  these  writings  were 
not  only  set  aside,  but  practically  condemned  by  the  Assembly. 

The  general  principles  by  which  the  problem  of  canonicity  is 
determined,  are  easily  discerned.    The  Roman  church,  in  harmony 

with   its  theory  of  the  permanent  in- 
10,    Tests  of  Canonicity:      ,      „.  ,    .  ,  .         c  .,      0  •  .. 

_  ,  ..  ._  .  ..„  '  dwelling  and  mworkmg  ot  the  Spirit 
False  and  true  tests  indicated:  &  °  ^ 

value  of  the  external  tests.       within  that  church,  may  consistently 

maintain  that  its  decision  in  the  case  is 
final:  whatever  the  church  affirms  to  be  canonical,  is  so  even  if  the 
Apocrypha  be  included  in  the  affirmation.  But  Protestantism 
tests  the  church  by  the  Scriptures,  rather  than  the  Scriptures  by 
the  verdict  of  the  church;  and  therefore,  in  theory  at  least,  main- 
tains the  opposite  view,  that  the  true  test  of  any  book  found 
among  the  Sacred  Writings  is  nothing  less  than  the  presence  of 
inspired  and  authoritative  revelation.  In  the  statement  and  ap- 
plication of  this  principle,  however,  wide  variet)'  of  practice  has 
existed  and  still  exists  among  the  Protestant  churches.  It  is  the 
peculiar  glory  of  the  Westminster  Symbols  that  they  apply  the 
principle  so  clearly  and  so  rigidly,  and  while  rejecting  the  apoc- 
ryphal writings,  do  so  earnestly  approve  and  receive  the  books  of 
our  Canon  on  the  ground  of  their  demonstrated  inspiration  only. 
They  aver  that  the  authority  of  these  inspired  books  dcpendeth 
not  upon  the  testimony  of  any  man  or  churchy  but  wholly  upon  God: 
and  that  the  Bible,  as  made  up,  is  to  be  received  because  it  is  the 
Word  of  God.  This  position  stands  in  irreconcilable  contrast  with 
the  Roman  view,  even  if  we  state  that  view  in  its  mildest  form 
as  maintaining,  not  indeed  the  right  of  the  church  to  make  any 
book  canonical  which  had  never  before  been  so  regarded,  but  sim- 
ply its  right  to  express  a  conclusive  judgment  on  the  claim  of  any 
book  already  within  the  Canon  from  ancient  times. 

It  may  justly  be  questioned,  however,  whether  the  Symbols 
do  not  follow  the  Belgic  and  other  continental  Confessions  in 
making  the  test  of  canonicity  too  extensively,  if  not  exclusively, 


TESTS   OF   CANONICITY.  99 

an  internal  test.  While  they  teach  that  we  may  be  moved  and 
induced  by  the  testimony  of  the  church  to  an  high  and  reverent  esteem , 
they  lay  the  main  stress  on  the  inward  witness,  derived  from  what 
the  Scriptures  are  found  to  be  interiorly,  and  from  the  effects 
which  they  produce  in  the  believing  soul.  The  French  Conf .  for 
example,  strongly  illustrates  this  tendency  in  the  declaration  (IV ) 
that  we  know  these  books  to  be  canonical,  not  so  much  by  the 
common  accord  and  consent  of  the  church,  as  by  the  testimony 
and  inward  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  enables  us  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  other  ecclesiastical  books, — upon  which, 
however  useful,  we  cannot  found  any  articles  of  faith;  see  Scotch 
Conf. ,  XIX.  Nothing  can  be  more  exquisite  than  the  reference  in 
the  Symbols  (I  :  v)  to  the  heavenliness  of  the  matter,  the  efficacy 
of  the  doctrine,  the  majesty  of  the  style,  the  consent  of  all  the 
parts,  the  scope  of  the  whole,  (which  is  to  give  all  glory  to  God) 
the  full  discovery  of  the  only  way  of  man's  salvation,  the  many 
other  incomparable  excellencies,  and  the  entire  perfection  thereof. 
Yet  it  may  justly  be  doubted  whether  all  these,  though  they  be  so 
many  precious  disclosures  and  confirmations  to  the  soul  that 
already  believes  in  the  Bible,  are  arguments  whereby  it  doth  abund- 
antly evidence  itself  to  the  unbelieving  world  to  be  the  Word  of 
God.  Even  the  inward  work  of  the  Spirit,  bearing  witness  by  and 
•with  the  Word  in  our  hearts,  is  not  to  be  taken  as  decisive  of  the 
point  of  canonicity :  that  inward  work  itself  needs  external, 
historical,  rational  foundation  such  as  a  duly  authenticated  Reve- 
lation alone  can  give  it. 

The  question  is  clearly  to  be  decided  primarily  on  external, 
even  more  than  on  internal  grounds  and  evidences.  The  neces- 
sity for  such  external  testimony  is  obvious.  Though  the  O.  T. 
Canon  was  made  up  by  Ezra,  as  reliable  tradition  affirms,  we 
have  no  adequate  warrant  for  asserting  that  Ezra  was  inspired  or 
infallibly  guided  in  his  holy  task,  on  the  internal  ground  that  the 
books  of  the  Old  Test,  commend  themselves  to  our  religious  taste 
or  feeling.  We  are  also  bound  to  search  diligently  for  all  out- 
ward indications  in  Jewish  history  and  elsewhere,  which  may 
serve  to  justify  or  strengthen  our  inward  confidence  in  their 
canonicity.  Though  the  early  Church  has  by  progressive  inquiry 
and  by  solemn  acts  of  councils  declared  its  judgment  respecting 
the  N.  T.  Canon,  that  conclusion  is  binding  only  so  far  as  the 
reasons  on  which  it  is  based,  are  in  themselves  clear  and  conclu- 
sive to  us.  Though  the  church  of  Rome  proclaims  its  final  decree, 
assuming  to  act  as  the  divinely  appointed  arbiter  in  the  case,  and 
pronouncing  its  anathema  on  all  who  refuse  to  accept  its  decision, 


100  THE    HOLY    SCRIPTURE. 

the  question  is  still  open  to  the  adjudication  of  Christian  scholar- 
ship, and  a  different  answer  may  be  given  at  any  time,  if  adequate 
external  or  historical  warrant  should  be  found.  As  Protestants 
following  in  the  path  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  and  especially  as 
Presbyterians,  accepting  the  principles  of  our  own  Confession 
and  the  example  of  the  divines  of  Westminster,  we  assuredly  can 
take  no  other  position  than  this.  The  fact  that  the  Symbols  have 
declared  what  books  are  canonical  and  what  are  apocryphal,  does 
not  prohibit  any  one  from  inquiring  into  the  subject  for  himself, 
or  from  holding  a  different  opinion,  if  on  grounds  which  seem  to 
him  adequate  and  convincing,  he  is  led  to  such  result.  The  right 
of  investigation,  as  has  been  already  intimated,  is  one  which  the 
testimony  of  the  church,  however  earnest  and  impressive,  can 
never  take  away. 

The  external  evidences  of  the  true  inspiration  of  the  received 
Scripture,  and  of  the  proper  canonicity  of  its  several  parts,  can- 
not be  presented  in  detail  in  this  Lecture.  They  are  found  partly 
in  miracles,  viewed  as  proofs  of  a  supernatural  presence,  working 
within  the  sphere  of  nature  to  secure  certain  moral  or  gracious 
results,  and  verified  as  historical  facts  on  purely  historical 
grounds.  They  are  found  partly  in  prophecies,  regarded  as  pre- 
dictions of  events  hereafter  to  occur  in  the  field  of  providence, 
and  afterward  confirmed  by  facts  authentically  established. 
They  are  also  found  in  the  career  and  position  of  the  Bible  in  the 
world,  and  in  the  marvelous  influence  of  the  Book  as  we  now 
possess  it,  on  the  life  and  character  of  mankind  wherever  it  has 
been  produced.  Volumes  upon  volumes  have  been  written  by 
the  ablest  Christian  apologists  in  the  elucidation  of  these  external 
evidences,  and  in  the  exposition  of  their  weight  and  conclusive- 
ness whenever  candidly  apprehended.  The  point  to  be  specially 
noted  here  is  that  these  proofs  present  themselves  in  forms  which 
skeptical  minds  can  comprehend:  they  base  the  claim  of  the  Bible 
to  acceptance  on  grounds  which  skepticism  can  neither  set  aside 
nor  controvert.  They  furnish  in  their  combination  a  broad  ex- 
ternal argument  for  the  Word  of  God, — an  argument  by  which 
the  judgment  and  conviction  of  humanity  are  first  reached,  and 
first  won  over  to  its  acceptation.  And  on  the  firm  basis  which 
they  supply,  the  inward  witness  of  Scripture  comes  in  as  an  addi- 
tional confirmation,  certifying  afresh  to  the  believing  soul  that 
the  Bible  as  we  have  it  in  the  canonical  books  is  verily  the  word 
not  of  man,  but  of  God. 

In  the  Revision  proposed  for  our  own  Church  the  words,  the 
truthfulness  of  the  history,   the  faithful  witness  of  prophecy  and 


PRESERVATION    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  101 

miracle,  were  added  to  the  section  on  the  evidences  of  Scripture 
as  prefatory  to  the  internal  proofs  there  named, for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  out  more  distinctly  this  external  argument  for  both  the 
canonicity  and  the  authoritativeness  of  the  Divine  Word.  It  is  a 
fact  worthy  of  note  that  the  Westminster  Assembly  at  one  stage 
in  the  discussions  on  this  subject  adopted  the  fullfilling  of  the 
prophecies  as  one  of  the  practical  evidences  in  the  case.  It  is  also 
notable  that  Gillespie,  to  whom  the  construction  of  the  Article 
seems  to  have  been  largely  due,  proposed  also  the  phrases,  the 
irresistible  power  over  the  conscience,  the  supernatural  mysteries 
revealed  therein, — referring  doubtless  to  the  moral  effect  of  the 
Bible  in  human  life,  and  to  the  confirmatory  testimony  of  miracles 
in  its  support.  The  external  proofs  thus  suggested  have  assumed 
vastly  greater  importance  since  prophecy  and  miracle,  especially 
the  latter,  have  become  the  subjects  of  so  much  thoughtful  and 
valuable  discussion,  and  since  the  argument  from  history  and 
from  the  moral  influence  of  Scripture  has  come  to  be  valued  at  its 
proper  worth.  In  view  of  such  developments  it  is  no  longer 
desirable  or  wise  to  rest  the  claim  of  the  Bible  on  internal  evi- 
dence only.  These  more  external  attestations,  whose  appeal  to 
the  reason  and  the  conscience  is  so  potent,  have  become  indis- 
pensable elements  in  the  vast  argument  by  which  the  world  is  to 
be  persuaded  into  allegiance  to  spiritual  Christianit)'.  It  is  there- 
fore a  matter  of  regret  that  the  proposed  addition  failed  to  gain 
its  proper  place  in  the  Confession  through  the  endorsement  of  a 
living  church,  which  beyond  a  doubt  accepts  the  truth  which  that 
addition  was  designed  to  express. 

The  statements  of  the  Confession  respecting  the  original  form 
of  these  canonical  writings,  their  providential  preservation,  and 
the  right  and  duty  of  translation  into 

the  various  languages  of  men,  should  "■  Preservation,  genu- 
,  . ,       .,_,-.  , ,        ineness,  translation,  and  dif- 

be  considered  here.     Referring  to  the     fUSion 

Old    Testament    as    written    in    the 

Hebrew,  which  was  the  native  language  of  the  people  of  God  of  old ,  and 
to  the  New  Testament  as  written  in  the  Greek,  which  at  the  time 
of  writing  was  the  tongue  most  generally  known  to  the  nations,  it 
points  to  the  singular  care  and  providence  of  God  by  which  these 
sacred  books  have  been  kept  pure  in  all  ages;  preserved  to  be  the 
light  and  guide  not  merely  of  those  familiar  with  these  languages 
but  of  all  nations.  If  God  doth  uphold,  direct,  dispose,  and 
govern  all  creatures,  actions  and  things,  from  the  greatest  even 
to  the  least —  as  the  Confession  teaches  elsewhere  —  it  may  cer- 
tainly be  held  that  such  wise  and  holy  providence  would  reveal 


102  THE   HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 

itself  in  an  especial  manner,  not  indeed  miraculously  or  super  - 
naturally,  yet  specifically  and  immediately,  in  the  preservation  of 
such  a  book  as  the  Bible.  And  the  history  of  that  Book,  of  the 
vicissitudes  through  which  it  passed  in  its  original  form,  of  the 
perils  to  which  it  has  been  exposed  from  various  quarters,  of  the 
means  and  agencies  employed  in  its  continuous  preservation,  and 
of  the  verifications  historically  furnished  even  to  its  minutest 
details,  might  without  irreverence  be  called  miraculous.  That 
history  is  certainly  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  its  inherent  claim 
to  be  the  Word  of  God.  Through  comparison  of  many  early 
manuscripts,  through  incidental  references  in  early  writings, 
Christian  and  pagan,  through  early  translations  extending  back 
even  to  the  first  centuries,  and  in  many  other  ways,  we  are 
enabled  to  verify  the  singular  care  and  providence  here  asserted, 
and  to  recognize  in  the  present  Scriptures  the  genuine  and  verit- 
able Word  of  God  as  given  first  to  the  Hebraic,  then  to  the 
Christian  Church. 

It  should  be  said  here  that  the  terms,  genuine  and  authentic, 
as  applied  to  any  portion  of  Scripture,  refer  simply  to  its  historic 
quality, —  to  the  fact  that  it  can  be  traced  back  satisfactorily,  as 
to  text  and  substance,  to  the  sources  from  which  it  professes  to 
have  originated.  The  term,  canonical,  refers  rather,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  church  opinions  and  decisions  respecting  the  right  of  any 
such  book,  when  proved  to  be  genuine  and  authentic,  to  be  placed 
in  the  group  of  inspired  writings.  A  genuine  and  authentic  book 
is  one  which  was  in  fact  written  by  the  person  who  professes  to 
write  it,  and  is  handed  down  to  us  exactly  or  substantially  as 
he  wrote  it.  A  canonical  book  is  one  whose  claims  to  a  place  in 
the  grouped  Scriptures  are  justified  by  adequate  testimony,  and 
confirmed  by  the  judgment  of  the  Christian  Church  on  the  basis 
of  its  established  authenticity.  Our  Symbols  affirm  the  verified 
genuineness  of  the  several  parts  of  the  Bible,  on  the  ground  of  the 
singular  providence  and  care  of  God,  as  concerned  with  their 
historic  preservation  and  integrity.  They  assert  in  general  that 
each  of  the  books  named  is  to  be  viewed  as  authentic, — leaving  to 
the  investigation  of  textual  critics  all  specific  questions  involving 
particular  passages  or  individual  terms  or  phrases  in  the  authenti- 
cated Word. 

Mitchell  (Introduction)  justly  observes  that,  so  far  from  desir- 
ing to  go  beyond  their  predecessors  in  rigor,  the  Westminster 
divines  were  at  more  special  pains  than  the  authors  of  any  other 
Confession  ...  to  avoid  mixing  up  the  question  of  the  can  on - 
icity  of  particular  books  with  the  question  of  their  authorship, 


TRANSLATION — DIFFUSION.  103 

where  any  doubt  at  all  existed  on  the  latter  point.  Yet  there  are 
many  indications  that  they  regarded  the  question  of  authorship, 
and  especially  of  apostolic  authorship,  as  one  of  very  grave,  if  not 
vital  importance.  Especially  in  their  long  debates  on  the  nature 
of  the  church,  the  authority  of  church  officials,  and  the  right  and 
duty  of  church  discipline,  we  hear  them  again  and  again  appealing 
to  apostolic  authority  as  derived  from  the  sacred  writings.  One 
of  the  cardinal  elements  in  their  firm  belief  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment books  named  in  the  Confession  were  truly  canonical  and 
inspired,  and  therefore  in  the  highest  sense  authoritative,  was  the 
accepted  fact  that  they  were  written  by  Matthew  and  John,  Paul 
and  Peter,  and  by  other  inspired  persons  under  apostolic  direction. 
In  other  words,  they  accepted  these  books  as  inspired  and  authori- 
tative largely  on  the  ground  of  their  established  apostolicity. 
Had  they  been  confronted  with  that  current  type  of  naturalizing 
criticism  which  questions  or  denies  this  apostolic  quality,  and 
affirms  that  the  Apostles  wrote  or  indited  but  little,  if  any,  of  these 
Scriptures, — that  the  real  authors  were  various  unknown  men, 
writing  we  know  not  when  or  where  or  from  what  motive,  and 
finally  passing  off  their  productions  upon  the  church  by  prefacing 
them  with  apostolic  names, — they  would  have  pronounced  such  an 
hypothesis  not  only  unwarranted  and  fanciful,  but  in  essence 
heretical  and  destructive  to  the  common  faith.  It  is  a  fact  of 
great  significance  that  not  only  the  Symbols,  but  also  most  of  the 
Protestant  creeds,  following  the  example  of  Paul,  speak  with 
emphasis  of  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets — of  the 
basis  of  faith  and  acceptance  laid  in  the  fact  that  the  sacred  writ- 
ings came  directly  from  the  prophets  and  apostles  whose  names 
they  bear.  To  reject  such  eminent  authorship  is  a  long  step 
toward  the  rejection  of  the  writings  themselves. 

The  duty  of  translating  the  Scriptures,  thus  providentially  pre- 
served, into  the  various  languages  and  dialects  of  the  world  is  also 
enjoined  in  the  Symbols.  Protestantism  universally  arrayed  itself 
against  the  decree  of  the  papacy  in  imposing  the  Vulgate  upon  all 
as  the  only  proper  language  or  form  in  which  the  Divine  Word  is 
to  be  studied,  and  in  repressing  if  not  forbidding  all  translations 
into  the  common  tongues  of  Europe.  It  was  one  of  the  primary 
desires  of  Euther,  and  of  the  Reformers  universally,  that  this 
Divine  Book  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  that  it 
should  be  read  by  the  people  in  their  native  tongues.  So  long  as 
this  Word  wTas  concealed  within  the  folds  of  an  unknown  lan- 
guage, so  long — as  they  believed — would  the  force  of  its  teaching 
be  lost,  and  so  long  would  a  corrupt  church  continue  to  tyrannize 


104  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

over  the  conscience  and  the  life.  Granted  full  possession  of  the 
Word  by  each  believer,  and  the  unrestricted  exercise  of  the  right 
and  privilege  of  private  study  and  interpretation,  they  were 
assured  that  Protestantism  could  maintain  itself  triumphantly 
against  the  stupendous  assumptions  of  Rome. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Protestantism,  and  especially  of  the  Protestant- 
ism of  this  century,  that  in  the  free  spirit  of  the  Reformation  it 
has  thus  given  the  Bible  to  the  world;  securing  its  translation  into 
almost  every  conspicuous  tongue,  and  even  into  provincial  dialects; 
creating  in  many  instances  written  languages  for  this  purpose 
where  none  existed  before;  and  diffusing  the  Divine  Word  in  these 
multiplied  forms  in  every  continent,  among  all  nations,  and  even 
in  the  remotest  islands  of  earth.  Nor  is  this  simply  a  necessity  to 
Protestantism  viewed  as  an  organization:  it  is  a  necessity  which 
lies  in  the  nature  of  spiritual  as  distinguished  from  a  formal  and 
hierarchal  type  of  Christianity.  For,  true  as  it  is  that  Protestant 
doctrine,  polity,  worship,  can  be  maintained  only  as  they  are  sup- 
ported by  the  living  Word  in  the  hands  of  all,  it  is  still  more  true 
that  Christianity  in  its  broadest,  highest  form  bases  itself  immedi- 
ately and  always  on  an  open  Bible.  The  Word  of  God  dwelling 
plentifully  in  all, — to  use  the  strong  phrase  of  the  Confession — is 
the  source  of  its  best  life  and  of  its  spiritual  power.  One  interesting 
illustration  of  the  loyalty  of  the  Assembly  to  the  Scriptures,  and 
of  their  zeal  in  the  circulation  of  the  inspired  Word  in  its  purity, 
appears  in  the  record  of  their  memorial  to  Parliament  to  seize  and 
destroy  two  defective  or  corrupt  editions  of  the  Bible  published  on 
the  Continent,  and  their  discussion  of  the  matter  of  furnishing 
Britain  with  true  Bibles  upon  as  easy  rates  as  can  be  afforded.  See 
also  their  action  (Minutes,  193)  petitioning  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment to  provide  means  for  the  printing  of  the  Septuagint,  the 
famous  Alexandrian  Codex,  presented  to  Charles  I.  by  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople. 

Passing  on  from  these  questions  respecting  the  genuineness  and 
canonicity  of  the  Scriptures,  we  may  turn  to  note  more  specifically 

the  position  of  the  Symbols  as  to  the 

,l2;himthn°^taffneSSpnd  credibility  and  authoritativeness  of  the 
credibility  of  Scripture :  Ev_     ._.,, 

idences  internal  and  exter-  Blble'.  vlewed  as  an  inspired  and  au- 
aal:  mandatory  power.  thenticated  Book.     Granted  the  suffi- 

cient integrity  of  the  text,  and  the 
adequate  solution  of  the  problem  of  source  and  authorship, — 
granted  also  the  full  significance  of  the  judgment  of  the  Church 
on  all  points  of  canonicity,  on  what  grounds  shall  it  be  asserted 
that  the  Bible  thus  determined  ought  to  be  believed,  and  on  what 


BASIS   OF    CREDIBILITY.  105 

basis  shall  its  claim  to  complete  authoritativeness  on  all  points, 
whether  of  faith  or  of  duty  be  placed?  The  subject  has  been  already 
introduced  in  connection  with  the  problem  of  canonieity  :  it 
deserves  a  more  specific  consideration  at  this  point. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  that,   as  already  intimated,    the  Symbols 
present   no   specific  array  of  external  evidence  by  which  such 
credibility  and  authoritativeness  may  be  proved.     They  indeed 
make  some  provision  for  miracles  in  the  broad  statement  (V:  iii) 
that  while  God  ordinarily  in  his  providence  makes  use  of  means, 
and  works  through  fixed  laws,  yet  he  is,  free  to  work  without,  above 
and  against  them  at  his  pleasure.     So  they  recognize  the  reality 
and  worth  of  prophecy  (X.  C.  44),  especially  as  represented  in 
the  person  and  the  predictions  of  our  Lord, — regarding  the  latter 
as  illustrations  of  his  omniscient  perception  of  things  to  come. 
They  also  suggest  both  the  historical  argument  and  the  moral 
argument  for  the  Bible  in  what  they  say  concerning  its  providential 
preservation  and  its  peculiar  influence  as  a  prime  factor  in  the 
economy  of  grace  and  inhuman  life.     Yet,  as  we  have  seen,  they 
introduce  neither  miracle  nor  prophecy  nor  any  other  variety  of 
external  evidence  in  adequate  form  to  prove  directly  that  the  Bible 
is,  not  merely  an  authenticated  book,   but  also  an  authoritative 
revelation  from  God.     But  it  is  noticeable  as  an  illustration  both 
of  their  type  of  religious  experience,  and  of  their  ordinary  modes 
of  viewing  the  truth  that,  as  we  have  already  noted,  they  press  into 
special  prominence  what  has  been  termed  the  internal  ground  of 
such  authoritativeness.     Additional  evidence  on  this  point  may 
be  quoted  here.     The  Larger  Catechism  condenses  their  judgment 
in  the  words  :    The  Scriptures  manifest  themselves  to  be  the  Word  of 
God  by  their  majesty  and  purity ,  by  the  consent  of  all  the  parts  and  the 
scope  of  the  whole,  and  by  their  light  and  power  to  convince  and  con- 
vert sinners,  and  to  co?nfort  and  build  up  believers  unto  salvation.  The 
same  truth  is  still  further  presented  and  emphasized  by  the  declar- 
ation, that  the  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  by  and  with  the  Scrip- 
tures in  the  soul  of  man,  is  indispensable  fully  to  persuade  him 
that  they  are  the  very  Word  of  God.     To  this  inward  assurance 
even  the  judgment  of  the  Church  is  subordinated,  however  we 
may  be  moved  by  that  judgment  to  an  high  and  reverent  esteem. 
This  statement  rests  the  whole  argument  in  the  case  on  the  expe- 
rience and  conviction  of    those   who  have  already  believed  :  it 
would  be  ineffectual  if  urged  as  a  primary  proof  of  authoritative- 
ness upon  one  who  should  approach  the  question  from  the  point  of 
doubt  or  unbelief.     The  general  fact  is  that  none  of  the  Protestant 
Confessions  attempted  any  description  of   that  strong  external 


106  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

evidence  on  which  primarily  the  whole  question  of  authoritative- 
ness  now  rests:  they  simply  appealed  even  from  the  judgment  of 
the  Church  and  the  historic  Councils  to  this  interior  proof,  and 
were  content  with  the  responsive  approval  of  the  soul  that  for 
itself  has  tasted  and  seen  that  the  Word  is  precious. 

Yet  however  defective  in  their  statement  of  the  basis  on  which 
such  authoritativeness  rests,  the  Symbols  are  conclusive  and  most 
emphatic  as  to  the  fact.  One  who  studies  the  debates  of  the 
Assembly,  so  far  as  they  have  been  preserved,  or  who  examines 
the  doctrinal  products  of  such  discussion,  cannot  doubt  as  to  the 
place  which  the  Word  of  God  occupied  in  their  estimation.  The 
amount  of  time  spent  in  their  examination  of  texts  of  Scripture, 
with  reference  especially  to  their  value  as  supports  of  certain 
doctrines,  and  the  skill  shown  in  the  use  of  such  texts  in  the  phras- 
eology of  the  Symbols,  are  convincing  evidences  of  their  unswerv- 
ing loyalty  to  the  Bible.  Their  biblical  proofs,  appended  to  each 
chapter  and  section  of  the  Confession  and  to  the  Catechisms,  though 
occasionally  faulty  in  the  light  of  more  modern  exegesis,  clearly 
indicate  their  supreme  desire  to  confirm  and  verify  everything  by 
the  authentic  and  authoritative  Word.  In  fact  it  is  the  presence  of 
this  remarkable  scripturalness,  and  of  this  unflinching  adherence 
to  whatever  the  Word  of  God  declares,  however  profound  in  its 
mystery  or  perplexing  to  faith,  to  which — even  more  than  to  the 
constant  fealty  of  their  doctrinal  system  to  logical  rule  and  phil- 
osophic principles — the  enduring  hold  and  sway  of  that  system 
are  to  be  traced.  Whatever  the  grounds  of  their  judgment,  they 
in  fact  held  it  as  a  fundamental  axiom  that  the  Scriptures  teach, 
and  that  clearly  and  decisively  as  well  as  principally,  what  man  is 
to  believe  concerning  God  and  what  duty  God  requires  of  man. 

In  respect  to  the  kind  and  measure  of  the  authority  thus  vested 
in  the  Bible,  we  find  the  Symbols  most  distinct  and  earnest  in 
their  affirmations.  The  authority  of  the  Scripture,  for  which  it 
ought  to  be  believed  and  obej^ed,  dependeth  .  .  .  wholly  upon 
God,  the  Author  thereof:  it  is  to  be  received  because  it  is  the  Word 
of  God.  The  authoritativeness  in  the  case  is  divine,  and  is  there- 
fore forever  supreme  and  final.  Without  taking  up  just  here 
the  contrast  suggested  between  this  and  certain  other  asserted 
sources  of  authority  in  matters  of  religion,  we  may  in  brief  note, 

First:  the  absolute  and  unchallengeable  claim  of  the  Bible,  as 
based  upon  this  fact  of  a  divine  authorship.  So  long  as  there  are 
doubts  respecting  this  cardinal  fact, — so  long  as  the  human 
agency  in  revelation  is  lifted  into  prominence  to  the  relative 
retirement  of  this  divine  agency  in  its  production,  so  long  there 


ITS    AUTHORITATIVENESS.  107 

will  be  room  for  hesitancy  or  for  unbelief  in  respect  to  the  biblical 
teaching  and  requirements.  But  the  moment  it  is  shown  by 
proof  sufficient  to  carry  conviction  to  the  intelligent  and  unpreju- 
diced mind,  that  the  Bible  has  come  to  us  not  from  man  but  from 
God,  and  is  invested  with  his  personal  endorsement  as  its  author, 
there  is  no  further  room  for  hesitation  —  no  possible  ground  for 
unbelief.  Man  in  such  a  case  has  no  other  recourse  than  to  hear 
reverently  what  God  has  spoken,  to  believe  implicitly  what  is 
spoken  on  his  authority,  and  promptly  and  joyously  to  obey. 
What  is  said  of  the  Moral  Law  in  the  Larger  Catechism  (95)  is 
true  of  the  entire  Word  :  It  is  of  use  to  all  men,  to  inform  them 
of  the  holy  nature  and  will  of  God,  and  of  their  duty,  binding 
them  to  zvalk  accordingly . 

Secondly:  The  absolute  and  unquestionable  nature  of  the 
corresponding  duty  of  faith  and  obedience.  Were  such  duty 
dependent  on  any  opinions  or  decisions  of  man,  or  on  the  deter- 
minations of  reason  or  of  human  authority  in  whatever  form,  the 
sense  of  personal  obligation  would  of  course  be  correspondingly 
weakened  or  invalidated.  But  in  this  case  the  obligation  to 
believe  and  obey  is  imperative  and  absolute:  no  question  or  objec- 
tion can  be  raised  against  it,  and  no  hesitation  respecting  it  can 
for  an  instant  be  justified.  All  men  are  alike  held  under  this 
just  and  solemn  responsibility.  The  claim  of  the  Bible  to  uni- 
versal credence  and  submission  is  of  the  same  nature  as  the  claim 
of  God  himself;  and  no  human  being  can  for  a  single  moment 
stand  in  any  position  where  he  is  justified  in  evading  or  ignoring 
that  sovereign  claim. 

Thirdly:  The  authoritativeness  of  Scripture  gathers  vastly 
increased  significance  if  we  bear  in  mind  its  comprehensive  char- 
acter, both  as  a  compendium  of  belief  and  as  a  law  of  life.  For 
no  truth  concerning  God  or  ourselves,  concerning  our  moral 
relations  or  destinies,  concerning  salvation  in  any  legitimate  aspect 
of  the  term,  is  omitted  from  the  Bible:  it  comprehends  and 
embraces  in  the  fullest  sense  and  measure  all  that  man  is  to  believe 
in  order  to  salvation.  And  in  all  this  comprehensiveness,  it 
comes  to  every  soul  demanding  credence,  not  of  here  and  there  a 
portion,  but  of  the  whole,  and  of  every  essential,  integral  division 
of  the  whole, —  credence  not  as  if  its  statements  were  probable 
merely,  or  credence  mixed  with  conscious  discount  or  reservation, 
but  credence  absolute  and  unconditional,  both  for  the  present  and 
for  all  the  future.  In  like  manner,  its  particular  precepts  and 
injunctions  are  seen  to  include  every  relation  of  life,  to  apply 
to  each  soul  in  all  its  varied  conditions,  to  reach  into  the  spirit 


108  THE    HOLV    SCRIPTURE. 

and  the  intents  of  the  heart,  and  thus  to  rule  over  man  absolutely, 
comprehensively,  interiorly,  eternally, — showing  us  all  that  God 
requires  of  man  in  order  that  he  may  be  saved.  And  in  the  same 
way  it  demands,  and  will  receive  nothing  less  than  the  most 
entire,  unhesitating,  cordial  submission,  not  to  some  portion  but 
to  the  whole  of  its  comprehensive  law  of  life.  The  complete 
authority  of  God  stands  behind  each  particular  requirement  in 
the  sacred  series:  the  full  potency  of  his  supreme  personality 
pours  itself  into  the  very  least  of  these  commandments.  He  is 
himself,  in  his  totality,  revealed  in  every  article  of  belief,  and  in 
each  mandatory  precept,  each  gracious  promise,  each  judicial 
warning.  Hence  the  force  and  worth  of  the  remarkably  strong 
declaration  of  the  Symbols  on  this  vital  point, —  a  declaration 
which  more  fully  than  any  found  in  any  other  creed  of  Protes- 
tantism, exalts  Holy  Scripture  in  both  aspects  as  the  rule  of  faith 
and  the  rule  of  obedience  universal,  perpetual  and  perfect.* 

This  supreme  authoritativeness  becomes  more  apparent,  as  we 
further  note  the  strong  contrast  here  introduced  between  the  Bible 

13.  Contrast  with  patristic  and  all  other  varieties  of  authority  in 
traditions,  with  church  Coun-  the  sphere  of  religion.  The  force  of  this 
cils :  Protestantism  against  contrast  comes  into  view  only  in  the 
Romanism:  adequacy  of  the  light  of  the  antecedent  history  and  posi- 
BlWe*  tion  of  Protestantism  in  the  aggregate. 

That  position  may  be  indicated  by  its  historic  antithesis  in  the 
notable  decree  of  Trent,  viewed  as  an  authoritative  statement  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  church  of  Rome.  That  Council  not  only,  as 
we  have  seen,  regarded  the  Apocrypha  as  canonical,  and  set  up  the 
Vulgate  as  the  only  authorized  translation  of  Scripture:  it  also 
added  to  the  Scripture  itself  the  traditions  of  the  Christian 
fathers,  the  decisions  of  the  ancient  councils,  the  judgment  and 
consent  of  the  organized  household  of  faith,  in  whatever  form 
expressed.  It  indeed  explained  that  the  ultimate  basis  of  all 
patristic  or  churchly  tradition  is  to  be  found,  obscurely  if  not 


*In  affirming  thus  the  sufficiency  and  completeness  of  the  Bible  above  all 
other  books  as  a  law  of  life  and  a  sure  guide  to  salvation,  we  shall  do  well  to 
remember  the  wise  caution  of  Howe,  (Sermons  on  Family  Worship)  that  in 
declaring  the  Scripture  to  be  such  a  rule,  we  do  not  mean  as  severed  and  cut 
off  from  the  law  of  nature,  or  in  opposition  to  that,  or  excluding  that;  but  as 
including  it,  and  as  excluding  only  the  unnecessary  and  arbitrary  inventions 
of  men,  and  the  additions  that  they  see  fit  to  subnect  to  it.  Take  the 
Scripture,  adds  that  eminent  divine,  in  conjunction  with  the  frame  of  most 
unquestionably  natural  dictates  and  sentiments,  and  then  we  have  an  entire 
discovery  of  all  that  is  requisite  to  our  acceptable  walking  with  God. 


ROMAN    AND    PROTESTANT    VIEW.  109 

distinctly,  in  the  written  Scriptures,  yet  claimed  for  such  tradi- 
tion when  framed  an  authoritativeness  hardly  less  potential  than 
that  of  the  inspired  Word  itself.  And  though  the  final  step  in 
this  direction  had  not  then  been  taken  in  the  adoption  of  the  dictum 
of  papal  infallibility,  the  Assembly  of  Westminster  was  practicallv 
confronted  by  the  same  error  which  has  in  our  time  been 
expressed  in  the  words:  The  Roman  Pontiff  .  .  .  when  in  dis- 
charge of  the  office  of  pastor  and  doctor  of  all  Christians,  by 
virtue  of  his  supreme  apostolic  authority,  he  defines  the  doctrine 
regarding  faith  or  morals  to  be  held  by  the  universal  church,  by 
the  divine  assistance  promised  to  him  in  blessed  Peter,  is  possessed 
of  that  infallibility  with  which  the  Redeemer  willed  that  his 
church  should  be  endowed  for  defining  doctrine  regarding  faith 
or  morals;  and  therefore  such  definitions  are  irreformable  of 
themselves,  and  not  from  consent  of  the  church:  Vatican  Council 
1870:    Dogmatic  Constitution,  Ch.  IV. 

Against  such  assumption  as  this  whether  in  the  earlier  or  in  the 
later  form,  it  became  Protestantism  to  make  most  earnest  oppo- 
sition. That  assumption  involves  a  number  of  errors,  which 
would  have  been  fatal  alike  to  free  inquiry  in  matters  of  religion , 
and  to  the  free  development  of  spiritual  experience,  around  the 
cardinal  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.  It  was  an  error  to 
suppose  that  the  church  was  so  fully  inhabited  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  as  to  be  in  every  case  guided  infallibly  in  its  perceptions 
or  statements  of  divine  truth.  It  was  an  equal  error  to  suppose 
that  its  opinions  once  formed,  its  teachings  once  expressed,  were 
incapable  of  alteration  or  improvement,  and  must  therefore  stand 
for  all  time  as  the  final  and  irreversible  rule  of  human  belief. 
But  it  was  an  error  still  more  palpable  and  gross,  to  suppose  that 
the  judgments  of  the  early  fathers  on  points  of  faith — judgments 
often  mutually  contradictory,  narrow,  sensuous,  and  at  variance 
with  later  conclusions  drawn  by  Christian  scholarship  from  the 
Holy  Oracles  —  were  to  be  added  to  and  accepted  as  co-ordinate 
with  the  teachings  of  Scripture;  or  that  the  decrees  of  councils, 
characterized  largely  by  the  same  defects,  and  equally  unable  to 
bear  the  tests  of  thorough  inquiry,  were  invested  with  like 
authority.  Over  against  these  errors,  pernicious  in  theory  but 
far  more  pernicious  in  their  inferences  and  practical  effects,  Prot- 
estantism from  the  beginning  maintained  that  the  Word  of  God 
alone  is  the  infallible  rule  of  belief  and  life, —  that  while  tradition 
might  shed  light  on  the  teaching  of  that  Word,  it  could  never 
become  a  substitute  for  or  an  addition  to  the  Word, —  that  the 
H0I37  Spirit  is  not  promised  to   the  church   as  an  independent 


110  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

inspirer  but  rather  as  a  guide  in  the  comprehension  of  the  written 
Scripture,  and  in  that  work  does  not  guarantee  the  disciple  or 
the  church  from  defective  or  from  erroneous  views  of  the  truth, — 
and  consequently  that  the  declarations  of  councils,  Roman  of 
Protestant,  even  when  ecumenical,  are  not  to  be  taken  as  authori- 
tative in  any  primal  or  final  sense  of  that  term. 

To  this  general  view,  the  Symbols  give  full  and  elaborate  ex- 
pression. They  maintain  at  the  outset  that  the  infallible  rule  of 
belief  and  life  is  the  Scripture  itself, — that  the  whole  counsel  of 
God  concerning  all  things  necessary  is  expressly  set  down  in  Scrip- 
ture, or  by  good  and  necessary  consequence  may  be  deduced  from  it; 
and  hence  that  nothing  is  at  any  time  to  be  added  thereto,  whether  by 
new  revelations  of  the  Spirit,  or  by  the  traditions  of  men.  In  the 
remarkable  chapter  on  Synods  and  Councils  (XXXI)  the  true 
relation  of  the  church  to  the  Bible  is  concisely  and  forcibly  des- 
cribed, and  the  assumptions  of  the  papacy  are  guarded  against  in 
language  to  which  the  experience  of  succeeding  generations  has 
only  given  added  emphasis.  It  may  be,  as  has  been  charged,  that 
practically  the  Assembly  in  some  cases  assumed  for  itself  some 
measure  of  the  authoritativeness  which  it  denied  to  Rome;  and  it 
has  certainly  been  the  case  that  Presbyterians  have  sometimes 
asserted  for  their  formularies  a  degree  of  significance  approaching 
if  not  reaching  actual  infallibilty.  Yet  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  peculiar  values  of  the  Symbols  themselves,  that  they  ex- 
pressly disavow  such  assumption,  and  while  defining  elaborately 
the  degree  and  kind  of  mandatory  power  which  the  Christian 
church  may  justly  wield  in  the  sphere  of  doctrine,  guard  with 
more  careful  precision  than  any  other  Protestant  creed  the  rights 
of  the  individual  as  against  the  church,  and  the  rights  of  the 
inspired  Word  as  above  both  church  and  disciple. 

The  perfect  adequacy  of  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  is  of 
course  implied  in  what  has  been  already  said.  A  Revelation  hav- 
ing such  qualities  must  be  sufficient  to  meet  every  intellectual  or 
spiritual  necessity  of  man.  Hence  the  Symbols  affirm  the  entire 
perfection  of  the  Scriptures  viewed  as  a  revelation;  asserting  that 
the  whole  counsel  of  God  concerning  all  things  necessary  for  his 
own  glory,  or  for  the  faith  and  life  and  salvation  of  men,  are 
therein  contained.  To  this  Word  there  is  therefore  nothing  to  be 
added  even  in  the  form  described  as  new  revelations  of  the  Spirit  : 
the  Bible  as  it  stands  is  complete  in  itself,  and  is  adequate  to  the 
needs  of  humanity  universally  for  all  time.  The  Symbols  are 
thus  at  variance  with  all  those  notions  of  spiritual  communication 
and  enlightenment  over  and  above  the  Holy  Scripture,   which 


SCRIPTURE   SUFFICIENT   AND    FINAL.  Ill 

have  so  often  possessed  the  minds  of  men.  Mysticism,  resting 
on  the  assumption  that  the  way  to  knowledge  is  through  hoi}' 
feeling,  has  claimed  that  the  soul  may  thus  attain  to  the  posses- 
sion of  spiritual  and  even  saving  truth  beyond  what  the  Bible 
affords.  Inward  illumination  is  supposed  to  include  a  wider  do- 
main than  Revelation  brightens.  But  all  notions  of  a  saving  and 
spiritual  light  which  comes  into  the  soul  in  addition  to  the  light 
afforded  by  the  Divine  Word,  and  which  becomes  not  only  a  guide 
to  what  is  written,  but  also  a  source  of  information  above  what 
is  written,  are  here  decisively  excluded.  While  the  Symbols  em- 
phasize the  illuminating  as  well  as  regenerating  work  of  the 
Spirit,  they  nowhere  place  the  Spirit  before  us  as  a  complementary 
or  additional  revealer  of  saving  truth.  Our  knowledge  of  divine 
things,  they  tell  us,  has  no  other  boundary  than  the  Bible  :  be- 
yond what  the  Word  teaches,  no  light  to  guide  us  as  to  what 
should  be  believed,  is  to  be  expected  even  from  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Still  less  can  reliable  instruction  be  derived  from  any  other  con- 
ceivable form  of  supernatural  communication.  Among  the  sins 
specified  in  the  Catechism  (L,.  C.  105)  are  all  compacts  and  con- 
sulting with  the  devil,  or  harkening  to  his  suggestions;  all  devis- 
ing, counseling,  commanding,  using  or  anywise  approving  any 
religious  worship  not  instituted  by  God  himself;  all  prying  into 
or  misapplying  of  the  divine  decrees  or  providences  ;  all  worship 
of  saints,  angels  or  other  creatures;  and  in  general  all  acts  which 
imply  discontent  with  the  Word,  or  a  desire  to  know  more  than  the 
Word  has  revealed.  Modern  spiritualism  in  all  its  varieties  and 
pretensions  is  thus  tacitly  condemned  as  a  departure  from  that 
supreme  loyalty  to  the  Bible,  which  must  follow  upon  the  recogni- 
tion of  its  entire  adequacy  as  a  supernatural  revelation.  The 
assumption  of  prophetic  foresight  or  insight  is  included  in  this 
condemnation:  These  former  ways  of  revealing  his  will  being  noiv 
ceased.  The  sundry  times  are  ended;  the  divers  manners  have 
reached  their  culmination  in  Him  who  executeth  the  office  of  a 
Prophet  in  the  supreme  sense,  in  revealing  to  the  Church  in  all 
ages  .  .  .  the  whole  will  of  God  in  all  things  concerning  their 
edification  and  salvation.  The  Bible  nowhere  recognizes  the 
permanent  or  even  the  occasional  existence  of  the  prophetic 
endowment  in  the  Church  :  it  represents  the  miraculous  function 
of  believers  as  ceasing  with  the  apostolic  age  :  it  describes  the 
charismatic  gifts  as  temporary  rather  than  continuous  :  and  thus 
by  implication  it  clearly  forbids  all  adding  unto  the  words  of  the 
prophecy  of  this  Book. 

In  like  manner  do  these  propositions  stand  opposed  to   the 


112  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

current  notion  of  a  great  natural  religion,  so  comprehensive  as  to 
include  all  historic  varieties  of  faith,  so  absolute  as  to  meet  every 
possible  demand  of  humanity  in  the  future  : — a  religion  of  which 
historical  Christianity  is  indeed  to  form  a  part,  and  among  whose 
sacred  books  there  is  to  be  a  place  for  the  Bible,  but  which  is  to  be 
wider  and  higher  than  Christianity,  or  than  any  other  single  form 
of  belief,  and  is  therefore  to  become  the  universal  faith  of  the 
world.  Aside  from  all  the  objections  to  such  a  scheme,  growing 
out  of  its  ignoring  the  divine  existence  and  presence  and  ad- 
ministration among  men,  or  of  its  idealization  of  humanity  and 
exaltation  of  reason,  as  if  man  were  his  own  inspirer  and  the  truth 
were  all  to  be  evolved  from  within; — aside  from  these,  and  other 
overwhelming  objections  to  such  a  scheme,  it  cannot  for  a  moment 
be  supposed  that  the  Bible  would  consent  to  take  any  such  sub- 
ordinate position,  or  that  historical  Christianity,  with  its  vast 
array  of  miracle  and  prophecy  and  experimental  confirmation,  and 
with  its  demonstrated  adaptations  to  man  in  every  age  and  clime 
and  in  every  spiritual  estate,  would  confess  itself  a  local  or  provin- 
cial or  temporary  faith,  destined  to  exist  for  a  brief  period  and 
within  narrow  limits  only,  but  finally  to  be  dissolved  at  last  in  this 
absolute  and  ultimate  religion.  The  Bible  itself  claims  to  be  the 
absolute  and  ultimate  book  for  humanity ;  and  the  faith  which  has 
sprung  in  such  majestic  proportions  from  that  Book, claims  to  be  the 
absolute  and  ultimate  faith,  in  which  humanity  through  all  its 
earthly  future  must  rest,  and  by  which  alone  that  humanity  can  be 
rescued,  redeemed,  and  united  forever  with  God. 

One  further  general  inquiry  remains, — an  inquiry  respecting  the 
right  and  duty  of  private  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.     Res- 
pecting   the    right  of   each    believer   to 
14.    Right  and  Duty  of    *    .    BA     .    ,  *;.       __r     ,     ,    „    ,    , 

private  interpretation  of  read  and  study  the  Word  of  God  for 
Scripture.  himself,  the  Symbols  maintain  the  po- 

sition assumed  by  Protestantism  from 
the  beginning.  It  is  implied  in  what  has  already  been  noted  as 
to  the  propriety  of  translating  the  Scriptures  into  the  vulgar  lan- 
guage of  every  nation  unto  which  they  come,  that  the  Word  of  God 
may  dwell  plentifully  in  all.  It  is  also  asserted  that  not  only  the 
learned  but  also  the  unlearned  may  in  a  due  use  of  the  ordinary 
means  attain  unto  a  sufficient  tinder  standing  of  the  truth.  In  the 
larger  Catechism  (156)  this  right  or  privilege  is  made  the  basis 
of  a  solemn  obligation:  it  is  affirmed  that  all  sorts  of  people  are 
bound  to  read  the  Scriptures  apart  by  themselves,  and  with  their 
families;  Directory  for  Worship,   Chapter  XVI.     This  right  and 


PRIVATE    INTERPRETATION.  1  I  3 

this  duty  are  in  various  other  ways  presented  as  universal, — in- 
eluding  not  merely  those  who  already  believe,  but  also  all  persons 
to  whom  the  inspired  message  of  salvation  may  come.  The  Moral 
L,aw,  it  is  said,  is  of  use  to  all  men,  to  inform  them  of  the  holy 
nature  and  will  of  God,  and  of  their  duty,  binding  them  to  walk 
accordingly.  Such  was  in  fact  the  teaching  of  Protestantism  of 
every  type.  The  appeal  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  of  most 
of  the  earlier  Protestant  symbols  was  from  the  decrees  and  tradi- 
tions of  an  usurping  church  directly  to  the  Divine  Word,  and  to 
this  as  made  available  for  the  edification  not  of  the  priesthood 
only,  but  of  every  disciple.  It  was  to  this  Word  as  the  final  test, 
rather  than  to  the  tests  and  impositions  of  such  a  church,  that 
they  sought  to  bring  unconverted  men  as  well  as  believers.  By 
this  standard  and  this  alone  were  all  human  professions,  acts,  lives, 
destinies,  to  be  measured  and  determined. 

The  grounds  of  this  judgment  are  easily  discerned.  It  is  in  the 
Divine  Word  alone,  that  the  truths  which  make  wise  unto  salva- 
tion, the  vital  doctrines  of  grace,  are  set  forth  and  made  authorita- 
tive and  imperative  :  it  is  here  alone  that  the  proper  conception  of 
salvation,  in  its  varied  aspects,  and  especially  in  the  aspect  of 
justification  then  so  prominent  and  momentous,  can  be  obtained  : 
it  is  here  that  the  sinner,  burdened  with  a  guilt  which  no  other 
proposed  instrumentality  can  remove,  is  able  to  find  assurance  and 
peace.  This  Word  both  describes  the  disease  of  man  more  faith- 
fully than  all  other  books,  and  sets  forth  more  distinctly  the  divine, 
the  gracious,  the  universal  cure.  So  far  as  duty  goes,  in  either 
its  general  forms  or  its  practical  details,  the  Scripture  alone  is  a 
safe  ethical  and  spiritual  guide;  and  only  those  who  walk  in  the 
paths  it  has  pointed  out,  can  be  assured  that  they  are  conforming 
themselves  to  the  Divine  Will.  The  hopes  of  man  as  well  as  his 
duties  are  here  distinctly  set  forth  and  justified:  in  this  book  the 
foundations  of  such  hope  are  uncovered,  and  the  oaths  and  prom- 
ises of  God  in  confirmation  of  his  grace  are  recorded;  and  here,  here 
only,  life  and  immortality  are  brought  to  light.  And  as  all  these 
are  matters  in  which  each  soul  must  be  concerned  for  itself  pri- 
marily, they  demand  from  each  the  strictest  personal  fidelity,  not 
merely  to  the  right  to  read,  but  to  the  supreme  duty  of  reading 
and  studying  this  divine  message  for  itself.  Right  and  duty, 
obligation  and  privilege,  here  flow  together  in  parallel  lines. 

That  such  is  the  teaching  of  the  Scripture  itself  is  obvious. 
While  some  portions  of  the  Word  are  addressed  to  those  occupying 
official  positions,  or  to  particular  individuals  or  classes,  its  messa- 
ges in  general  are  sent  under  both  the  Jewish  and  the  Christian 


114  THE    HOLY    SCRIPTURE. 

dispensation  to  the  people,  without  distinction  of  class  or  office. 
Under  the  training  of  Mosaism  the  people  were  required  to  study 
this  Word,  treasuring  up  its  truths  and  precepts  in  their  hearts; 
and  to  teach  them  to  their  children,  in  order  that  the  youth 
from  generation  to  generation  might  know  the  will  of  the  Lord. 
Under  the  Gospel  the  instructions  of  teachers,  and  even  of 
apostles,  are  said  to  be  submitted  to  the  church  as  a  body,  not 
merely  to  be  comprehended,  but  also  to  be  intelligently  estimated 
and  weighed  by  it.  The  universal  law  is,  that  personal  responsi- 
bility for  personal  belief  implies  a  corresponding  obligation  to 
know  personally  what  God  has  spoken  ;  and  for  this  personal 
acquaintance  the  Bible  suggests  no  substitute.  In  this  respect, 
Protestantism  clearly  returned  immediately  to  the  divine  rule 
which  the  papacy  had  overridden  with  its  assumptions,  and  to 
that  return  its  influence  and  success  during  the  grave  crisis  of  the 
Reformation  were  primarily  due. 

It  is  a  just  consequence  from  this  position  that  no  church  or 
council,  whether  Roman  or  Protestant,  may  assume  the  right  to 
interpret  Scripture  decisively,  or  to  enforce  its  interpretations  on 
the  individual  conscience  as  binding.  Zwingli  commenced  his 
famous  Articles  with  the  broad  proposition,  that  whosoever 
affirms  that  the  Evangel  is  nothing  excepting  as  the  church 
indorses  it,  is  in  error,  and  blasphemes  God.  There  is  indeed  a 
regard  for  the  judgment  even  of  individual  men  in  respect  to  the 
teachings  of  the  Word  which,  especially  when  such  private  inter- 
preters are  known  to  possess  high  intellectual  and  moral  qualifi- 
cations, is  incumbent  upon  every  student  of  this  Divine  Book. 
Such  regard  is  not  only  a  privilege  but  an  obligation,  and  the 
help  thus  secured  is  to  be  devoutly  welcomed.  Both  the  privilege 
and  the  duty  are  magnified  as  the  number  and  qualifications  of 
such  instructors  are  increased;  and  when  such  judgment  emanates 
from  an  organized  church  or  any  large  body  of  disciples,  uniting 
in  the  expression  of  beliefs  to  which  they  have  together  been  led 
by  their  common  studies  of  the  Scripture,  the  obligation  and  the 
advantage  are  proportionally  enhanced.  And  if,  according  to 
the  ancient  motto  of  Vincentius,  any  truth  of  Scripture  is  received 
alike  by  all  avowed  believers,  everywhere  and  at  all  periods,  he 
would  be  a  vain  and  reckless  spirit  who  would  lightly  cast  such  a 
doctrine  aside,  or  unhesitatingly  differ  from  a  result  so  obtained. 
For  it  is  a  far  stronger  presumption  that  the  Church  of  God  is 
rightly  taught  by  his  Spirit  and  is  holding  the  truth  as  he  desires, 
than  that  any  individual  in  that  church  should  have  become  the 


RIGHT   AND    DUTY.  115 

sole  possessor  of  such  truth  while  all  the  rest  are  still  living  in 
ignorance. 

But  there  are  certain  limitations  to  this  general  rule  which,  in 
view  of  the  assumptions  of  Romanism  in  this  direction,  must  be 
carefully  noted.  The  claim  of  the  Roman  church  to  be  the  sole 
expounder  of  the  Word  through  her  priesthood,  was  openly  made 
and  zealously  maintained.  It  was  a  natural  inference  alike  from 
her  doctrine  of  the  priesthood  as  a  sacred  order  culminating  in 
the  apostolate,  and  endowed  with  gifts  and  prerogatives  above 
those  of  the  household  of  faith;  and  from  the  position  assumed  in 
respect  to  the  nature  of  inspiration,  and  to  the  contents  and 
canonicity  of  Scripture,  as  defined  in  the  Decreta  of  Trent.  Of  a 
Bible  so  made  up  and  so  authenticated  and  certified,  none  but 
the  priestly  orders  could  be  legitimate  or  competent  expositors. 
That  famous  Council  decreed  that  no  one  relying  on  his  own  skill 
shall,  in  matters  of  faith  and  of  morals  pertaining  to  the  edifica- 
tion (or  the  establishment)  of  the  Christian  doctrine — wresting 
the  Sacred  Scripture  to  his  own  senses  or  opinions — presume  to 
interpret  the  said  Sacred  Scripture  contrary  to  that  sense  which 
holy  Mother  Church, — whose  it  is  to  judge  of  the  true  sense  and 
interpretation  of  the  said  sacred  Scriptures, — hath  held  and  now 
holds:  nor  shall  anyone  dare  to  interpret  Holy  Scripture  contrary 
even  to  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Fathers,  even  though  such 
interpretations  may  not  have  been  intended  to  be  at  any  time 
brought  to  light  or  made  public.  Those  who  contravene  this 
decree — it  was  added — shall  be  revealed  by  those  having  spiritual 
charge  over  them,  and  shall  be  punished  with  the  penalties  by  law 
provided.  Additional  emphasis  was  given  to  this  conclusion  by 
its  obvious  relations  to  the  Roman  conception  of  salvation,  and 
to  the  Roman  cultus  throughout.  Faith  according  to  Rome  was 
wholly  a  passive  grace,  and  submission  to  ecclesiastical  authority 
was  the  sum  of  duty:  the  church  was  the  channel  of  all  blessings, 
and  obedience  to  her  teachings  as  well  as  her  requisitions  was 
therefore  a  primary  obligation,  and  practically  the  only  ground  of 
salvation. 

Against  this  monstrous  claim  with  all  its  destructive  conse- 
quences, Protestantism  was  bound  by  every  cardinal  principle  to 
protest.  Hence  the  prominence  given  to  such  protestation  in 
most  of  the  creeds,  both  Lutheran  and  Reformed,  whether  conti- 
nental or  insular.  The  Westminster  Symbols,  though  written 
many  decades  after  the  rest,  represent  the  same  strong  conviction; 
and  the  necessity  for  such  representation  was  probably  deepened 
in  the  estimation  of  the  Assembly  by  the  persistent  urging  of  the 


116  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

opposite  doctrine  in  England,  both  in  the  papal  and  in  the  modi- 
fied prelatic  forms.  For  while  Episcopacy  maintained  in  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  that  Holy  Scripture  containeth  all  things 
necessary  to  salvation,  so  that  whatsoever  is  not  read  therein, 
nor  may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to  be  required  of  any  man, 
that  it  should  be  believed  as  an  article  of  the  Faith,  (VI)  yet  it 
did  not  array  itself  so  decisive^  as  most  of  the  other  formularies 
against  either  tradition  or  ecclesiastical  interpretation  and 
authority  in  matters  of  belief.  Room  was  even  left  for  just  such 
assumption  in  respect  to  the  teaching  of  the  Word  as  characterized 
the  period  when  Laud  ruled  England  with  nearly  regal  power, 
and  the  mandates  of  the  church  were  enforced  even  with  civil 
pain  and  penalty.  That  the  perception  of  this  liability  as  exist- 
ing in  prelatic  circles  and  not  wholly  excluded  in  the  Episcopal 
S3^mbols,  incited  the  Westminster  Assembly  to  the  more  earnest 
and  positive  enunciation  of  the  Protestant  view,  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned. Hence  their  more  strong  and  decisive  language  with 
respect  to  the  liability  of  all  synods  and  councils  since  apostolic 
times  to  err,  with  respect  to  the  authority  of  such  bodies  as  given 
not  for  destruction  but  for  edification,  with  respect  to  the  neces- 
sity for  strict  consonance  between  their  decisions  and  the  divine 
Word,  and  with  respect  also  to  the  primal  duty  of  men  of  all  sorts 
to  study  that  Word  for  themselves  without  fear  of  ecclesiastical 
domination.  While  they  were  not  at  all  times  consistent  with 
their  own  teachings,  and  sometimes  did  what  they  here  con- 
demned, it  is  yet  to  be  said  for  them  that  they  clearly  saw  and 
boldly  announced  the  principle  on  which  not  Presbyterianism  only, 
but  evangelical  religion  under  whatever  name  must  always  be 
based. 

In  accordance  with  this  general  position  the  Assembly  further 
declared  that  the  Bible  must  be  made  its  own  interpreter, —  its 

more  difficult  portions  being  explained 

15.    Scripture  its  own  in-     b     the  u  ht  afforded   by   its   simpler 

tcrpreter :    Revelation    and  int.-  j  j      j 

R  statements,  and  all  being  regarded  and 

estimated  as  parts  of  one  organic  and 
adequate  as  well  as  thoroughly  divine  Book.  The  Protestant 
principle  of  the  analogy  of  faith,  so  termed,  is  laid  down  as  a 
fundamental  organon  in  the  interpretation  of  the  inspired  Word. 
Eittle  recognition  is  given  apparently  to  the  fact  that  there  are 
mysteries  in  Scripture,  such  as  are  discoverable  in  its  doctrine 
of  decrees,  or  of  the  person  of  Christ  or  his  atoning  work  in  cer- 
tain aspects;  or  of  obscurities,  such  as  the  apocalyptic  prophecies, 
which  seem  to  us  explicable  only  in  the  light  which  the  future 


SCRIPTURE   AND    REASON.  1  1  i 

unfoldings  of  providence  may  shed  upon  them.  As  was  natural 
in  that  age,  the  Symbols  emphasize  the  plainness,  the  clearness, 
the  practical  appeal  of  the  Bible  to  man,  rather  than  its  obscurity 
or  its  mystery.  This  is  apparent,  for  illustration,  in  their  affirma- 
tion that  the  sense  of  the  divine  Word  is  not  manifold,  but  one: — 
an  affirmation  which  shuts  out  the  entire  notion,  so  current  occa- 
sionally in  the  church,  of  a  variety  of  senses,  external  and 
internal,  physical  and  spiritual,  single  and  complex,  not  one  but 
manifold.  Mysticism  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture,  in  what- 
ever variety  or  form,  is  here  directly  excluded.  What  may  be 
called  English  common  sense  protested  against  all  such  fancies, — 
all  ways  of  covering  up  the  simple  truth  by  fictitious  guesses  or 
hypotheses:  it  held  forth  the  Word  as  a  divine  light,  shining  in  its 
own  luster,  and  competent  to  be  the  guide  of  man  into  all  saving 
truth.  This  doctrine  of  the  literal  sense,  as  it  was  termed,  seems  to 
have  been  a  matter  of  some  debate  in  the  Assembly,  (Minutes,  114) 
and  the  answer  doubtless  indicates  what  was  the  confirmed  and 
final  view  of  the  body. 

This  view  is  antithetic  also  to  the  notion,  less  current  in  that 
age  than  subsequently,  of  antagonism  between  the  Scripture  and 
human  reason,  with  its  natural  consequence  in  the  exaltation  of 
reason  as  the  true  and  final  judge  of  Scripture.  In  recognizing 
the  light  of  nature  both  as  a  light  shining  into  the  soul  from  an 
external  world,  and  as  a  capacity  of  the  soul  to  perceive  such 
light  and  rejoice  in  it,  the  Assembly  did  not  intend  to  exalt  this 
capacity  and  opportunity  as  if  they  could  lift  man  above  the  need 
of  revelation,  or  make  him  the  arbiter  of  the  whole  question  of 
revelation  and  salvation.  While  it  is  said  to  be  the  duty  of  every 
one  to  search  and  know,  the  field  of  such  searching  and  knowledge 
is  carefully  defined;  it  is  within  the  Scripture,  and  in  due  defer- 
ence to  its  character  as  a  revelation,  that  such  inquiry  is  to  be 
conducted.  More  than  once,  as  in  the  chapter  on  the  Eternal 
Decree,  are  we  taught  to  handle  these  high  mysteries  with 
special  prudence  and  care \  attending  simply  to  the  will  of  God  as 
revealed  in  his  Word.  In  the  Larger  Catechism  (157)  it  is  said 
that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  to  be  read  with  an  high  and  reverent 
esteem  for  them,  and  with  a  firm  persuasion  that  they  are  the  very 
Word  of  God. 

Yet  the  question  whether  the  Bible  is  indeed  that  Word,  is 
one  which  can  be  determined  only  upon  a  rational  examination  of 
the  evidences  supporting  its  claim:  and  it  may  justly  be  said  that 
the  Bible  ever  welcomes  such  examination,  if  it  be  conducted 
with  the  thoroughness  and  the  candor  which  reason  itself  and 


118  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

the  nature  of  the  question  prescribe.  So  in  the  consideration  of  its 
particular  statements  of  whatever  class,  there  is  always  room  for  the 
question  whether  these  statements  are  confirmed  by  the  verdict  of 
individual  or  of  general  reason:  and  here  again  this  divine  Word 
welcomes  the  most  faithful  investigation  of  which  the  human 
mind  is  capable.  Indeed,  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  practi- 
cally for  the  Bible  is  derived  from  this  open  submission  of  itself 
and  its  teachings  to  the  scrutiny  of  man,  and  in  consequence 
from  the  strong,  cordial,  combined  testimonies  of  human  reason 
in  its  behalf.  These  testimonies,  notwithstanding  many  tem- 
porary conflicts  around  particular  issues,  such  as  those  arising 
within  the  domain  of  physical  science,  or  in  the  broad  field  of 
intellectual  or  ethical  speculation,  are  steadily  increasing  in  vol- 
ume and  force.  The  Bible  more  and  more  stands  before  humanity 
as  a  reasonable  book, — its  claims  verified  by  the  understanding  as 
well  as  accepted  by  the  heart.  This  is  its  glory, — this  is  the  cul- 
minating proof  that  it  has  descended  to  humanity  from  God  him- 
self. Yet  the  authority  of  its  teachings  does  not,  cannot  rest  on 
this  human  endorsement :  it  rests  rather  in  Him  by  whom  the 
Word  is  uttered.  The  Book  rises  above  human  reason,  and  is 
supreme  over  it;  it  teaches  doctrines  which  reason  cannot  fully 
penetrate,  and  demands  their  acceptance  because  God  has  spoken 
them.  Even  where  its  teachings  seem  at  variance  with  certain 
conclusions  of  reason,  it  still  requires  acceptance  and  receives  it. 
on  the  just  ground  that  a  book  presenting  such  evidences  of 
divinity  is  ten  thousand  fold  likelier  to  be  right  than  the  individual 
reason  that  judges  it. 

In  the  interpretation  of  the  divine  Word  the  infallible  rule  is 
affirmed  to  be  the  Scripture  itself, — one  portion  being  compared 
with  another,  and  each  part  set  in  harmony  with  the  rest,  until 
the  composite  and  complete  view  is  gained.  In  the  language  of 
the  Confession,  when  there  is  a  question  about  the  true  and  full 
sense  of  any  scripture,  it  must  be  searched  and  known  by  other 
places  that  speak  more  clearly.  Constructed  as  the  Bible  is,  its 
truths  held  in  solution  rather  than  in  crystal,  and  distributed 
diffusively  through  the  entire  volume,  such  comparative  study  of 
the  Word  is  obviously  indispensable.  The  doctrines  of  such  a 
book  can  be  set  in  their  proper  adjustments  only  through  such  a 
process:  its  ethical  teachings  gather  their  full  force  only  when  they 
are  woven  into  a  system  and  a  law:  its  psalms  and  prophecies,  its 
promises  and  warnings,  sustain  and  confirm  each  other:  even  its 
array  of  facts,  historic  and  biographic,  are  comparatively  without 
meaning  until  they  are  set  in  order  as  parts  of  the  one  grand 


HOLY    SPIRIT    IN    SCRIPTURE.  119 

history  of  redemption.  So  the  corrective  to  errors  which  might 
spring  from  the  exclusive  study  of  one  portion,  lies  in  the  study 
of  related  or  antithetic  portions;  false  doctrines  derivable  from 
one  view  are  precluded  by  another;  places  that  speak  more  clearly 
explain  parts  which  are  more  obscure.  In  the  aggregate,  the 
statement  of  the  Confession  is  clearly  justified:  All  those  things 
which  are  necessary  to  be  known,  believed,  and  observed  for 
salvation,  are  so  clearly  propounded  and  opened  in  some  place  of 
Scripture  or  other,  that  not  only  the  learned,  but  also  the  unlearned, 
in  a  due  use  of  the  ordinary  means  may  attain  unto  a  sufficient 
understanding  of  them. 

The  language  of  the  Confession  on  this  point  is  obviously 
derived  from  the  British  creeds  which  preceded  and  largely 
inspired  it.  Thus  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XX)  affirm  that  the 
church  hath  power  to  decree  rights  or  ceremonies,  and  authority 
in  controversies  of  faith;  yet  it  is  not  lawful  for  the  church  to 
ordain  anything  that  is  contrary  to  God's  Word  written,  neither 
may  it  so  expound  one  place  of  Scripture  that  it  be  repugnant  to 
another.  The  Irish  Articles  (5)  say:  Although  there  be  some 
hard  things  in  the  Scripture  .  .  .  yet  all  things  necessary  to  be 
known  unto  everlasting  salvation  are  clearly  delivered  therein; 
and  nothing  of  that  kind  is  spoken  under  dark  mysteries  in  one 
place,  which  is  not  in  other  places  spoken  more  familiarly  and 
plainly,  to  the  capacity  of  both  learned  and  unlearned.  Note 
also  the  quaint  language  of  the  first  Scotch  Confession  (XVIII): 
In  the  quhilk  we  affirme  that  all  thingis  necessary  to  be  beleeved 
for  the  salvation  of  mankinde  is  sufficiently  expressed.  The 
interpretation  quhairof,  weconfesse,  neither  appertaines  to  private 
nor  publick  persone,  nether  zit  to  ony  kirk  for  ony  preheminence 
or  prerogative  personallie  or  locallie,  quhilk  ane  hes  above  ane 
uther,  but  appertaines  to  the  Spirite  of  God  by  the  quhilk  also  the 
Scripture  was  written. 

While  the  right  and  duty  of  private  interpretation  are  thus 

affirmed,   and  church  assumptions  and  prerogatives  are  clearly 

defined,  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Bible 

in  its  own  explication  is  maintained,  it  16*  The  Spirit  interPret' 
.      ,  *  ,      .      :      -     -         in?  the  Scripture:  Natural 

is  also  strongly  taught  m  the  Confes-     ^  say|ng  knowledge. 

sion  that  the  full  understanding  of  the 

Word,  the  saving  knowledge  thereof,  is  obtainable  only  through 

the  aid  of  the  Spirit  of  God.     The  subject  was  evidently  one  of 

some  special  interest  to  the  Assembly.     It  is  recorded  (Minutes, 

111-113)  that  considerable  debate  was  had  about  the  knowledge 

of    the   divine  authority   of  the  Scripture;    and   that    the   word, 


120  THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

saving,  was  added  in  order  to  limit  the  sweep  of  the  declaration 
respecting  what  was  described  as  the  necessity  of  the  inward  illu- 
mination of  the  Spirit  for  the  understanding  of  such  things  as  are 
revealed.  Such  necessity  was  acknowledged  in  the  final  framing 
of  the  Article,  in  conjunction  with  a  corresponding  recognition  of 
the  proper  sphere  of  Christian  prudence  in  the  application,  under 
the  various  conditions  of  human  existence,  of  the  ge?ieral  rides 
of  the  Word.  This  position  is  strengthened  by  the  strong  declar- 
ation in  the  concluding  section  respecting  the  absolute  supremacy, 
above  all  decrees  of  councils,  all  opinions  of  ancient  writers,  all 
doctrines  of  men,  all  private  spirits,  of  the  Holy  Ghost  speaking 
in  the  Scripture.  In  the  section  on  the  internal  evidence  for  the 
Bible,  it  is  urged  as  a  kindred  conclusion  that,  while  this  book 
may  be  seen  on  general  grounds  to  be  divine,  and  therefore  infal- 
lible and  authoritative,  yet  our  full  persuasion  and  assurance  of 
the  infallible  truth  and  divine  authority  thereof,  is  from  the 
inward  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  bearing  witness  by  and  with  the 
Word  in  our  hearts. 

Without  considering  here  the  full  view  of  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  revealing  the  truth  to  man,  as  well  as  in  regener- 
ating men  through  the  truth,  we  may  well  note  the  general  nature 
of  the  relation  here  indicated.  We  are  practically  guarded 
against  the  illusion  already  mentioned,  that  this  work  of  the 
Spirit  is  something  over  and  above  the  written  Scriptures — an 
additional  source  of  knowledge  concerning  divine  things.  The 
illumination  here  promised  is  a  real  illumination,  but  the  object 
made  luminous  by  it  is  the  Scripture,  and  the  Scripture  alone. 
Beyond  this  divinely  prescribed  territory,  that  peculiar  radiance 
is  not  declared  to  reach.  So  we  are  guarded  against  the  error  that 
the  natural  mind  is  capable  by  itself,  without  such  supernatural 
aid,  of  ascertaining  all  that  is  needful  unto  salvation.  There  is  a 
natural,  and  there  is  also  a  saving  knowledge, — a  knowledge  ade- 
quate in  amount,  penetrating  and  potent  in  effect,  from  which  a 
true  sense  of  sin  is  evolved,  and  from  which  true  repentance  and 
faith  flow.  And  while  it  is  said  to  be  the  duty  of  all  men  to  learn 
what  they  can  from  nature  and  from  revelation  concerning  their 
condition  and  needs,  it  is  also  affirmed  to  be  their  duty  to  submit 
themselves  to  this  divine  guidance,  and  to  complete  all  their  knowl- 
edge by  coming  personally  within  the  range  of  this  divine  illumi- 
nation. In  the  Larger  Catechism  (157)  we  are  reminded  of  our 
duty  to  read  the  Scriptures  with  a  firm  persuasion,  not  merely  that 
they  are  the  very  Word  of  God,  but  also  that  He  only  can  enable  us 
to  understand  them:  and   in    the  definition  of  Effectual   Calling 


OBLIGATION    TO    STUDY.  121 

(Chap.  X)  one  essential  feature  in  that  divine  process  is  said  to 
be,  enlightening  the  mind  spiritually  and  savingly  to  understand  the 
things  of  God. 

Of  the  ground  of  the  obligation  to  seek  a  saving  knowledge  of 
the  Word  of  God  through  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  in  any  believing  breast.  If  God  thus  offers  by  a 
process  upon  the  mental  faculties,  or  by  a  work  on  the  moral  nature 
of  which  such  action  on  the  mind  itself  in  order  to  illuminate  or 
illustrate  what  is  written,  is  one  result,  it  cannot  be  a  slight  thing 
in  his  sight  to  reject  that  offer,  even  though  such  rejection  were 
accompanied  by  a  most  sincere  or  resolute  purpose  to  seek  such 
knowledge  by  the  same  methods  which  are  employed  in  obtaining 
knowledge  elsewhere.  But  if  this  offer  is  made  in  order  to  secure 
moral  regeneration  through  such  intellectual  quickening, — if 
divine  things  are  in  this  way  made  clearer,  so  that  the  soul  may 
be  more  easily  moved  out  of  its  sin  unto  obedience  and  holiness 
such  as  the  Gospel  requires; — or  if  such  help  is  given  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  work  of  grace  already  begun,  and  in  order  to 
sanctify  a  soul  already  in  some  measure  illuminated  and  purified 
by  divine  influences,  then  the  guilt  of  such  rejection  'becomes  a 
thousand  fold  greater.  Not  merely  the  eternal  interests  of  that 
soul,  but  also  the  claims  and  the  honor  of  Him  by  whom  this  gra- 
cious proffer  is  made,  are  trampled  under  foot.  Nor  does  it  lessen 
the  guilt  of  such  a  step,  that  the  process  proposed  is  chiefly  un- 
known and  impenetrable,  and  that  we  see  nothing  but  the  issues 
or  results  of  this  divine  work.  The  illumination,  however  pro- 
duced, is  a  demonstrable  reality  in  human  experience:  the  fact  is 
just  as  certain  as  is  the  existence  in  the  Bible  of  the  promise  and 
pledge  of  such  illumination  :  and  we  are  therefore  simply  to  re- 
ceive the  saving  knowledge  thus  offered,  and  reverently  to  hear 
and  obey  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  in  the  Scripture. 

One  final  word:  These  expositions  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Con- 
fession and  the  corroboratory  teaching  of  the  Catechisms  respect- 
ing the  nature  and  process  of  Revelation 

as  an  inspired  communication  from  17«  Closing;  Survey:  Com- 
_    ,  r .        .,  .  pleteness  and  value  of  the 

God,  respecting  the  canon  and  contents    Symbols  on  this  subject. 

of  Scripture,  respecting  its  authenticity 

and  authority  and  entire  adequacy  as  an  infallible  guide  of  human 
thought  and  human  action  concerning  divine  things,  and  respect- 
ing the  obligation  and  privilege  of  studying  the  Bible,  with  the 
help  of  the  Spirit  and  in  the  light  of  every  available  advantage, 
yet  with  supreme  loyalty  to  the  Holy  Word  and  to  our  own  res- 
ponsibility   thereto  : — these    expositions,    however  cursory,   are 


122  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURE. 

sufficient  to  justify  the  strong  statement  of  an  eminent  English 
divine  (Stanley)  that  the  article  on  Justification  in  the  Decreta  of 
Trent  and  the  chapter  on  Holy  Scripture  in  the  Westminster 
Confession,  are  the  ablest  presentations  of  dogmatic  truth  in  the 
whole  series  of  Christian  symbols.  Of  the  justness  of  this  state- 
ment, ample  evidence  will  be  found  as  to  the  Westminster  chapter, 
in  a  careful  comparison  between  its  declarations  and  those  of  other 
Lutheran  or  Reformed  creeds.  In  fullness,  in  clearness,  in  prac- 
tical quality,  it  may  justly  be  said  to  surpass  every  preceding 
Protestant  declaration  on  the  same  subject.  Compared  with  the 
Tridentine  decree  on  Justification,  this  chapter  furnishes  a  strik- 
ing illustration  of  the  difference  between  Protestantism  and  Ro- 
manism. That  decree  is  a  marvel  of  dialectic  skill, — clear  in 
distinction,  poised  in  proposition,  elaborate  in  language,  and  skill- 
ful in  its  summation  of  the  doctrine  affirmed.  It  was  the  last  and 
best  word  of  Rome  in  answer  to  the  Reformation;  and  it  was  a  word 
of  unparalleled  sagacity  and  weight.  In  several  respects  it  excels 
even  the  finest  Protestant  deliverances  on  the  same  vital  theme.  It 
crystallizes  in  the  amber  of  its  error  some  spiritual  truth,  and  so 
blends  the  one  with  the  other  that  we  find  it  hard  to  discriminate 
between  them.  It  was  a  fabrication  of  the  finest  logic,  combined 
with  the  shrewdest  sense  of  adaptation;  and  for  more  than  two  cen- 
turies it  has  held  its  place  as  a  marble  pillar  in  the  temple  of  Roman 
belief.  But  the  Presbyterian  chapter  on  the  Holy  Scripture  far 
surpasses  it,  if  not  in  logical  acumen  or  elaborate  verbiage,  still 
in  simplicity  of  statement,  in  breadth  and  power  of  expression,  and 
above  all  in  true  spiritual  adaptation.  The  first  was  papal  and 
continental  and  of  Latin  stock;  the  second,  though  insular,  was 
thoroughly  Protestant,  and  full  of  Saxon  sense  and  Saxon  blood. 
The  one  was  an  elaborate  construction  in  defense  of  a  fatal  error: 
the  other  was  an  earnest  proclamation  in  support  of  a  divine 
truth.  The  aim  of  the  one  was  to  strengthen  the  power,  enlarge 
the  glory,  establish  the  supremacy  of  the  church  and  the  hier- 
archy ;  the  aim  of  the  other  was  to  exalt  God  and  his  inspired 
Word. 

The  adaptation  of  this  exposition  to  the  age  and  to  the  succeeding 
ages  constitutes  one  of  its  most  remarkable  traits.  Chillingworth 
has  well  said  in  language  often  quoted,  that  the  Bible  is  the  religion 
of  Protestants ;  and  British  Protestantism,  amid  the  remaining 
pleas  of  papacy  and  the  assumptions  of  prelacy,  needed  to  be 
told  once  more,  as  Tyndale  and  Wiclif  had  taught  it,  that  the 
Word  of  God  is  supreme  everywhere  and  evermore.  Nothing 
but  such  steadfast  emphasizing  of  the  divinity  and  adequacy  of  this 


THE   WESTMINSTER   DOCTRINE — ITS   VALUE.  123 

Word  could  have  saved  the  reformation  in  Britain  from  being 
tainted  by  dangerous  error — from  dying  out  through  human  form- 
alisms. How  valuable  this  declaration  became,  let  the  zeal  and 
fidelity  and  martyrdoms  of  Scotland  during  the  period  following 
its  promulgation  bear  witness:  let  the  evangelical  and  fruitful 
faith  which  grew  up  from  this  root  in  many  parts  of  England 
amid  trial  and  sacrifice  testify  :  let  the  powerful  and  successful 
defense  of  the  Bible  by  the  great  apologists  of  England  against 
the  able  and  persistent  assaults  of  English  Deism  and  of  French 
Materialism  in  the  following  century,  show  to  the  world.  The  Bible 
as  the  very  Book  of  God,  high  above  all  opinions  of  men,  high 
above  the  authority  or  voice  of  the  church,  uttering  its  message 
directly  to  the  individual  soul,  and  ruling  all  the  moral  life  with  a 
sway  only  like  that  which  God  holds  in  heaven  itself: — this  has 
been  the  secret  of  all  that  is  best  in  British  belief,  and  in  the  life, 
personal  and  political  and  spiritual,  of  the  men  and  nations  that 
speak  the  English  tongue. 

It  cannot  well  be  denied  that  the  teaching  of  this  remarkable 
chapter  stands  to-day  as  the  unchanged  and  the  permanent  utter- 
ance of  evangelical  Protestantism.  Questions  of  exegesis,  ques- 
tions of  canonicity  and  authorship,  questions  as  to  inspiration 
itself  as  well  as  questions  respecting  the  points  of  harmony  be- 
tween the  Bible  and  philosophy  or  science  or  reason,  are  arising 
and  are  likely  to  arise, — disturbing  or  possibly  overthrowing  the 
faith  of  some.  It  is  one  of  the  most  painful  phenomena  of  the 
times  that  so  many  issues  of  this  class  are  being  raised,  not  merely 
by  speculating  and  arrogant  skepticism,  but  within  the  church, 
and  by  those  whose  standing  in  the  ranks  of  Christian  scholarship 
gives  dangerous  emphasis  to  their  subversive  teachings.  But  all 
such  questionings  and  teachings  from  whatever  source  are  to  be 
dealt  with,  not  with  dogmatic  bitterness  or  in  the  temper  of  parti- 
sanship, or  by  the  invocation  of  ecclesiastical  pains  and  penalties, 
but  rather  with  the  most  temperate  discrimination  and  fairness, 
with  a  more  thorough  scholarship,  and  with  appropriate  charity 
and  sympathy  toward  errorists,  yet  with  supreme  fidelity  to  the 
substance  and  essence  of  the  Truth,  and  in  the  serenest  confidence 
that  the  Word  of  God,  as  here  described,  will  abundantly  justify 
itself  before  the  judgment  and  the  conscience  of  mankind. 


LECTURE  THIRD— GOD  IN  HIS  BEING. 

The  Divine;  Existence  and  Nature  :  Attributes  op 
God  :    The  Trinity  in  God. 

C.  F.  Chap.  II:  XXI :  i :  h.  C.  Answers  2,  7-11,  104- 
114:    S.  C.  4-6,  46-56. 

Starting  from  their  broad  and  lofty  conception  of  the  Bible  as  an 
inspired  Revelation,  the  Symbols  of  Westminster  follow  the  order 
of  some  antecedent  Reformed  Confessions  in  proceeding  directly 
to  a  discussion  of  God  himself,  in  his  nature,  attributes,  purposes 
and  administration.  In  the  ancient  creeds  the  analysis  com- 
menced with  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  with  the  description 
of  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  and  of  all 
things  visible  and  invisible.  Protestant  symbolism  began  substan- 
tially at  the  same  point,  yet  with  a  more  discriminating  statement 
respecting  the  divine  nature  and  works  in  general, — a  fact  trace- 
able largely  to  the  influence  of  Scholasticism  with  its  analysis  of 
the  older  doctrine,  and  its  array  of  argument  and  illustration  res- 
pecting the  Godhead  generically.  It  is  especially  to  be  noted  that 
the  three  British  creeds  antecedent  began  in  the  same  way  with 
God,  taking  up  and  expanding  the  doctrine  of  the  first  in  the 
series :  We  confesse  and  acknowledge  ane  onelie  God  to  whom 
onelie  we  must  cleave,  whom  onelie  we  must  serve,  whom  onelie 
we  must  worship,  and  in  whom  onelie  we  must  put  our  trust: 
Scotch  Conf.  Art.  1. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  this  was  a  natural  result  of  the  strong 
and  clear  Augustinianism  stamped  at  the  outset  on  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  especially  dominant  wherever  the  influence  of  Calvin  pre- 
vailed. To  those  who  had  been  trained  in  that  system,  it  was  nat- 
ural to  declare  that  the  Scriptures  principally  teach  what  man  is  to 
believe  concerning  God:  and  furthermore,  that  it  is  the  main  aim  of 
the  Scriptures  (L,.  C.  6)  to  make  known  what  God  is,  the  persons 
in  the  Godhead,  his  decrees,  and  the  execution  of  his  decrees, — 
as  if  all  knowledge  respecting  man,  his  sin  and  its  fruits,  could  be 
apprehended  only  in  the  light  of  this  preliminary  revelation.  Had 
the  Symbols  followed  rather  the  order  of  some  more  recent 
theological  systems,  and  commenced  with  the  biblical  teachings 
as  to  what  we  are  to  believe  concerning  man,   approaching  from 


DIVINE    EXISTENCE    AFFIRMED.  125 

that  side  the  ultimate  problem  of  salvation,  the  subsequent  theol- 
ogy of  Protestant  Christendom  might  have  been  considerably 
varied.  If  it  be  objected  that  in  such  contemplation  of  God  as 
first  and  primary,  we  are  plunged  into  great  mysteries — confronted 
by  apparently  insoluble  problems  respecting  the  divine  nature  and 
purposes  and  modes  of  activity,  still  we  are  the  more  likely  on  the 
other  side  to  gain  by  this  process  the  broadest  views  of  both  sov- 
ereignty and  grace,  and  more  readily  to  apprehend  man  just  as  he 
was  and  is,  and  through  grace  may  become.  God  is  legitimately 
first  in  all  theology,  since  it  is  only  through  the  true  knowledge  of 
God  that  man  can  be  made  wise  unto  salvation. 

Definitions  or  descriptions  of  God,  more  or  less  full  and  elabor- 
ate, are  found  in  most  of  the  Protestant  symbols.  The  Augsburg 
Confession  (Art.  I)  affirms  that. there  u  Goddefmed:  Divineex. 
is  one  divine  essence  which  is  called  jStence  affirmed:  Qualities  of 
and  is  God;  eternal,  without  body,  this  affirmation. 
indivisible,  of  infinite  power,  wisdom, 

goodness, — the  Creator  and  Preserver  of  all  things  visible  and 
invisible:  note  also  the  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  Chap.  III.,  and 
the  Belgic  Conf. ,  Art.  I.  The  language  of  the  French  Confession, 
Art.  I,  is  especially  definite  and  emphatic:  We  believe  and  confess 
that  there  is  but  one  God,  who  is  one  sole  and  simple  essence, 
spiritual,  eternal,  invisible,  immutable,  infinite,  incomprehensible, 
ineffable,  omnipotent:  qui  est  toute  sage,  toute  bonne,  toute  juste, 
et  toute  misericordieuse.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  with  these 
declarations  of  continental  Protestantism  the  extensive  and  fin- 
ished decree  of  the  Vatican  Council  of  1870:  The  Holy  Catholic 
Apostolic  Roman  Church  believes  and  confesses  that  there  is  one 
true  and  living  God,  Creator  and  L,ord  of  heaven  and  earth,  al- 
mighty, eternal,  immense,  incomprehensible,  infinite  in  intelli- 
gence, in  will  and  in  all  perfection; — who  as  being  one,  sole, 
absolutely  simple  and  immutable  spiritual  substance,  is  to  be 
declared  as  really  and  essentially  distinct  from  the  world; — of 
supreme  beatitude  in  and  from  himself,  and  ineffably  exalted  above 
all  things  which  exist,  or  are  conceivable,  except  himself.  The 
first  in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  affirms  more  briefly,  that  there 
is  but  one  living  and  true  God,  everlasting,  without  body,  parts  or 
passions;  of  infinite  power,  wisdom  and  goodness  ;  the  Maker 
and  Preserver  of  all  things,  both  visible  and  invisible.  This  lan- 
guage is  transcribed  without  change  in  the  Irish  Articles,  and  is 
evidently  the  germ  of  the  more  expanded  declaration  of  the 
Westminster  Confession.  But  the  expansion  and  elaboration  of 
that  germ  are  so  marked  as  to  set  that  Confession  quite  above  any 


126  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

preceding  creed  of  Christendom,  in  respect  to  the  fullness  and  the 
grandeur  of  its  delineation  of  the  Divine  Being.  The  definitions 
given  in  the  two  Catechisms  are  equally  full  and  explicit :  that  in 
the  Shorter  Catechism,  (4)  has  never  been  surpassed; — God  is  a 
Spirit,  infinite,  eternal  and  unchangeable,  in  his  being,  wisdom, 
power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness  and  truth. 

In  taking  up  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  existence  and  nature  as 
thus  presented  in  the  Symbols,  we  may  first  note  their  broad 
and  strong  affirmation  of  the  fact  that  God  exists.  It  is  to  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  questions  respecting  the  divine  existence 
which  have  so  much  agitated  men  in  later  times,  were  hardly 
raised  during  the  era  of  the  Reformation.  Protestant  and 
Romanist  alike  rested  not  merely  on  the  general  fact  of  the  divine 
existence  as  held  in  the  ancient  church,  but  on  the  several  argu- 
ments for  such  existence  developed  or  expanded  by  the  Scho- 
lastics,—  regarding  the  scriptural  statements  as  abundantly 
confirmed  by  such  testimonies.  Even  the  more  intricate  question 
of  the  trinity  in  God  and  the  associated  question  respecting  the 
character  of  the  triune  Diety,  and  the  relations  of  that  character 
to  our  salvation,  were  practically  settled  beyond  question  in  the 
general  judgment.  It  was  rather  the  plan  of  God  in  salvation, 
the  problem  of  justification,  the  nature  and  scope  of  grace,  the 
freedom  of  the  will,  the  ministries  of  the  Spirit,  and  other 
kindred  problems,  which  absorbed  special  interest,  and  became 
the  center  of  practical  conflict,  not  between  Romanist  and  Prot- 
estant only,  but  largely  also  among  those  who  agreed  in  wearing 
the  Protestant  name. 

The  Symbols  follow  naturally  this  general  tendency,  and  rest 
the  fact  of  the  divine  existence  rather  on  affirmation  than  on 
reasoning  or  evidence.  The  voice  of  the  Divine  Word  is  regarded 
as  sufficient;  and  that  Word  simply  declares  that  there  is  one,  and 
but  one,  only  living  and  true  God.  Without  referring  at  this 
point  to  any  evidences  which  are  introduced  incidentally,  we  may 
contemplate  here  the  mingled  simplicity  and  assurance  of  the 
affirmation  itself.  It  may  be  presumed  that  the  divines  of  the 
Assembly  were  familiar  with  both  the  ancient  and  the  scholastic 
demonstrations;  and  the  fact  that  these  are  nowhere  introduced, 
indicates  their  conviction  that  the  doctrine  might  be  safely  left  to 
make  its  own  way  into  popular  conviction.  The  question  no 
more  needed  formal  argumentation,  in  their  judgment,  than  the 
kindred  question  whether  man  exists.  It  may  be  that  they  did 
not  regard  the  knowledge  of  God  as  manifested  immediately  in 
consciousness,   as  the  knowledge  of  self  is;   but  they  certainly 


EVIDENCES   OF   HIS    EXISTENCE.  127 

viewed  it  as  a  knowledge  which  the  moral  nature  of  man  readily 
receives,  to  which  the  human  conscience  spontaneously  pays 
reverence,  and  which  even  the  spirit  of  unbelief  cannot  well  resist. 
Hence  their  constant  and  confident  suggestion  of  the  truth  as  if 
it  were  axiomatic:  hence  their  steadfast  assumption  of  the  doc- 
trine, as  one  which  needed  no  demonstration. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  their  example  is  not  worthy  of 
consideration  if  not  of  imitation,  even  in  an  age  when  unbelief 
negative  and  positive  is  assailing  this,  together  with  almost 
every  other  cardinal  truth  of  the  Christian  religion.  Though  it 
be  queried  whether  true  knowledge  of  God  as  the  Infinite  One 
is  attainable,  or  whether  scientific  or  philosophic  demonstration 
of  his  existence  can  be  framed,  or  whether  the  belief  in  such 
existence  is  justifiable  even  as  matter  of  faith,  yet  the  truth  is 
not  likely  to  be  eliminated  from  the  mind  or  the  conscience  of 
mankind,  by  whatever  form  of  challenge.  There  are  deep  neces- 
sities in  human  nature,  especially  when  that  nature  is  made  to 
realize  its  condition  as  sinful,  for  which  this  truth  alone  can  fur- 
nish adequate  satisfaction,  and  which  no  possible  form  of  specu- 
lative doubt  or  unbelief  can  really  supply.  It  is  a  suggestive  fact, 
that  the  assaults  of  sin  upon  the  doctrine  have  been  and  are  more 
bitter,  more  often  in  a  sense  successful,  than  those  of  philosophic 
infidelity,  even  in  its  most  subtle  or  winning  forms.  Yet  out  of 
the  soul  of  the  sinner  there  comes  a  solemn  and  forceful  protest 
against  his  own  unbelief;  and  the  truth  that  there  is  a  God,  comes 
back  upon  him  with  a  resistless  power.  His  reason,  his  con- 
science, his  heart  alike  cry  out  for  the  living  God.  With  Augus- 
tine his  moral  nature  finds  no  rest,  till  it  finds  that  rest  in  the  one 
only  living  and  true  Deity.  And  in  fact  this  deep  and  universal 
experience  is  itself  an  evidence  largely  superseding  other  evi- 
dences, rendering  argumentation  comparatively  needless,  and 
forever  justifying  the  truth,  as  the  divine  Word  and  the  Chris- 
tian creeds  set  it  forth. 

Passing  to  consider  briefly  such  evidences  as  are  incidentally 
suggested  in  the  Symbols  in  support  of  this  doctrine,   we  may 
note   especially    the    allusions    to  the 
argument,  cosmological  and  teleologi-        2'     Arguments   incident- 

i       ,  •  ,      i      .     ,  .  ally  suggested :  Proofs  from 

cal,  which  physical  nature  in  so  many     nature>7rom  man. 

forms  supplies.     The  opening  sentence 

in  the  Confession  affirms  that  the  light  of  nature  and  the  works  of 
creation  and  providence  manifest  the  goodness,  wisdom  and  power 
of  God,  and  therefore  his  existence  as  a  personal  Being  possess- 
ing such  attributes,  apart  from  nature  and  supreme  over  it.     The 


128  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

chapter  on  Religious  Worship  (XXI)  declares  that  the  light  of 
nature  showeth  that  there  is  a  God  who  hath  lordship  and  sover- 
eignty over  all;  who  is  good  and  doeth  good  unto  all;  and  who 
is  therefore  to  be  feared,  loved,  praised,  called  upon,  trusted  in, 
and  served  with  all  the  heart,  and  with  all  the  soul,  and  with  all 
the  might.  Again  in  the  Larger  Catechism  (2)  it  is  said  that 
the  very  light  of  nature  in  man,  and  the  works  of  God,  declare 
plainly  that  there  is  such  a  Being.  So  in  the  chapter  on  Creation 
(IV)  it  is  taught  that  the  final  end  of  all  created  things — the  one 
great  issue  in  which  created  existence  finds  its  explanation,  is  the 
manifestation  of  the  glory  of  his  eternal  power,  wisdom  and 
goodness, — the  whole  being  designed  to  bear  testimony  not  only 
to  the  fact  that  God  exists,  but  also  to  his  character  as  thus  made 
manifest  to  man.  It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that,  beyond  merely  gen- 
eral allusions  to  these  teachings  of  nature,  the  continental  creeds 
contain  no  definite  suggestion  of  evidence  or  proof  as  to  the 
divine  existence.  This  defect  may  be  traced  partly  to  the 
absence  of  speculative  opposition  to  the  universal  faith,  and  in 
part  to  the  general  tendency  to  appeal  to  internal  rather  than 
external  testimonies  respecting  the  cardinal  elements  in  Christian 
belief.  Yet  it  should  be  said  that,  if  such  evidence  does  not 
appear  in  these  formularies,  the  truth  was  fully  recognized  by  the 
leading  minds  of  the  Reformation.  Melancthon,  for  example, 
affirmed  that  the  human  mind — intuens  opvfcium  mundi — per- 
ceives that  there  is  a  God,  eternal,  potent,  sapient,  just  and  good, 
punishing  the  unjust,  hearing  and  assisting  the  just.  Luther  held 
in  like  manner  that  a  knowledge  of  God  is  thus  implanted  in  the 
heart  and  conviction  of  men.  Calvin  taught  (Inst.  B.  I,  3-6) 
that  the  human  mind  is  naturally  endued  with  the  knowledge  of 
God,  yet  strongly  affirmed  the  need  of  Revelation  in  order  to 
make  such  knowledge  effectual  in  spiritual  experience. 

Whatever  may  be  said  respecting  the  inadequacy  of  the  cosmo- 
logical  and  teleological  evidences  suggested  by  the  language  of 
the  Symbols,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  argument  is  in 
fact  one  which  men  will  not  be  willing  to  set  aside.  As  long  as 
effects  and  causes  are  seen,  and  are  discovered  to  stand  in  some 
natural  and  potential  relation,  so  long  will  the  human  mind  con- 
tinue to  pass  upward  from  the  world  or  the  universe  viewed  as 
an  effect,  to  the  conception  of  a  cause  mighty  enough  to  produce 
them, — not  in  the  least  baffled  in  its  conclusion  by  the  speculative 
conception  of  an  eternal  series  of  such  causes,  beginning  nowhere 
and  explaining  nothing.  And  so  long  as  men  see  design  in 
nature,  and  find  proofs  at  ten  thousand  points  of  the  existence  of 


FURTHER    EVIDENCES.  12^> 

a  mind  behind  and  above  nature,  stamping  these  evidences  of 
design  everywhere  upon  what  it  has  created,  so  long  will  men 
pass  upward  to  the  conclusion  that  the  cause  of  which  all  these 
are  effects,  is  personal — possesses  intellectual  and  moral  qualities 
such  as  are  manifested  in  the  things  that  are  made.  The  affirma- 
tion of  Cicero,  in  the  Tusculan  Questions,  that  God  can  be  appre- 
hended by  us  only  as  a  mind  pure  (or  simple)  and  free,  separate 
from  all  mortal  (or  fleshly)  concretion,  knowing  and  controlling 
all  things,  but  itself  animated  by  sempiternal  energy,  is  one  which 
will  always  commend  itself  alike  to  the  intelligence  and  to 
the  conscience  of  mankind.  So  while  men  look  forward  to  the 
outcome  and  result  of  nature  and  of  man,  and  ask  for  the  great 
end  that  can  both  explain  and  justify  all  that  is  seen  in  the  ongo- 
ings of  nature  and  in  the  history  of  humanity,  they  will  find  the 
explanation  only  in  the  thought  of  One  in  whom  and  to  whom 
as  well  as  by  whom  are  all  things.  Though  it  may  be  said  with 
some  degree  of  warrant,  that  such  reasonings  fail  because  they 
rest  finally  on  intuitional  hypotheses,  or  because  they  cannot  be 
thrown  into  logical  form,  or  because  they  prove  more  than  is 
proposed,  or  because  they  do  not  relieve  the  doctrine  from 
mystery,  yet  they  have  real  and  convincing  force;  and  men  will 
steadfastly  return  to  them  with  a  deep  conviction  that  they  make 
clearly  manifest  to  the  reason,  if  they  do  not  absolutely  demonstrate 
to  the  understanding,  the  truth  affirmed.  Those  who  give  them 
any  sober  thought  will  spontaneously  say  with  an  ancient  apolo- 
gist: Just  as  when  we  see  a  well  appointed  vessel  on  the  sea,  we 
conclude  that  she  has  a  pilot  on  board,  so  from  the  regular  course 
of  the  planets,  the  rich  variety  of  the  creation,  we  infer  the 
Creator.  Or  with  Gregory  of  Nazianzus :  We  infer  the  existence 
of  the  Creator  from  his  works,  just  as  the  sight  of  a  lyre  reminds 
us  of  him  who  made  it  and  of  him  who  plays  it.  Herbert  Spencer 
(First  Principles)  admits  that  we  are  obliged  to  regard  every 
phenomenon  as  a  manifestation  of  some  Power  by  which  we  are 
acted  upon.  Though  that  eminent  author  pronounces  this  Power 
incomprehensible,  and  its  omnipresence  even  unthinkable,  yet 
the  nature  of  the  phenomena  to  which  he  refers  clearly  shows 
beyond  question  that  this  power  is  not  only  infinite  or  at  least 
immeasurable  in  potenc}^  but  is  no  less  infinite  in  wisdom, 
righteousness  and  goodness.  And  such  a  power,  both  resident 
in  nature  and  supreme  over  it,  can  be  none  other  than  our  God, 
although  the  astute  philosopher  refused  to  draw  this  inference 
from  his  own  premise. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  Symbols,  while  thus  suggesting 


130  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

the  more  external  evidence,  seem  to  rest  more  largely  upon  the 
inward  conviction — on  the  light  of  nature  in  the  soul,  as  more  con- 
vincing even  than  the  wondrous  testimonies  of  the  material  uni- 
verse. Man  in  this  view  becomes  himself  the  greatest  argument, — 
not  merely  in  the  accumulated  proof  furnished  by  the  biographies 
of  individuals  or  the  history  of  the  race,  but  rather  in  what  man 
knows  himself  to  be  as  a  rational  and  moral  being,  whose  supreme 
end  is  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him  forever.  It  is  a  striking  fact 
that  both  Catechisms  commence  with  a  proposition  so  abstract, 
so  broad,  so  powerful  as  this, — a  proposition  not  derived  immedi- 
ately from  Revelation,  but  rather  drawn  avowedly  from  the  light 
of  nature,  the  innate  conviction  of  the  soul.  The  aim  of  the 
Assembly  seems  to  have  been  to  start  with  a  statement  at  once  so 
simple  and  so  comprehensive  that,  while  all  would  spontaneously 
accept  it,  it  might  be  made  the  corner-stone  of  their  entire  super- 
structure. It  implies  that  God  exists  as  well  as  man;  that  this 
God  created  man,  and  created  him  for  an  adequate  purpose;  that 
the  glory  of  God  is  the  end  for  which  man  is  made,  and  that  man 
is  such  a  being  that  he  can  find  true  enjoyment,  the  highest  con- 
summation and  felicity  of  his  being  as  a  creature,  only  in  recog- 
nizing his  relations  to  God,  and  in  glorifying  him,  not  for  time  but 
forever  and  ever. 

The  argument  for  the  existence  of  God  thus  derivable  from  what 
man  is  seen  to  be,  as  a  creature  capable  of  serving  and  glorifying 
and  enjoying  such  a  Being,  is  one  of  the  highest  value  in  our 
time.  The  general  assumption  that  God  exists,  derived  from  other 
sources,  may  be  strongly  verified  by  such  study  of  what  man  is 
as  to  the  laws  of  his  being,  the  fixed  elements  in  his  constitution, his 
best  instincts  and  aspirations  and  tendencies.  For,  taken  in  his 
totality,  man  is  to  be  accounted  for,  not  simply  in  the  matter  of  his 
origin,  nor  simply  in  his  present  manifold  life  and  experience,  but 
still  more  in  his  possible  growth,  experience,  and  destiny.  To 
fancy  that  such  a  being  sprang  from  blind  protaplasmic  germs,  or 
was  developed  from  a  progressive  series  of  creatures  having  few  if 
any  of  these  mental  and  moral  characteristics,  seems  strangely 
unphilosophic.  It  would  be  much  more  in  harmony  with  the  facts 
to  think  of  him  as  the  stray  child  of  some  higher  parentage,  en- 
dowed with  celestial  tastes  and  affinities,  but  immured  in  some  way 
within  this  earthly  prison  of  flesh.  But  even  this  better  suppo- 
sition would  fail  to  explain  all  the  obvious  facts  in  the  case:  a  still 
higher  parentage  is  requisite — a  still  sublimer  origin  must  be 
sought.  Where  is  the  explanation  of  man  ?  From  what  source  did 
he  come;  to  what  purpose  was  he  formed;  whither  is  he  moving, 


THE   UNITY   OF   GOD.  131 

and  where  must  he  finally  pause,  with  every  power  rightly  util- 
ized, and  his  felicity  forever  complete  ?  There  is  but  one  answer 
to  such  questions — but  one  conclusion  to  such  reasonings.  That 
answer,  that  conclusion,  is  God, — the  only  living  and  true  God. 

Postponing  for  the  present  the  inquiry  as  to  the  method  of  God  in 
creation,  and  specifically  in  the  creation  of  man,  we  may  note  here 
the  singular  felicity  with  which  the  Symbols  seem  to  anticipate 
much  of  modern  speculation  as  to  the  moral  nature  and  to  the 
spiritual  endowments  of  man,  viewed  in  his  relation  to  the  Divine 
Being  whose  existence  is  thus  affirmed.  Carlyle  was  none  too 
ardent  in  characterizing  the  somewhat  current  hypothesis  that 
the  thoughts  of  men  are  but  brain  secretions,  that  what  we  call 
reason  is  only  a  higher  form  of  animal  instinct  or  intelligence, 
and  that  the  conscience,  the  moral  sentiments,  the  spiritual  aspi- 
rations of  mankind  are  but  evolutions  of  something  which  appears 
in  less  developed  degree  in  lower  orders  of  existence,  as  a  gospel 
of  dirt.  If  man  could  thus  be  materialized,  and  all  that  makes 
him  man  could  be  thus  generalized  away  and  exhaled  into  mere 
matter  or  energy  in  the  interest  of  an  anti-deistic  theory  of  nature 
and  its  origin,  then  indeed  we  might  cease  to  discuss  the  question 
whether  there  is  a  God  above  nature  and  supreme  over  nature.  As 
if  in  anticipation  of  such  sensuous  conceptions,  the  Symbols  grandly 
say  what  both  the  reason  and  the  heart  of  humanity  affirm:  God 
hath  (II:  ii)all  life,  glory,  goodness,  blessedness  in  and  of  Himself 
and  is  .  .  .  the  alone  fountain  of  all  being,  of  whom,  through  whom 
and  to  whom  are  all  things. 

The  conception  of  God  as  one,  one  only,  presents  itself  at  this 

point  for  special  consideration.     The  doctrine  of  the  divine  unity 

is  strongly  maintained  in  the  chapter 

■  i,         •   j  vu  3.  The  unity  of  God  taught: 

specially     under     examination.      The     polytheism  in  all  forms  mi- 

divine  Being  is  described  in  the  clause     cjt# 
just  quoted  as  having  all  life  and  glory 

in  and  of  himself,  and  also  as  alone  in  and  unto  himself.  Nor  is 
this  underlying  truth  obscured  or  nullified  by  the  declaration  im- 
mediately following,  that  in  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  there  be  three 
Persons.  For  whatever  the  conception  of  the  Trinity  may  include, 
it  is  never  to  be  taken  as  antagonistic  to  this  fundamental  fact  of 
unity.  God  as  a  Being  is  eternally  the  one  only  living  and  true 
God.  In  the  exposition  of  the  first  Commandment  (L,.  C.  105-110) 
it  is  presented  as  our  primary  duty  to  know  and  acknowledge  God 
to  be  the  only  true  God  and  our  God,  and  to  worship  and  glorify 
him  accordingly.     What  is  forbidden  in  this  commandment,  is 


132  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

said  to  be  the  denying  or  not  worshiping  and  glorifying  the  one  true 
God  as  our  God,  and  the  giving  that  worship  and  glory  to  any 
other  which  is  due  to  him  alone.  In  various  other  forms  this  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  unity  is  held  forth  in  the  Symbols  as  one  of  the 
cardinal  principles  of  the  Christian  faith. 

The  doctrine  thus  stated  stands  opposed  to  all  forms  of 
polytheism,  whether  in  belief  or  in  worship.  Among  the  sins 
especially  condemned  in  the  exposition  of  both  the  first  and  the 
second  commandment  is  idolatry,  with  all  its  concomitant  errors, — 
its  degenerate  notions  respecting  divine  things,  its  multiplied  gods, 
its  total  failure  to  conceive  of  the  one  God  as  he  truly  is.  Polythe- 
ism and  idolatry  are  nearly  identical  terms  ;  idolatry  may  not  of 
necessity  be,  but  in  fact  almost  always  is,  polytheistic.  The  great 
natural  religions,  which  some  minds  in  our  time  are  endeavoring 
to  compare  favorably  with  Christianity,  are  invariably  cor- 
rupted by  the  disposition  of  the  natural  heart  to  multiply  deities 
for  each  of  its  fancied  or  real  needs.  Oriental  dualism,  based  on 
the  apparently  conflicting  phenomena  of  good  and  evil  in  nature 
and  in  human  life,  is  the  simplest  form  of  this  tendency.  Augus- 
tine (City  of  God,  B.  IV)  shows  vividly  to  what  fearful  extent 
polytheism  was  carried  both  in  the  multiplication  and  in  the  degen- 
erate conception  of  the  gods  recognized  and  worshiped  in  the 
Pantheon  of  Rome.  Mohammedanism,  which  had  its  root  histor- 
ically in  Hebraism,  is  almost  the  sole  exception  to  this  tendency. 
But  polytheism  even  in  its  simplest  forms,  is  necessarily  destruc- 
tive of  the  power  and  substance  of  true  religion.  The  best  sen- 
timents of  the  soul  cannot  be  poured  out  in  worship  at  more  than 
a  single  shrine:  the  regulative  principles  in  the  religious  nature 
lose  their  potency  and  become  inoperative,  if  they  be  not  sustained 
by  faith  in  one  God  only,  both  single  and  supreme.  It  is  obvious 
that  the  final  election  of  humanity  must  be  a  choice  between 
monotheism  and  atheism:  polytheism  and  pantheism  are  at  best 
but  intermediate  and  temporary  substitutes.  One  God  or  none, 
must  be  the  ultimate  alternative.  And  this  one  God  must  be,  not 
a  deity  existing  simply  as  the  unifying  principle  in  human  thought, 
or  an  ideal  sublimation  of  all  excellences  developed  in  human  life, 
or  as  an  impalpable  spiritus  pervading  nature,  but  a  real  Being, 
existing  above  nature  and  beyond  the  imaginings  or  analyses  of 
men,  in  the  unity  of  his  own  supreme  and  glorious  personality. 
He  who  rejects  the  conception  of  such  a  Being,  will  find  rest 
nowhere  except  in  the  utter  ignoring  or  the  utter  denying  of  any 
and  all  supernatural  existence. 

The  doctrine  of  the  absolute  unity  of  God  as  a  Being  is  an 


DOCTRINE    OF    UNITY    FUNDAMENTAL.  133 

essential  element  in  the  faith  of  Christendom  universally.  The 
strong  statement  of  the  latest  Vatican  Council  has  already  been 
quoted:  God  is  the  one,  sole,  absolutely  simple  and  immutable 
spiritual  substance.  Both  the  Confession  of  Mogilas  and  the 
Ivonger  Catechism  of  the  Greek  Church  affirm  the  doctrine  with 
equal  emphasis.  The  Protestant  formularies  invariably  declare 
and  teach  that,  in  the  language  of  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession, 
God  is  one  and  one  only  in  essence  and  nature,  subsisting  in  himself 
and  in  himself  sufficient  unto  all  things.  And  in  emphasizing  the 
subsequent  tenet  of  the  trinity  in  God,  they  are  in  every  instance 
careful  to  affirm  that  this  trinity  in  no  way  antagonizes  or  sub- 
verts the  underlying  and  more  primal  fact  of  unity.  They  follow 
at  both  points,  as  we  shall  have  further  occasion  to  note,  the 
method  of  the  Scriptures, — guarding  carefully  on  the  one  hand 
against  Socinian  error,  and  on  the  other  against  what  may  be 
described  as  tritheistic  orthodoxy.  It  is  not  needful  here  to  pre- 
sent the  varied  and  numerous  forms  in  which  the  unity  in  God  is  set 
forth  in  the  inspired  Word, — in  the  Mosaic  economy,  in  the 
Hebrew  psalmody,  in  the  prophetical  writings,  and  equally 
in  the  New  Testament.  Nor  is  it  important  to  point  out  in 
detail  the  philosophic  basis  on  which  the  doctrine  reposes. 
That  the  mind  is  so  constituted  that  it  cannot  conceive  of 
more  than  one  such  being  as  God  is  defined  in  all  Christian 
symbolism  to  be, — that  the  physical  universe  manifests  the  exis- 
tence of  one,  and  but  one  organizing  and  controlling  Mind, — that 
the  moral  nature  and  convictions  of  man  can  be  satisfied  with  no 
other  conception, — that  personal  religion  flourishes  in  the  human 
soul  only  as  polytheism  in  whatever  variety  is  thrown  aside,  and 
the  one  God  of  Revelation  is  made  the  single  and  absorbing  object 
of  love  and  adoration: — these  more  speculative  evidences  abund- 
antly justify  on  rational  grounds  our  faith  in  the  biblical  teachings 
respecting  this  fundamental  article  of  Christian  belief.  We  see 
in  nature  or  in  Scripture  but  one  God:  we  believe  in  one  God  only, 
though  he  be  triune  in  person;  and  one  God  only  do  we  trust, 
obey,  adore. 

That  this  one  and  only  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  that  as  such  he 
exists  in  and  unto  himself,  deriving  his  life  and  glory  and  blessed- 
ness from  himself  alone,  is  a  doctrine  „  M  ,.  ... 
.  ,  '  ,.  4.  God  a  self-existent 
closely  associated  with  the  preceding.  $mu  perSonal,  fontal,  cre- 
However  difficult  it  may  be  to  conceive  ative. 
of  that  primal  cause  which  differs  from 

all  other  causes  in  having  no  relation  to  any  causal  force  behind 
or  above  itself,  yet  the  conception  of  such  a  cause  presents  itself 


134  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

to  the  reason  as  the  only  possible  alternative  to  the  absurd  hypoth- 
esis of  an  endless  series  of  such  causes,  each  potent  enough  to 
create  its  successor,  and  all  personal  and  intelligent — running  back 
forever.  In  like  manner,  difficult  though  it  may  be  to  frame  a 
distinct,  intelligible  thought  of  God — incomprehensible  as  it  may 
seem  to  the  philosophic  mind  to  fashion  any  rounded  conception 
of  the  infinite,  yet  the  vision  of  such  an  infinite  One,  from  whom 
all  other  beings  are  derived,  and  in  whom  they  find  their  consum- 
mation, is  something  which  philosophy  cannot  refuse  to  recognize 
as  a  legitimate  tenet  of  faith,  and  which  the  heart  of  man  wel- 
comes as  the  just  foundation  of  its  holiest  experiences — its  purest 
life.  While  Hamilton  follows  Kant  and  Coleridge  in  affirming 
that  the  conception  of  such  an  absolute  Spirit  cannot  be  regarded 
as  having  an  adequate  philosophic  basis,  he  still  recognizes  the 
conception  as  having  firm  foundation  in  our  moral  nature,  and  as 
indispensable  to  the  proper  development  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment existing  in  man  as  man.  It  is  true  that  self-existence  differs 
from  all  created  existence  in  certain  vital  respects,  yet  the  fact  of 
created  existence  seen  everywhere  else  does  not  disprove  the 
affirmed  fact  of  self -existence  somewhere.  Rather  is  it  true  that 
created  existence  cannot  be  accounted  for  in  any  of  its  forms, 
except  on  the  hypothesis  that  there  exists  somewhere  One  who 
lives  in  and  unto  himself. 

The  doctrine  of  self-existence  carries  with  it  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  spiritualty.  As  God  is  one,  and  as  the  sole  cause  and 
ground  of  his  existence  is  in  himself,  so  that  existence  must  be 
independent  of  matter,  and  of  all  materializing  appendages. 
Spirituality  is  not  to  be  conceived  of  as  merely  a  quality  or  attri- 
bute in  God;  it  is  rather  his  nature  itself — the  fundamental  fact 
or  element  in  his  constitution.  In  the  words  of  the  larger 
Catechism,  (4)  God  is  a  Spirit  essentially, — infinite  in  being, 
glory,  blessedness  and  perfection;  and  the  Confession  adds  that 
he  is  alone  in  and  unto  himself  all-sufficient  because  he  is  thus 
pure  Spirit.  Among  the  things  said  to  be  forbidden  in  the  sec- 
ond Commandment  is  the  making  any  representation  of  God,  of 
all  or  any  of  the  three  Persons,  either  inwardly  in  our  minds,  or 
outwardly  in  any  image  or  likeness  of  any  creature  whatsoever. 
Anthropomorphic  and  anthropopathic  representations  of  God, 
and  all  kindred  delineations  of  his  nature  or  activities,  which 
seem  to  bring  him  down  to  the  level  of  human  life  or  experience, 
are  here  clearly  interdicted,  so  far  as  they  go  beyond  the  language 
and  method  of  the  Scripture  itself.  The  biblical  anthropomorph- 
isms never  mislead  us  or  corrupt  our  spiritual  conceptions.     In 


GOD    AS    A    SPIRIT.  135 

the  same  direction  we  are  taught  (L,.  C.  109)  that  the  acceptable 
way  of  worshiping  God  is  instituted  by  himself,  and  is  so  limited 
by  his  revealed  will,  that  he  may  not  be  worshiped  according  to 
the  imaginations  or  devices  of  men,  or  the  suggestions  of  Satan, 
under  any  visible  representation,  or  in  any  other  way  not  prescribed 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  These  prohibitions  and  injunctions  rest 
specifically  on  the  proposition,  that  God  is  a  Spirit  in  and  of 
himself,  and  is  therefore  to  be  worshiped  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

The  teaching  of  the  Catechism  on  this  point  expresses  tersely 
the  intense  conviction  of  Protestantism  universally  respecting 
the  veneration  of  images  and  pictures,  as  practiced  by  the 
Roman  and  partially  by  the  Greek  communion.  The  Council  of 
Trent  emphasizing  antecedent  usage,  declared  that  images  of 
Christ,  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  of  the  saints  ought  to  be  had 
and  retained  in  temples,  and  that  due  honor  and  veneration 
should  be  given  them, — not  indeed  because  of  any  virtue  resident 
in  them,  or  of  any  efficiency  possessed  by  them  as  images,  but 
because  of  the  honor  due  to  those  persons  whom  they  represent. 
The  Greek  Catechism  in  like  manner  affirms  (518-522)  that  it  is 
no  violation  of  the  second  Commandment  to  honor  icons  (pictures) 
as  sacred  representations,  using  them  as  helps  in  the  pious  remem- 
brance of  the  works  of  God  and  of  his  saints.  But  the  Protestant 
creeds,  from  that  of  Augsburg  and  the  Articles  of  Smalcald  down 
to  the  Scotch  Confession  and  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  are  united 
and  most  positive  in  their  hostility  to  such  image-worship  in 
whatever  variety.  We  reject  alike,  says  the  Second  Helv.  Conf. 
both  the  idols  of  the  heathen  and  the  simulacra  of  Christians: 
we  affirm  that  God  cannot  be  expressed  by  any  art  or  image,  and 
that  all  such  representations  of  him  are  falsity.  Calvin  denounces 
such  representations  as  prodigies  of  impiety,  and  argues  strenu- 
ously against  them  as  constituting  gross  and  corrupting  departure 
from  the  simplicity  of  true  spiritual  worship  such  as  God  requires. 
British  Puritanism  was,  if  possible,  even  more  emphatic  in  its 
condemnation, — becoming  at  times  even  fanatical  in  its  iconoclas- 
tic demonstrations.  Rutherford  (Soume  of  Christian  Religion), 
expresses  the  general  conviction  of  Scotland  in  his  quaint  saying : 
Wee  ar  forbiddin  ether  to  mak  or  to  worship  ane  image  repre- 
senting God,  or  to  give  ether  inward  or  outward  worship,  ether 
with  heart  or  knee  or  bodie  to  any  creature  or  image. 

This  biblical  conception  of  spirituality  is  to  be  carefully  dis- 
tinguished from  various  false  or  defective  notions  concerning 
God.  It  differs  radically  from  pantheism  in  either  its  ideal  or 
its  more  material  forms.     God  as  a  Spirit  is  no   mere   principle. 


136  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

unifying  and  centralizing  in  itself  all  human  thought.  He  is  no 
pervasive,  impersonal  element  in  material  things, — an  unconscious 
anima  mundi,  holding  all  other  existence,  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious, in  some  species  of  unity.  Nor  is  he  a  merely  subjective 
conception  of  the  human  intellect,  uniting  thought  and  matter  in 
one,  but  having  no  demonstrable  existence  objectively  and  apart 
from  them.  As  a  Spirit  God  is  truly  and  forever  personal;  as 
pure  Spirit  he  exists  in  complete  independence  alike  of  all  material 
existence  however  etherialized,  and  of  the  loftiest  dreams  or 
ideals  of  the  mind  of  man.  Back  of  all  his  relations  to  other 
beings  or  activities  or  to  all  knowledge, — behind  even  his  primal 
relations  to  space  and  time,  he  is  simple  Spirit,  Spirit  only  and 
altogether,  and  as  such  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term  a  per- 
sonal Being.  Whatever  the  term,  personality,  means  as  applied 
to  man,  or  to  those  higher  varieties  of  being  which  are  not 
associated  with  flesh  and  blood  as  man  is,  all  such  meaning  is 
concentrated  and  illustrated  inimitably  in  God. 

He  is  therefore  the  fontal  Spirit — the  L,ord  and  Giver  of  all  life, 
whether  physical  or  spiritual,  in  the  strong  phrase  of  the  Belgic 
Confession,  omnia  vivijicantem  et  conservantem.  In  the  chapter  on 
Creation  (IV)  it  is  said  that  it  pleased  him  to  make,  or  create  of 
nothing,  the  world  and  all  things  therein;  and  in  the  same  chapter 
his  creation  of  man  in  his  own  image  is  represented  as  the 
summit  of  his  creative  efficiency.  In  the  remarkable  description 
of  him  in  the  chapter  now  specially  under  consideration  he  is 
represented  as  the  alone  fountain  of  all  being,  of  whom,  through 
whom,  to  whom  are  all  things.  In  the  definition  of  his  pro- 
vidence (S.  C.  11)  as  his  most  holy,  wise  and  powerful  preserv- 
ing and  governing  all  his  creatures  and  all  their  actions,  it  is 
implied  that  the  lives  thus  preserved  and  governed,  originated 
with  him,  and  are  under  his  providential  guidance  in  virtue  of 
that  primal  origination.  This  interior  vitality  in  God  can  indeed 
be  conceived  of  only  through  some  form  of  imagery  or  compari- 
son; it  cannot  be  defined  intrinsically.  It  is  opposed  entirely  to 
the  observed  quiescence  of  matter;  it  is  contrasted  equally  with 
the  occasional  rest  or  equilibrium  of  physical  energies;  it  stands 
over  against  all  possible  forms  of  disintegration  or  decay.  It  is 
life  in  the  most  ethereal  form,  in  the  highest  degree,  in  the 
supremest  perfection.  It  is  as  incomprehensible  as  it  is  underived  : 
it  is  immutable,  illimitable,  everlasting.  All  possible  activity, 
potency,  blessedness  are  in  it:  it  is  an  ocean  of  being,  past  all 
measurements  and  past  all  comprehension.  And  from  this  source 
alt  other  beings  and  activities  fL  iw:  i*  ;    ' '  -  true  and  only  fountain 


GOD    AS    ABSOLUTE    SPIRIT.  1 ->7 

of  all  existence.  Angels,  other  orders  of  moral  existence,  man, 
and  even  inferior  creatures,  are  but  the  issue  of  this  countless  and 
prolific  vitality:  in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 

The  absoluteness  of  God,  based  on  what  he  is  in  his  own 
spiritual  nature,  and  on  his  fontal  and  creative  relations  to  all 
other   existence,   is  strongly  affirmed 

in  the  Symbols,  both  as  an  independ-        5-   God  the  Absolute  Spirit: 
.  .  ,  .      .     .    '  His  Dominion  original  and 

ent  proposition,  and  as  a  basis  for  the     comDiete 

consequent  conception  of    the  divine 

decrees  and  administration.  He  is  absolute  in  the  sense  of  being 
all-sufficient  in  and  unto  himself, — not  sta?idi?ig  in  need  of  any 
creatures  which  he  hath  made,  or  deriving  any  glory  from  them. 
He  is  absolute  also  in  the  sense  of  being  himself  the  final  end  of  all 
his  activities, — all  things  being  not  merely  of  him  and  through 
him,  but  also  to  him  and  for  him.  He  is  absolute  likewise  in  the 
sense  of  complete  and  unquestionable  control;  having  in  himself 
most  sovereign  dominion  over  all  creatures,  to  do  by  them,  for 
them  or  upon  them,  whatsoever  himself  pleaseth.  In  each  and 
all  of  these  aspects,  it  is  implied  that  God  is  the  absolute  as  well  as 
creative  Spirit, — sovereign  dominion  in  the  most  complete  sense 
being  of  necessity  included  in  the  pure  and  perfect  spirituality 
from  which  it  flows. 

It  is  sometimes  unjustly  charged  upon  the  Confession,  that  it 
bases  the  entire  scheme  of  divine  truth  on  an  abstract  conception 
— the  conception  of  decrees  or  predestination.  That  some  exposi- 
tions of  the  Confession  have  been  open  to  this  charge, — have 
started  in  this  way  from  a  philosophic  axiom,  rather  than  from 
divine  verities,  and  have  thus  planted  the  Christian  doctrine  on 
an  abstraction,  is  doubtless  true.  But  every  careful  student  of 
the  Symbols  will  discover  that  the  determination  of  God  as  to 
what  he  will  do — his  scheme  and  plan  of  things,  and  his  purpose 
to  carry  that  plan  or  scheme  into  complete  execution,  as  well  as 
all  his  consequent  actions,  are  there  rested  on  what  God  himself 
is,  especially  as  the  absolute  Spirit.  His  decree  or  decrees  are 
not  presented  as  abstract  hypotheses,  intuitively  perceived  as  true 
in  and  of  themselves,  but  rather  as  the  manifestations  of  his  own 
spiritual  being — the  development  even  from  eternity  of  his  own 
fathomless  nature  and  life.  God  is  a  being  such  in  himself  and 
in  his  relations  to  all  his  creatures,  that  he  cannot  be  true  either 
to  what  he  is  inherently  or  to  their  needs  as  his  creation,  without 
having  a  scheme,  a  design,  a  purpose,  which  includes  them  and 
which  comprehends  the  whole  of  what  they  are  or  have  been,  or 
ever  can  become.     And  for  the  same  reason  his  supreme  and 


138  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

effectual  activities,  whether  in  the  lower  sphere  of  physical  nature 
where  absolute  necessity  rules,  or  in  the  moral  sphere  where  he 
carries  out  his  will  in  conjunction  with  human  or  angelic  freedom, 
can  be  nothing  else  than  the  orderly  evolution  of  his  eternal  pur- 
pose,— the  unfolding  in  fact  and  history  of  his  sovereign  design. 
This  is  not  an  abstract  notion;  it  is  hardly  a  logical  deduction; 
it  is  but  another  aspect  of  the  truth  that  God  is  a  Spirit,  pure, 
complete,  absolute. 

Without  forestalling  here  the  analysis  of  the  ruling  idea  of 
the  divine  decrees,  as  found  in  the  Symbols,  we  may  note  the 
practical  fact  just  described  as  one  which  sheds  light  on  the  entire 
problem  of  predestination.  That  the  Bible  associates  the  divine 
decrees  with  the  divine  nature,  and  asserts  the  sovereignty  of 
God,  not  as  an  arbitrary,  inexplicable,  forbidding  assumption, 
but  rather  as  the  natural  and  necessary  and  glorious  outgrowth 
of  what  he  is  as  the  absolute  Spirit,  cannot  be  questioned.  It 
nowhere  separates  the  two,  but  rather  describes  the  decree  as  the 
issue  and  consequence  of  the  nature — a  consequence  or  issue  that 
must  follow  from  the  nature,  and  that  cannot  be  withheld  with- 
out impairing  our  conception  of  the  nature,  and  making  God  less 
than  he  really  is.  So  in  the  Confession,  the  chapter  on  the 
Eternal  Decree  (III)  strong  as  it  is,  forbidding  in  some  aspects, 
objectionable  at  least  in  some  of  its  phraseology,  is  made  much 
more  clear  and  persuasive,  and  unquestionable  also,  when  read  in 
the  light  of  the  chapter  preceding,  with  its  impressive  and  just 
and  inspiring  delineations  of  the  Divine  Being,  as  he  is  in  himself 
— the  fontal,  creative,  absolute  Spirit.  Just  as  much  of  the 
criticism  made  upon  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  as  Calvin 
presents  it,  fades  away  in  the  judgment  of  those  who  carefully 
study  his  antecedent  descriptions  of  the  One  Divine  Essence  and 
of  the  True  God  as  distinguished  from  all  false  deities,  (Inst.  B. 
1:11-14),  so  much  of  the  objection  urged  against  the  Calvinistic 
scheme  as  set  forth  in  the  "Westminster  Confession,  vanishes  when 
it  is  seen  how  clearly,  how  naturally  and  how  inevitably  that 
scheme  in  its  main  features  flows  directly  from  the  cardinal  fact 
of  the  divine  spirituality.  God  as  a  Being,  existing  in  and  of 
himself,  the  source  and  fount  of  all  other  existence — the  primal 
and  eternal  and  absolute  Spirit — must  in  some  true  sense,  plan, 
purpose,  decree  and  execute  whatsoever  comes  to  pass.  And  all 
attempts  to  limit  the  sweep  or  the  application  or  execution  of  the 
regulative  purpose  or  decree,  by  any  hypothesis  or  suggestion 
that  detracts  in  the  slightest  degree  from  this  view  of   him  as 


AS   AN    INFINITE    SPIRIT.  139 

such  a  Spirit,  must  fall  to  the  ground :  neither  Scripture  nor 
philosophy  can  sustain  them. 

As  a  Spirit  thus  under ived,  personal,  fontal,  absolute,  God  is 
also  infinite,  eternal  and  unchangeable  in  his  being  and  nature. 
These   are   qualities    inherent   in   the 

divine  constitution,— essential  charac-        6-   God  as  infinite,  eternal, 
-.«     ,.  .  .  .  ~u         unchangeable     Spirit:    His 

tenstics  of  the  divme  existence.     They     omnipresence< 

differentiate  God  still  further,  not  only 

from  all  varieties  of  physical  being,  but  from  all  created  spirits 
which  are  finite  in  both  sphere  and  capacity,  temporal  in  origin, 
and  subject  in  many  ways  to  change.  The  term,  infinite,  is 
applicable  to  him  both  intensively  and  extensively.  On  the  one 
side  it  is  an  affirmation  that  his  being  is  not  limited  or  restrained  by 
any  of  those  boundaries  which  confine  and  narrow  human  or 
angelic  existence.  Such  infinitude  is  not  a  merely  negative  con- 
ception; it  is  also  a  positive  intuition,  although  it  transcends  the 
limits  of  human  reason,  and  stands  before  us  as  a  truth  too  vast 
and  grand  for  finite  comprehension.  It  exhibits  God  to  us  in  his 
transcendence,  as  existing  far  above  the  conditioning  limitations 
which  surround  all  finite  being — forever  alone  and  unapproach- 
able in  his  sublime  infinitude.  We  cannot  say,  Luther  eloquently 
declares  in  his  discussion  of  the  Abendmahl,  that  God  is  an  out- 
stretched, long,  broad,  fixed,  high,  deep  Being:  he  is  a  super- 
natural, incomprehensible,  ineffable  Being,  existing  wholly  in 
every  grain  of  sand,  yet  at  the  same  time  in,  above  and  beyond 
all  creatures. 

The  term  is  also  extensive  in  significance;  and  in  this  sense  is 
synonymous  with  such  terms  as  immensity  and  omnipresence. 
God  is  immense  in  the  sense  that  his  greatness  is  beyond  all 
delineation  and  measurement, — not  in  the  pantheistic  sense  some- 
times suggested,  that  he  includes  the  entire  creation,  physical 
and  spiritual,  within  himself.  He  is  in  all  things  though  not 
included  in  them;  he  is  without  all  things  but  is  not  excluded 
from  them.  He  is  also  omnipresent  in  the  three-fold  sense 
ascribed  to  him  by  Scholasticism:  present  as  knowing  perfectly  all 
things  in  all  parts  of  his  vast  creation,  present  as  exerting  his 
omnipotent  energy  immanently  through  both  the  physical  and 
the  moral  universe,  present  also  in  some  transcendent  sense 
essentially  in  and  through  as  well  as  over  all  created  things.  It 
is  not  implied  in  this  statement  that  God  is  diffused  through 
space,  as  light  or  air  may  be; — as  pure  Spirit  he  cannot  be  thus 
distributed.  Rather  is  it  true  that  he  is  at  one  and  the  same 
time  wholly,  or  in  his  totality  as  a  Spirit,  in  each  and  every  place 


140  GOD    IN    HIS    BKING. 

throughout  this  measureless  expanse  of  finite  being.  As  another 
has  said,  diffusion  and  contraction,  extension  and  circumscription, 
are  not  to  be  affirmed  of  God:  he  is  equally  near  to  and  equally 
far  from  every  point  of  space  and  every  atom  of  the  universe. 
He  is  universally  and  immediately  present,  not  as  a  body  but  as  a 
Spirit, — not  by  motion  or  penetration  or  filling,  as  would  be 
predicated  of  a  diffused  fluid,  or  in  any  way  as  if  his  infinity  were 
composed  of  a  countless  number  of  finite  parts,  but  in  a  way 
peculiar  to  his  own  spiritual  and  perfect  nature.  It  is  a  remark 
of  Hamilton  that  while  physical  action  is  limited  by  both  space 
and  time,  mental  action  is  not  conditioned  by  space,  though  it  be 
limited  by  time.  In  an  infinitely  higher  sense  is  God  uncondi- 
tioned by  space,  though  himself  immanent  in  the  physical  as  in 
the  spiritual  realm,  sustaining  and  directing  all  its  energies,  and 
making  all  things  subservient  to  his  supreme  purpose.  To  use  a 
familiar  scholastic  statement,  his  centre  is  everywhere  while  his 
circumference  is  nowhere — he  is  in  and  through  all,  yet  above  all. 

And  as  God  is  above  space  while  in  a  sense  ever  present  within 
it,  so  is  he  above  all  time — eternal  as  well  as  infinite  in  his  being. 
As  pure  and  fontal  and  absolute  Spirit,  he  is  entirely  beyond  those 
limitations  in  duration  by  which  all  finite  creatures  are  bounded. 
It  is  an  old  and  familiar  definition  which  describes  his  eternity  as 
the  perfect  possession  at  once  and  altogether  of  interminable  or 
measureless  life.  All  conceptions  of  duration  are  lost  in  his  bound- 
less infinitude.  We  are  not  indeed  to  regard  all  ideas  of  success- 
ion as  excluded  from  the  divine  mind.  God  sees  events  in  nature 
or  in  human  life  as  occurring  in  chronological  as  well  as  in  logical 
relationships,  and  himself  produces  events,  such  as  creation  and 
the  fall,  the  incarnation  and  redemption,  in  a  distinct  order  of 
time, — if  not  by  successive  acts  of  creative  or  providential  or  gra- 
cious efficiency.  Yet  to  him  the  distinctions  of  past  and  present 
and  future  exist  in  a  relative  measure  only.  He  never  forgets  the 
past  or  loses  the  sense  of  it  as  eternally  present:  to  him  the  future 
is  no  more  vague  or  dim  than  the  passing  hour.  All  succession 
proceeds  from  him  and  is  controlled  by  him  from  the  high  throne 
of  his  eternity.  Through  all  mutations  of  nature  or  of  human- 
ity, he  remains  the  same  self -existent  and  absolute  Spirit  as  before 
time  began  to  be,  and  will  so  remain,  the  one  Eternal  Being,  yes- 
terday, to-day  and  forever. 

God  is  also  an  unchangeable  Being, — existing  evermore  as  the 
enduring  ground  across  whose  surface  all  finite  mutations  pass, 
but  whose  serene  depths  are  never  agitated  by  mortal  disturbance. 
He  is  unchangeable  in  respect  to  all  those  constitutional  elements 


AS    AN    UNCHANGEABLE    SPIRIT.  141 

or  qualities  which  have  already  been  ascribed  to  him  as  the  one 
eternal  Spirit.  He  is  unchangeable  also  in  respect  to  all  those  moral 
attributes,  wisdom  and  power,  holiness  and  justice,  goodness  and 
truth,  which  belong  of  right  to  his  character,  his  moral  person- 
ality, rather  than  to  his  constitution  or  nature.  As  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  him  to  be  otherwise  than  an  absolute  Person,  infinite  and 
eternal,  so  in  a  reverent  sense  of  the  phrase,  it  is  impossible  for 
him  to  be  otherwise  than  just  and  good  and  true,  either  in  his 
executive  administration  or  in  his  interior  life  as  a  moral  being. 
Any  mutation  which  should  affect  either  his  natural  or  his  moral 
attributes  in  themselves,  or  which  should  materially  modify  his 
manifestations  of  these  attributes  in  his  relations  to  man  or  to 
nature,  is  simply  inconceivable.  Change  for  the  better  is  impos- 
sible, since  he  is  already  perfect:  change  for  the  worse  is  no  less 
impossible  to  a  perfect  being  such  as  he.  No  such  change  can 
occur  from  within  by  his  own  volition,  nor  can  any  power 
exist  outside  of  him  which  is  adequate  to  produce  or  compel 
such  change.  Such  immutability  is  necessarily  involved  in 
the  conception  of  his  eternity:  from  everlasting  to  everlast- 
ing he  must  be  the  same.  But  such  unchangeableness  does 
not  imply  emotionless  passivity  in  God.  The  biblical  des- 
criptions of  variation  in  the  divine  feeling  toward  man,  or  of 
modifications  in  the  divine  administration  over  man,  are  to  be 
taken  as  representing  important  and  practical  truth,  though  such 
truth  must  ever  stand  in  entire  harmony  with  that  underlying 
immutability — not  immobility — which  belongs  inherently  to  him 
as  the  eternal  and  absolute  Spirit.  There  may  indeed  be  changes 
of  relation  to  his  moral  creatures,  or  of  dispensation  or  action 
toward  them,  which  may  be  figuratively  delineated,  as  is  some- 
times done  in  Scripture,  in  such  strong  terms  as  almost  to  imply 
mutability  in  his  disposition  as  well  as  being.  The  expression  of 
his  love  may  change,  and  that  love  may  even  assume  the  aspect 
of  holy  wrath;  his  justice  may  reveal  itself  at  one  time  in  the 
condemnation  of  sinners,  and  at  another  in  their  pardon  and  res- 
toration to  himself  through  grace;  his  government  may  be  man- 
ifested, now  in  beneficent  and  sustaining  providences,  and  now  in 
storm  and  pestilence  and  retributive  visitation.  Lactantius  (De 
Ira  Dei)  has  justly  argued  that  if  God  did  not  abhor,  he  could 
not  love;  inasmuch  as  he  loves  good,  he  must  abhor  evil,  and  must 
bestow  good  upon  those  he  loves,  evil  upon  those  he  abhors.  Yet 
these  manifestations  however  varied  indicate  no  change  in  either 
his  attributes  or  his  purposes  :  all  his  acts  of  whatever  type 
spring  at  last  from  one  and  the   same  deep  source  in  his  perfect 


142  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

nature.     Increase  and  improvement,  loss  and  deterioration,  vacil- 
lation, changeableness  in  design  or  act,  are  to  him  impossible. 

At  this  point  we  may  fitly  gather  into  one  complex  conception 
all  that  is  known  respecting  God  in  his  constitution  or  nature,  as 
distinguished  from  what  may  be  known  of  him  as  a  being  possess- 
ing the  supreme  endowment  of  character.  Intrinsically  or  consti- 
tutionally, God  is  not  a  spirit  associated  with  matter  or  identical 
with  matter,  but  is  pure  and  simple  Spirit,  immeasurably  above 
all  that  is  natural  or  material.  He  is  distinguished  from  all  other 
spirits  as  being  self-existent, — having  no  cause  or  source  of  exis- 
tence back  of  himself.  He  is  also  a  personal  Spirit,  and  the  fontal 
and  creative  source  of  all  other  existence.  He  is  also  an  absolute 
Spirit  as  distinct  from  all  related  being,  and  as  such  is  in  every  sense 
infinite,  immeasurable  and  eternal  in  his  nature,  and  forever  be- 
yond change  or  mutation  of  whatever  type.  These  qualities  each 
and  all  belong  to  him  as  Spirit;  they  inhere  in  his  constitution;  they 
combine  to  make  up  his  perfect  nature,  and  to  differentiate  him  in 
essence  inconceivably  from  even  the  loftiest  of  his  creatures. 

From  this  general  view  of  the  divine  constitution  and  nature 
we  may  now  turn  to  the  consideration  of  the  moral  attributes  of 

God  as  described  in  the  Symbols — the 
7.  Moral  attributes  in  God.  r    ,.  ,.  -    «   «         ,     ,  . 

_.       .   .  .   ,      if.    t-        perfections  which  belong  to  him  as  a 

Knowledge  and  classification     F  m 

of  these  attributes.  hoing  possessing  character.     The  dis- 

tinction between  God  as  a  Spirit,  pos- 
sessing the  constitutional  qualities  just  described,  and  God  as  a 
moral  Being,  having  and  manifesting  character  in  its  highest  con- 
ceivable form,  and  even  in  a  degree  immeasurably  beyond  our  loft- 
iest conceptions,  is  as  vital  in  religious  experience  as  it  is  familiar 
in  Christian  theology.  In  accordance  with  it  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism (4)  teaches  not  merely  that  God  is  infinite  and  eternal  and 
unchangeable  and  therefore  perfect  in  his  being,  but  also  that  he 
is  equally  infinite,  eternal  and  unchangeable  and  therefore  perfect 
in  his  wisdom,  his  power,  his  holiness,  justice,  goodness  and  truth. 
The  Larger  Catechism  (7)  makes  the  same  declaration,  in  broader 
form  and  even  with  increased  emphasis.  And  in  the  Confession 
(Chap.  II.  and  elsewhere)  the  same  high  view  is  affirmed  as  a 
necessary  inference  from  what  had  already  been  said  respecting  the 
divine  nature. — Here  arises  the  fundamental  question  whether 
God  can  truly  be  known  by  man,  not  merely  as  a  Spirit  ill  the 
natural  sense,  but  especially  as  a  moral  Being,  having  in  himself 
such  ethical  qualities  and  virtues  as  the  term,  character,  suggests 
when  applied  to  him.     There  is  indeed  a  profound  sense  in  which 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   GOD    ATTAINABLE.  143 

he  cannot  be  known,  even  by  the  angels  and  archangels  who  dwell 
in  his  immediate  presence.  The  finite  can  never  comprehend  the 
infinite:  God  is  indeed  essentially,  as  he  has  been  described,  the  Un- 
knowable One.  Yet,  though  we  can  know  nothing  immediately 
of  the  divine  essence,  we  may  still  recognize  the  ultimate  fact  that 
there  is  in  God  a  substantial  ground,  an  underlying  entity  or  na- 
ture, by  and  in  which  his  revealed  perfections  are  sustained,  made 
coherent,  unified.  God  as  a  Spirit  is  something  more  even  than 
the  sum  of  all  his  attributes,  whether  natural  or  moral:  his  per- 
sonality stands  eternally  behind  each  manifested  quality  and  sup- 
ports it.  Nor  is  this  an  ideal  generalization  or  inference;  it  must 
be  a  reality  to  our  conviction,  otherwise  our  confidence  in  the 
actuality  of  the  attributes  will  inevitably  be  lost  or  weakened. 
Hence  the  definition  of  the  Catechism  brings  in  the  being  of  God 
as  infinite,  eternal  and  unchangeable,  before  it  affirms  infinity, 
eternity  and  unchangeableness,  as  belonging  to  the  particular 
attributes  of  that  being,  afterwards  named. 

God  as  a  personal  Being  is  known  primarily  through  the  reve- 
lation to  us  of  his  substantial  attributes,  and  especially  of  his  moral 
perfections.  It  may  even  be  admitted  that  we  truly  know  him 
only  by  this  process.  What  is  termed  the  intuitive  perception  of 
God,  the  direct  beholding  of  him  on  the  surface  of  consciousness, 
as  we  see  ourselves  reflected  there,  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  pos- 
sible. Yet  the  belief  in  his  existence  may  safely  be  classed  among 
those  great  primary  beliefs,  those  fundamental  convictions  of  rea- 
son and  conscience,  which  lie  at  the  base  of  all  our  practical 
acquaintance  with  things.  We  believe  spontaneously,  primarily, 
that  God  exists,  and  that  the  constitutional  qualities  and  the  moral 
perfections  which  are  discernible  in  him,  are  in  like  manner  real 
and  inherent  as  well  as  virtual,  although  we  realize  also  that  as 
the  infinite  and  unchangeable  and  absolute  Spirit,  he  rises  im- 
measurably above  our  highest  thoughts,  and  at  best  is  seen  through 
a  glass,  darkly.  In  the  familiar  phrase  of  Augustine,  we  may 
apprehend  though  we  cannot  comprehend  him  in  his  nature  and  in 
his  character.  It  has  been  objected  that  such  knowledge  as  this 
is  not  scientific  knowledge  because  it  is  not  complete;  and  it  is 
urged  on  philosophic  grounds,  not  only  that  we  do  not  now  know, 
but  even  that  as  finite  beings  we  never  can  know  God  in  his  real- 
ity. Yet  surely  we  may  apprehend,  if  we  cannot  comprehend 
him:  we  may  learn  of  him  through  his  revealed  and  illustrated 
attributes,  though  we  may  not  penetrate  the  mystery  of  his  essence 
or  constitution.  If  it  be  said  that  we  cannot  even  know  his  attri- 
butes fully  or  comprehensively,  yet  surely  we  may  know  that  they 


144  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

belong  to  him,  and  that  they  are  real  in  themselves,  though  they  are 
seen  to  be  immeasurably  greater  than  our  apprehension  of  them. 
We  may  certainly  perceive  that  they  are  not  merely  forms  of 
knowledge,  or  impressions  existing  in  our  minds,  rather  than  in- 
herent and  enduring  qualities  in  the  divine  Being.  If  we  cannot 
know  them  fully,  we  can  know  them  truly.  The  fact  that  God 
loves,  or  that  he  is  just,  or  is  mighty,  may  be  matter  of  certain 
assurance  to  our  minds,  though  we  have  no  way  of  measuring 
his  might,  or  testing  absolutely  his  sense  of  justice,  or  fathoming 
the  vast,  deep  sea  of  his  love. 

It  should  be  admitted  that  the  modern  doctrine  of  nescience  or 
agnosticism,  whether  philosophic  or  scientific,  cannot  be  met  by 
direct  quotations  from  the  creeds  of  the  Reformation.  Yet  a  suf- 
ficient answer  to  these  subtle  types  of  false  opinion  may  be  found 
in  what  is  inferentially  contained  in  these  formularies.  He  who 
duly  appreciates  their  practical  and  spiritual  teachings,  will  not  be 
likely  to  be  caught  in  the  meshes  of  such  speculative  error.  The 
old  scholastic  problem  on  which  philosophic  nescience  is  based, 
respecting  the  incapacity  of  the  finite  mind  to  comprehend  the  infi- 
nite, is  practically  answered  by  the  simple  distinction  already 
suggested,  between  comprehensive  knowledge  of  divine  things, 
and  real  knowledge  that  is  not  comprehensive.  The  scientific 
objection  that  God  cannot  be  known,  unless  he  can  be  known 
through  the  principles  and  methods  of  physical  research — an 
objection  to  which  the  creeds  give  no  answer,  because  it  could  not 
have  arisen  in  the  era  in  which  they  were  framed — may  be 
answered,  not  by  remanding  the  whole  matter  to  the  sphere  of  sen- 
timent or  faith,  but  by  broadening  the  definition  of  science,  and 
by  showing  that  the  physical  sciences  themselves  rest  on  certain 
philosophic  axioms,  fundamental  verities  of  the  same  nature  intel- 
lectually as  the  conception  of  God.  Further  answer  to  both  of 
these  varieties  of  skepticism  may  be  found  in  a  careful  analysis 
of  their  underlying  temper  and  tendencies,  especially  within  the 
sphere  of  ethical  and  spiritual  experience.  And  we  may  justly 
conclude  that,  in  whatever  form,  mere  agnosticism  can  never 
command  the  cordial  or  the  permanent  assent  of  mankind  :  the 
human  mind  spontaneously  shrinks  from  it,  as  men  draw  back 
involuntarily  from  the  edge  of  a  precipice. 

It  should  be  noted  here  that  the  Symbols  attempt  no  philosophic 
classification  of  the  divine  attributes  and  perfections:  they  give 
us  rather,  as  in  the  Shorter  Catechism,  a  simple  series  in  which 
there  is  an  obvious  gradation  in  statement,  and  in  which  the  glo- 
ries of  the  divine  character  rather  than  the  qualities  of  the  divine 


WISDOM    IX    GOD — HIS   INTELLIGENCE.  145 

constitution  are  specially  prominent.  The  transition  apparent  in 
their  definition  is  a  gradual  transition  from  what  is  natural  to 
what  is  moral, — infinity,  eternity,  unchangeableness  in  being, 
furnishing  the  basis  for  the  consequent  declaration  of  wisdom 
and  power,  and  of  the  still  more  distinctively  moral  qualities  such 
as  justice  and  goodness  and  truth,  which  belong  to  God  as  a  holy 
and  perfect  Person.  It  should  also  be  noted  that  they  continually 
lay  the  supreme  stress  on  the  spiritual  perfections  in  God, — 
doubtless  for  the  reason  that  it  is  through  the  disclosure  of  these 
rather  than  through  the  manifestation  of  his  constitutional  qual- 
ities, such  as  personality  or  infinitude  or  unchangeableness,  that 
sinful  man  is  to  be  brought  back  to  him  in  penitence  and  devotion. 
If  we  knew  nothing  more  of  God  than  the  fact  that  he  exists,  or 
than  the  fact  that  he  exists  as  pure  and  fontal  and  absolute  Spirit, 
it  is  probable  that  such  knowledge  would  only  impel  us  farther 
away  from  him,  as  our  first  parents  fled  from  his  presence  in  the 
garden  which  their  sin  had  contaminated.  But  when  we  see  him  in 
his  glory  as  a  moral  Being — when  we  are  enabled  to  discern  his 
wisdom,  power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness  and  truth,  as  he  has 
graciously  chosen  to  disclose  them  in  the  Gospel,  we  are  sponta- 
neously drawn  toward  him  in  humility  of  spirit,  in  responsive 
belief  and  trust,  in  penitential  love  and  consecration. 

The  attribute  of  wisdom  is  presented  in  the  Symbols  in  two 
aspects;  as  intelligence,  shown  in  perfect  knowledge  of  all  things 
actual  and  possible;    and   as   wisdom 

distinctively,  shown  in  the  adaptation        8-    Wisdom  in  God:  intel- 
-  L         ,  ,     r     11  vc       ligence,  knowledge,  wisdom, 

of  means  to  ends,  and  of  all  specific     distinctively# 

ends  to  the  one  supreme  end,  the  divine 

glory.  Turning  here  to  the  first  of  these  aspects,  we  find  the 
complete,  perfect  intelligence  of  God  set  forth  rather  as  a  natural 
than  a  moral  endowment,  belonging  essentially  to  him  as  pure 
and  eternal  Spirit.  This  intelligence  is  set  over  against  all 
pantheistic  notions,  modern  or  ancient,  of  an  unconscious  imper- 
sonal entity,  either  pervading  all  things  as  an  indwelling  force,  or 
brooding  over  all  things  as  a  sleeping  spirit.  In  the  chapter 
under  special  notice,  it  is  affirmed,  not  merely  that  God  works  all 
things  according  to  the  counsel,  and  of  course  the  conscious  coun- 
sel of  his  own  will,  but  also  that  in  his  sight  all  things  are  open 
and  manifest,  and  that  his  knowledge  is  infinite,  infallible,  and 
independent  upon  the  creature.  In  the  chapter  on  the  Eternal 
Decree  (III)  it  is  taught  that  God  knows  whatsoever  may  or  can 
come  to  pass  upon  all  supposed  conditions.  He  is  again  and  again 
characterized  as  most  zvise,  as  having  infallible  foreknowledge ,  as 


146  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

knowing  all  things,  as  holding  secret  counsel  with  himself "in  regard 
to  man; — phrases  which  are  alike  descriptive  of  an  intelligence 
that  includes  within  its  grasp  not  only  all  that  is,  but  all  that 
might  possibly  come  to  pass. 

The  characteristics  of  such  intelligence  are  sufficiently  suggested 
in  these  descriptions.  It  is  intuitive,  in  the  sense  that  it  comes 
into  the  divine  mind  through  no  prolonged  processes  of  investiga- 
tion or  reflection,  but  is  seen  at  once,  immediately.  It  is 
synchronous,  in  the  sense  that  the  divine  mind  does  not  pass 
discursively  from  one  truth  to  another,  or  know  things  only  in 
their  chronologic  succession  and  relation,  but  rather  takes  in  all 
truth  and  things  in  one  comprehensive  glance.  It  is  exact  and 
definite, — corresponding  entirely  to  the  reality  of  things,  above 
the  range  of  all  confusion  or  vagueness,  independent  of  image  or 
illustration,  crystalline  and  perfect  in  the  clearness  of  its  vision.  It 
is  complete,  in  the  further  sense  that  nothing  escapes  or  ever  can 
escape  such  comprehending  survey ;  nothing  is  to  it  contingent  or 
micertain;  nothing  can  occur  which  is  not  known  beforehand 
alike  in  its  principle,  its  origin,  and  its  results  immediate  and 
remote.  This  intelligence  also  includes  the  possible  as  well  as 
the  actual — the  things  prevented  or  not  done,  as  well  as  the 
things  permitted  or  ordained.  It  embraces  the  whole  universe  of 
fact,  being,  principle,  doctrine,  possibilitj^;  it  sweeps  at  once 
through  the  past,  the  present,  the  future,  and  in  its  light  the 
remotest  ages  of  eternity  appear  as  immediate.  Nor  was  this 
knowledge  ever  less,  nor  will  it  ever  be  greater  than  it  is  now: 
being  perfect  it  is  incapable  of  either  increase  or  diminution.  Of 
its  processes,  of  its  intensity  or  of  its  scope,  man  can  know  little; 
it  is  too  wonderful  for  us;  in  its  presence  we  can  but  tremble  and 
adore. 

The  doctrine  of  the  absolute  omniscience  of  God  will  present 
itself  again  and  again  for  consideration,  especially  in  its  relations 
to  the  divine  decrees  or  purposes,  and  to  the  divine  administra- 
tion in  providence  and  in  grace.  Yet  it  is  important  that  such 
omniscience  should  be  fully  recognized  at  this  point,  as  the  under- 
lying base  of  the  more  distinctively  moral  quality  of  wisdom. 
The  fact  may  be  inferred  alike  from  the  nature  of  God  as  Spirit, 
and  from  the  specific  fact  of  the  divine  eternity  and  infinity  or 
omnipresence.  It  cannot  be  denied  without  impugning  the  divine 
perfection  at  many  vital  points.  It  is  especially  important  to  note 
that  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  such  knowledge  must  include 
man  as  truly  as  physical  nature,  and  the  future  as  well  as  past 
choices  and  acts  of  men,  and  also  the  entire  development  of  the 


HIS    MORAL   WISDOM.  147 

character  and  destinies  of  the  race,  not  merely  in  this  life  but 
forever.  All  objects  and  events,  future  as  well  as  past  or  present, 
must  be  included  in  it.  Nor  is  this  a  scientia  media,  subject  to 
contingencies  which  are  determinable  by  man:  it  is  direct  and 
immediate,  and  wholly  above  all  human  contingency  in  its  insight 
and  its  sweep.  In  the  phrase  of  another,  God  sees  all  things  in 
and  through  himself;  and  since  he  knows  himself  at  once  and 
completely,  it  is  evident  that  he  knows  all  things  in  himself  at 
once  and  perfectly:  however  things  are  multiplied  or  lessened, 
his  knowledge  of  them  is  forever  complete  and  unchangeable. 
Such  is  invariably  the  biblical  delineation  of  the  divine  omnis- 
cience; and  though  it  be  too  wonderful  for  us  or  wholly  inscrutable 
in  the  perplexing  problems  it  suggests,  we  are  never  at  liberty  to 
question  it:  we  can  only  bow  down  before  it  and  submit  ourselves 
in  deed  and  thought  to  its  infallible  scrutiny. 

The  term,  wisdom,  is  more  often  applied  in  the  Symbols,  as  in 
the  Scriptures,  specifically  to  the  moral  developments  and  activi- 
ties of  this  perfect  intelligence.  In  ordinary  life,  wisdom  is  dis- 
played both  in  the  selection  of  right  or  righteous  ends,  and  in 
the  choice  and  use  of  right  means  for  the  attaining  of  such  ends. 
It  involves  always  the  exercise  of  a  judgment  which  is  both 
actuated  by  worthy  motives,  and  determined  by  sound  principles 
in  its  practical  decisions.  As  applied  to  God,  the  term  contem- 
plates both  the  one  final  end  toward  which  he  is  ever  moving, 
and  the  particular  ends  he  seeks  in  given  cases,  in  subordination 
to  that  ultimate  purpose.  It  contemplates  also  the  use  of  none 
but  appropriate  and  just  means,  and  such  use  or  application 
of  these  as  shall  effect  the  end  contemplated.  The  sphere  of 
such  wisdom  is  as  comprehensive  as  the  universe.  It  is  seen  in 
the  plan  of  creation  and  in  the  execution  of  that  plan  in  all  of 
its  details:  it  is  manifested  in  the  complex  and  manifold  develop- 
ments of  providence,  from  the  most  minute  event  in  the  life  of 
any  creature  up  to  the  most  significant  movements  of  races  or  of 
planets:  it  is  specially  manifest  in  the  arranging,  unfolding, 
progress  and  completion  of  the  scheme  of  redemption.  These 
higher  aspects  of  this  attribute  are  especially  emphasized  in  the 
Confession.  The  unsearchable  wisdom,  as  well  as  the  power  and 
goodness  of  God,  is  said  to  manifest  itself  in  his  providence ,  extend- 
ing to  all  things  and  ordering  and  governing  all  for  his  own  holy 
ends.  The  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  God  is  asserted  even  in  his 
permission  of  sin,  and  particularly  in  his  having  purposed  to  order 
it  to  his  own  glory.  The  plan  of  salvation  is  said  to  originate  as 
much  in  the  wisdom  and  purpose  of  God  as  in  his  grace;   and  the 


148  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

unfolding  of  that  plan  historically  is  viewed  as  a  manifestation 
throughout  of  the  same  purpose  and  wisdom.  Even  the  divine 
consent  to  the  existence  and  ravages  of  the  dire  evil  of  sin  is  not 
regarded  as  derogating  from  the  cardinal  truth  that  God  is  most 
wise — most  wise,  first  in  the  permission  and  then  in  his  most  power- 
ful bounding  of  sin  in  a  manifold  dispensation,  so  as  to  secure  his 
own  holy  ends  therein.  The  divine  sovereignty,  as  taught  in  the 
Symbols,  can  have  no  sufficient  basis  except  in  the  recognition  of 
such  wisdom  as  planning,  directing,  controlling  all  things.  And 
it  is  ever  to  be  remembered  that  the  conception  of  that  sover- 
eignty, so  often  misapprehended  as  it  is  there  presented,  is  always 
set  forth  in  the  light  of  these  antecedent  and  justifying  views  of 
the  perfect  intelligence,  the  complete  moral  wisdom  of  the  Deity. 
In  expounding  the  associated  conception  of  power  as  an 
attribute  of  God,  three  relative  forms  of  the  doctrine  seem  to  have 

been  present  in  the  minds  of  the  Assem- 

9.    Power  in  God:  God  as     bl      God  as  cause,  God  as  will,   God 

cause  and  as  will  i  His  sover-  .  «,      ,  ^.       .,  . .  -   , 

■-     .  as  sovereign. — The  doctrine  that  God 

eignty.  ° 

is  both  the  first  cause  and  the  final 
cause,  originating  everything  by  his  own  interior  causative  force, 
and  again  utilizing  every  thing  for  his  own  purpose  and  glory,  is 
clearly  maintained  in  the  Symbols  in  many  ways.  Such  causal 
efficiency  is  said  to  lie  in  his  nature  as  pure  and  absolute  Spirit, — 
all  power  belonging  to  him  inherently.  In  considering  their  doc- 
trine respecting  divine  providence,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  note 
more  distinctly  the  relations  of  this  primary  potency  to  all  vari- 
eties of  secondary  causation.  But  even  here  it  should  be  noted 
that  all  such  secondary  causation  must  have  originated  in  and 
through  the  first  cause;  and  that  secondary  causation  cannot  act 
so  as  to  secure  results  independently  of  this  first,  originating 
cause.  Whatever  theory  may  be  entertained  respecting  the 
nature  of  this  connection,  or  the  manner  in  which  God  acts  in 
and  with  and  through  second  causes,  there  can  be  no  question  as 
to  the  fact.  To  deny  that  secondary  causes  have  any  efficiency, 
or  to  affirm  that  there  are  no  such  causes,  is  to  lesolve  the  whole 
universe  simply  into  one  grand,  progressive,  stupendous  movement 
of  the  divine  will.  To  suppose  that  there  are  such  causes  in  the 
universe  which  God  did  not  institute  and  which  he  does  not  con- 
trol, is  to  confess  that  he  has  no  real  government  over  nature  or 
over  man,  and  that  the  final  outcome  of  things  may  be  something 
wholly  different  from  his  original  plan  or  desire.  The  Confession 
(V)  teaches  rather  that  he  ordereth  all  things  to  fall  out  accord- 
ing to  the  nature  of  second  causes;    and  that  back   of   all   these 


POWER    IN   GOD — CAUSE   AND    WILL.  1  4U 

subsidiary  agencies,  he  himself  doth  uphold,  direct,  dispose  and 
govern  all. 

The  conception  of  God  as  will  presents  the  same  fact  in  a  broader 
form.  It  lies  in  his  nature  as  Spirit  that  he  should  possess  such 
power  of  volition:  this  power  is  a  central  element  in  the  idea  of 
Spirit.  God  is  cause,  first  and  final,  because  he  is  also  will,  in  the 
most  vital  sense.  He  puts  forth  his  almighty  energies,  pouring 
them  into  each  secondary  force,  and  filling  the  universe  with  their 
amazing  manifestations,  because  he  wills — because  he  chooses. 
His  almightiness  is  the  expression  of  his  inward  capacity  of  voli- 
tion: he  is  omnipotent,  because  he  is  Spirit,  pure,  free,  absolute. 
Without  entering  here  into  any  analysis  of  the  various  exercises 
of  the  divine  will,  as  decretive,  preceptive  or  permissive,  or  inquir- 
ing as  to  the  secret  of  its  measureless  efficiency,  we  may  note  the 
primary  fact  that  God  is  will, — his  own  immutable  and  most  right- 
eous will  being  the  direct  outgrowth  and  expression  of  his  spiritu- 
ality. Thus  creation  occurs  because  it  pleased  him:  the  multiform 
developments  of  providence  are  referred  to  the  free  and  immutable 
counsel  of  his  will:  the  plan  of  salvation,  with  all  implied  or  con- 
tained in  it,  (VII)  he  hath  been  pleased  to  express  by  way  of  covenant. 
Such  language  runs  almost  everywhere  through  the  Symbols, 
indicating  constantly  the  strength  of  the  conception  as  one  of  the 
dominating  elements  in  the  system  of  doctrine  there  contained. 

Without  specially  considering  just  here  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  sovereignty  as  found  in  the  Symbols,  we  may  simply  note 
the  fact  that  such  sovereignty  is  constantly  assumed  in  them,  as  a 
consequence  of  the  foregoing  view  of  God  as  cause  and  God  as 
will.  Being  thus  both  cause  and  will,  God  must  be  sovereign,  and 
that  in  the  highest  sense  conceivable.  Granting  the  possibility 
of  widely  differing  notions  respecting  that  sovereignty  in  its 
method  and  scope ; — granting  also  the  existence  of  great  practical 
difficulties  in  respect  to  the  relations  of  such  sovereignty  to  human 
freedom  and  responsibility,  the  fact  must  still  be  admitted  as  un- 
questionable and  fundamental.  God  is  the  supreme  Lord  and  King 
of  all  the  world ; — not  merely  of  the  world  of  humanity,  as  the 
phrase  implies  in  the  connection  in  which  it  is  used,  but  of  all 
worlds,  with  all  their  creatures  and  contents,  forever.  Such 
supremacy  is  an  ultimate  fact.  It  is  everywhere  taught  in  the 
Scriptures,  as  it  is  everywhere  suggested  in  nature  and  in  the  life 
of  man.  How  this  supremacy  is  exercised  in  the  material  universe, 
and  especially  as  related  to  the  free  will  and  consequent  accounta- 
bility of  man,  is  a  problem  to  be  carefully  considered  at  a  later 
stage  in  our  exposition. 


150  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

While  Protestant  symbolism  can  hardly  be  said  to  present  any 
theory  of  the  divine  omnipotence  in  either  of  these  three  aspects,  yet 
it  is  strongly  unanimous  in  affirming  the  essential  fact.  That  God 
is  the  first  and  the  executive  and  the  final  cause  of  all  things  and 
all  events,  and  that  his  will  is  everywhere  present  and  everywhere 
supreme,  and  this  in  such  sense  as  makes  him  absolute  sovereign 
over  nature  and' over  man,  is  to  some  extent  affirmed,  and  is  uni- 
versally assumed  in  these  formularies.  Even  the  Arminian  Re- 
monstrance (IV)  recognizes  this  divine  potency  as  the  beginning, 
continuance  and  accomplishment  of  all  good  in  the  domain  of 
grace,  and  by  consequence  in  the  sphere  of  nature  and  of  provi- 
dence also.  But  as  in  many  other  directions  so  here,  the  West- 
minster statements  are  more  full  and  more  explicit  than  any 
others — though  adhering  carefully  to  the  wise  rule  of  stating  the 
fact  without  attempting  speculative  explanation.  The  term, 
power,  as  employed  in  both  the  Confession  and  the  Catechisms  is  a 
very  broad  term.  We  find  its  closest  analogue,  not  in  the  forces 
of  nature,  tremendous  and  resistless  as  these  often  are,  but  rather 
in  the  human  will  as  an  energy  of  a  higher  order  than  any  force 
of  nature,  and  capable  of  producing  results  which  no  natural 
force  can  effect.  As  applied  to  God,  it  signifies  not  only  the  abil- 
ity to  will,  but  the  ability  to  execute  whatever  he  wills  to  do.  It 
does  not  relate  to  what  may  be  described  as  natural  impossibilities, 
but  only  to  what  may  properly  be  regarded  as  legitimate  objects 
of  power.  The  scholastic  speculation  whether  there  are  any  lim- 
its to  the  divine  potency, — whether  God  can  undo  that  which 
has  been  done, — whether  he  can  make  anything  better  than 
he  has  actually  made,  and  other  similar  queries,  need  no  specific 
notice  here.  Nor  does  the  term  refer  to  moral  impossibility  in 
whatever  form.  God,  it  is  said,  (V:  iv)  being  most  holy  and 
righteous,  neither  is  ?wr  can  be  the  author  or  approver  of  sin;  and 
Holy  Scripture  teaches  that  he  cannot  lie,  or  in  any  way  deceive 
the  children  of  men,  or  deny  himself,  or  abdicate  his  throne  of 
glory.  But  whatever  comes  within  the  scope  of  holy  power,  con- 
trolled by  infinite  wisdom  and  equity  and  love,  he  not  only  knows 
and  desires  but  is  able  to  accomplish.  This  is  the  proper  concep- 
tion of  omnipotence  as  an  attribute  of  God  both  natural  and  moral. 
Such  omnipotence  is  a  fact  beyond  all  question.  It  is  implied 
in  what  we  know  him  to  be  as  pure  and  absolute  Spirit :  it  is  proved 
and  certified  by  what  we  know  of  the  actual  workings  of  such  power 
in  the  sphere  of  nature  and  in  human  life:  it  is  abundantly  declared 
and  established  in  the  inspired  Word.  Of  the  instant  and  the 
vast  and  the    complete  and  immeasurable  sweep  of  this  divine 


JUSTICE    IN    GOD.  151 

potency, — of  its  irresistible  efficiency  either  through  means,  or 
without,  above  and  against  means  as  it  pleaseth  God, — of  its  in- 
exhaustible volume  and  its  ineffable  grandeur,  as  seen  alike  in 
the  ordering  of  the  starry  heavens  and  in  his  moral  administra- 
tion over  man  and  over  other  rational  and  moral  beings,  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  form  more  than  an  approximate  conception. 

Beside  the  two  primal  perfections  of  God  expressed  in  the 
terms,  wisdom  and  power,  the  Westminster  teaching  brings  prom- 
inently into  view  three  other  moral  or 

.  .,      ,  ,...        .       ~    ,       .     ..  .  10.    Other    moral    Attri- 

spiritual    qualities    in    God, -justice,     butM.     Jus{ice>    ^^ 

goodness,  truth — which  may  here  be     Truth, 
considered  together.     Of  those  the  first 

is  justice.  "While  there  are  few  indices  in  the  Symbols  of  those 
philosophic  distinctions  respecting  the  divine  justice,  which  have 
figured  so  largely  in  theology  during  the  past  two  centuries,  espec- 
ally  in  connection  with  theories  of  the  atonement,  we  may  note 
the  frequent  presence  in  them  of  the  scholastic  antithesis  between 
justitia  interna  and  justitia  externa:  God  being  represented  habit- 
ually as  both  righteous  in  himself,  and  righteous  throughout  his 
entire  administration.  He  is  first  of  all  righteous  in  himself  or 
internally, — controlled  in  his  own  interior  life  as  truly  as  in  his 
outward  activities  by  the  most  absolute  and  unvarying  regard  for 
what  he  sees  to  be  right.  God  is  not  only  just — he  is  justice 
itself  as  truly  as,  in  the  terse  phrase  of  John,  he  is  love.  He  is 
represented  as  most  just,  and  as  studying  always  the  claims  of  ab- 
solute justice  in  the  purpose  to  create,  and  in  all  his  subsequent 
plans  and  determinations.  This  attribute  is  never  resolved  into 
simple  regard  for  the  welfare  of  his  creatures,  or  into  any  other  kin- 
dred characteristic:  it  is  described  as  an  inherent  endowment, 
resident  in  him  as  pure  and  free  and  absolute  Spirit.  In  this  sense, 
it  has  sometimes  been  regarded  as  synonymous  with  moral  excel- 
lence in  general,  or  with  holiness  or  worthiness,  taken  as  descrip- 
tive of  the  complete  perfection  of  Deity.  Yet  the  term  more 
properly  has  reference  distinctively  to  the  intrinsic  equity  of  God 
in  his  moral  relations  to  his  creatures:  it  describes  the  state  of 
mind  and  will  with  which  he  habitually  contemplates  these  rela- 
tions. His  interior  desire,  his  inward  and  eternal  purpose,  is  to 
do  right  always  and  everywhere.  Nor  is  it  ever  to  be  assumed 
that  the  right  is  determined  in  the  divine  mind  by  the  mere 
will  of  God  as  an  arbitrary  matter.  While  there  are  instances 
in  the  divine  legislation,  such  as  the  authoritative  setting  apart  of 
exactly  one  seventh  of  human  life  for  worship,  which  seem  to 
rest  directly  upon  the  divine  choice  alone,  yet  even  such  legislation 


152  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

is  not  to  be  viewed  as  in  any  sense  arbitrary.  The  law  which 
God  imposes  upon  his  moral  creatures  and  to  which — it  may  be 
reverently  said — he  is  himself  eternally  and  internally  obedient, 
is  the  expression  of  his  infinite  wisdom,  goodness,  holiness,  justice 
and  truth,  as  well  as  his  sovereign  power. 

Viewed  on  the  other  side  as  an  active  quality  pouring  its  influ- 
ence into  all  forms  of  the  divine  agency  in  these  outward  relations, 
justice  is  as  fully  affirmed  of  God  as  either  power  or  wisdom.  In 
his  primary  decree,  in  his  plan  and  process  of  creation,  in  his 
dealing  with  man  both  before  the  fall,  in  the  fall  and  subse- 
quently, he  is  described  as  most  just.  His  creation  and  support 
of  angels,  and  his  establishing  them  in  holiness  and  happiness, 
are  in  order  that  (X.  C.  19)  he  may  employ  them  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  power,  mercy  a?id  justice.  His  dealings  with  men  in 
providence,  whatever  be  the  nature  of  such  providence  specific- 
ally, are  said  to  be  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his  wisdom,  power 
and  justice.  In  the  chapter  on  Justification,  (XI)  the  exact  justice 
of  God  is  said  to  be,  equally  with  his  rich  grace,  glorified  in  the 
justification  of  sinners.  The  condemnation  of  such  as  have 
rejected  the  Gospel,  the  dishonor  and  wrath  brought  upon  them 
on  account  of  their  sin,  are  said  to  redound  to  the  praise  of  his 
glorious  justice.  And  in  the  chapter  on  the  Judgment,  ( XXXIII ) , 
one  of  the  ends  sought  in  the  appointing  of  that  awful  day  is 
declared  to  be  the  manifesting  of  the  glory  of  his  justice,  both  in  the 
rewarding  of  the  righteous,  and  in  the  damnation  of  those  who 
are  wicked  and  disobedient.  Whatever  objections  may  be  raised 
at  other  points  against  what  is  said  respecting  the  divine  purposes 
and  dealing,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly held  strictly,  uncompromisingly,  to  the  doctrine  that  God  is 
just — just  inherently  and  just  in  every  manifestation.  Could  it 
be  shown  that  their  conception  of  the  divine  decrees,  or  of  the 
scheme  of  redemption,  involved — as  has  sometimes  been  said — 
an  actual  infraction  of  the  claims  of  absolute  equity,  we  must  still 
give  them  credit  for  honest  faith  in  such  equity,  and  regard  them 
as  having  failed  simply  to  carry  the  truth  they  held,  out  to  its 
legitimate  results. 

The  distinction  just  suggested  between  internal  and  external 
justice  is  sometimes  expressed  by  the  terms,  absolute  and  rela- 
tive,— the  first  referring  to  the  essential  rectitude  of  the  divine 
character,  and  the  second  to  the  equally  essential  rectitude  of  the 
divine  dealings  with  the  human  race.  Other  terms,  such  as  rec- 
torai  or  legislative,  distributive  and  retributive,  governmental  or 
commutative,  are  used  in  later  theology  —  as  we  shall  see — to 


GOODNESS    IN    GOD.  L53 

describe  certain  specific  relations,  general  or  particular,  which  God 
as  Moral  Governor  sustains  toward  men,- -the  last  especially  in 
conjunction  writh  the  scheme  of  redemption  through  the  mediation 
of  Christ.  At  this  point  it  is  important  only  to  emphasize  the 
underlying  truth  that  God  is  intrinsically  and  forever  just,  both 
in  his  disposition  toward  his  moral  creatures  and  in  all  his  admin- 
istration over  them.  Some  of  the  questions  springing  up  in  the 
presence  of  this  doctrine,  especially  those  in  connection  with  the 
permitting  of  sin  and  the  disciplinary  and  retributive  dealing  of 
God  with  sinners,  can  best  be  considered  at  a  later  stage.  The 
doctrine  cannot,  however,  be  too  strenuously  emphasized  in  an  age 
like  this,  when  the  attribute  of  justice  is  so  frequently  merged 
and  lost  in  the  correlative  conception  of  love, — when  the  divine 
Fatherhood  is  set  in  unnatural  antithesis  with  the  conception  of 
God  as  Moral  Governor;  when  it  is  broadfy  assumed  that  he  is  too 
good  to  punish  or  even  to  require  faith  and  obedience  from  his 
sinful  and  rebellious  creatures,  and  when  his  holy  law  with  all  its 
solemn  requisitions  and  warnings  is  so  frequently  set  aside  as  if  it 
were  an  obsolete  or  at  least  an  insignificant  code  and  rule  of  life. 
In  the  presence  of  such  errors  far  too  current,  which  are  not  only 
blunting  and  impairing  the  religious  sense,  but  corrupting  the 
morals  of  the  age,  it  is  imperative  that  the  voice  of  Scripture  and 
the  consonant  voice  of  reason  and  conscience  respecting  the  infinite, 
eternal,  unchangeable  justice  of  God  should  be  most  earnestly 
and  constantly  proclaimed  as  one  of  the  cardinal  elements  in  our 
holy  Faith.  For  a  type  of  Christianity  which  is  not  true  to  the 
justice  of  God,  will  soon  prove  itself  untrue  to  his  love,  his  grace, 
his  holiness  also,  and  will  ultimately  cease  altogether  to  be  the 
Christianity  of  the  inspired  Word. 

The  almost  invariable  association  of  the  attribute  of  goodness 
with  that  of  justice  in  the  Symbols  is  a  strong  confirmation  on 
this  point.  The  justice  there  affirmed  is  a  quality  which  har- 
monizes intrinsically  with  the  purest  benevolence,  the  completest 
mercy  and  grace  in  the  divine  mind.  Much  of  the  objection  to 
the  Calvinistic  scheme,  drawn  from  views  of  the  divine  benevo- 
lence, although  they  perchance  may  be  justified  partly  by  what  is 
found  in  the  writings  of  representative  Calvinists,  can  hardly  lie 
against  that  scheme  as  presented  in  the  Symbols  themselves. 
For,  while  God  is  always  represented  as  just,  working  all  things 
according  to  the  counsel  of  his  own  immutable  and  most  right- 
eous will,  he  is  described  in  the  same  connection,  (II :  ii)  as 
most  loving,  gracious,  merciful,  long  suffering,  abundant  in  good- 
ness and  truth: — phrases  which  are  certainly  to  be  taken  into  full 


154  GOD   IN    HIS    BEING. 

account  in  the  interpretation  of  the  language  just  preceding  them 
in  the  same  chapter.  His  counsel  there,  and  indeed  everywhere 
in  both  Confession  and  Catechisms,  is  declared  to  be  most  loving; 
his  will,  though  most  righteous,  is  also  most  gracious;  his  immut- 
able purpose  is  one  which  reveals  his  abundance  in  goodness  and 
truth,  as  well  as  his  changeless  equity. 

The  term,  goodness,  as  generally  employed,  refers  but  incident- 
ally to  the  moral  excellence  inherent  in  God,  though  he  is  always 
described  as  in  himself  good;  it  refers  rather  to  his  exhibitions  of 
fatherly  feeling  toward  his  moral  creatures  in  their  various  con- 
ditions and  needs.  God  is  good  toward  the  angels  who  have  not 
left  their  first  estate,  and  to  the  redeemed  who  are  assembled 
with  him  in  glory, — his  love  complacently  viewing  them  in  their 
holy  condition,  and  rejoicing  over  them  in  the  peculiar  felicities 
of  their  perfect  estate.  God  is  good  in  his  providence;  govern- 
ing all  creatures,  actions  and  things  by  his  most  wise  and  holy 
methods,  in  the  temper  of  goodness  and  mercy — having  paternal 
regard  to  every  need,  and  ministering  most  tenderly  even  to  the 
unthankful  and  the  evil.  God  is  eminently  good  in  his  gracious 
plan  of  redemption;  providing  that  plan  under  the  impulses  of  a 
love  which  embraced  the  world;  unfolding  and  applying  it  in  the 
same  fatherly  interest,  and  including  within  its  blessed  issues  all 
who  could  be  brought  to  know  and  accept  it.  God  is  good  also  in 
his  dealing,  not  merely  with  those  who  are  incapable  of  being  out- 
wardly called  by  the  word  of  grace,  but  even  with  such  as  reject 
the  offered  salvation, —  bearing  long  with  their  indifference, 
struggling  by  his  Spirit  with  their  willful  opposition,  and  con- 
signing them  at  last,  not  in  the  high  temper  of  insulted  majesty 
alone,  but  most  pitifully,  to  the  fate  which  their  unworthiness  and 
guilt  have  merited.  While  there  are  phrases  in  the  Confession 
which  express  a  severer  view  of  God,  and  while  much  in  the 
theology  of  the  age  in  which  it  was  compiled,  and  in  that  of  the 
century  following,  was  dictated  in  the  more  forbidding  method 
too  characteristic  of  Calvin  himself,  yet  the  broader  view  of  the 
divine  goodness  just  suggested  will  be  recognized  in  all  candid 
interpretations  of  the  Symbols,  not  merely  as  an  occasional  but 
rather  as  a  central,  if  not  predominating  characteristic. 

It  is  not  out  of  place  to  remark  in  passing,  that  much  of  the 
criticism  of  Calvin  based  on  his  severities  both  of  view  and  of 
expression,  would  be  essentially  modified  by  a  more  careful  study 
of  his  earnest  teaching  respecting  the  benevolence  and  mercy  of 
God,  and  his  correspondent  inculcation  of  the  obligation  of  man- 
kind to  be  loving  and  merciful.     The  tender  nature  of  the  man 


GOODNESS   AND   JUSTICE   CONJOINED.  155 

whose  house  was  always  the  hospitable  home  of  persecuted 
refugees,  and  of  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who  had  suf- 
fered in  the  Protestant  cause,  and  who  when  dying  gave  instruc- 
tion that  no  monument  should  be  erected  over  his  remains,  but 
that  the  few  possessions  he  had  should  be  given  rather  to  the 
poor  of  Geneva, deserves  worthier  consideration  at  the  hands  of 
those  who  denounce  him  as  a  narrow  and  merciless  bigot.  Even 
amid  the  rigid  logic,  and  the  forbidding  statements  of  doctrine, 
and  the  stern  and  solemn  denunciations,  one  may  find  in  his  Insti- 
tutes many  a  sentence  which  breathes  forth  the  most  earnest 
faith  in  the  divine  love  and  mercy,  and  the  most  benevolent 
interest  in  our  lost  race.  Against  papal  errorists,  against  vain 
and  false  philosophers,  against  willful  skeptics  and  unbelievers, 
Calvin  was  always  unsparing  in  his  condemnation;  but  for  man- 
kind as  sinful  and  perishing,  his  great  soul  overflowed  always 
with  a  compassion  born  of  heaven.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
skeptic  Renan,  while  criticising  his  theology,  should  characterize 
him  as  the  most  Christian  man  of  his  generation. 

Calvinism  itself,  viewed  broadly  and  fairly,  is  like  its  great 
expounder  in  this  regard.  It  always  contemplates  justice  as  a 
primal  quality  in  God,  and  goodness  as  forever  conditioned  by 
justice.  It  cannot  for  a  moment  consent  to  the  suggestion  that 
God  ever  has  done  or  ever  can  do  an  unrighteous  act  toward  any 
of  his  creatures.  It  cannot  for  an  instant  presume  that  the 
divine  love,  perfect  and  glorious  as  it  is,  will  ever  induce  God  to 
be  indifferent  to  the  claims  of  equity,  even  in  the  disciplining  or 
the  condemnation  of  those  who  violate  his  most  holy  law.  It 
plants  itself  upon  the  impregnable  rock  of  the  divine  sovereignty, 
and  declares  that  in  the  exercise  of  that  sovereignty,  God  must 
ever  be  regarded  as  just,  though  every  man  be  a  liar.  Nor  does 
it  hesitate  to  say  that  all  teaching  which  exalts  the  love  of  God  at 
the  expense  of  the  divine  equity,  is  to  be  viewed  as  dangerous,  if 
it  be  not  blasphemous  heresy.  Yet  certainly  no  section  of  Pro- 
testantism has  ever  been  more  constant,  more  earnest,  more 
tender  or  joyous  in  its  exposition  of  divine  mercy  toward  sinners 
or  of  the  wondrous  grace  that  saves.  A  thousand  illustrations  of 
this  fact  might  be  gathered  from  the  writings  of  conspicuous 
Calvinists  in  other  ages,  and  eminently  in  our  own.  That  in  this 
respect  valuable  melioration  of  the  earlier  Calvinism  has  been 
secured  in  this  age,  and  is  still  in  progress,  is  an  unquestionable 
and  a  happy  fact.  But  such  change  has  involved  no  departure 
from  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  system,  that  God  is  forever 
just,  supremely  and  altogether  just,  in  the  exercise  of  his  rightful 


150  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

ful  sovereignty;  nor  is  to  be  anticipated  that  at  this  fundamental 
point  Calvinism  will  ever  forswear  itself. 

Of  the  truthfulness  of  God  in  every  aspect,  both  inherent  and 
transitive  or  relative,  we  find  here  the  strongest  possible  affirma- 
tion. He  is  described  as  infinitely,  eternally  and  unchangeably 
true — the  living  and  true  God.  The  authority  of  the  Scripture  is 
said  (I:  iv)  to  rest,  not  upon  the  testimony  of  any  man  or  church, 
but  wholly  upon  God,  who  is  truth  itself ;  and  all  the  teachings  of 
that  revelation  have  therefore  the  same  quality.  It  was  for  the 
better  preserving  and  propagating  of  the  truths  that  this  revela- 
tion was  committed  unto  writing:  and  this  revelation  is  therefore 
to  be  read  by  us  with  a  firm  perstiasion  that  it  is  the  very  Word  of 
God,  and  is  consequently  an  infallible  instructor  in  all  things  per- 
taining to  duty  and  to  salvation.  So  God  is  said  to  be  true  in  his 
providence;  the  lessons  of  that  providence  being  faithful  witnesses 
to  the  reality  of  things,  and  reliable  guides  to  trust  and  hope  in 
him.  He  is  especially  declared  to  be  true  in  the  disclosures  of  the 
Gospel; — its  doctrines  being  so  infinitely  worthy  of  trust,  its  prom- 
ises and  threatenings  so  certain  to  be  verified,  that  it  is  the  imme- 
diate duty  of  every  sinner  to  assent  to  the  truth  of  this  Gospel, 
and  implicitly  to  receive  and  rest  upon  Christ  and  his  righteous- 
ness. The  infallible  assurance  of  faith  which  believers  are 
invited  to  attain,  is  said  to  be  founded  upon  the  divine  truth  of  the 
promises  of  salvation.  In  himself,  therefore,  and  in  all  his  deal- 
ings both  providential  and  gracious,  God  is  the  living  and  true 
God;  never  mistaking  in  his  knowledge,  never  misled  through 
any  influence,  discerning  at  one  glance  and  completely  all  things 
in  every  sphere;  adhering  always  to  his  most  holy  Word,  verify- 
ing his  promises,  faithful  to  his  warnings,  and  forever  and  forever 
the  Truth. 

It  is  obvious  that  this  quality  sustains  the  same  relation  to  the 
other  moral  attributes  in  God,  which  spirituality  sustains  to  his 
natural  qualities.  It  belongs  to  him  as  pure  Spirit,  free  and  abso- 
lute, to  be  truthful  in  every  utterance  and  act.  As  intelligent 
Spirit,  he  must  know  intuitively  all  things  exactly  as  they  are: 
to  him  blindness,  mistake,  illusion,  are  forever  impossible.  As 
perfect  Spirit,  he  can  never  deceive  or  mislead;  however  dark  his 
sayings  or  impenetrable  the  mystery  of  his  acts,  no  error  or  fraud 
can  possibly  attach  to  them.  As  Sovereign  over  his  moral  crea- 
tures, vitally  interested  in  their  education  and  their  ultimate 
preparation  for  an  eternity  of  holy  companionship  and  blessedness, 
he  has  the  highest  motive  in  leading  them  into  sure,  stable,  infal- 
lible knowledge,   especially  of  all  spiritual  things.     And  he  has 


TRUTHFULNESS    IN    GOD.  15, 

given  the  highest  evidence  of  his  interest  in  such  training  by  the 
gift  of  his  Spirit  whose  special  mission  it  is,  in  part,  to  lead  holy 
souls  into  all  the  truth.  Truthfulness  is  therefore  directly  associ- 
ated with  goodness  and  with  justice,  as  one  among  the  crowning 
perfections  of  the  Deity.  God  makes  nothing  true  through  his 
simple  statement  of  it  by  will  or  by  decree;  the  sources  of 
truth  are  to  be  found  rather  in  the  lofty  infinitudes  of  his  perfect 
moral  nature.  He  utters  what  is  true  because  first  of  all  in  his 
omniscience  he  discerns  and  knows  it  to  be  truth,  and  in  hisequity 
and  his  goodness  seeks  to  make  it  known  to  his  moral  creatures. 
If  God  were  not  thus  intrinsically  truthful,  he  could  not  be 
regarded  as  good;  if  he  were  not  thus  truthful,  we  could  have  no 
adequate  guarantee  for  reliance  on  him  as  just.  What  faith,  hope 
and  charity  are  in  man  as  sanctified,  truth  and  justice  and  mercy 
are  in  God, — the  three  supreme  virtues  which  mark  him  as  per- 
fect, and  which  fully  substantiate  his  claim  to  universal  love,  trust, 
devotion. 

The  term  holiness  as  applied  to  God  in  the  Symbols,  signifies 
not  simply  inward  purity  as  to  specific  thoughts  or  impulses,  but 

also  spiritual  excellency  in  general:  it 

*  ,  j        .  ..  11.    Holiness  in  God :  His 

is  a  consummating  term,   descriptive     mQral   perfection .    General 

of  what  he  is  in  his  perfection,  and  as     view, 
the  appropriate  center  of  all  human, 

all  angelic  adoration.  It  doubtless  refers  in  part  to  that  interior 
moral  beauty  and  freedom  from  all  defect  or  blemish,  that  un- 
sullied glory  and  grace,  which  are  resident  in  the  divine  Being, 
and  which  lead  angels  and  archangels  in  their  highest  ecstacy  to 
prostrate  themselves  in  ceaseless  worship  before  the  penetrating 
radiance  of  his  presence.  It  refers  also  in  part  to  that  intrinsic 
sense  of  worthiness,  that  serene  contemplation  or  recognition  of 
himself  as  flawless  and  complete,  which  must  stand  behind  all  his 
activities,  especially  in  his  moral  administration.  But  compre- 
hensively, the  term  includes  all  personal  and  spiritual  excellence 
of  whatever  type  exhibited  in  God — that  combination  of  infinitude 
and  eternity  and  unchangeableness  with  wisdom  and  power,  with 
justice  and  goodness  and  truth,  which  makes  him  the  glorious  as 
he  is  the  absolute  God,  and  which  lifts  him  up  forever  as  the  su- 
preme object  of  all  trust  and  devotion.  It  is  more  than  a  state  of 
the  divine  will,  as  forever  fixed  upon  what  is  right  and  good;  it  is 
more  than  justice  and  benevolence,  regarded  as  attributes  in  the 
divine  character;  it  is  that  character  itself  in  all  its  inconceivable 
elevation,  and  its  absolute  flawlessness  and  sanctity.  Charnock, 
(Divine  Attributes)  declares  that  this  holiness  has  an  excellency 


158  GOD    IN    HIS   BEING. 

above  all  the  other  perfections  of  Deity,  and  refers  in  proof  to  the 
threefold  ascriptions  of  praise  frequently  recurring  in  the  Scrip- 
tures; Holy,  Holy,  Holy!  So  God  is  habitually  represented  in  the 
Symbols; — a  Being  having  no  sin,  and  infinitely  hostile  to  all  sin, 
ever  perfect  in  himself;  most  holy  in  all  his  counsels,  in  all  his  works, 
and  in  all  his  commands;  most  holy  as  well  as  wise  and  good  in 
his  decrees  and  in  his  providences,  even  when  dealing  with  the 
wicked:  and  most  of  all,  infinitely  holy  in  his  plan  of  grace,  and 
in  his  spiritual  ministries  to  men  for  their  salvation.  His  minis- 
tering Spirit  is  called  eminently  the  Holy  Spirit,  both  as  being 
intrinsically  holy,  and  the  source  and  cause  of  all  holiness  in  us: 
his  Word  is  styled  the  Holy  Word;  and  all  the  activities  of  his 
grace,  from  our  effectual  calling  to  our  complete  sanctification, 
are  designed  to  bring  us  into  the  practice  of  that  true  holi?iess 
without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord. 

Schleiermacher  defines  holiness  in  a  special  sense  as  that  divine 
perfection  by  which,  when  it  is  brought  into  correlation  with  the 
life  and  character  of  man,  the  conscience  is  made  to  feel  the  ne- 
cessity of  redemption.  The  statement  brings  into  view  the 
supreme  object  of  God  in  the  revelation  of  himself  as  the  Holy 
One.  That  revelation  assumes  a  variety  of  forms.  We  see  it  in 
the  divine  law  as  designed  to  bring  men  into  the  consciousness  of 
their  guilt  as  unholy,  and  of  their  need  of  purifying  grace.  We 
see  it  in  the  Gospel  as  a  divine  scheme  fitted  to  educate  and  train 
and  inspire  those  who  receive  it  in  the  practice  of  true  holiness. 
We  see  it  in  the  feeling  of  God  toward  sin,  and  in  his  purpose  to 
punish  sin,  wherever  his  grace  is  found  to  be  ineffectual  in  its 
removal.  We  see  it  shining  out  in  more  winning  aspects  in  all 
those  beauties  of  nature,  flowers  and  fountains  and  stars,  which 
are  ever  suggesting  a  type  of  purity  higher  than  can  be  found  in 
man.  We  also  see  it  reflected  in  the  moral  feeling  and  conviction 
of  mankind,  and  in  all  those  aspirations  after  holiness  which  have 
expressed  themselves,  sometimes  in  most  painful  as  well  as  in  beau- 
tiful forms,  in  the  life  and  history  of  the  race.  But  the  one  end 
in  all  these  disclosures  is,  in  the  phrase  of  Schleiermacher,  to 
bring  men  to  realize  their  need  of  redemption,  and  then  to  lead 
them  through  the  nurture  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  the  Holy 
Word,  into  a  type  of  moral  experience  which  shall  ultimately 
make  them  holy  even  as  God  is  holy. 

It  is  hardly  practicable  here  to  refer  to  the  objections  urged 
against  this  conception  of  the  moral  excellence,  the  spiritual 
completeness  of  God, — objections  drawn  from  his  decrees  or  his 
providence,  or  from  his  dealings  with  men  under  the  Gospel.     The 


THE    HOLINESS    OF   GOD,  159 

manner  in  which  such  objections  are  met  in  the  Symbols  will  better 
be  considered  in  conjunction  with  their  exposition  of  these  partic- 
ular doctrines.  Yet  it  is  important  at  this  stage  to  note  the  philo- 
sophic breadth  and  power,  the  spiritual  elevation,  the  majesty  and 
persuasiveness  of  the  view  of  the  Deity  here  brought  before  us. 
Traditional  as  is  the  story  that  the  definition  of  God  presented  in 
the  Shorter  Catechism  was  first  uttered  in  prayer,  and  was  spon- 
taneously appropriated  by  the  Assembly  as  accurately  expressing 
the  essential  truth  in  the  case,  there  can  be  no  question  that  this 
definition  is  one  of  the  sublimest  and  completest  ever  uttered. 
Compared  with  like  definitions  in  other  Protestant  creeds  it  shines 
out  like  some  bright  planet  in  the  sky,  filling  the  whole  firmament 
of  theology  with  its  luster.  Criticism  has  sometimes  seized  upon 
the  strong  statements  in  the  Symbols  concerning  the  divine  fore- 
knowledge or  power  or  justice  or  majesty,  as  if  they  conveyed 
too  cold  and  forbidding  a  view  of  the  Almighty.  But  certainly 
they  do  not  go  beyond  what  the  Word  of  God  has  plainly  affirmed: 
they  rather  condense  and  crystallize  its  teachings  into  clear, 
imperishable  doctrine,  such  as  neither  the  understanding  nor  the 
heart  can  well  reject.  Moreover  it  should  be  constantly  remem- 
bered that  all  the  most  tender  and  benignant  traits  in  God,  the 
most  winning  aspects  of  the  divine  nature  and  character,  are  here 
blended  indissolubly  with  these  sterner  qualities,  and  are  to  be 
received  as  making  up,  together  with  these,  the  one  composite, 
harmonious,  symmetrical  and  scriptural  conception.  Justice  has 
rarely  been  done  to  this  side  of  the  Westminster  formularies. 
The  mountain  summits  of  spiritual  thought,  the  deep  and  dark 
abysses,  which  they  bring  to  view,  are  in  themselves  real,  and 
those  who  ignore  them  can  never  attain  the  clearest  and  most 
impressive  conceptions  of  Him  within  whose  nature  such  heights 
and  depths  are  surely  contained.  Yet  on  these  summits  and 
along  the  sides  of  these  abysses,  the  sunlight  of  divine  love  is 
ever  shining,  and  flowers  of  tenderness  and  grace  are  springing, 
and  the  verdure  and  beauty  of  an  immaculate  holiness  are  to  be 
seen.  Infinite  and  eternal  and  unchangeable  as  God  is  declared 
to  be  in  his  sovereignty  and  justice,  and  in  the  severer  aspects  of 
his  dealing  with  men,  he  is  declared  to  be  no  less  infinite  and 
unchangeable  and  everlasting  in  his  benevolence,  his  providence, 
his  grace — his  holiness. 

A  careful  comparison  with  the  other  Protestant  creeds  must 
lead  the  student  to  a  fresh  sense  of  the  remarkable  comprehen- 
siveness and  dignity  of  the  general  conception  of  God  and  his 
attributes,  as  thus  presented  in  the  Westminster  formularies.     It 


160  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

has  been  urged  with  some  significance  that  the  Lutheran  Con- 
fessions, and  some  Reformed  creeds  such  as  the  Heidelberg 
Catechism,  have  succeeded  in  bringing  out  into  better  light  the 
more  benignant  and  winning  aspects  of  the  divine  character  and 
relations  to  men.  It  may  be  true  that  some  other  types  of 
theology  have  been  more  successful  in  setting  forth  the  Christolo- 
gical  idea,  in  contrast  with  the  Calvinistic  view  of  paternal 
sovereignty  as  standing  behind  the  incarnation  and  work  of 
Christ,  and  thus  have  softened  somewhat  the  severe  impressions 
and  experiences  which  the  doctrine  of  sovereignty,  where  strongly 
held,  has  sometimes  produced.  But  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  boundless  tenderness  and  grace  seen  in  the  Redeemer  are  only 
the  incarnate  manifestations  of  the  divine  power,  wisdom,  love, 
which  from  the  first  embraced  the  world  and  provided  for  it  the 
plan  of  redemption.  Nor  let  it  be  forgotten  that  the  great  grace 
of  the  Gospel  derives  its  winning  appearance,  its  wondrous  beauty 
and  attractiveness,  largely  from  the  darker  background  of  might 
and  equity  and  supreme  majesty,  on  whose  solemn  surface  it  is 
revealed  to  men.  And  it  is  in  the  skillful  and  honest  blending  of 
these  antithetic  views  of  God  that  the  theology  of  Westminster 
exhibits  alike  its  fine  proportions  and  its  peculiar  massiveness. 
The  men  who  composed  it  were  not  insensible  to  the  attractions 
of  Jesus,  to  the  ineffable  tenderness  of  his  mission,  or  to  the 
amazing  power  of  his  love  to  win  and  save  the  lost.  But  they 
were  also  men  who  lived  in  solemn  times,  who  had  great  battles 
to  fight,  and  to  whom  it  was  a  measureless  comfort  to  know 
always  that  God  is,  and  that  he  rules  in  infinite  majesty  and  with 
unfailing  purpose  over  all. 

From  this  survey  of  the  divine  attributes  and  perfections,  we 
may  pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  great  doctrine  associated 

with   this  conception    of  God  in  the 
12.    Trinity  in  God:   The     chapter  specially  under  examination, — 
underlying  ground    in    the     the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity.     The 
divine  Unity :  Unity  defined.  .    J         .    J    . 

sum  of  the  doctrine  is  contained  in  the 

words:  In  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  there  be  three  persons,  of  one  sub- 
stance, power  and  eternity;  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God 
the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the  succeeding  sentence  the  properties  peculiar 
to  each  of  the  three  persons  are  described;  and  in  the  chapter 
on  the  Covenant  with  Man  (VII)  the  relations  of  these  per- 
sons are  at  least  partially  indicated.  Again  in  chapter  VIII, 
on  Christ  the  Mediator,  the  second  person  in  this  holy  Trinity 
is  particularly  described  with  respect  to  his  divine  constitution 


THE    TRINITY    IN    COD.  161 

and  relations,  and  also  to  his  full  and  true  humanity.  The  two 
Catechisms  simply  repeat  in  briefer  form,  and  with  but  slight 
variation  from  each  other,  what  is  thus  set  forth  in  the  Confes- 
sion. Gathering  up  in  addition  to  these  statements  such  inci- 
dental references  as  are  scattered  elsewhere  through  the  Symbols, 
we  may  easily  find  material  for  an  accurate  construction  of  the 
doctrine  as  held  by  the  Assembly. 

At  the  outset  of  such  construction,  the  true,  substantial,  eter- 
nal unity  of  the  Godhead  must  be  recognized  as  the  underlying 
ground  or  basis  on  which  the  biblical  conception  of  the  Trinity 
is  to  be  reared.  This  unity  has  already  been  considered  in  part 
as  one  essential'  characteristic  of  God,  contemplated  as  pure  and 
personal  Spirit,  but  needs  further  examination  at  this  point.  God 
is  thus  one,  not  in  any  merely  moral  or  social  sense,  as  if  the 
three  persons  in  the  Godhead  were  three  beings  simply  agreeing 
together  in  thought  or  feeling  or  purpose;  nor  merely  in  the  sense 
of  similarity  or  likeness  consequent  upon  the  possession  of  a  com- 
mon nature, — as  the  human  race  becomes  a  unit  by  virtue  of  a 
common  origin  or  the  heritage  of  one  type  of  life;  but  in  the 
deepest  and  truest  sense  possible  for  us  to  conceive.  In  essence  or 
substance  or  nature,  God  is  one  Being — indivisibly,  internally  and 
eternally  one,  as  absolute  perfection  must  of  necessity  be.  To  this 
great  primary  fact,  abundantly  taught  in  the  earliest  periods  and 
phases  of  revelation,  and  every  where  made  fundamental  in  theScrip- 
tures,all  conceptions  of  the  Trinity  must  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
be  subordinated; — with  this  fact  all  descriptions  of  the  threefold- 
ness  of  personality,  or  the  three  modes  of  existence  in  God,  must 
harmonize.  The  biblical  and  rational  grounds  on  which  this  primal 
truth  rests  have  already  been  sufficiently  stated  by  way  of  contrast 
with  all  types  of  polytheism.  The  united  witness  of  the  Chris- 
tian creeds,  and  the  firm  faith  of  the  church  universal  on  this 
point,  have  also  been  recited.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
truth  is  indeed  axiomatic  in  the  estimate  of  all  who  have  gained 
any  adequate  conception  of  God  as  a  Being,  and  as  such  is  to  be 
emphasized  here  and  everywhere  in  Christian  theology  as  funda- 
mental. 

Yet  it  is  important  to  note  also  that  this  underlying  unity  is  in 
some  respects  unique:  it  is  not  a  homeogeneous  singleness  merely, 
but  an  inconceivable  and  an  immeasurable  oneness,  as  far  above 
our  apprehension  as  God  himself  is  higher  than  man.  In  fact, unity 
of  being  in  God  as  to  its  nature  and  qualities,  is  hardly  less  mys- 
terious than  are  his  triune  modes  of  being  :  Cunningham,  Hist. 
Theol.:  Vol.  II.      Revealing  himself  to  our  vision  as  the  one  and 


162  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

only  cause,  whether  primal  or  efficient  or  final;  as  the  one  and 
only  Father  and  Governor  in  providence  and  in  moral  administra- 
tion, and  as  the  one  and  only  object  of  our  faith  and  allegiance 
and  devotion,  his  essential  unity  must  still  be  regarded  as  some- 
thing inexpressibly  deeper  and  grander  than  any  merely  numerical 
oneness  would  be.  L,essing  styles  it  a  transcendental  unity  which 
does  not  exclude  plurality.  A  certain  manifoldness  is  suggested 
by  the  conception,  whenever  with  our  feeble  insight  we  seek 
to  apprehend  it.  As  a  flower,  to  use  the  illustration  of  Luther, 
is  one  in  nature  but  distinguishable  as  triune  in  form  and  fra- 
grance and  medicinal  value, — as  an}'  single  object  in  the  physical 
world  reveals  triplicity  in  shape  and  magnitude  and  color, — as  the 
white  light  of  day  is  divisible  into  its  three  primal  or  its  seven 
secondary  rays, — as  there  are  three  distinct  forces,  the  creative 
the  preservative  and  the  destructive,  in  the  one  system  of  nature, 
— as  the  one  sun  displays  itself  alike  in  heat,  radiance,  fructifying 
energy  and  the  force  of  gravitation, — as  man  himself,  though  one, 
may  be  contemplated  in  several  distinct  relations,  or  may  be  ana- 
lyzed both  physically  and  mentally  into  a  triple  series  of  constitu- 
ents, separable  in  thought  though  not  in  fact,  so  we  may  discern 
in  the  unity  of  God  a  manifoldness  which  is  but  faintly  symbolized 
in  such  illustrations — a  certain  complexity  and  multiplicity  of 
being,  existing  in  conjunction  with  this  primal  oneness,  such 
as  it  is  impossible  for  any  creature  to  attain  or  even  to  conceive. 
All  such  illustrations  at  the  best  are  but  finite  and  earthly:  God 
is  one  in  a  sense  in  which  oneness  cannot  be  affirmed  of  any  finite 
object.  It  has  been  tersely  said  of  him,  that  he  is  not  a  natural 
but  a  trinal  unit.  Augustine  claims  (Civ.  Dei.  XI.)  that,  as 
being  nearer  to  God  in  nature  than  any  other  of  his  works,  and 
destined  to  be  brought  still  nearer  by  grace,  we  may  see  in  our- 
selves as  spiritual  existences  a  blending  oneness  and  threeness  of 
being  which  may  properly  suggest  to  us  the  presence  in  God  of 
a  type  of  unity,  in  an  infinitely  higher  degree  blended  with  tri- 
plicity or  multiplicity,  such  as  no  mortal  or  angel  can  experience 
or  apprehend.  We  both  are,  he  says  in  a  remarkable  passage 
which  Hamilton  has  placed  by  the  side  of  the  famous  axiom  of 
Descartes, — we  both  are,  and  we  know  that  we  are,  and  we  de- 
light both  in  our  being,  and  in  our  knowledge  that  we  are.  And 
if,  as  Augustine  thus  teaches,  we  though  single  and  simple  in 
essence,  are  thus  manifold  to  our  own  narrow  comprehension, 
how  much  vaster  and  more  multiplex  may  be  the  oneness  resi- 
dent in  God. 

It  has  been  urged  against  the  Symbols  that  by  their  use  of  the 


DEFECTIVE   CONCEPTIONS.  163 

abstract  term,  Godhead,  by  their  delineation  of  the  personality  of 
Christ  as  in  marked  contrast  with  the  Deity  in  general,  and  by  their 
description  of  the  work  of  Christ  as  set  over  against  the  position 
and  claims  of  God  as  Sovereign  and  Father,  and  in  other  similar 
ways,  they  make  tritheistic  impressions  on  the  reader,  if  indeed 
they  do  not  become  inconsistent  with  themselves,  and  deny  in  one 
connection  the  unity  which  they  have  asserted  in  another.  Such 
objections  lie,  not  against  the  formularies  of  Westminster  only, 
but  against  the  Protestant  symbolism  generally.  That  views  of 
the  Godhead  as  in  council  or  covenant,  and  of  the  several  persons 
in  the  Godhead  as  in  antagonism,  representing  diverse  interests 
and  dealing  with  each  other  as  three  beings  would  in  like  circum- 
stances, have  prevailed  too  extensively  in  Protestant  theology, 
cannot  be  questioned.  There  are  interpretations  of  Scripture, 
somewhat  current  even  in  our  time,  which  have  largely  affected 
the  popular  mind  in  the  same  direction, — leading  to  essentially 
erroneous  apprehensions  of  the  Father  on  one  side  and  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  on  the  other,  while  separating  God  in  Christ,  or 
Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  far  too  widely  from  both.  To  such  an 
extent  has  this  supposed  diversity  of  interests  and  activities  been 
carried,  that  in  the  relative  exaltation  of  the  Son,  the  separate 
personality  of  the  Spirit  has  virtually  been  ignored,  while  the  pur- 
pose and  feeling  of  God  the  Father  in  redemption  have  been 
greatly  depreciated.  Such  tritheism  is  but  a  Christian  form  of 
polytheism:  it  leaves  the  soul  to  deal  in  the  matter  of  its  salva- 
tion with  three  divine  Beings  rather  than  with  one:  it  fails  to 
maintain  the  essential  unity  and  consequent  power  of  the  biblical 
conception,  and  thus  works  irreparable  mischief  practically  where 
the  true  doctrine,  rightly  held,  might  have  brought  light  and 
blessing. 

Yet  the  Symbols,  following  the  example  of  the  older  Protest- 
ant formularies,  do  certainly  affirm  most  positively  the  unity,  not 
of  the  Godhead  abstractly,  but  of  God  in  his  being  and  nature, 
and  in  all  his  attributes  and  perfections.  He  is  said  to  exist  in  and 
of  himself- — alone  in  and  unto  himself ;  he  is  described  as  the 
one  only  living  and  true  God;  in  the  threeness  of  the  persons, 
there  is  said  to  be  but  07ie  substance,  poiver  and  eternity.  As  such, 
God  is  said  to  plan  and  decree,  to  create,  to  preserve  and  govern 
in  his  providence.  And  while  the  antithesis  between  God  and 
the  divine  Christ  as  Mediator  is  pressed  out  strongly,  and  in 
such  ways  as  to  produce  in  some  minds  the  impression  of  two 
beings  working  in  a  species  of  antagonism,  yet  the  primary 
fact  of  unity  clearly  flows  into  and  through  all  these  subsequent 


164  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

expositions  of  the  scheme  of  grace,  and  is  to  be  regarded  as  a 
regulative  principle  in  the  entire  construction.  It  is  especially 
important  that  this  underlying  unity  should  be  maintained 
throughout  our  analysis  of  the  doctrine  of  the  holy  Trinity  as 
presented  in  the  Symbols.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  God 
is  forever  one  before  he  is  three;  and  that  no  view  of  the  three- 
ness  of  persons  is  admissible  which  does  not  preserve  this  oneness 
as  a  clear,  unquestionable,  regulative  postulate. 

The  meaning  of  the  symbolic  term,  Person,  is  not  easily  defined. 
When  it  is  said  that  in  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  there  be  three 

persons,  we  can  save  ourselves  from 
13.    The  term,  Person ;  its     contradiction  only  by  limiting  at  once 
relations  to  Being:  limita-     .,  .     ,        r    .-,       •,  .. 

,,  „  *  the  scope  or   contents    of    the    latter 

tions  of  the  term.  r  . 

term;  asserting  at  least  negatively  that 

we  do  not  thereby  mean,  being,  or  its  synonym  in  such  words  as 
nature,  substance,  essence.  The  Greek  term,  hypostasis,  has 
sometimes  been  called  into  service  as  a  limiting  and  explaining 
word;  but  it  is  difficult  to  fix  upon  that  term  a  meaning  that  is 
clear  of  mystery,  or  that  relieves  us  altogether  from  this  sense  of 
contradiction.  The  L,atin  synonym,  subsistence,  so  often  em- 
ployed by  Calvin  as  a  literal  translation  of  hypostasis,  deepens 
instead  of  lessening  the  mental  difficulty.  Nor  is  the  phrase, 
mode,  or  mode  of  existence,  now  occasionally  used,  quite  ade- 
quate, since  we  need  some  further  description  of  these  separate 
modes  of  being,  in  order  to  adjust  them  properly  to  the  primary 
fact  of  unity.  The  more  helpful  word,  person,  must  however  be 
used  in  a  sense  which  is  confessed  to  be  exceptional:  its  exact 
relation  to  the  word,  being,  must  be  disavowed,  and  an  antithesis 
between  the  two  terms  be  set  up,  for  which  there  is  no  close 
parallel  in  ordinary  usage.  The  definition  of  Locke  that  a  person 
is  a  thinking,  intelligent  being  that  has  reason  and  reflection, 
and  can  consider  itself  as  itself,  in  different  times  and  places,  is 
obviously  inadmissible  here.  Similarly,  to  define  each  person  in 
the  Trinity  as  an  intelligent  subject,  or  as  a  distinct  individual 
existence  having  the  properties  of  reason  and  feeling  and  free 
will,  must  inevitably  confuse  person  with  being,  substantially  as 
is  done  in  ordinary  speech,  and  so  lead  on  directly  to  a  species  of 
tritheism.  To  define  the  term  as  denoting  such  a  threefold  dis- 
tinction in  the  one  divine  nature  as  connects  itself  with  personal 
properties  and  acts  and  mutual  relationships;  or,  in  the  phrase  of 
Calvin,  as  a  subsistence  in  the  divine  essence  which  is  related  tc  > 
the  other  subsistences  in  that  essence,  and  yet  is  distinguished 
from   them  by  some  incommunicable  property,   still   leaves  the 


PERSON   AS   RELATED   TO    BEING.  165 

distinction  between  person  and  being  in  a  vague,  unimpressive  and 
insufficient  form.  Yet  we  have  no  other  term  which  expresses 
the  divine  fact  any  more  precisely,  nor  is  there  within  the  scope 
of  our  knowledge  any  other  analogue  or  resemblance  or  illustra- 
tion which  is  any  more  helpful  to  our  faith;  and  we  consequently 
rest  in  the  statement  of  all  Christian  symbolism  that  in  the  unity 
of  the  Godhead  there  be  three  persons:  Hall,  Harmony  of  Prot. 
Conf. ,  second  section. 

At  this  point  the  Symbols  clearly  plant  themselves,  not  merely 
on  the  antecedent  symbolism  modern  and  ancient,  but  ultimately 
on  the  Scripture  itself  as  their  justifying  ground.  The  Augsburg 
Confession,  after  indorsing  the  Nicene  declaration,  and  affirming 
the  existence  of  three  persons  of  the  same  essence  and  power, 
who  also  are  co-eternal,  further  declares  (Art.  I.)  that  the  term, 
person,  is  used  in  that  signification  in  which  the  ecclesiastical 
writers,  the  Fathers,  have  used  it  in  this  case,  to  signify  not 
merely  a  part  or  quality  in  another,  but  that  which  properly 
(peculiarly)  subsists  in  or  by  itself.  The  Article  evidently 
attempts  to  indicate  something  deeper,  more  fundamental,  than 
any  specific  attribute  or  perfection  in  God, — something  resident 
somewhere  between  such  attributes  and  the  divine  essence  or  sub- 
stance, as  a  special  and  ineffable  mode  of  being.  The  Second 
Helvetic  Confession  teaches  (Cap  III)  that  there  are,  not  three 
Gods,  but  three  persons,  consubstantial,  co-eternal  and  co-equal, 
— distinct  as,  or  so  far  as  they  are,  hypostases,  and  proceeding 
each  in  its  own  order,  but  without  any  inquality.  Most  of  the 
other  symbols  of  the  Reformation,  including  the  three  antecedent 
British  Confessions,  are  content  with  the  exposition  of  the  doc- 
trine in  briefer  forms,  while  frequently  referring  to  the  ancient 
creeds  as  furnishing  satisfactory  statements  of  the  essential  fact. 
The  Irish  Articles  are  more  full  than  any  other;  and  their  descrip- 
tion of  the  differentiating  properties  in  the  three  persons  undoubt- 
edly furnished  the  basis  of  the  like  explanation  in  the  teachings 
of  Westminster.  The  fact  that  in  all  these  formularies  there 
is  a  marked  absence  of  the  verbal  and  speculative  distinctions 
found  in  the  ancient  creeds,  especially  the  Athanasian,  probably 
indicates  the  existence  of  doubt  as  to  the  scriptural  warrant  for 
such  refinements,  or  corresponding  doubt  as  to  their  practical  or 
spiritual  worth.  The  caution  and  moderation  in  statement  which 
so  vigorous  and  bold  a  thinker  as  Calvin  does  not  hesitate  both 
to  exemplify  and  commend,  are  apparent  generally  in  the  Prot- 
estant symbolism,  though  less  conspicuous  in  some  of  the  contro- 
versial theology  of  the  period. 


166  GOD    IN    HIS   BEING. 

The  proposition  of  the  Westminster  Confession  is  also  clearly 
characterized  by  close  adherence  to  the  Scripture  itself,  above  all 
teachings  and  commandments  of  men.  It  cannot  well  be  ques- 
tioned that  while  the  Divine  Word  declares  unequivocally  the 
fundamental  truth  of  the  divine  unity,  it  also  sets  forth  with 
equal  earnestness  the  consequent  conception  of  a  trinity  resident 
within  that  unity,  and  a  trinity  which  is  truly  personal, — not  a 
rhetorical  representation,  or  an  economic  exhibition,  with  no 
permanent  basis  in  the  divine  constitution,  but  a  trinity  which  in 
some  true  sense  carries  with  it  a  profound  and  enduring  three- 
foldness  of  personality,  within  the  boundaries  of  the  one 
divine  substance  or  nature.  The  baptismal  formula,  the  apostolic 
benedictions,  the  frequent  references  to  the  three  divine  persons 
as  distinct  from  each  other,  their  asserted  union  and  communion 
in  purpose,  in  feeling,  in  activity;  and  the  positive  declarations 
as  to  the  existence  and  attributes  and  relations  of  each  consid- 
ered separately,  all  conspire  to  force  upon  the  biblical  student  the 
Nicene  or  Chalcedonian  description,  reproduced  almost  literally 
in  the  Confession,  (VIII  :  ii)  as  the  only  one  which  in  any  ade- 
quate sense  embodies  or  unifies  these  varied  forms  and  aspects  of 
the  revelation.  To  this  conclusion  the  Symbols  adhere,  not  as 
explaining  everything,  but  as  covering  the  Bible  teaching  essen- 
tially, and  including  all  that  is  indispensable  to  the  truth  regarded 
in  its  practical  aspects  and  relations. 

In  the  associated  clause  (II:iii),  the  points  of  likeness  and 
unlikeness  in  these  three  divine  Persons  are  further  described; 

— the  likeness  in  the  words,  of  one  snb- 
14.    Differentiating  pro-     st  power   and  eternity;   and   the 

perties:  Likeness  and  unlike-         ...  .    L.  . 

ness  in  the  Persons.  unlikeness  m  the  explanatory  sentence, 

The  Father  is  of  none,  neither  begotten 
nor  proceeding ;  the  Son  is  eternally  begotten  of  the  Father;  the 
Holy  Ghost  eternally  proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the  Son.  The 
phrase,  substance,  power  and  eternity,  was  doubtless  intended  to 
cover  all  the  divine  attributes,  and  to  assert  the  equal  divinity  or 
deity  of  the  three  persons  as  all  possessing  such  attributes  in 
equal  degree.  As  the  whole  of  the  divine  essence  is  in  each 
attribute,  in  such  sense  that  we  can  never  separate  the  essence 
from  the  attribute,  or  the  attribute  from  the  essence,  so  the  whole 
of  the  essence  and  all  of  the  divine  attributes  are  in  each  person, 
in  such  sense  that  the  several  persons  incorporate  and  incorporate 
alike  both  every  attribute  and  the  sum  of  the  divine  essence. 
Thus  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  are  alike  eternal:  infinitude  in 
time,  or  transcendence  above  time,  is  an  essential  quality  of  the 


THE   THREE   PERSONS    DISTINGUISHED.  167 

Son  and  the  Spirit  as  truly  as  of  the  Father.  It  follows  that  th 
subsequent  conception  of  begetting  and  proceeding  are  not  to  be  i 
taken  as  implying  in  any  sense  the  beginning  of  existence  on  the 
part  of  either  Son  or  Spirit.  Again  :  Father,  Son  and  Spirit  are 
alike  powerful,  though  working  in  different  spheres  or  relations, 
and  sometimes  w7ith  an  economic  adjustment  or  subordination  of 
activities.  Yet  the  second  and  third  persons %are  equally  omnipo- 
tent with  the  first,  and  their  agency  is  equally  original  and 
underived  and  adequate.  And  what  is  true  of  eternity  and  of 
power,  is  by  implication  asserted  of  intelligence  and  wisdom,  and 
of  all  other  moral  as  well  as  natural  attributes, — holiness,  justice, 
goodness,  truth  being  resident  inherently  in  each  and  belonging 
alike  to  all.  And  the  ground  of  this  likeness  in  duration  and  in 
potency  and  perfection  is  further  presented  in  the  word,  substance, 
with  its  equivalents  in  the  twro  terms,  essence  and  nature.  Such 
affirmation,  not  of  simple  likeness  in  substance  but  of  actual  iden- 
tification, is  required  by  the  tenet  of  the  divine  unity  :  as  one 
Being,  the  three  persons  must  be  essentially,  substantially  unified 
— one  in  their  inmost  nature.  Likeness  in  attributes  and  modes 
here  changes  into  oneness;  and  this  oneness  is  fundamental  in  the 
essential  Being.  The  whole  is  summed  up  in  the  words  of  Stil- 
ingfleet:  We  are  assured  from  Scripture  that  there  are  three  to 
whom  the  divine  nature  (substance)  and  attributes  are  given, 
and  we  are  assured  from  Scripture  and  reason  that  there  can  be 
but  one  divine  essence  (substance),  and  therefore  every  one  of 
them  must  have  this  divine  nature^  (substance)  and  yet  that 
nature  (essence)  can  be  but  One. 

In  distinguishing  the  three  persons,  thus  unified  by  the  posses-  \ 
sion  of  common  attributes  and  substance,  we  have  no  other  marks  4 
or  guides  than  those  revealed  in  Scripture.  What  interior  dif- 
ferentiation there  may  have  been,  or  may  now  be, — what  distri- 
bution or  interchange  in  thought  or  consciousness  or  volition,  we 
can  never  know.  We  recognize  primarily  the  triple  order  of  rev- 
elation and  activity,  seen  on  the  one  side  in  the  divine  Word  where 
the  succession  of  Father  and  Son  and  Spirit  is  so  constantly  man- 
ifest chronologically;  and  seen  on  the  other  side  in  the  specific 
relations  of  these  persons  to  the  creation,  government  and  salva- 
tion of  man. "  The  underlying  basis  of  this  exterior  trinity,  the 
trinity  of  appearance  and  administration,  is  suggested  especially 
in  the  two  mysterious  terms,  begetting  and  proceeding.  Whatever  t 
else  these  terms  suggest,  they  at  Last  imply  an  interior  difference. 
— a  difference  lying  in  the  constitution  of  the  Deity,  and  therefore 
eternal  as  well  as  internal.     They  suggest,   in  other  words,  an 


168  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

I  immanent  and  necessary  relationship,  as  well  as  a  relationship  of 
office  and  function.     That  the  Father  begets  and  the  Son  is  be- 

i  gotten,  is  a  fact  so  far  suggested  in  the  Scriptures  that,  however 
perplexing  the  statement,  we  may  not  iully  ignore  or  reject  it. 
We  may  justly  assert  that  this  language  does  not  imply  a  derived 
and  therefore  a  dependent  existence  on  the  part  of  the  Son:  neither 
may  we  regard  it  as  including  relative  subordination  or  inferior- 
ity in  nature.  This  eternal  begetting  is  hardly  to  be  viewed, 
either,  as  a  continuous  act  of  will  on  the  part  of  the  Father,  but 
^rather  as  a  profound  process  in  the  divine  constitution,  yet  not  an 
unconscious  process  but  one  recognized  by  the  Father  and  the  Son 
as  making  them  in  the  deepest  sense  one  and  equal.  In  the  chap- 
ter on  Christ  the  Mediator,  the  Son  is  descrbed  as  very  and  eter- 
nal God,   of  one  substance,   and  equal  with  the  Father:  and  the 

\  declaration  of  the  Shorter    Catechism  (6)  that  Father  and  Son 

'  are  the  sa?ne  in  substance,  equal  i?i  pozver  and  glory,  conveys  the 
same  impression  of  unity,  revealing  or  verifying  itself  even 
through  this  mysterious  process  going  on  within  the  divine  nature, 
theologically  called  generation.  The  Symbols  clearly  stand  here 
not  in  Arian  ground  in  any  of  its  varieties,  nor  on  the  modern 
theory  of  subordinationism,  even  in  its  highest  form,  but  on  the 
ancient  and  catholic  doctrine  of  an  equality  between  Father  and 
Son,  which  is  interior,  absolute,  everlasting. 

In  respect  to  the  procession  of  the  Spirit,  the  same  explanation 
may  be  made.  It  is  not  simply  an  economic  procession,  having 
reference  chiefly  to  the  chronological  work  of  salvation,  but  one 
that  is  inherent  and  permanent  in  the  divine  constitution.  The 
Father,  or  the  Father  and  the  Son,  send  forth;  the  Spirit  pro- 
ceeds, and  this  interiorly,  continuously,  eternally.  Yet  the  send- 
ing does  not  imply  inherent  or  eternal  superiority,  nor  does  the 
proceeding,  or  the  consenting  to  go  forth  in  consequence  of  such 
sending,  imply  inferiority  in  nature  or  attribute.  Respecting  the 
addition  of  the  Filioqzie  to  the  doctrine  as  originally  stated  in  the 
Nicene  creed,  the  Confession  simply  Follows  the  course  of  the 
Western  church, — induced  no  doubt  by  apprehensions  of  the  in- 
fluence of  that  form  of  Arianism  which  first  compelled  this  addi- 
tion. Holy  Scripture  certainly  suggests  a  proceeding  from  the 
Father,  and  also  a  being  sent  by  the  Son  in  the  interest  of  re- 
demption, and  these  phrases  imply  no  contradiction  or  suggestion 
of  two  independent  sources,  but  simply  illustrate  the  separate 
yet  coalescent  relations  of  the  Father  on  one  hand  and  the  Son 

|  on  the  other  to  the  work  of  salvation  as  conducted  by  the  Spirit. 
In  what  is  said  in  the  Symbols  respecting  the  work  of  the  Spirit 


FATHER,    SON    AND    SPIRIT.  169 

as  consequent  upon  that  of  the  first  and  second  persons,  the  Sou 
rather  than  the  Father  is  apparently  the  more  prominent,  especi- 
ally in  giving  to  the  Spirit  his  great  commission.  The  Holy 
Ghost  is  said  to  be  his  Spirit:  souls  are  said  to  be  saved  by  Christ 
through  the  Spirit:  the  work  of  the  Spirit  everywhere  falls  in  as 
a  direct  consequence  and  issue  of  what  Christ  as  Mediator  has 
done;  and  the  bestowment  of  the  benefits  derivable  from  his 
redemption,  is  said  to  be  especially  the  work  of  God,  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Such  association  of  the  third  person  with  the  second 
rather  than  the  first,  though  a  departure  from  the  teaching  of  the 
Nicene  symbol,  is  a  natural  and  legitimate  result  of  the  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  Protestantism, — justification  by  faith.  That 
doctrine,  bringing  out  into  greater  prominence  the  mission  and 
offices  of  the  Son,  and  concentrating  thought  and  faith  around 
the  Cross,  naturally  led  to  such  associated  presentation  of  Him 
whom  the  Son  has  sent  to  be  the  Comforter  of  his  chosen,  and  to 
guide  and  edify  his  church  unto  the  day  of  his  return. 

The  term  proper,  as  applied  to  these  differentiating  features  or 
characteristics,  denotes  simply  the  proprium — the  peculiar  some- 
thing in  each,  by  which  each  is  distinguishable  to  our  apprehen- 
sion from  the  rest.  It  is  that  which,  in  the  phrase  of  Augsburg, 
properly  subsists  as  the  ground  or  basis  of  each  separate  person- 
ality. As  such  it  is  exclusive  of  the  error  condemned  by  the 
second  Helvetic  Confession,  quasi 'Filius  ct  Spiritus  Sanctus  affec- 
tioncs  et  proprietatcs  sint  unius  Dei  Patris,  since  the  proprium 
belongs  to  each,  not  as  an  attribute  of  an  attribute,  but  as  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  of  a  Person.  Such  divisibility  in  the 
divine  nature  is  partly  expressed  in  the  theological  enumeration 
of  the  divine  persons  as  First  and  Second  and  Third,  and  still  more 
in  the  explanatory  terms  of  Scripture,  Father  and  Son  and  Spirit, 
viewed  not  as  mere  names  but  as  descriptive  of  both  order 
and  relationship  and  actual  existence.  Farther  than  this,  as 
Christian  symbolism  clearly  shows,  it  is  hardly  possible  for  human 
speech  or  human  thought  to  reach.  The  language  of  the  West- 
minster Confession  goes  beyond  that  of  most  of  the  continental 
symbols  in  its  attempt  to  define  such  distinctive  properties;  yet  it 
is  far  more  cautious  and  more  safe  than  that  of  the  Irish  Articles: 
The  essence  of  the  Father  doth  not  beget  the  essence  of  the  Son, 
but  the  person  of  the  Father  begetteth  the  person  of  the  Son, 
by  communicating  his  whole  essence  to  the  person,  begotten  from 
eternity.  No  such  statement  can  be  drawn  from  Scripture,  or  be 
justified  by  any  comprehensive  view  of  the  Holy  Three,  as  consti- 
tuting together  the  one  only  and  true  God. 


170  GOD   IN    HIS   BEING. 

The  Symbols  thus  emphasize  the  doctrine  of  an  immanent 
Trinity,  existing  not  through  the  will  but  in  the  constitution  of 

the  Deity,   and  therefore  eternal,  re- 

15.  The  Trinity  interior  garded  as  an  interior  fact.  Such  em- 
and  exterior :  Trinity  in  Re-       ,..,.-.  ... 

demotion  phasis  is  chiefly  important  as  excluding 

the  heretical  conception  of  a  modal 
and  transitive  trinity  only — an  economic  manifestation  of  God  in 
time  in  order  to  redeem  men,  but  having  no  existence,  except  as 
a  divine  thought,  prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  scheme  of  sal- 
vation through  Christ.  Not  only  was  the  thought  of  such  a  man- 
ifestation eternally  in  the  mind  of  God :  He  was  interiorly  triune 
before  men  existed,  and  even  when  he  dwelt  alone  in  the  vastness 
of  his  own  eternity.  But  while  this  is  true  as  a  theologic  propo- 
sition, the  Symbols  direct  our  attention  much  more  fully  and 
frequently  to  the  external  trinity,  as  seen  in  the  divine  relations 
to  human  life,  and  particularly  to  human  salvation. 

Viewing  here  this  threefold  distribution  as  practically  economic 
— having  reference  to  the  several  functions  of  the  Godhead  toward 
all  external  existence,  we  may  observe  that,  while  we  are  taught 
(Ch.  IV)  that  it  pleased  God  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  in 
the  beginning  to  create  or  make  of  nothing  the  world  and  all 
things  therein,  yet  elsewhere  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  fatherhood 
is  pressed  out,  in  connection  with  creation  and  providence,  into 
such  prominence  as  justifies  the  recognition  of  the  first  Person  as 
specially  primal  and  prominent  in  these  spheres  of  divine  activity. 
It  is  true  that  the  whole  Deity  is  more  apparent  here,  the  trinita- 
rian  distinction  being  relatively  retired;  yet  even  in  creation,  and 
still  more  plainly  in  providence,  it  is  clearly  the  Father  who  comes 
into  the  foreground  of  our  vision,  making  the  worlds  and  order- 
ing all  things  in  the  interest  of  his  own  benignant  and  gracious 
plans  for  man.  The  opinion  that  the  Spirit  is  the  executive  agent  of 
the  Godhead  in  all  spheres,  and  that  it  is  He  who  created  and 
gives  life  to  all,  and  providentially  controls  all  things,  is  one  for 
which  the  Symbols  furnish  no  warrant.  They  do  not  even  lay  stress 
upon  the  agency  of  the  second  Person,  as  the  instrumental  cause  in 
creation,  or  the  final  cause  in  providence;  but  rather  refer  these  pro- 
cesses to  the  first  Person  as  representing  herein  the  entire  Deity. 
Nor  do  they  represent  the  fatherhood  in  God  as  referring  simply 
to  relations  established  by  grace:  for  while  the  relation  of  Creator 
and  creature  is  made  prominent,  as  in  the  chapter  on  the  Covenant, 
(VII)  it  is  by  no  means  implied  that  this  is  the  only  relation,  or  that 
man  is  not  by  nature  a  child  of  God  as  well  as  a  subject.  The 
description  of  man  as  created  after  the  divine  image,  and  endued 


DISTRIBUTION   OF    FUNCTIONS.  171 

with  knowledge,  righteousness  and  true  holiness,  and  as  existing 
in  a  special  spiritual  relation  to  God  under  the  covenant  of  works, 
implies  a  fatherhood  before  the  fall;  and  the  description  of  provi- 
dence, as  wisely  and  tenderly  concerning  itself  in  human  affairs 
after  the  fall,  certainly  suggests  a  continuance  of  that  natural  re- 
lation, even  after  man  had  proved  unfilial  and  undeserving.  In 
like  manner,  the  exposition  of  the  plan  of  grace  as  originating, 
not  in  the  action  of  the  Son,  but  in  the  mind  of  God  viewed 
either  as  triune  or  as  paternal,  implies  the  existence  of  parental 
feeling  toward  our  fallen  race, — redemption  springing  as  truly  from 
that  source  as  from  the  pitying  love  of  the  second  Person  or 
the  sympathetic  grace  of  the  third  Person  in  the  holy  Trinity: 
Crawford,  Fatherhood  of  God. 

This  economic  distribution  of  functions  in  the  Godhead  becomes 
still  more  apparent  and  impressive,  if  we  contemplate  the  person 
and  activities  of  the  Son  in  creation,  in  government,  and  espec- 
ially in  the  work  of  redemption.  On  a  cursory  glance  it  is  seen  that 
in  each  of  these  spheres,  but  eminently  in  the  last,  the  exterior 
trinity  becomes  a  most  conspicuous  and  most  blessed  fact.  In 
like  manner,  the  mission  of  the  Spirit,  as  originating  in  some  sense 
in  the  direction  of  the  Father  and  the  choice  of  the  Son,  brings 
out  this  triune  economy  of  offices  and  works  in  most  impressive 
light.  While  we  see  the  Father  planning,  determining,  bringing 
the  whole  scheme  of  grace  to  pass, — while  we  see  the  Son  carry- 
ing out  the  paternal  decree  in  his  own  incarnation,  life,  teaching 
and  sacrificial  death,  we  also  behold  the  Spirit  taking  up  the 
mighty  work,  and  by  his  illuminating,  regenerating,  sanctifying 
and  organizing  power  bringing  it  to  its  glorious  completion.  It 
is  God  whom  we  see,  and  see  alike,  in  all  these  ministrations  to 
man  as  sinful:  but  it  is  God  in  his  tri-unity,  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

While  this  distribution  is  less  distinctly  presented  in  the 
Symbols  than  the  fact  itself  would  warrant,  we  may  yet  observe 
this  trinity  of  functions  and  office  apparent  in  many  incidental 
phrases  and  suggestions.  While,  for  illustration,  the  interior 
nature  of  our  L,ord  is  so  fully  defined  as  to  exclude  all  Arian  or 
Socinian  error,  it  is  his  work,  his  active  and  passive  relations  to 
human  sin  and  salvation,  which  occupy  the  foreground  of  the 
picture.  In  like  manner  the  work  of  the  Spirit  is  described  in 
a  variety  of  ways  and  connections  and  with  great  earnestness  and 
skill,  while  his  interior  affiliations  in  the  divine  economy  are 
disposed  of  with  the  simple  statement  that  he  is  a  Person  of  like 
nature  with,  and  that  he  proceedeth  eternally  from,  the  Father 


172  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

and  the  Sou.  It  is  thus  clear  that  the  compilers  of  the  Symbols, 
whatever  may  have  been  their  sense  of  the  doctrinal  importance 
of  the  conception  of  an  interior  trinity,  regarded  this  external 
trinity  as  practically  and  for  all  purposes  of  religion  the  matter  of 
highest  moment.  And  in  this  they  were  in  accord  alike  with 
the  general  judgment  of  believers,  and  with  the  deepest  demands 
of  sound  and  pure  theology.  Hagenbach  tells  us  (Hist,  of 
Doct. )  that  what  he  styles  the  trias  of  revelation  was  held  in 
complete  form  by  the  early  church  long  before  any  clear  state- 
ments had  been  made  concerning  the  essential  trias:  and  his  pre- 
sentation of  the  subject  shows  that  while  certain  speculative 
minds  have  in  all  ages  been  largely  engrossed  with  the  contem- 
plation of  the  latter,  the  former  has  generally  been  the  trias  on 
which  the  faith  and  the  heart  of  believers  have  most  readily  and 
joyously  reposed.  Neander  says  (Hist.  Dogmas,)  that  the  doc- 
trine of  God  as  the  Creator  and  Redeemer  and  Sanctifier  of 
humanity  in  and  through  Christ  was  an  essential  element  in  the 
Christian  consciousness  from  the  beginning,  and  that  in  this  form 
it  has  therefore  always  had  a  place  in  the  faith  of  the  Christian 
Church.  While  studied  on  its  interior  and  more  recondite  side, 
the  trinity  is  always  in  danger  of  becoming  a  speculation,  inter- 
esting acute  understandings  and  furnishing  a  field  for  ideal  and 
abstract  debate, — studied  on  its  exterior  side,  and  especially  in 
connection  with  the  matter  of  salvation,  it  becomes  not  merely  an 
intensely  practical  truth,  but  the  ground  and  basis  of  all  other 
truths  which  are  practical  or  saving  in  their  influence.  On  this 
side  therefore,  it  is  continually  expressing  itself  in  the  sacred 
formula  of  baptism,  in  the  triple  benediction,  in  the  more  biblical 
confessions  and  professions  of  faith,  and  in  the  songs  and  prayers 
and  purest  life  of  the  Church  of  God. 

It  is  impracticable  here  to  present  in  any  detail  the  massive  argu- 
ment derivable  from  Scripture  in  support  of  the  doctrine  of  the 

Trinity  as   thus  defined.     It  may  be 
16.    Proof  of  the  doctrine;     fred      admitted   that     whatever    evi- 
Scripture    and    experience:      ,  ...  .  ,       , 

objections  noted.  dences  or  lustrations  may  be  drawn 

from  physical  nature,  from  the  human 
constitution  or  experience,  or  from  the  nature  of  God  as  a  spir- 
itual being,  or  his  contemplation  of  himself  in  the  profound 
recesses  of  his  inward  experience,  the  real  and  conclusive  proof 
must  be  obtained  from  the  Bible  alone.  With  the  light  of  the 
New  Testament  as  our  guide,  we  may  discern  words,  phrases  and 
facts,  which  are  suggestions  of  the  trinity  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  even  in  the  earliest  portions  of  the  primitive  Scriptures. 


SCRIPTURE    WITNESS    TO    THE    TRINITY.  17-> 

The  triple  form  of  benediction,  the  triple  ascriptions  of  praise, 
the  manifestations  of  the  angel  of  the  covenant,  the  peculiar 
revelations  of  the  Jehovah,  the  special  works  and  ministries 
ascribed  to  the  Spirit,  the  striking  personification  of  wisdom,  are 
the  more  prominent  illustrations.  In  the  New  Testament,  gospels 
and  narratives  and  epistles  alike,  direct  testimonies  are  apparent 
in  such  number  and  such  variety  as  to  render  it  almost  impossible 
for  any  one  who  accepts  the  several  books  as  canonical  and  inspired, 
to  set  aside  the  doctrine.  In  the  baptismal  formula,  in  the  apos- 
tolical benedictions,  and  in  numerous  passages  which  associate 
the  three  persons  together  as  distinct  and  permanent  personalities, 
having  co-ordinated  relations  and  activities,  we  are  compelled  at 
least  to  recognize  an  external  and  economic,  if  not  an  interior 
and  perpetual  trinity  in  God.  Passages  still  more  numerous 
speak  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Spirit  separately,  as  each 
in  an  individual  sense  God,  having  attributes,  filling  positions, 
performing  works,  which  imply  and  prove  the  full  divinity  of 
each.  It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  these  evidences  grow  more 
and  more  distinct,  more  and  more  conclusive,  as  the  New  Testa- 
ment advances  toward  its  culmination,  and  that  some  of  its  most 
decisive  and  irresistible  affirmations  occur  in  the  book  with  which 
the  roll  of  Revelation  fitly  closes.  So  extensive  and  so  decisive 
are  these  testimonies,  that  those  who  refuse  to  accept  the  doctrine 
are  in  many  instances  driven  to  the  dark  alternative  of  rejecting 
as  uncanonical  those  portions  of  the  New  Testament,  such  as  the 
Gospel  and  Epistles  of  John,  which  most  repeatedly  and  directly 
inculcate  the  truth,  or  challenging  in  general  the  inspiration  or 
the  final  authoritativeness  of  the  clear  teachings  of  Holy  Writ 
on  this  subject.  The  fact  that  the  truth  is  gradually  evolved  in 
the  Scriptures,  appearing  first  in  occasional  phrases  and  sugges- 
tions, becoming  distinct  in  the  incarnation,  steadily  increasing  in 
clearness  and  cogency  during  the  ministry  of  Christ,  formulating 
itself  in  the  apostolic  letters,  and  reaching  its  completeness  only 
at  the  close  of  the  entire  process  of  biblical  revelation,  is  fully 
explained  by  the  nature  of  the  doctrine,  and  by  the  peculiar  office 
it  subserves  as  in  fact  both  foundation  and  capstone  in  the 
Christian  system.  Had  it  been  revealed  at  an  early  stage  in  that 
process,  it  could  not  have  been  apprehensible  by  the  Hebrew 
mind,  nor  could  it  have  been  made,  as  it  afterwards  became 
naturally  and  readily,  a  fundamental  tenet  in  religious  belief: 
Bernard;  Progress  of  Doctrine. 

One  of  the  most  convincing  corroborations  to  the  truth  of  the 
doctrine  as  thus  enunciated  in  Scripture,    is  discoverable  in  its 


174  GOD    IN    HIS    BEING. 

marked  effect  upon  the  spiritual  experience,  the  religious  life,  of 
those  who  intelligently  receive  it.  Instead  of  being,  as  has  some- 
times been  alleged,  a  mystery  confusing  and  injurious  to  faith, 
the  doctrine  is  found  to  sustain  vital  relations  to  practical  piety 
in  many  ways;  and  the  argument  drawn  from  Christian  experi- 
ence in  its  favor,  is  in  itself  almost  conclusive.  It  has  well  been 
said  that,  if  there  were  eliminated  from  the  common  Christian 
consciousness  all  those  elements  which  have  flowed  into  it  from 
the  recognition  of  God  as  Father  and  Son  and  Spirit,  Creator  and 
Preserver,  Redeemer  and  Sanctifier,  very  little  of  value  would 
remain.  The  best  religious  experience,  as  the  history  of  practical 
religion  clearly  manifests,  grows  out  of  the  soil  of  trinitarianism, 
when  such  trinitarianism  is  set  forth,  not  as  a  dry  and  perplexing 
dogma,  but  as  a  blessed  spiritual  verity  and  a  divinely  opened 
fountain  of  religious  refreshing  and  life.  On  the  other  side,  there 
are  many  historical  illustrations  of  the  fact  that,  wherever  this 
vital  truth  has  been  either  rejected  or  regarded  as  a  mere  specula- 
tion, practical  religion  has  declined,  the  consciousness  of  relation- 
ship to  God  has  faded,  the  sense  of  duty  has  relaxed,  the  spirit  of 
worship  and  of  service  has  died  away.  It  is  an  eloquent  state- 
ment of  an  eminent  English  divine  (Smith,  J.  Pye)  that  believers 
in  this  truth,  and  in  the  other  doctrines  of  grace  directly  associ- 
ated with  it,  are  in  general  most  distinguished  among  all  classes 
of  mankind  for  their  personal  holiness,  their  self-denial,  their 
readiness  to  take  up  the  cross,  to  bear  hardships,  make  sacrifices, 
and  go  through  difficulties  and  sorrows  for  the  sake  of  God  and 
religion;  their  seriousness,  gravity,  humility,  temperance;  their 
patience  and  meekness,  their  benevolence  and  activity,  and  their 
zealous  laboring  in  those  works  of  beneficence  to  which  worldly 
motives  are  the  least  likely  to  conduct  men. 

The  objections  urged  against  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  are 
to  some  extent  drawn  from  the  Scriptures,  but  for  the  most  part 
are  speculative,  and  in  some-  cases  simply  rationalistic.  That  the 
Bible  teaches  the  absolute  unity  of  God,  is  not  merely  granted 
but  affirmed  by  those  who  accept  its  instruction  respecting  the 
trinity  in  God:  nor  has  it  ever  been  shown  that  they  are  involved 
thereby  in  the  meshes  of  a  contradiction  which,  if  real,  would 
constrain  them  to  reject  the  claim  of  Scripture  to  have  come  down 
from  God  for  the  enlightenment  and  salvation  of  mankind.  The 
Bible  is  profoundly  consistent  with  itself  in  inculcating  both  the 
one  truth  and  the  other,  and  in  the  manner  in  which  it  reveals 
and  inculcates  both,  it  proves  itself  to  be  the  production,  not 
of  man  or  by  man,  but  of  and  by  the  Holy  Ghost.     Nor  is  it  any 


OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED.  175 

real  objection  to  this  statement  that,  although  the  Scriptures  are 
thus  distinct  in  their  teaching,  the  Christian  Church  existed  and 
nourished  for  the  first  two  centuries  or  more  without  any  formu- 
lated statement  of  the  doctrine,  and  even  without  making  much 
spiritual  use  of  it;  since  it  is  true,  that  such  doctrines  are  gener- 
ally realized  in  Christian  experience  before  they  find  expression  in 
definite  creeds,  and  also  that  Christian  experience  is  itself  a 
growth, or  a  form  of  spiritual  progress,  in  which  what  is  simplest 
in  doctrine  comes  first  into  practical  apprehension,  and  afterwards 
that  which  is  more  complex  and  abstruse. 

The  speculative  objections  in  the  case  are  chiefly  interesting  as 
illustrating  alike  the  natural  incapacity  of  the  human  mind  to 
apprehend  profound  and  complex  truth  in  whatever  sphere,  its  in- 
ability when  unvitalized  by  grace  to  perceive  and  rejoice  in  spir- 
itual doctrine,  and  its  pitiful  inclination  to  flee  into  any  available 
cave  of  objection  whenever  summoned  to  a  life  of  faith  and  duty. 
It  is  of  course  to  be  admitted  that  a  doctrine  which  concerns  itself 
with  God  rather  than  with  men,  and  with  that  transcendent  pro- 
cess of  disclosure  which,  starting  in  the  recesses  of  the  divine 
nature,  becomes  visible  to  us  in  the  three  forms  of  Fatherhood 
and  Sonship  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  would  carry  in  it  mysteries 
which  the  intellect  of  man  is  unable  to  solve.  It  is  to  be  expected 
also,  that  in  such  a  manifestation  there  would  be  much  against 
which  the  natural  heart,  misled  by  its  own  sinfulness,  would  revolt. 
But  it  is  also  true  that  there  are  no  such  intellectual  or  ethical  diffi- 
culties involved  in  this  doctrine  as  constrain  the  human  reason  to 
reject  it,  while  on  the  other  hand  there  are  blessed  exhibitions  of 
Deity  in  it,  precepts  and  promises  carried  with  it,  joys  and  inspi- 
rations and  hopes  justified  by  it,  which  make  it  inexpressibly 
welcome  to  the  soul  that  is  truly  seeking  after  God. 

Reserving  further  discussion  of  the  divine  nature  and  attri- 
butes and  the  trinity  in  God  until  these  topics  shall  again  present 

themselves  in    connection  with  other 

■c    <-     <.u    •     tt,    rM,  •  *•  4-  l*>     Concluding-  review: 

specific  truths  in  the  Christian  system,     Characteristic    qualities   of 

we  may  pause  for  a  moment  to  note  in  this  general  presentation, 
conclusion  the  theological  comprehen- 
siveness, the  spiritual  elevation,  and  the  practical  power  of  the 
general  doctrine  of  God  thus  summarily  presented  in  the  Sym- 
bols. It  cannot  be  questioned  that  their  statements  exhibit 
marked  familiarity  on  the  part  of  the  compilers  with  the  philo- 
sophic and  theologic  problems  involved,  and  with  the  experimental 
aspects  also  of  this  fundamental  doctrine.  It  is  not  indeed  to  be 
presumed  that  they  had  special  foresight  of  the  multiplied  errors 


170  COD    IN    MIS    BEING. 

and  issues  which  have  originated  in  later  times  around  this  group 
of  sacred  truths,  and  which  especially  are  so  current  in  our  own 
day.  Pantheism  in  its  later  varieties  was  to  them  an  unknown 
delusion:  Spinoza  was  a  youth  as  yet  unfamiliar  with  philosophy, 
when  they  were  framing  their  terse  expositions.  English  deism 
and  French  atheism  did  not  then  exist  except  in  their  ruder  germs; 
and  little  could  the  Westminster  divines  have  realized  what  on- 
slaught these  enemies  of  the  Gospel  were  hereafter  to  make  upon 
this  cardinal  section  of  Christian  faith.  Materialism  with  its 
doubts  and  negations,  and  with  its  supposititious  substitutes  for 
the  one  primal,  personal  force  from  which  all  other  forces  and 
potencies  flow,  had  then  no  recognized  existence.  Yet  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact  that  the  clear,  direct,  strong  declarations  of  the 
Symbols  just  as  they  stand,  are  at  this  hour  substantially  the  re- 
sponse of  the  common  Christianity  to  each  and  all  of  these  later 
forms  of  criticism  and  unbelief.  The  arguments  here  suggested 
have  indeed  been  expanded:  the  field  of  illustration  has  widened; 
the  force  of  the  divine  testimony  in  the  Scriptures  has  been  more 
clearly  apprehended  and  stated.  But  there  has  been  no  essen- 
tial advance  in  the  doctrine  concerning  God  in  his  Being,  because 
there  can  be  none.  The  answer  of  Westminster  is  in  substance 
the  answer  of  the  Christian  church  to-day;  and  that  answer  is  a 
barrier  against  which  the  waves  of  error  have  been  vainly  dashing 
for  more  than  two  hundred  years,  and  against  which  they  are  vainly 
dashing  now.  And  the  answer  of  to-day  will  be  the  answer  of 
Christianity  through  all  the  future:  God  is  a  Spirit,  infinite,  eter- 
nal and  unchangeable  in  his  being,  wisdom,  power,  holiness, 
justice,  goodness  and  truth.  And  in  the  unity  of  the  Godhead 
there  be  three  Persons,  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost; 
yet  these  three  (L,.  C.  9)  are  one  true,  eternal  God,  the  same  in 
substance,  equal  in  power  and  glory,  although  distinguished  by 
their  personal  properties. 

The  spiritual  elevation  of  these  statements  is  as  marked  as  their 
theologic  comprehensiveness.  No  one  can  read  the  records  of  the 
the  Assembly  without  being  convinced  that,  stern  in  aspect  and 
severe  in  manner  as  the  members  were,  and  shrewd  as  were  some 
of  them  in  all  affairs  of  church  or  state,  they  were  as  a  body 
men  of  true  and  deep  piety.  The  evidences  on  this  point,  already 
mentioned  in  part,  are  numerous  and  convincing.  Such  high 
views  of  God  spring  only  from  genuine  acquaintance  with  him. 
If  these  views  sometimes  verged  on  puritanic  rigidity  or  severity, 
— if  they  sometimes  led  on  to  conclusions  which  sound  harsh  re- 
specting  the  divine  purposes   or  administration,    they  certain!)' 


WORTH    OF    THE    WESTMINSTER    DOCTRINE.  17, 

inspired  and  exalted  in  a  peculiar  degree  the  men  who  held  them. 
It  is  in  no  temper  of  cant,  in  no  blind  mood  of  adoration,  that 
we  pronounce  them  holy  men — men  of  God.  Their  exaltation  of 
God  in  his  being  and  nature,  their  reverential  mention  of  his 
attributes  and  perfections,  their  worship  of  him  in  his  glory  and 
eminently  as  seen  in  his  Gospel,  their  devout  recognition  of  his 
presence  and  power  in  all  things,  and  their  entire  and  loving  sub- 
mission to  his  will,  are  qualities  not  in  equal  measure  exhibited 
in  any  earlier  formulary — not  so  forcibly  or  tenderly  manifested 
by  the  framers  of  any  other  Christian  creed.  It  will  always 
stand  to  their  credit  that  at  the  very  outset  of  their  exposition  of 
sacred  doctrine  they  not  only  recognized  the  supremacy  of  the 
Word  of  God,  but  set  God  himself  on  the  throne, — that  they  so 
heartily  believed  in  him  as  the  only  and  true  God, — that  they  so 
adored  his  perfections,  revered  his  will,  and  pronounced  it  the 
highest  duty  of  every  soul  of  man  first  to  glorify  him,  and  then 
to  enjoy  him  forever. 

Hence  the  vast  practical  as  well  as  speculative  power  of  their 
teachings.  The  simple  proposition  just  quoted  has  beyond  a 
doubt  done  as  much  as  any  utterance  of  uninspired  man  to 
influence  the  purposes,  desires,  aspirations  and  daily  living  of 
mankind.  Comprehensive  and  abstruse  when  viewed  as  a  dog- 
matic truth,  it  changes  when  considered  ethically  into  a  great 
spiritual  principle,  reaching  all  men  alike,  and  comprehending 
in  its  claim  the  entire  life.  It  is  a  rule  which,  like  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  needs  no  special  explanation  or  enforcement:  all, 
even  the  youngest,  can  see  it  and  feel  it  at  a  glance;  and  wherever 
it  goes,  it  leads  the  heart,  not  to  theology,  but  to  duty  and  religion. 
It  is  an  impressive  remark  of  Carlyle  in  his  later  years:  The 
older  I  grow — and  I  now  stand  on  the  brink  of  eternity — the 
more  comes  back  to  me  the  first  sentence  in  the  Catechism  which  I 
learned  when  a  child, and  the  fuller  and  deeper  its  meaning  becomes. 
The  entire  teachings  of  the  Symbols  concerning  God  in  his  being 
partake  of  the  same  spiritual  and  practical  character:  they  are 
quite  as  much  religious  as  theological.  Their  prime  tendency  is 
to  quicken  feeling,  to  stir  and  arouse  the  soul  to  loyalty  and  devo- 
tion. Especially  do  they  lead  to  humiliation  in  view  of  sin,  to 
the  honest  confession  of  guilt  and  spiritual  deadness,  to  cordial 
submission  to  the  divine  will  and  working,  to  the  dedication  of  self 
to  him  whom  they  represent  as  the  infinite  and  eternal  Spirit,  hav- 
ing all  life  in  and  of  himself,  and  in  his  own  being  embodying  all 
possible  majesty  and  perfection. 


LECTURE  FOURTH— GOD  IN  HIS  ACTIVITIES. 

The  Divine  Decrees  :  Creation  :  Providence  :  Moral 
Administration. 

C.  F.  Chap.  III-V  :    L-.  C.  :  12-20.     S.  C.  :  7-12. 

The  ground  thus  far  traversed  in  this  survey  of  the  Westminster 
Symbols,  is  chiefly  ground  common  to  all  varieties  of  evangelical 
Protestantism,  so  far  as  these  formulated  their  beliefs  during  the 
prolific  era  of  the  Reformation.  With  minor  variations  as  to  the 
degree  of  fullness  and  exactness,  as  to  the  order  of  presentation, 
and  to  the  measure  of  emphasis,  all  were  agreed  in  holding  to 
the  Scriptures  as  being,  above  all  opinions  of  men  or  churches, 
the  one  absolute  and  perfect  revelation  from  God,  containing  all 
that  man  needs  to  believe  in  order  to  salvation,  and  all  the  duty 
God  requires  of  man.  All  were  agreed  likewise  in  the  general 
conception  of  God  himself  in  respect  to  his  existence  and  nature, 
his  attributes  and  character,  and  his  triune  modes  of  being.  Nor 
does  there  appear  to  have  been  any  important  debate  on  either  of 
these  subjects  in  the  Westminster  Assembly.  Much  as  the  mem- 
bers were  inclined  to  differ  on  points  yet  to  be  considered  in  this 
survey,  all  consented  to  appeal  to  the  Word  of  God  as  the  final 
arbiter  of  faith  :  To  the  I^aw  and  to  the  Testimony  all  were  read}7 
alike  to  pledge  allegiance.  Nor  can  we  doubt  that  in  the  devotions 
which  were  mingled  with  their  earnest  discussions — in  the  days 
of  fasting  and  worship  which  were  throughout  a  significant  feature 
of  their  sessions,  they  cordially  bowed  together  in  true  loyalty 
before  the  one  spiritual  Being,  infinite  and  eternal  and  unchange- 
able in  each  attribute  and  quality,  whom — as  we  have  seen — they 
so  elaborately  and  powerfully  delineated  as  the  one  and  only  God, 
forever  perfect  and  supreme. 

Still  it  is  true  that  in  this  theologic  conception  of  the  Godhead, 
the  Assembly  had  practically  determined  the  contents,  arrange- 
ment and  theological  character  or  qual- 

l.  Relations  to  subsequent     ..       -  , ,         ..  ,     ...  ,   ..       ,     , 

.    .  .  r„ .     .„„     ?.  „       lty  of  the  entire  creed  which  they  had 

doctrine:     God    essentially        J  J 

acilve#  undertaken  to  formulate.     From  that 

conception,  the  doctrines  which  they 
subsequently  enunciated  concerning  the  divine  plan  of  things,  and 
the  divine  sovereignty  in  creation  and  providence  and  grace,  were 


GOD   ESSENTIALLY   ACTIVE.  179 

legitimate  and  even  necessary  inferences.  It  is  indeed  probable 
that  the  Arminian  party  whose  intense  conflict  with  the  strong 
Calvinism  of  Dort  had  been  the  great  theological  event  of  the 
preceding  generation,  would  have  held,  in  form  at  least,  the  same 
general  doctrine  of  God  in  his  essential  being.  But  it  is  obvious 
that  their  efforts  to  work  out  a  modified  theory  as  to  the  divine 
efficiency  and  purpose,  especially  in  the  sphere  of  grace,  perhaps 
inevitably  reacted,  even  more  decisively  than  they  were  themselves 
aware,  upon  their  practical  apprehension  of  the  more  cardinal 
truth  respecting  God  himself.  In  their  struggles  against  what 
they  regarded  as  a  false  view  of  the  divine  sovereignty,  in  their 
endeavor  to  protect  the  correlative  truth  of  the  freedom  and  respon- 
sibility of  man,  in  their  desire  to  exalt  the  universality  of  grace, 
and  justify  the  free  and  full  offer  of  the  Gospel  to  all  mankind, 
they  were  led  to  put  limits  upon  the  knowledge,  the  regulative 
capacity,  the  absolute  right  of  God  over  his  creatures,  which 
could  not  be  carried  out  to  their  legitimate  issues  without  seri- 
ously impairing  the  full  biblical  view  of  what  God  is  in  his  being 
and  attributes,  and  in  his  physical  and  moral  administration. 
This  may  be  an  inevitable  result  of  all  such  effort.  The  history 
of  the  more  positive  Arminian  theology  in  later  times,  even  in  its 
most  spiritual  forms,  reveals  again  and  again  the  presence  of  such 
a  tendency.  On  the  other  side,  it  is  certain  that  such  a  concep- 
tion of  God  as  is  found  in  the  Westminster  Symbols  will  by  logical 
necessity  lead  on  to  just  such  a  group  of  doctrines  as  are  imme- 
diately associated  with  it  in  the  succeeding  chapters  on  the  eternal 
Decree,  Creation,  Providence,  the  Fall,  and  the  original  Covenant 
with  Man.  Without  raising  at  this  point  any  question  as  to  the 
desirableness  of  introducing  into  a  church  creed  everything  that  is 
contained  in  these  chapters,  we  may  recognize  at  least  the  theolog- 
ical necessity  for  the  chapters  themselves,  in  the  order  in  which 
they  are  here  presented.  And  we  may  now  therefore  turn  from 
the  contemplation  of  God  in  his  constitution  and  character  to 
consider  him  in  his  activities  —  in  those  activities  which  are 
generic,  and  which  relate  to  the  world  and  to  man,  reserving  for 
future  examination  those  which  especially  exhibit  his  plan  and 
method  in  the  field  of  grace. 

That  God  is  continuously  and  essentially  active  in  the  general 
sphere  just  described,  is  everywhere  assumed  in  the  Symbols  as  a 
necessary  inference  from  the  conception  of  him  as  a  pure,  free, 
personal,  absolute  Spirit.  They  give  no  countenance  to  the  notion 
that,  after  finishing  the  initial  work  of  creation,  he  left  the 
physical  universe  to  run  on  by  itself  without  his  presence,  through 


180  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

the  action  of  the  secondary  causes  which  he  had  introduced  into 
it  in  the  beginning.  Still  less  do  the}'-  furnish  warrant  for  the 
more  injurious  notion  that,  having  created  man,  he  has  left  him 
also  to  the  action  of  such  causes, — the  human  will  as  an  inde- 
pendent cause  being  chief  among  them;  while  he  himself,  as  in 
the  Brahminic  fable,  sleeps  in  solitary  grandeur  among  the  stars. 
It  is  in  the  very  nature  of  such  a  Spirit  to  be  eternally  active  in 
all  spheres  of  existence,  though  he  is  indeed  unchangeable  in  his 
being  and  nature.  There  can  be  no  abatement  or  intermission  in 
the  activities  of  the  divine  Spirit,  whether  arising  from  any 
inward  election  or  from  any  outward  constraint.  Nor  is  such 
expression  of  energy  the  result  of  unconscious  instinct  or  of  forces 
dwelling  in  the  divine  mind,  and  constraining  God  to  action  as 
by  necessity.  That  he  is  thus  ever  active  by  virtue  of  what  he 
he  is  in  himself  as  a  perfect  Being,  is  abundantly  apparent. 

His  moral  perfections  also  compel  us  to  the  conclusion  that  his 
omniscient  intelligence  sees,  and  his  omnipotent  wisdom  rules, 
and  his  justice  and  goodness  are  ever  manifest  throughout  his 
vast  creation.  The  Confession  is  in  harmony  with  the  profound- 
est  philosophy,  and  with  the  deepest  convictions  of  the  human 
heart,  in  affirming  (V  :  i)  not  only  that  God  is  the  great  Creator  oi 
all  things,  but  also  that  he  doth  uphold,  direct,  dispose  and  govern 
all  creatures,  actions  and  things  from  the  greatest  even  to  the  least: 
and  this  not  merely  by  the  exertion  of  his  sovereign  energies 
ab  extra  or  occasionally,  but  also  by  an  immanent  presence  and 
power.  When  faith,  says  Calvin  (Inst.  B.  1 :  16),  has  learned 
that  God  is  the  Creator  of  all  things,  it  should  immediately  con- 
clude that  he  is  also  their  perpetual  governor  and  preserver;  and 
that  not  by  a  certain  universal  motion,  actuating  the  whole 
machine  of  the  world,  but  by  a  particular  providence  sustaining, 
nourishing  and  providing  for  everything  which  he  has  made.  It 
is  in  itself  incredible  that  he  should  have  created  either  the 
physical  universe  of  things  or  the  moral  universe  of  beings  in 
such  a  method  that  they  evolve  themselves  eternally  without  his 
omnipresent  aid.  Still  more  incredible  is  it  that  he  should  have 
fabricated  a  creation  which  is  capable  of  producing  results 
that  are  intrinsically  at  variance  with  his  originating  and  domin- 
ating will.  It  is  most  of  all  incredible  that  he  should  ever 
become  indifferent  to  the  movements  or  the  issues  of  the  two 
universes  which  he  has  made,  or  should  grow  weary  of  his  pro- 
vidential administration  over  them.  Whatever  difficulties  may 
present  themselves  in  the  effort  to  apprehend  his  activities, 
— whatever   insoluble   problems    may  confront  ns  in  the   study 


THE  ETERNAL  DECREE.  181 

of  his  transcendent  movements,  we  can  never  find  explanation 
or  refuge  in  the  opinion  that  he  is  not  thus  resident  as  the 
supreme  energy  in  the  evolution  or  government  of  all  creatures, 
actions  and  things.  The  doctrine  of  the  divine  immanency  and 
permanency  in  nature  and  in  the  life  of  humanity,  however 
mysterious  or  even  incomprehensible  it  may  seem,  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  principles  in  Christianity:  without  its  explanatory 
radiance  both  nature  and  man  become  alike  inexplicable. 

In  taking  up  the  subject  of  God  in  his  general  activities  as  thus 
introduced,  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal  decree  or  decrees  first 
presents   itself   (Ch.    Ill)  for  careful 

scrutiny  and  exposition.  The  term,  2'  The  Eternal  Decree.  The 
,  .    ,  ,        ,  .  ,,        term  defined:   analysis  and 

decree,  is  here  employed  to  express  the     exn0cjtj0n 

generic  proposition  that  God  from  all 

etei  nity  did,  by  the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his  own  will,  freely 
a?id  unchangeably  ordain  whatsoever  conies  to  pass.  Such  terms  as 
predestination,  foreordination,  election,  reprobation,  pretention, 
relate  to  the  divine  decree  as  manifested  within  the  particular 
sphere  of  grace.  In  the  more  generic  or  comprehensive  sense, 
covering  the  entire  field  of  the  divine  activity,  the  term,  decree, 
has  its  closest  synonyms  in  such  words  as  plan,  design,  purpose, 
scheme,  project,  ordinance,  edict.  It  is  both  a  thought  resident 
eternally  in  the  divine  mind,  and  an  intention  to  give  expression 
to  that  thought  in  correspondent  action  wrought  out  in  time.  It 
involves  both  prevision  and  predetermination — the  ability  to 
devise  and  the  ability  to  execute  what  is  devised  in  every  sphere. 
It  does  not  imply  volition  or  action  without  purpose,  or  a 
merely  arbitrary  election  without  regard  to  conditions,  or 
activity  unregulated  by  the  moral  qualities  inherent  in  Deity.  It 
differs  radically  from  the  pagan  notion  of  fate,  by  the  cardinal 
fact  that  it  is  personal  both  in  the  design  and  in  the  execution. 
It  involves  a  true  and  proper  sovereignty  such  as  a  supreme  per- 
son may  exercise,  but  a  holy  sovereignty  which  carries  in  it  not 
only  omnipotence  but  wisdom  and  love  and  righteousness.  In 
substance  it  implies,  in  the  words  of  another,  (Smith,  H.  B. 
Christ.  Theol.)  that  the  present  system  of  the  universe  in  all  its 
parts,  as  it  was  and  is  and  is  to  be,  was  an  eternal  plan  or  purpose 
in  the  divine  Mind.  Postponing  inquiry  as  to  the  moral  qualities 
of  this  divine  ordination,  or  to  the  methods  in  which  it  is  accom- 
plished in  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,  we  may  now  simply  analyze 
the  conception  itself.  This  conception  contains  the  following 
elements, — that  God  has  a  plan  according  to  which  his  activities 
are  exercised, — that  this  plan  was  formed,  not  in  the  course  of 


182  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

his  activities  as  specific  occasions  might  seem  to  require,  but 
rather  from  the  beginning,  from  all  eternity, — that  this  plan  was 
not  partial  or  limited,  but  universal,  embracing  all  beings  and  all 
events  in  its  scope, — that  the  actual  outcome  of  events,  the  his- 
toric order  of  things  as  they  are,  is  the  consequence  of  this  divine 
plan, — and  that  the  power  and  wisdom  and  varied  perfections  of 
the  Deity  are  all  actively  engaged  in  securing  such  historic  results 
according  to  the  original  purpose. 

First:  The  conception  of  God  as  having  such  a  comprehen- 
sive and  conclusive  plan  is  an  inevitable  consequence  from  what 
we  have  already  learned  concerning  him  in  his  nature  and  per- 
fections. To  conceive  of  him  as  putting  forth  such  vast,  con- 
stant, measureless  energies  as  are  requisite  to  the  creation  and 
the  providential  and  moral  control  of  the  universe,  without  intel- 
ligent acquaintance  with  the  immense  process  in  which  he  is  thus 
concerned — without  wise  adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  and  perfect 
adjustment  of  the  whole  to  some  appropriate  consummation, 
would  be  a  fatal  impugnment,  not  merely  of  his  capacity  but  also 
of  his  character.  To  suppose  that  in  the  outworking  of  this  plan 
things  may  occur  of  which  he  was  ignorant  when  he  devised  the 
plan,  or  that  he  would  set  in  motion  a  series  of  agencies  and 
forces,  the  will  of  man  especially,  whose  working  he  could  not 
tell  beforehand  or  chose  not  to  foreknow,  would  be  equivalent 
to  a  denial  to  him  of  that  wisdom  which  as  a  moral  quality  we 
must  ever  regard  as  among  the  chief  of  his  perfections.  The 
doctrine  of  God  as  the  absolute  Spirit,  endowed  as  such  with  all 
possible  perfections,  inevitably  carries  with  it  the  conception  of 
such  a  sovereignty  as  is  here  described,  in  respect  both  to  com- 
plete prevision  and  to  absolute  predetermination.  Moreover,  the 
relations  of  such  a  Being  to  the  universe  natural  and  moral,  are 
such  as  in  a  sense  constrain  him  to  frame  and  to  execute  his  own 
sovereign  plans  for  that  universe.  Still  further,  the  utter  incom- 
petency of  any  creature,  though  endowed  with  angelic  powers, 
to  undertake  such  a  task  is  manifest.  And  assuredly  the  relig- 
ious sentiment  in  man  could  find  rest,  amid  all  the  measureless 
fluctuations  of  nature  and  of  life,  only  in  the  belief  that  God, 
not  man  or  angel,  is  thus  superintending  and  controlling  all. 

Secondly:  It  is  obvious  that  this  plan  was  formed  from  all  eter- 
nity— before  the  execution  of  it  began,  and  before  anything  out- 
side of  God  himself  had  an  existence.  Such  is  the  meaning  of 
the  term,  eternity,  in  this  connection.  While  the  Bible  often 
suggests  what  seem  like  temporary  schemes  or  expedients,  changes 
of   design  or  administration,    it  furnishes   no   warrant    for   the 


THE   DECREE    INCLUSIVE    AND    CONCLUSIVE.  183 

supposition  that  the  general  plan  of  things  is  itself  fragmentary 
or  indeterminate  in  the  divine  mind, — the  result  of  a  knowledge 
developing  through  time.  There  is  indeed  an  important  modifica- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  decrees  which  comes  in  at  this  point,  and 
which  in  some  degree  relieves  that  doctrine  from  the  taint  of  fatal 
ity,  so  commonly  regarded  as  attaching  to  it.  But  the  funda- 
mental truth  must  remain, — that  the  divine  plan  by  its  own  nature 
is  eternal.  As  according  to  an  ancient  Confession  there  never 
was  a  time  when  the  Son  was  not,  so  there  never  was  a  time  when 
this  plan  was  not,  so  far  as  the  conception  of  it  in  the  mind  of 
Deity  is  concerned.  And  as  being  eternal,  it  was  also  uncondi- 
tioned,— formed  in  absolute  freedom,  above  and  beyond  all  con- 
tingency that  could  be  imagined  to  arise  from  the  presence  or 
influence  of  any  creature.  The  comprehensive  decree  could  have 
had  no  existence  except  in  the  divine  mind,  and  it  was  throughout 
simply  and  solely  what  the  divine  wisdom  and  will  determined.  It 
is  therefore  unchangeable  also — infinitely  beyond  and  above  all 
temporal  mutation.  There  are  indeed  modifications  here  or  there 
in  the  chronologic  evolution  of  this  sovereign  purpose,  but  the  pur- 
pose itself  must  be  fixed  in  its  unconditioned  comprehensiveness 
at  the  outset  and  forever. 

Thirdly:  This  divine  plan,  thus  formed  in  eternity,  must  also 
be  inclusive  of  all  things  and  events:  in  other  words,  all  the  agen- 
cies, forces,  principles,  elements  combined  together  in  it,  were 
introduced  and  set  in  position  by  him  who  framed  it.  Were  there 
any  single  agent  or  principle  which  had  broken  into  this  pre- 
conceived system  of  itself,  or  whose  workings  were  beyond  his 
cognizance  or  control,  it  would  be  impossible  for  God  to  be  assured 
of  the  product  of  this  complex  arrangement  at  any  point,  or  confi- 
dent of  the  holy  and  happy  outcome  of  his  own  scheme,  whether 
in  providence  or  in  grace.  Whence  could  such  agent  or  principle 
come,  and  by  what  energy  could  it  be  supported  in  its  action, 
and  toward  what  intelligent  end  could  that  action  be  directed,  and 
in  what  way  could  this  end  be  fully  and  forever  assured  ?  God 
himself  is  in  fact  not  merely  the  only  possible  fountain  of  all  the 
intermingling  elements  in  his  comprehensive  system  of  things:  he 
must  also  sustain,  vitalize,  control  all  these  elements,  fully  includ- 
ing every  one  of  them  in  his  plan,  even  from  the  beginning.  There 
can  be  nothing  in  nature  or  in  man,  so  far  as  constitutional  ele- 
ments or  qualities  go,  which  is  not  there  in  consequence  of  his 
knowledge  and  his  determination.  Whatever  difficulties  may  be 
met  in  the  attempt  to  account  for  the  presence  of  any  of  these, 
sin  especial!}',  or  in  apprehending  the  method  in  which  God  may 


L84  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

work  out  his  purposes  in  and  through  them,  especially  when 
malevolent,  such  difficulties  are  certainly  not  removable  by  the 
supposition  that  there  are  elements  or  forces  in  the  universe  with 
whose  presence  there  God  had  nothing  to  do,  or  that  his  plan  was 
so  limited  or  partial  as  not  to  include  or  control  them.  All  sugges- 
tions of  this  sort  impugn  either  the  divine  capacity  or  the  divine 
character,  and  are  therefore  to  be  set  aside  as  inadmissible. 

Fourthly:  It  is  also  obvious  as  an  important  element  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  divine  decree,  that  this  plan,  formed  in  eternity 
and  inclusive  of  everything  outside  of  God,  is  carried  into  exe- 
cution in  some  real  sense  by  his  own  supreme  will  and  energy. 
Such  a  plan  does  not  execute  itself:  He  alone  must  secure  its  ful- 
fillment. Raising  no  question  at  this  point  as  to  the  particular 
methods  in  which  God  secures  the  realizing  in  fact  of  his 
own  plan,  or  to  the  relations  of  his  responsible  activity  to  what 
seem  like  sad  malformations  or  misfortunes  under  that  plan,  we 
can  rest  in  no  other  conclusion  than  that  all  the  forces  or  princi- 
ples incorporated  practically  in  the  scheme  must  have  come  from 
him,  and  must  in  like  manner  be  in  some  way  sustained  and  regu- 
lated by  him  at  every  stage  of  their  operation.  To  hold  any 
lower  view  involves  either  the  conclusion  that  these  principles  or 
forces  have  somehow  become  independent  of  God,  or  the  still 
darker  conclusion  that  he  has  himself  consented  to  the  creation 
of  a  universe  wherein  by  his  own  choice  things  are  moving  on 
confusedly  and  conflictingly  toward  some  chaotic  catastrophe,  in 
which  he  and  the  universe  may  perish  together.  To  avoid  such 
dark  hypotheses  we  must  at  all  hazards  rest  in  the  conviction  that 
what  the  mind  in  God  conceives,  and  what  his  wisdom  determines 
to  accomplish,  his  omnipotent  will  and  energy  will  surely  bring 
about.  Here  at  least  the  Symbols  of  Westminster  rest :  the 
Eternal  Decree  stands  back  of  all  created  things,  as  not  only  con- 
ceiving but  ordaining  whatsoever  comes  to  pass. 

Fifthly:  Such  a  comprehensive  and  controlling  plan  or  purpose 
as  has  now  been  described  must  be  in  itself  a  sublime  and  ineffa- 
ble expression  of  all  the  perfections  of  Deity,  and  therefore  furn- 
ishes occasion  in  all  its  forms,  not  for  questioning  or  revolt,  but 
for  adoration  and  rejoicing,  for  comfort  and  repose  in  all  believing 
souls.  Instead  of  being  an  abstract  dogma,  valuable  only  as  a 
speculative  basis  for  a  theological  system, the  doctrine  is  intensely 
practical,  and  to  the  rightly  constituted  mind,  inexpressibly  pre- 
cious and  profitable.  It  is  invariably  so  described  in  the  Symbols, 
in  other  Protestant  creeds,  and  in  Calvinistic  or  Augustinian 
theology  general^.     The  eternal  decree  is  neither  an  unconscious 


WISE,    FREE    AND    HOLY    ACTS'.  L85 

effloresence  from  the  bosom  of  God,  nor  an  arbitrary  edict,  rep- 
resenting his  sovereign  will  alone.  In  itself  and  in  all  its  multiform 
evolutions,  it  is  a  clear  disclosure  of  all  that  God  is  as  a  perfect 
Being,  infinitely  worthy  of  love  and  adoration.  These  are 
postulates  which  nothing  in  such  evolution,  even  the  dark  mystery 
of  sin  or  the  kindred  mystery  of  condemnation  on  account  of  sin, 
should  ever  lead  us  to  question.  Neither  should  any  aspect  of 
such  disclosure  lead  us  to  question  the  correlated  truth  of  human 
freedom  or  responsibility,  or  to  suppose  that  man  is  living  and  act- 
ing under  a  law  of  natural  necessity  as  inexplicable  as  that  which 
rules  the  planets  in  their  rotation  around  the  sun.  Still  less  should 
it  ever  incite  us  to  plunge  as  an  alternative  into  the  dark  abysses 
of  a  pagan  fatalism,  or  of  a  pantheistic  philosophy  which  seeks 
to  explain  human  life  as  evolving  passively  under  the  resistless 
action  of  some  unseen  and  unconscious  power.  All  such  altern- 
atives can  afford  neither  light  nor  comfort  to  the  soul.  They  rather 
involve  the  understanding  in  perplexities  which  it  can  never  solve, 
and  crush  the  moral  nature  under  a  paralyzing  weight  which  it 
cannot  throw  off,  but  must  endure  forever. 

An  interesting  discussion  seems  to  have  arisen  in  the  Assembly 
respecting  the  use  of  the  singular  or  the  plural  term,  decree  or 

decrees,  in  the  exposition  of  this  gen- 

,  ,     M.  T   \.      -.     c      .      °  3.    Decree    and   decrees: 

eral  doctrine.     In  the  Confession,  the     Different  views  in  the  Assem- 
singular   is   employed     throughout, —     j)iy< 
the  divine  determination  being  viewed 

as  one  in  fact,  however  various  its  historic  manifestations.  In  the 
Catechisms  the  plural  form  is  used;  and  the  one  comprehensive 
plan  is  described,  as  a  series  of  wise,  free  and  holy  acts,  issuing 
from  the  eternal  counsel  of  the  divine  will.  These  decrees  or  acts 
are  further  set  forth  as  unchangeably  ordaining  whatsoever  comes 
to  pass  in  time  ;  and  a  further  limitation  is  indicated  in  the  added 
language,  especially  concerning  angels  and  men.  The  secret  of 
this  variety  in  statement  is  at  least  partly  revealed  in  the  records 
of  the  debate:  Minutes:  150-2.  In  that  debate  Rutherford  sug- 
gests that  all  agree  in  this,  that  God  decrees  the  end  and  means, 
but  whether  in  one  or  more  decrees  .  .  .  it  is  very  probable  but 
one  decree:  but  whether  fit  to  express  it  in  a  confession  of  faith. 
Seaman,  referring  to  the  then  recent  conflict  in  Holland,  replies: 
All  the  odious  doctrine  of  the  Arminians  is  from  their  distinguish- 
ing of  the  decrees;  but  our  divines  say  they  are  one  and  the  same 
decree.  To  this  Reynolds  answers:  Let  us  not  put  disputes  and 
scholastical  things  into  a  confession  of  faith:  I  think  they  are  dif- 
ferent decrees  in  our  manner  of  conception.    And  Gillespie,  though 


186  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

himself  holding  that  in  ordine  naturae  God  ordaining  man  to  glory 
goes  before  his  ordaining  to  permit  man  to  fall, suggests  in  the  same 
spirit  of  liberty:  When  that  word  is  left  out,  is  it  not  a  truth? 
So  everyone  may  enjoy  his  own  sense.  And  Calamy  emphasizes 
the  pertinent  query  of  Rutherford  in  the  question  :  Why  should 
we  put  it  into  a  confession  of  faith  ? 

Yet  the  singular  term,  embodying  as  it  did  the  conception  of 
the  divine  plan  and  purpose  as  one,  both  inclusive  and  conclusive, 
and  as  formed  from  all  eternity,  did  pass  into  the  Confession, 
and  is  consistently  maintained  throughout  the  chapter  now  under 
examination.  In  the  subsequent  consideration  of  the  Larger 
Catechism,  as  if  in  deference  to  the  opinion  of  the  other  party, 
the  plural  term  was  admitted,  apparently  without  much  debate; 
and  the  one  decree  is  distributed  into  a  series  of  decrees, 
which  are  described  as  the  wise,  free  and  holy  acts  of  God,  flow- 
ing from  the  counsel  of  his  will,  and  ordaining  or  bringing  into 
existence  whatsoever  comes  to  pass  in  time.  Questions  indeed  arose 
subsequently  as  to  the  order  of  these  divine  acts,  viewed  logically, 
and  specially  as  to  the  matter  of  permissive  decrees,  involving 
the  admission  of  sin  into  the  world,  and  of  elective  decrees 
respecting  the  saved  and  the  lost,  severally.  Yet  those  who 
insisted  on  the  unity  of  the  conception  as  indicated  in  the  singu- 
lar term,  probably  felt  that  its  introduction  in  the  Confession  was 
a  sufficient  protection  against  the  Arminian  error,  and  that  the 
more  chronologic  plural  form  might  be  helpful  in  forestalling 
criticism  and  in  commending  the  teaching  of  the  Symbols  more 
readily  to  popular  acceptation. 

One  is  tempted  to  say  with  the  astute  and  saintly  Rutherford: 
If  there  be  any  argument  to  prove  a  necessity  of  one  and  the 
same  decree,  we  would  be  glad  to  hear  it.  Had  the  scholastical 
conception  of  the  one  divine  purpose  and  activity  in  the  produc- 
tion of  all  actual  events  and  issues  given  way,  in  the  Confession 
as  in  the  Catechisms,  to  the  more  historic  form  of  the  same  truth, 
as  seen  in  an  actual  series  of  such  purposes  and  acts,  no  small 
proportion  of  the  misapprehensions  of  the  doctrine,  and  of  the 
criticisms  upon  it  now  widely  current,  would  have  been  avoided. 
There  can  be  no  question  in  the  mind  of  any  intelligent  Calvinist 
whether  a  chapter  embodying  the  general  truth  be  fit  to  put  in  a 
confession  of  faith,  as  Rutherford  and  Calamy  had  queried,  since 
that  truth  is  to  all  who  hold  the  Calvinistic  system,  a  natural  and 
necessary  consequence  of  their  doctrine  respecting  God  himself. 
Yet  as  God  hath  been  pleased  to  express  by  way  of  convenant,  or  a 
succession   of   convenants   following    in    chronologic  order,   his 


ORDER   OF  THE   DECREES.  187 

scheme  of  moral  administration  and  grace,  so  in  general  he  hath 
been  pleased  to  reveal  his  one  eternal  purpose  in  a  series  of  wise, 
free  and  holy  acts,  which  are  evidently  conditioned  upon  each 
other,  and  are  limited  in  the  sphere  and  measure  of  their  activity, 
and  which  may  be  studied  both  independently  and  relatively,  in 
their  proper  historic  form  and  connections.  As  the  covenants  are 
to  our  apprehension  many  rather  than  one,  according  to  the 
biblical  description  of  them,  so  the  decrees  are  to  our  apprehen- 
sion rather  many  than  one, — a  series  of  divine  acts,  each  con- 
taining its  own  specific  revelation  of  the  divine  counsel,  and  all 
combining  to  exhibit  in  some  aspect  that  one  sovereign  scheme, 
of  which  in  a  just  sense  all  created  things,  all  events  and  issues, 
are  the  ordained  result. 

In  respect  to  the  order  of  the  decrees  viewed  as  chronologic 
acts,  two  views  were  also  manifest  in  the  Assembly.  Many  held 
with  Rutherford  that  in  ordine  naturae 

God  ordaining  man  to  glory  goes  before  4«  0rder  of  the  Decrees : 
t.         •.   •    •        .  ••  r  11      Supralapsarianism  and  Sub- 

his  ordaining  to  permit  man  to  fall.     lapsarianism. 

Some   held   with  Whittaker    that    in 

reference  to  the  element  of  time,  the  decrees  are  all  simul  and 
semel:  in  eterno  there  is  not  prius  and  posterius.  Calamy  desired 
that  nothing  may  be  put  in  one  way  or  other;  and  referring  to 
the  logical  issue  of  the  strict  supralapsarian  dogma, -described  it 
as  making  the  fall  of  man  to  be  medium  executionis  decreti.  Yet 
it  is  evident  that  there  was  a  strong  party  in  the  Assembly  who 
leaned  rather  toward  the  supralapsarian  view.  According  to  that 
view  the  salvation  of  the  elect  was  the  final  end  of  God  in  the 
creation  of  the  human  race;  and  the  ultimate  exhibition  of  his 
own  glory,  whether  in  the  salvation  or  in  the  eternal  condem- 
nation of  men,  was  to  be  taken  as  the  regulative  principle  in  the 
case.  To  secure  this  end  a  scheme  of  salvation  was  to  be  provided 
for  those  who  were  ordained  thereto:  as  essential  conditionally, 
the  fall  of  the  race  must  be  permitted,  and  indeed  in  some  sense 
produced:  as  initiatory,  the  creation  of  both  man  and  nature  was  to 
be  devised  and  accomplished;  and  as  co-ordinate,  the  condem- 
nation of  a  certain  proportion  of  the  race  must  be  predetermined 
from  eternity.  Sin  especially  was  to  be  admitted,  so  far  as  the 
divine  permission  extends,  in  order  that  salvation  might  be  intro- 
duced, and  the  primal  decree  of  election  carried  into  execution, — 
the  glory  of  God  being  manifested  both  in  the  final  redemption  of 
the  elect  through  grace,  and  in  the  final  condemnation  of  the 
wicked  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice. 

That  the  sublapsarian  explanation  had  strong  representatives 


188  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

in  the  Assembly  is  already  apparent.  According  to  this  view 
the  divine  decrees,  contemplated  as  a  series  of  sovereign  acts, 
were  to  be  considered,  not  in  their  abstract  philosophical  quality, 
with  reference  to  their  final  end  simply,  but  rather  in  the  order  of 
their  historic  manifestation  in  the  Scriptures.  In  this  light, 
creation  is  seen  to  be  the  first,  initiating  act;  followed  by  the 
permissive  decree  respecting  the  fall,  and  the  consequent  sin- 
fulness of  the  race;  and  the  decree  or  act  of  election  is  regarded 
as  introduced  in  full  view  of  what  mankind  through  sin  have 
already  become.  By  most  of  those  who  held  this  view  such  elec- 
tion was  contemplated  as  prior  in  time  to  the  further  decree  or 
act  by  which  the  salvation  of  the  elect  was  provided  for;  the  indi- 
viduals to  be  saved  being  first  chosen,  and  the  general  scheme 
of  salvation  being  then  devised  in  order  to  secure  this  result. 
It  is  claimed  that  this  view  predominated  in  the  Assembly,  and 
is  indicated  in  the  declaration,  (Chap.  Ill)  that  God  appointed 
the  elect  unto  eternal  life,  in  view  of  the  sinfulness  which  had 
already  come  upon  mankind,  while  he  determined  to  ordain  others 
to  dishonor  and  wrath  for  their  sin  as  actually  committed.  A 
similar  indication  is  supposed  to  reveal  itself  in  the  Shorter 
Catechism,  (19:20)  where  God  is  said  out  of  his  mere  (or  pure) 
good  pleasure  to  have  elected  some — some  of  those  already  con- 
templated as  under  his  wrath  and  curse — unto  everlasting  life. 
Yet  the  strong  statements  of  the  Confession  as  to  the  absoluteness 
and  the  eternity  and  the  singleness  of  the  divine  decree  hardly 
seem  to  justify  this  claim.  The  noted  treatise  of  Twisse,  the  first 
Prolocutor  of  the  Assembly,  in  support  of  the  dogma  of  absolute 
reprobation,  is  suggestive  here.. 

The  question  whether  the  Westminster  Assembly  as  a  body 
inclined  to  the  supralapsarian  or  to  the  sublapsarian  position, 
has  been  zealously  discussed.  Hodge  (Syst.  Theol. )  claims  that 
the  great  majority  of  its  members  were  sublapsarian,  but  admits 
that  the  Symbols  were  so  framed  as  to  avoid  offense  to  those  who 
adopted  the  supralapsarian  theory.  Macpherson  quotes  the  rejec- 
tion, during  the  discussion,  of  the  phrase,  to  bring  this  to  pass 
God  ordained  to  permit  man  to  fall,  as  evidence  of  the  supreme 
influence  of  sublapsarianism  in  the  Assembly.  Mitchell  refers  to 
the  same  action,  and  to  the  language  of  some  members  during  the 
debates,  as  indicative  at  least  of  the  fact  that  the  positive 
supralapsarianism  of  Twisse  and  others  did  not  have  its  own  way 
altogether  in  the  deliberations.  But  indications  are  not  wanting 
that,  if  indeed  that  type  of  Calvinism  did  not  control  the  body, 
it  was  so  far  influential  as  to  prevent  the  sublapsarian  view  from 


DIVERSITIES    OF   VIEW.  189 

having  clear  or  sufficient  expression  in  the  Symbols — specially  in 
the  Confession.  If  a  majority  were  inclined  to  that  view,  as 
Hodge  on  what  seems  to  be  insufficient  ground  affirms,  they 
were  not  positive  or  earnest  enough  to  gain  any  decisive  victory 
for  their  own  dogma.  Several  phrases  occur  in  the  Confession 
which,  if  they  do  not  absolutely  sustain  the  supralapsarian  con- 
ception, do  still  give  no  small  support  to  those  who  held  it.  And, 
were  the  Confession  ever  to  be  revised  so  as  to  bring  it  into 
harmony  with  the  milder  and  wiser  doctrine  now  current,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  as  to  the  fate  of  these  supralapsarian  phrases. 
Whether  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Symbols  to 
go  farther  in  this  analytic  view  of  the  decrees,  as  acts  in  some 
sense  successively  conceived  and  successively  occurring  in  time. 
and  to  represent  the  particular  election  of  believers  as  consequent 
upon  the  general  plan  of  salvation — God  devising  and  determin- 
ing first  the  plan,  and  then  choosing  those  in  whose  case  that 
plan  should  become  effectual — has  also  been  matter  of  earnest 
discussion.  If  the  historical  conception  of  the  decrees  is  to  be 
followed  out  exactly,  according  to  the  sublapsarian  method,  this 
would  seem  to  be  the  more  appropriate  mode  of  arranging  them — 
the  plan  first,  and  the  specific  election  subsequently.  Is  it  neces- 
sary to  regard  the  particularistic  selection  of  a  certain  number  of 
individuals  out  of  the  whole  race,  or  out  of  what  has  been 
described  as  creatable  man, — a  selection  made  from  all  eternity, 
and  without  any  foresight  of  faith,  or  any  reference  to  character 
in  the  persons  thus  chosen — as  the  necessary  antecedent  to  the 
devising  and  determining  upon  a  plan  of  salvation  for  mankind 
viewed  as  fallen  ?  Is  this  the  legitimate  interpretation  of  those 
portions  of  Scripture  which  represent  the  salvation  of  the  elect  as 
from  all  eternity;  or  of  those  which  set  forth  salvation  as  having 
sole  and  exclusive  reference  to  the  elect?  Would  it  not  be  just 
as  much  in  harmony  with  the  ordinary  presentation  of  the  whole 
matter  in  the  Word  of  God,  if  the  divine  plan  of  grace  were 
placed  first  in  the  order  of  time,  and  the  salvation  of  the  indi- 
viduals under  that  plan  were  viewed  as  correlative  and  consequent  ? 
These  inquiries  will  call  for  closer  consideration  when  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Symbols  respecting  the  plan  of  redemption,  its  scope 
and  its  working,  comes  up  more  immediately  for  consideration. 
It  is  enough  here  to  note  the  fact  that,  whether  the  letter  of  the 
Symbols  may  or  may  not  justify  it,  this  view  of  the  historic 
order  of  the  decrees  is  widely  held  by  persons  who  are  true  Cal- 
vinists  in  belief,  and  whose  loyalty  to  the  general  doctrine  can- 
not be  questioned. 


190  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  care  and  skill  with  which  the 
mode  of  executing  the  one  decree  or  the  several  decrees  of  God, 

is  stated  in  the  Symbols.     It  cannot  be 

5.    Modes  of  executing  the     doubted  that   the  conception  of    the 
decrees :  Second  Causes :  The      ,..        ,  .     i      *     ,  ,    . 

human  will  divine  decree  as  single  tends  to  bring 

in  a  correlated  view  of  the  divine  exe- 
cution of  that  one  decree  as  single,  invariable  and  absolutely 
resistless.  And,  as  the  system  of  nature  furnishes  the  primary 
illustration  and  type  of  such  executive  energy,  it  is  natural  that 
many  minds  should  conceive  of  a  like  potency,  equally  necessary 
and  resistless  and  supreme,  accomplishing  results  in  the  same  way 
within  the  higher  sphere  of  character.  Some  statements  of  the 
Confession  give  significance  or  color  to  this  misconception;  as  the 
declaration  that  God  in  his  providence  maketh  use  of  means,  yet 
is  free  to  work  without,  above  and  against  them  at  his  pleasure  ;  or 
the  strong  doctrine  of  the  chapter  on  God,  that  he  hath  most 
sovereign  dominion  over  all  things,  to  do  by  them,  for  them  or  upon 
them  whatsoever  himself  pleaseth.  If  his  working  in  whatever 
sphere,  in  the  exercise  of  his  most  sovereign  domi?iion,  were  all  of 
one  type,  and  that  type  were  illustrated  simply  in  the  grand  move- 
ments of  physical  nature,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  such  dominion 
would  fall  short  of  practical  fatalism,  or  how  any  room  would  be 
left  either  for  human  liberty  or  for  human  accountability  before 
him.  But  it  has  well  been  said  (Smith,  J.  Pye),  that  it  is  one  of 
the  attributes  of  the  Infinite  Being,  the  First  Cause  and  Supreme 
Upholder  and  Governor  of  all  things — an  attribute  peculiar  to  his 
own  unparalleled  and  incomprehensible  nature — that  he  brings  all 
things  to  effect,  in  such  manner  as  is  becoming  to  his  infinite 
excellence,  without  any  compromise  of  his  own  holiness,  and  with 
the  full  preservation  of  all  true  liberty  to  rational  creatures. 

The  corrective  to  all  erroneous  tendency  is  found  in  the  clear 
proposition  of  the  Confession  (V  :  ii)  that,  although  in  relation  to 
the  decree  of  God,  the  First  Cause,  all  things  come  to  pass  immut- 
ably and  infallibly,  yet  he  ordereth  them  to  fall  out  according  to 
the  nature  of  seco?id  causes,  either  necessarily,  freely,  or  contin- 
gently. While  therefore  it  is  maintained  abstractly  that  God  majr 
work  out  his  purposes  independently  of  all  secondary  agencies,  as 
he  certainly  did  in  the  primal  fiat  of  creation,  yet  this  declaration 
teaches  the  great  correlative  truth,  that  ordinarily  he  makes  use 
of  such  agencies,  working  in  and  through  them  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  own  supreme  ends.  It  may  be  that  the  affirmation 
of  his  independence  upon  the  creature — his  ability  to  work  with- 
out,  above  and  against  means  at  his  pleasure — was  intended 


THE    DECREES,    HOW    EXECUTED.  191 

especially  to  provide  room  for  the  recognition  of  miracles  as  events 
occurring  in  the  sphere  of  nature,  but  produced  by  a  power  wholly 
above  nature.  In  this  view  that  affirmation  is  certainly  in  entire 
harmony  with  the  general  truth  already  stated, — that  God  ordi- 
narily ordereth  all  things  to  fall  out  according  to  the  nature  and 
through  the  activity  of  what  generically  are  called  second  causes. 
These  causes  are  instituted  by  him,  receive  their  causal  capacity 
from  him,  work  under  limitations  which  he  has  imposed,  toward 
ends  and  issues  which  in  some  deep  sense  he  has  chosen  and  pre- 
determined. He  ordereth  them  so  that,  while  all  things  fall  out 
according  to  them,  and  in  harmony  with  them,  these  things  also 
eventuate  as  he  in  his  sovereignty  determines. 

This  divine  activity  in  and  through  such  second  causes  is 
described  as  working  necessarily,  freely,  or  contingently ;  in  other 
words,  in  full  accordance  with  the  nature  of  these  causes  respect- 
ively. The  active  agencies  of  nature,  for  example,  work  under 
necessity, — without  intelligence  or  volition  of  their  own,  and 
without  choice  or  even  knowledge  of  the  results  toward  which 
they  are  working.  The  entire  sphere  and  operations  of  physical 
creation  come  under  this  law  of  material  necessity;  in  other  words, 
that  creation  is  a  vast  mechanism,  moving  on  by  forces  above  itself 
toward  issues  not  chosen  by  itself,  under  the  irresistible  guidance 
of  him  who  made  it.  But  in  the  sphere  and  realm  of  humanity, 
God  causeth  things  to  fall  out  freely  rather  than  necessarily, — 
according,  in  other  words,  to  the  constitution  of  the  human  will 
viewed  as  a  second  cause,  having  an  inherent  capacity  for  free 
action,  and  according  to  the  principles  incorporated  in  his  moral  as 
distinct  from  the  material  system  of  things.  While  the  will  of  man 
is  itself  not  a  first  but  a  second  cause,  and  as  such  must  be  empow- 
ered even  in  its  freest  or  wildest  activities  by  God  himself  as  the 
first  cause,  yet  he  hath  endued  the  will  of  man  with  that  natural 
liberty  (IX  :  i)  that  it  is  neither  forced  nor  by  any  absolute  necessity 
of  nature  determi?ied  to  good  or  evil.  Here  a  clear  distinction  is 
made  between  second  causes  working  necessarily  in  nature,  and 
the  will  as  a  second  cause  of  a  peculiar  class,  working  freely  in  a 
region  above  nature — the  region  of  moral  life  and  action.  The 
importance  of  this  distinction  will  further  appear  when  we  come 
to  the  consideration  of  man  as  a  subject  under  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  God  :  it  is  well  here  to  record  the  fact  that  such  a 
distinction  is  made,  and  made  so  strongly  and  unequivocally. 

The  conception  of  second  causes  working  neither  necessarily 
nor  freely,  but  contingently,  is  doubtless  brought  in  to  provide 
for  an  explanation  of  the  introduction  and  permission  of  sin. 


192  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

While  nothing  can  be  viewed  as  accidental  in  the  divine  adminis- 
tration,— while  even  sin  is  said  to  be  on  the  one  side  permitted 
by  God,  but  on  the  other  side  powerfully  bounded  and  held  in 
check  by  him,  yet  the  Symbols  carefully  deny  that  God  either  is 
or  can  be  the  author  or  approver  of  sin;  the  incoming  of  that  dire 
calamity  being  in  some  true  sense  contingent  in  his  scheme — 
contingent,  but  not  fortuitous  or  irresistible  in  his  sight.  It  is 
said  with  justice,  that  there  is  no  contingent  event  or  issue  with 
God;  yet  in  his  Word  he  often  seems  to  make  events  turn  on 
specified  contingencies,  and  even  his  decree  respecting  the  irrup- 
tion of  sin  into  our  world  must  be  viewed  as  dependent  upon  an 
abuse  of  human  liberty  and  choice  which  he  neither  ordained 
nor  approved,  in  any  full  sense  of  these  words.  Contingency 
clearly  implies  something  more  than  possibility:  it  implies  both  a 
foreknowledge  of  the  event  contingently  introduced,  and  a  cer- 
tain measure  of  causal  force  with  respect  to  it.  But  this  causal 
force  differs  radical^  from  that  which  regulates  the  procession 
of  the  seasons,  and  also  from  that  which  directs  and  aids  a  soul 
in  the  pathway  of  holiness, — God  seeming  in  his  sovereignty  to 
stand  aside  and  suffer  the  human  will  as  a  second  cause  to  work 
out  results  which  he  never  created  it  to  produce,  and  for  whose 
production  he  holds  it  to  a  strict  accountability  before  him. 

As  a  corrective  to  certain  erroneous  tendencies  respecting  the 
exaltation  of  natural  law  in  the  spiritual  sphere  on  one  side,  and 
a  fatalistic  rationalism  on  the  other,  it  should  be  affirmed  with 
emphasis  that  in  executing  his  decree  or  decrees  God  invariably 
adapts  his  activity  to  the  nature  of  the  specific  sphere  in  which 
his  particular  purposes  or  determinations  are  to  be  accomplished. 
In  creation  his  own  will  acts  directly,  immediately,  in  absolute 
sovereignty,  with  no  subordinate  agency  intervening  or  assisting. 
In  the  sphere  of  providence  he  secures  his  intended  results 
through  second  causes, — these  causes  acting  with  an  efficiency 
imparted  by  him,  and  in  subordination  to  his  own  supreme  causa- 
tion. In  moral  government  he  executes  his  purposes  through 
the  human  mind  as  a  particular  cause  or  agent, — his  specific 
designs  being  accomplished  by  processes  which  do  no  violence  to 
the  constitution  of  man  as  a  free  and  responsible  creature.  In 
the  sphere  of  redemption  the  divine  decree  is  executed  primarily 
through  the  Holy  Spirit  as  an  agent,  working  in  and  through 
both  providence  and  the  moral  nature  of  man, — not  ignoring  or 
overcoming  the  human  will,  but  so  regenerating  and  sanctifying 
it,  that  the  designed  result  in  grace  is  certainly  effected.  In 
every  sphere,  God  truly  executes  his  eternal  purpose,  Avhether  it 


MORAL    QUALITY    OF    THE    DECREES.  193 

be  through  physical  necessity  as  in  creation  and  providence,  or 
as  in  moral  government  and  redemption  through  a  necessity 
which  is  not  physical  but  moral  and  gracious, — adapted  perfectly 
to  the  nature  of  the  soul  in  man,  yet  as  assured  in  its  results  as 
any  event  in  the  world  of  nature.  These  propositions  will  recur 
for  closer  consideration  in  conjunction  with  the  doctrine  of  pro- 
vidence, and  especially  with  the  plan  and  process  of  redemption. 
One  further  point  in  the  doctrine  under  examination  remains 
to  be  noted, — the  spirit  in  which  the  decrees  of  God  are  said  to 
be  executed,   and  the  moral  qualities 

revealed   in  the  forming  and    accom-         6*    sPirit  in   which  the 
, .  ,         ,      r  ...  decrees  are  executed :  MoraJ 

phshment  of  the  divine  purposes,  quality  0f  the  decrees, 
whether  in  nature  or  moral  govern- 
ment, or  in  the  sphere  of  grace.  In  the  latter  sphere  we  are  not 
left  in  doubt  as  to  the  impelling  motive  in  the  divine  mind.  God 
out  of  his  mere,  (pure)  free  grace  and  love,  and  without  anything 
in  the  creature  as  conditions  or  causes  moving  him  thereunto,  devised 
the  plan  of  salvation,  and  poured  all  the  energies  of  his  perfect 
nature  into  its  accomplishment.  So  also  the  almighty  power, 
unsearchable  wisdom,  and  eminently  the  infinite  goodness  of  God, 
are  said  (V:iv)  to  manifest  themselves  in  his  providence.  Even 
when  he  doth  leave  for  a  season  his  own  children,  suffering  them 
to  fall  into  trial  and  subjecting  them  to  chastisement,  he  is  said 
to  be  most  wise,  righteous  and  gracious  in  such  severer  provi- 
dences, working  out  not  only  what  equity  requires,  but  also  what 
the  purest  love  desires  for  its  cherished  objects.  In  these  spheres 
the  paternal  quality  in  God,  his  boundless  interest  even  in  the 
natural  life  and  happiness,  and  still  more  in  the  spiritual  develop- 
ment and  blessedness  of  his  creatures,  is  both  clearly  recognized, 
and  forcibly  stated;  and  so  far  as  the  specific  decrees  in  these 
spheres  are  concerned,  we  are  taught  that  the  love,  tenderness, 
grace  of  God  are  as  fully  expressed  in  them  as  is  his  justice  or  his 
sovereignty.  Here  the  Father  blends  with  the  Creator  and  the 
King;  and  over  the  majesty  of  royalty  a  smile  is  ever  breaking. 
Is  it  either  unphilosophic  or  unscriptural  to  carry  the  same 
view  into  every  part  or  section  of  the  one  divine  decree  on  which 
everything  from  creation  to  salvation  turns  ?  Is  not  the  infinite 
goodness  of  God  just  as  apparent  in  creation  as  in  providence: — 
in  that  primal  determination  of  fatherhood  which  produced  these 
myriads  on  myriads  of  creatures,  gave  them  their  capacities,  and 
made  them  competent  to  move  through  all  their  varied  cycles  of 
life  and  enjoyment  devised  by  him,  as  in  those  specific  minis- 
trations of  interest  and  care  which  are  so  abundantly  seen  in  the 


194  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

actual  ongoings  of  such  a  creation  ?  Looking  at  the  decree  of 
God  once  more  as  one, — contemplating  his  single  and  individual 
purpose  in  all  its  sublime  vastness,  may  we  not  as  truly  say  that 
all  the  perfections  of  the  Godhead — goodness  and  fatherhood,  as 
truly  as  wisdom  or  justice  or  omnipotence — are  combined  together 
in  that  stupendous  plan,  ever}'-  attribute  blended  with  every  other, 
alike  in  its  conception  and  throughout  its  progressive  execution  ? 
Must  we  even  say  that  the  darkest,  most  mysterious  and  painful 
aspects  of  that  decree  are  exhibitions  of  one  class  of  faculties  or 
perfections  only,  rather  than  the  illustration  of  what  God  is  in 
the  unity  and  the  glory  of  his  perfect  character  ?  Must  we  affirm 
that  the  admission  of  sin,  and  the  enforcement  of  law,  and  the 
punishment  of  offenders,  and  the  final  condemnation  of  the  lost, 
are  events  which  are  referable  to  inscrutable  sovereignty  or  to 
vindicatory  justice  simply,  with  no  trace  in  them  at  any  point  of 
that  unfathomable  goodness  which  ever  dwells  in  God,  and  which 
must  ever  be  recognized  as  one  in  the  circle  of  jewels  encrowning 
Him  as  King  and  Father  of  us  all  ? 

It  is  obvious  that  the  Assembly  took  what  must  be  regarded  as 
the  severer  view  of  the  divine  character,  as  exhibited  in  these 
aspects  of  the  one  divine  decree.  Following  the  general  current 
of  antecedent  Calvinism,  they  referred  that  decree  to  the 
most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his  own  will,  freely  and  unchangeably 
ordaining  whatsoever  comes  to  pass.  In  thus  emphasizing  the 
divine  ivill,  viewed  simply  as  sovereign  volition,  the}'  failed  to 
grasp  the  cardinal  fact  that  the  will  of  God  can  be  none  other 
than  the  expression  of  all  his  perfections, — of  his  complete  and 
holy  personality.  They  affirmed  that  God,  for  the  manifestation 
■of  his  own  glory, — the  glory  of  his  righteous  and  powerful  sover- 
eignty rather  than  of  his  fatherly  love — predestinated  some  men 
and  angels  unto  everlasting  life,  and  foreordained  others  to  ever- 
lasting death.  They  declared  in  respect  to  the  latter  class,  that 
they  were  thus  ordained  to  dishonor  and  wrath,  not  merely  for 
their  sin,  but  also  for  the  glory,  or  glorifying,  of  his  sovereign 
power  over  his  creatures,  and  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice. 
Following  Calvin,  while  they  referred  the  decree  of  salvation 
wholly  to  grace,  they  thus  referred  the  decree  of  reprobation 
wholly  to  justice  and  to  an  inscrutable  sovereignty:  they  justified 
such  reprobation  on  the  ground  of  law  and  equity,  even  while 
affirming  that  the  persons  thus  reprobated  were  from  all  eternity 
chosen  and  set  apart  for  such  a  fate.  It  is  not  strange  that  man}' 
who  read  such  statements,  have  said  with  Calvin  himself:  It  is 
an  awful  decree.     It  is  not  strange  that  the  milder  conception  of 


GOD    AS    CREATOR.  195 

pretention  should  gradually  be  substituted,  even  in  the  minds  of 
tiie  most  loyal  adherents  to  the  Symbols,  for  the  more  positive 
conception  of  an  eternally  foreordained  reprobation.  Nor  is  it 
strange  that  the  question  should  so  often  be  raised  whether  there 
be  not  some  method  of  softening  the  severity,  if  we  might  not 
rather  say  the  heartlessness,  of  these  statements, — whether  they 
might  not  even  be  eliminated  from  the  Confession,  or  at  least 
radically  modified,  without  impairing  any  principle  essential 
either  to  a  just  and  wise  Calvinism  or  to  spiritual  Christianity. 

Inasmuch  as  the  symbolic  teaching  of  Westminster  respecting 
the  decrees  of  God  will  again  present  itself  in  connection  with  the 
specific  plan  of  salvation,   in  the  two 

aspects   of   election   and   reprobation,         7'    Creation:  false  theories 
....  ^  L.  excluded:  God  the  Creator, 

we  may  with  these  suggestions  respect-     Fatnerhood  in  creation> 

ing  the  doctrine,  now  pass  on  to  the 

consideration  of  the  subject  of  Creation  as  brought  before  us  in 
the  Symbols,  (Ch.  IV),  noting  successively  the  creative  act,  the 
divine  method  in  creation,  the  extent  of  the  creation,  its  quality, 
and  the  end  of  God  in  creation. 

False  theories  of  creation,  whether  existing  in  the  seventeenth 
or  in  the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  century,  are  met  at  the  outset 
by  the  simple  affirmation,  so  abundantly  justified  by  Scripture: 
It  pleased  God  to  create.  That  the  earth  on  which  we  dwell  with 
all  its  creatures  and  contents,  and  the  vast  universe  of  worlds  and 
systems  of  which  the  earth  seems  indeed  an  inconspicuous  portion, 
can  have  come  into  existence  without  any  adequate  cause,  by  some 
species  of  fortuitous  accident  or  fate,  is  a  conclusion  not  merely  alto- 
gether unphilosophic,  but  in  many  aspects  monstrous — a  hypoth- 
esis both  intellectually  and  ethically  inadmissible.  An  eminent 
scientist  has  recently  affirmed  as  a  conclusion  certainly  established, 
that  no  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,  with  all  eternity  for  them 
to  clash  and  combine  in,  could  compass  the  fact  of  the  formation 
of  the  first  optically  organic  compound:  and  the  same  authority 
concludes  that  such  a  result  is  possible  only  through  the  agency 
of  some  directive  force,  intelligent  in  character.  That  all  this 
boundless  result  has  issued  from  the  action  or  interaction  of  cer- 
tain physical  causes  or  energies  at  work  in  nature — the  final 
product  of  a  congeries  of  processes  and  evolutions  and  causal 
changes,  of  whose  origination  man  can  know  or  affirm  nothing, 
is  equally  a  conclusion  in  which  no  mind,  truly  apprehending  the 
nature  of  the  problem,  can  contentedly  rest.  If  any  such  mind 
should  set  aside  as  unsatisfactory  the  teachings  of  revelation  as  to 


196  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

the  origin  of  things,  it  must  still  ask  itself  the  underlying  ques- 
tion, Whence  came  these  causes,  forces,  regulative  principles; — 
where  and  how  did  this  series  of  processes,  evolutions,  develop- 
ments begin  ?  It  is  to  be  granted  that  some  who  hold  such  theo- 
ries of  creation,  while  denying  the  possibility  of  answering  these 
questions  from  scientific  data,  still  find  the  answer  as  a  matter  of 
faith  in  the  scriptural  teaching  :  It  pleased  God  to  create.  If  it 
be  true,  as  is  claimed  by  some  advocates  of  the  hypothesis  that  all 
the  existing  forms  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  have  been  pro- 
duced through  the  process  of  successive  birth  and  generation 
from  original  vital  germs, — if  it  be  true  that  this  hypothesis  may 
be  held  in  entire  harmony  with  the  Scriptures,  still  these  vital 
germs  must  be  accounted  for,  and  the  only  possible  ground  for 
their  existence  must  be  found  ultimately  in  a  creative  and  fontal 
Spirit  such  as  God  is  seen  to  be.  We  may  justly  maintain  that  a 
wise,  deep,  reverent  philosophy  may  and  ought  to  go  beyond 
such  recognition  of  whatever  is  confessedly  secondary  in  the  case. 
We  may  justly  hold  that  these  secondary  causes  and  forces  point 
directly  to  one  primal  cause,  some  directive  force  intelligent  in 
character,  as  their  only  possible  antecedent, — that  these  vast  and 
sublime  movements  and  processes  indicate  irresistibly  the  action 
in  and  upon  them  of  conscious  and  competent  Mind, — that  the 
only  hypothesis  which  science  itself  can  accept  as  meeting  prop- 
erly all  the  conditions  of  the  stupendous  problem,  is  the  hypoth- 
esis of  one  supreme,  glorious  and  perfect  Person  from  whom 
creation  has  immediately  come.  To  say  that  this  is  the  explan- 
ation of  Scripture,  and  that  the  affirmation  is  to  be  received  not 
only  as  a  truth  of  faith  or  of  sentiment,  but  as  a  fact  that  can  be 
scientifically  apprehended,  as  well  as  maintained  on  biblical  au- 
thority, is  to  affirm  precisely  what  the  divines  of  Westminster 
taught.  To  their  clear  statement  the  two  centuries  since  have 
added  nothing:  against  it  all  the  speculations,  doubts,  hypoth- 
eses of  man,  even  in  our  own  age  of  questioning  and  conflict,  have 
brought  no  effectual  refutation. 

The  work  of  creation  is  referred  in  this  chapter  to  the  Holy 
Trinity — Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost.  In  the  comprehensive 
sense  of  the  term,  God,  as  including  equally  the  three  divine  per- 
sonalities, is  the  alone  fountain  of  all  being — of  whom,  through 
whom,  and  to  whom  are  all  things.  The  Second  Helvetic  Con- 
fession (Cap.  VII)  declares  that  the  good  and  omnipotent  God 
created  all  things,  visible  and  invisible,  through  (or  by)  his  co- 
eternal  Word,  and  preserves  them  through  his  co-eternal  Spirit. 
TheBelgic  Confession  (Art.  VII  )  teaches  that  the  Father  by  the 


CREATION,    AN    ACT    OF    FATHERHOOD.  197 

Word — that  is,  by  his  Son — created  of  nothing  the  heaven,  the 
earth  and  all  creatures,  giving  unto  every  creature  its  being,  shape, 
form  and  several  offices  to  serve  its  Creator.  The  Symbols,  as 
we  have  seen,  bring  the  entire  Deity  into  view  as  engaged  alike  in 
the  creative  act.  In  the  list  of  biblical  references  quoted  in  this 
chapter,  certain  passages  (eliminated  in  the  recent  revision  of  proof 
texts)  are  introduced  as  referring  to  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  special 
agent  in  creation,  where  clearly  it  is  God  viewed  as  Spirit,  or 
the  spiritual  God  without  regard  to  the  separate  personalities,  who 
is  contemplated  by  the  inspired  writers  as  Creator.  The  work  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  so  far  as  described  elsewhere  in  the  Symbols,  is 
wholly  a  work  of  grace;  and  it  may  justly  be  questioned  whether 
there  is  any  clear  confessional  or  biblical  description  of  the  Spirit 
as  concerned  primarily  with  either  creation  or  providence.  That 
the  Spirit  is  the  executive  of  the  Godhead  in  creation  and  prov- 
idence, or  that  he  is  in  any  natural  sense  the  omnium  viventium 
anima,  as  Cyprian  styles  him,  is  nowhere  affirmed.  Other  pass- 
ages in  this  list  refer  to  the  Son  as  an  instrumental  medium  or  agent 
in  creation — all  things  being  made  both  by  him  and  for  him;  yet 
these  texts  are  always  set  in  such  connection  with  the  scheme  of 
salvation  in  which  the  Son  is  central  and  chief,  as  to  lead  us  to 
view  him  as  the  mediate  or  the  final  rather  than  the  originating  and 
efficient  cause  in  the  primal  act  of  producing  the  universe.  Else- 
where, and  much  more  frequently,  that  primal  act  is  referred  in 
the  Bible  to  the  Father,  as  first  among  the  three  personalities,  and 
to  him  as  a  special  act  or  manifestation  of  his  fatherhood.  Group- 
ing together,  in  its  totality,  the  teaching  of  Scripture  on  this 
point,  we  must  not  only  affirm  with  our  own  Confession  that  it 
pleased  God,  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  to  create,  but  also 
say  with  the  Nicene  symbol:  We  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father 
Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  of  all  things  visible  and 
invisible.  It  is  in  this  act  of  creation,  that  the  divine  fatherhood 
has  its  primal  manifestation,  so  far  at  least  as  it  refers  to  man.  It 
is  the  Father  who  creates  and  who  also  governs,  as  it  is  the  Son 
who  redeems,  and  the  Spirit  who  regenerates  and  sanctifies.  Pear- 
son on  the  Creed:  Crawford,  Fatherhood  of  God. 

Laying  proper  emphasis  on  the  word  pleased,  as  an  imperial 
term,  and  associating  with  it  the  teaching  of  the  Catechisms  that 
God  executeth  his  decree  in  this  work  of  creation,  and  calling  to 
mind  at  the  same  time  the  biblical  conception  of  God  as  will,  holy 
and  supreme  and  resistless,  we  discover  at  once  how  sublime  as 
well  as  simple  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Symbols  at  this  point.  While 
indeed  creation  is  as  to  its  purpose  referred  to  the  goodness  of  God, 


198  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

it  is  his  eternal  power  and  wisdom — the  superb  majesty  of  his 
decree  and  his  volition,  on  which  the  thought  of  the  Assembly 
was  chiefly  fixed.  It  could  say  nothing  simpler,  nothing  grander, 
than  the  familiar  statement:  It  pleased  Him.  When  we  meditate 
on  what  is  implied  in  the  idea  of  such  pleasure,  pervading  the 
divine  mind,  flowing  as  a  vast  river  through  the  divine  heart,  and 
finally  expressing  itself  in  the  sublime  edict  which  at  a  word 
called  into  existence  a  universe  such  as  this,  with  all  the  vast  and 
enduring  interests  involved  in  such  an  exercise  of  the  divine  voli- 
tion, we  begin  to  apprehend  in  some  feeble  degree  the  joyous 
love,  the  immeasurable  happiness,  the  moral  felicity  in  the  breast 
of  Deity,  out  of  which  the  universe  sprang.  Such  a  description 
was  in  beautiful  conformity  with  the  delineation  of  God  in  his 
nature  and  character  and  relations,  which  had  preceded  it  in  the 
Confession,  and  it  sets  before  us  in  its  true  majesty  this  strange, 
wondrous,  exalted  Creative  Act.  Neither  the  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, nor  any  other  among  the  earlier  creeds  of  the  Reformation, 
contains  any  extended  reference  to  the  divine  work  in  creation: 
they  seem  to  have  rested  simply  in  the  declarations,  terse  and  sim- 
ple, of  the  apostolic  and  Nicene  symbols.  Even  the  Heidelberg 
Catechism  contains  only  what  may  be  regarded  as  an  incidental 
reference  to  the  Eternal  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  (26) 
who  of  nothing  made  heaven  and  earth,  with  all  that  in  them  is. 
In  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  we  find  only  the  simple  allusion  to 
God  as  the  Maker  and  Preserver  of  all  things,  both  visible  and 
invisible.  Statements  somewhat  more  extended,  but  of  the  same 
quality,  are  found  in  the  French  and  Belgic  Confessions.  The 
fullest  account  appears  in  the  Irish  Articles,  where  it  is  said  (18) 
that  in  the  beginning  of  time,  when  no  creature  had  any  being, 
God  by  his  word  alone,  in  the  space  of  six  days,  created  all  things. 
It  was  left  to  the  Assembly  of  Westminster  to  set  forth  the  doc- 
trine of  creation  in  a  form  which  both  fully  incorporates  the 
teaching  of  the  divine  Word,  and  most  effectually  meets,  even 
down  to  our  own  time,  the  queries  and  the  oppositions  of  human 
unbelief. 

We  are  confronted  at  this  point  by  various  antagonistic  theories 
as  to  the  origin  of  things.  Those  who  set  aside  the  authority  of 
Scripture  respecting  such  origin,  may  simply  affirm  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  man  to  solve  the  problem  of  creation,  and  that  his 
wisest  course  is  to  turn  away  from  that  problem  as  altogether 
inscrutable.  Creation,  they  say,  is  in  itself  a  palpable  and  tre- 
mendous reality;  but  whence  it  came,  ahd  whither  it  is  tending, 
and  where  or  how  it  will  reach  its  consummation,  it  is  not  given 


METHOD    OF    CREATION.  199 

to  man  to  know.  Those  who  cannot  rest  in  this  discouraging 
proposition  may  affirm  either  that  matter  is  eternal,  (Mill  )  in 
such  sense  as  to  exclude  altogether  the  theory  of  a  creation  of 
matter  by  some  power  or  agent  higher  than  itself;  or  that  matter, 
(Huxley)  is  in  some  way  endowed  with  an  inherent  vitality  or 
energy,  in  virtue  of  which  it  has  gradually  evolved  itself  into  the 
forms  which  we  see  it  assuming  on  the  earth  and  in  the  starry  heav- 
ens above  the  earth.  The  solution  of  the  problem,  in  other  words, 
is  sought  in  nature  rather  than  in  any  spiritual  agency  higher  than 
nature,  by  which  such  vitality  is  imparted  to  nature,  or  through 
whose  potency  matter  has  been  evolved  into  its  present  multiform 
and  marvelous  developments.  Related  to  this  is  the  pantheistic 
theory  of  creation  as  the  spontaneous  outflow  or  emanation  of  an 
unconscious  deity — an  expansion  of  his  infinite  substance  into 
space  and  time  by  a  process  involving  neither  intelligence  nor 
volition,  but  is  constitutional  and  inevitable.  It  is  impracticable 
here  to  enter  upon  a  specific  explanation  or  refutation  of  the 
numerous  solutions  of  the  great  question  respecting  the  origin  of 
things,  which  are  included  in  these  general  descriptions.  The 
best  refutation  of  them  all  may  be  found  in  the  biblical  reference 
of  creation  to  the  efficient  fiat  of  an  absolute,  free,  wise  and  holy 
Spirit,  resident  in  a  sphere  infinitely  above  nature,  who  simply 
spake  and  it  was  done — who  simply  commanded  and,  in  the  strong 
phrase  of  David,  it  stood  fast,  and  is  still  standing  fast  through  all 
its  changes  as  the  abiding  witness  to  his  existence,  to  his  supreme 
power,  and  to  his  perpetual  presence  and  domination  in  anej 
through  the  universe  which  he  has  made. 

Thus  recognizing  God  in  his  supreme  personality  as  the  ultimate 
source  of  all  created  things,  we  may  turn  to  consider  the  methods 

or  processes  of   creation,   as   here  de- 

.,     ,  .    „,        ,  ,    jr  ,    r  ,  •         8.     Method   of    Creation: 

scribed  m  the  phrase,  by  the  word  of  his     Jhe  WQrd  flf  pQwer  .  Jhe  ^ 

power.  As  God  himself  is  no  panthe-  Days. 
istic  spirit,  pervading  all  nature,  insep- 
arable from  nature,  and  unconscious  in  his  manifestations  in  and 
through  nature,  so  the  universe  is  not  a  mere  emanation  from  his 
substance,  a  mere  objective  exudation  from  his  interior  essence,  or 
an  involuntary  evolution  of  forces  contained  within  his  nature 
and  working  themselves  out  through  their  own  efficiency.  The 
word  which  creates  is  not  the  dreamy  utterance  of  an  abstract 
deity  asleep  among  the  stars:  it  is  the  omnific  voice  of  a  personal, 
conscious,  .sovereign  God.  It  is  also  a  word  of  pozcer — a  power 
which  is  in  the  highest  sense  causal,  and  which  is  centered  and 
embodied  in  the  divine  will.     The  power  of  God  here  referred  to 


200  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

is  not  the  pressure  of  strong  winds,  the  force  of  swollen  rivers 
hasting  over  cataracts  to  the  sea,  the  sweep  of  planets  through 
the  sky; — these  are  only  its  external  indications  and  measures. 
It  is  the  power  that  dwells  in  spirit, — a  power  apparent  even  in 
the  imperfect  volitions  of  men,  seen  in  the  activities  of  the  flying 
hosts  of  angels,  but  resident  supremely  in  the  divine  personality 
alone.  It  is  this  power,  dependent  on  no  conditions  and  capable 
of  producing  in  itself  all  actual  or  conceivable  results,  which  is 
here  recognized  as  the  true  originating  cause  and  fount  of  all 
things.  From  this  all  secondary  varieties  of  potency  flow:  toward 
this,  they  all  immediately  and  always  point  as  both  their  true  ori- 
gin and  their  final  end. 

The  term,  poiver,  does  not  stand  in  this  connection  for  a  single 
attribute:  wisdom  and  goodness  are  associated  with  it  as  represent- 
ing the  entire  perfection  and  glory  of  God  as  exhibited  in  the 
work  of  creation.  In  the  general  view  of  sovereignty  presented 
in  the  Symbols,  it  is  probably  true  that  mere  power,  especially  in 
the  form  of  sovereign  control,  is  too  prominently,  if  not  exclu- 
sively, pressed  forward  to  the  comparative  retirement  of  other, 
even  more  attractive  qualities  in  the  divine  character.  Yet  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  potency  by  itself,  however  irresistible — however 
closely  resembling  a  resistless  fate,  is  not  the  highest  or  in  any  sense 
the  controlling  attribute  in  God.  Such  potency  commands  rev- 
erence, as  distinguished  from  dread  or  terror,  only  as  it  is  seen  to 
be  controlled  by  perfect  wisdom,  directing  it  by  right  channels 
toward  righteous  and  adequate  ends.  The  term,  goodness,  proba- 
bly refers  in  this  connection  less  to  beneficence — to  the  exhibition 
of  tender  and  gracious  fatherhood  in  God  in  the  act  of  crea- 
tion, than  to  moral  excellence  in  general,  — that  goodness,  or  holi- 
ness, which  is  the  crown  and  summation  of  the  divine  perfections. 
Hence  the  act  of  creation  is  one  in  which  all  the  moral  as  well  as 
the  natural  attributes  of  Deity  are  said  to  find  suitable  expres- 
sion: the  whole  of  God,  if  we  except  those  peculiar  manifesta- 
tions which  accompany  salvation,  is  made  manifest  here.  It  may 
be  questioned  whether  a  more  definite  intermingling  of  what  is 
indicated  in  the  term,  fatherhood,  might  not  have  saved  the  doc- 
trine from  that  aspect  of  severity  or  arbitrariness  or  mere  will, 
which  in  some  degree  characterizes  it  as  presented  in  the  Confes- 
sion. At  least,  the  word  glory,  which  is  the  keynote  of  the  whole, 
tends  to  lead  our  minds  toward  the  conception  of  sovereignty 
rather  than  to  the  antithetic  truth:  it  is  the  glory  of  the  King 
rather  than  the  glory  of  the  Father,  by  which  we  are  awed  into 
silence  as  we  meditate  upon  the  sublime  creative  act. 


CREATION    EX    JS1HII.O.  201 

The  expression,  of  nothing,  found  in  both  Confession  and  Cate- 
chisms has  a  deep  significance,  especially  in  the  presence  of  the 
multiplied  theories  of  spontaneous  development,  evolution,  cyclical 
growth,  so  current  in  our  time.  Not  only  is  creation  declared  to 
be  the  issue  of  supreme  will  and  wisdom:  it  is  described  as  a 
making,  and  a  making  from  nothing,  by  an  omnipotent  word. 
While  under  this  statement  a  theory  of  progressive  stages  in 
creation,  wdth  manifest  increase  of  energy  and  higher  exhibitions 
of  intelligence  at  each  stage,  ma)'  possibly  stand,  no  hypothesis 
of  external  matter  evolving  itself  into  shape,  of  primordial  germs 
existing  independently  at  first  and  then  molded  into  forms  of  life 
and  beauty  by  the  divine  hand,  or  of  laws  and  processes  working 
out  in  some  mysterious  way  their  own  results,  while  God  merely 
interposes  at  certain  points  in  the  vast,  blind,  natural  develop- 
ment,— no  such  hypothesis  can  by  any  possibility  be  harmonized 
with  the  phrase,  of  nothing.  As  has  already  been  intimated,  the 
conception  of  matter  as  something  existing  eternally,  and  inde- 
pendently of  God,  with  capabilities  and  functions  inherent  in 
itself,  is  decisively  excluded  by  such  a  statement.  Given  the 
existence  of  a  personal,  free,  primordial  Spirit,  and  the  existence 
and  activities  of  matter  may  be  explained;  but  not  otherwise, 
however  earnest  or  however  confident  may  be  the  efforts  to  find 
such  explanation  elsewhere.  In  the  beginning  to  which  the  Con- 
fession refers, — that  beginning  which  is  antecedent  to  all  organ- 
ized existence  outside  of  God,  and  even  to  all  matter,  though  it 
were  as  minute  or  ethereal  as  the  fabled  dust  of  the  stars,  God 
personally  commenced  this  work  of  creation.  He  had  no  material 
to  work  with  or  to  work  upon;  he  could  utilize  no  principle  or 
force  or  law  objective  to  himself;  he  made  all  these,  and  all  that 
afterwards  came  into  being  through  their  tributary  activities;  he 
made  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  whether  visible  or  invisible, 
of  nothing — of  nothing.  Such  is  clearly  the  biblical  as  well  as  the 
confessional  teaching.  Whatever  meaning  may  be  attached  to 
such  words  as  created  or  made  in  the  original  record  in  Genesis, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  the  Bible  in  its  totality  teaches  the 
doctrine  of  an  absolute  origination  of  all  things  by  God  at  a 
period  when,  in  the  language  of  the  Irish  Articles,  no  creature 
had  any  being.  If  it  be  said  that  such  a  statement  is  difficult  or 
even  incomprehensible,  it  must  be  admitted  also  that  the 
antithetic  hypothesis  of  matter,  principles,  laws,  forces,  systems 
of  things  existing  independently  of  God,  and  having  in  some 
sense  creative  energy  of  their  own,  is  far  more  difficult — far  less 
conceivable. 


202  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

The  declaration  as  to  the  time  occupied  in  this  work  of  creation 
is  simply  an  index  of  theological  opinion  in  an  age  when  geologic 
investigations  were  in  their  infancy.  Members  of  the  Assembly 
were  doubtless  acquainted  with  the  suggestion  of  more  extended 
periods,  found  in  theological  writings  even  as  far  back  as  the  age 
of  Augustine,  who  declared  (Civ.  Dei  XI :  6)  that  it  is  difficult  or 
perhaps  impossible  for  us  to  say  or  even  to  conceive  what  kind  of 
days  the  six  creative  days  actually  were.  But  the  language  of  the 
Confession,  in  the  space  of  six  days,  must  be  interpreted  literally, 
because  this  was  the  exact  view  pronounced  by  the  Assembly. 
Yet  there  are  comparatively  few  who  now  adhere  to  the  literal 
interpretation  of  the  inspired  record  in  Genesis:  a  very  large  pro- 
portion at  least  so  far  modify  that  interpretation  as  to  regard 
creation  as  produced  through  six  prolonged  periods,  and  by  a  pro- 
gressive exercise  of  divine  energy, — each  of  these  periods  recording 
itself  by  incontestible  evidences  in  the  forming  world,  and  each 
directly  tributary  to  the  more  complex  and  matured  period  of 
development  that  succeeded  it.  Nor  is  it  inconsistent  with  true 
loj^alty  to  the  Symbols  to  hold  such  modified  views  as  to  the  time 
spent  in  the  process  of  creation.  Presbyterian  theologians  in  later 
days  do  not  affirm  such  inconsistency,  nor  do  those  who  adhere  to 
the  literal  interpretation,  regard  such  as  differ  on  this  point  as  com- 
promising the  Symbols  thereby.  One  important  branch  of  the 
Presbyterian  family  officially  declares  that  full  liberty  of  opinion  is 
allowed  on  such  points  in  the  Standards,  not  entering  into  the  sub- 
stance of  the  faith,  as  the  interpretation  of  the  six  days  in  the 
Mosaic  account  of  the  creation; — the  church  guarding  against  the 
abuse  of  this  liberty  to  the  injury  of  its  unity  and  peace:  United 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  Declaratory  Act.  The  Articles 
(III)  of  the  English  Presbyterian  Synod  in  like  manner  describe 
God  as  fashioning  and  ordering  this  world  and  giving  life  to  every 
creature  through  progressive  stages.  It  should  however  be  main- 
tained that  nothing  in  such  broader  interpretations  is  to  be 
regarded  as  detracting  at  any  point  from  the  absoluteness  or  the 
immediateness,  or  the  active  wisdom  or  true  glory  of  the  creative 
act.  Whether  in  six  days  or  in  six  geologic  epochs,  God  made  the 
zvorld  and  all  things  therein,  and  made  them  of  nothing. 

Turning  to  consider  this  work  of  creation  as  to  its  extent,  we 
are  confronted  first  with  the  question  whether  the  entire  material 

universe  is  included  in  the  confessional 
9.    Extent  of  the  Creation :       ,  ,,  .,       ,    ,. ,,  .        ., 

..        -  .  .        phrase;  the  ivorhl  and  all  things  therein; 

Creation  of  men  and  angels.     A  '  s  ' 

whether  visible  or  invisible.     The  lan- 
guage of  the  Nicene  creed,  referring  to  God  the  Father  Almighty 


EXTENT  OF  THE  CREATION.  203 

as  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  of  all  things  visible  and 
invisible  —  language  which  is  quoted  in  some  of  the  earlier 
Protestant  creeds  with  small  variations — may  properly  be  regarded 
as  explanatory  of  this  sentence.  The  expression,  heaven  and 
earth,  might  be  supposed  to  include  our  own  planetary  system,  or 
the  visible  firmament  only,  were  there  not  other  allusions,  especially 
in  the  chapters  on  God  and  his  Decree  and  Providence,  which 
clearly  suggest  to  our  thought  the  whole  universe,  material  and 
moral,  as  constituting  in  its  entirety  the  one  creative  work.  The 
Scriptures  tell  us  not  only  of  the  sun  and  moon,  including  our  entire 
planetary  system,  as  fashioned  by  the  divine  hand;  but  also  of  the 
stars  which  God  has  made  and  counted  and  holds  in  his  supreme 
grasp, — of  the  ordinances  of  heaven  which  he  has  established, 
and  of  a  sovereign  control  which  reaches  to  the  utmost  verge  of 
the  material  universe.  Of  the  magnitude  of  that  universe  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  frame  any  conception.  The  planetary  system 
of  which  our  earth  is  a  part,  is  itself  but  one,  and  possibly  an 
inferior  one,  in  the  multitude  of  such  systems  which  the  telescope 
has  already  revealed.  But  beyond  what  can  thus  be  discovered, 
who  can  tell  what  other  and  vaster  systems  may  exist,  including 
millions  on  millions  of  stars  within  their  measureless  domain  ! 
And  who  would  venture  to  say  that  this  sublime  material  uni- 
verse, created  throughout  by  the  will  of  God,  is  all  unoccupied 
and  void  of  life, — that  it  is  not  inhabited  by  myriads  on  myriads 
of  animate  existences,  and  perhaps  by  rational  and  moral  beings 
innumerable,  who  dwell  together  with  man  under  the  care  and  the 
dominion  of  the  infinite  Being  who  created  them  ? 

Under  this  view  the  broader  conception  of  six  vast  periods, 
however  unrecognized  by  the  Assembly,  assumes  special  signi- 
ficance. While  omnipotence  could  have  produced  the  entire  uni- 
verse, both  material  and  moral,  in  six  actual  days,  or  in  a  single 
instant,  yet  the  sublime  spectacle  of  God  more  slowly  and  elabo- 
rately working  out  even  through  long  ages  his  one  mighty  and 
eternal  plan,  is  one  which  more  deeply  stirs  our  feeling,  and  more 
strongly  constrains  us  to  wonder  and  adore.  If  the  record  in 
Genesis  be  viewed  as  limiting  itself  to  this  terrestrial  system,  as 
the  more  literal  interpretation  would  require,  still  it  is  a  wondrous 
truth  that  the  same  Almighty  Hand,  which  in  that  brief  period 
fashioned  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  its  hidden  and  unknown 
as  well  as  its  visible  structures,  has  been  at  work  for  measure- 
less ages  elsewhere,  bringing  into  existence  system  after  system, 
and  gradually  giving  form  and  unity  and  glory  to  what  we  call 
the  universe.     Compared  with  the  grandeur  of  that  scriptural 


204  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

conception,  how  narrow  and  how  trivial  seem  the  guesses  and 
hypotheses,  the  loftiest  constructions  or  conclusions  of  that  type 
of  scientific  research,  which  seeks  to  account  for  that  immeasur- 
able universe  without  such  a  conception  .  To  meet  the  criticism 
that  the  chapter  on  Creation  is  limited  in  its  affirmation  to  this 
particular  world  and  all  things  therein,  and  therefore  contains  no 
doctrine  of  creation  in  its  broader,  universal  aspects,  and  also  the 
further  criticism  that  according  to  its  affirmations,  if  interpreted 
more  broadly,  the  entire  universe  material  and  spiritual,  must  be 
regarded  as  having  been  made  in  the  space  of  six  days,  it  was 
proposed  in  the  recent  Revision  to  modify  the  section  as  follows: 
It  pleased  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  for  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  glory  of  his  eternal  power,  wisdom  and  goodness, 
in  the  beginning,  to  create  of  nothing  all  things,  visible  and 
invisible,  and  all  very  good:  the  heaven  and  the  earth  and  all  that 
in  them  is,  being  made  by  him  in  six  days. 

Without  referring  here  specifically  to  the  moral  constitution  of 
man  as  created,  we  may  yet  follow  the  Confession  in  laying  special 
stress  on  this  particular  exhibition  of  the  divine  energy  and  wisdom 
in  creation:  After  God  had  made  all  other  creatures,  he  created  man. 
Have  we  here  simply  a  chronologic  succession,  or  is  there  a  further 
suggestion  of  the  dignity  of  man,  and  of  his  place  at  the  head 
of  earthly  creatures?  If  we  take  the  latter  view,  as  the  subse- 
quent gift  of  dominion  over  the  creatures  would  suggest,  we  must 
bear  in  mind  the  creation  of  angels,  which  in  the  L,arger  Cate- 
chism (16-17)  is  said  to  have  occurred  before  the  creation  of  man 
— as  an  antecedent  step  in  the  grand  originating  and  formative 
process.  Man  was  created,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  not  only 
after  but  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  so  far  as  inherent  endow- 
ments go:  a  being  of  inferior  mold,  he  yet  was  made,  as  the  Bible 
teaches,  to  be  king  on  the  earth,  and  destined  finally  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  angels  and  archangels  around  the  throne  of  God. 
The  suggestion  that  there  are  two  records  in  Scripture,  the  first 
referring  to  the  evolution  of  the  bodily  organism  of  man  from 
some  inferior  variety  of  organic  life,  or  possibly  from  some  crude 
protoplasmic  germ;  the  second,  referring  to  the  enduing  of  the 
animal  man  with  rational  and  spiritual  powers,  and  the  gift  of 
immortality,  is  altogether  unknown  to  either  Catechism  or  Confes- 
sion. God,  it  is  said,  (I«.  C.  17)  formed  the  body  of  the  man  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground,  and  the  woman  of  the  rib  of  the  man, — by  the 
same  creative  process,  it  is  clearly  implied.  He  at  the  same  time 
and  by  the  same  act  endowed  them  with  living,  reasonable  and  im- 
mortal souls.     Both  of  these  simultaneous  processes  are  expressed 


CREATION    OF    MEN    AND    ANGELS.  205 

alike  in  the  comprehensive  phrase,  He  created  man,  male  and 
female ;  the  distinction  of  sex  being  indexed  not  more  clearly  in 
their  bodily  than  in  their  mental  and  moral  organization.  And 
so  far  as  the  formation  of  this  earth  was  concerned,  the  making 
of  man  was  clearly  the  crowning  as  well  as  the  final  step.  In 
him,  with  his  finer  physical  organism,  with  his  nobler  mental  and 
moral  powers,  with  his  inherent  capacity  for  control,  and  with  his 
vested  sovereignty  over  the  earth  and  all  its  contents,  under  a 
supreme  accountability  to  God  as  his  Maker  and  King,  the  work 
of  creation  became  finished  and  complete. — The  question  whether 
the  human  race  as  thus  created  is  single  or  plural  in  origin,  and  the 
kindred  question  respecting  the  relative  antiquity  of  the  race,  will 
be  considered  in  another  connection. 

That  the  creation  of  the  angels  was  antecedent  to  that  of  man 
is  affirmed  in  the  phrase  already  quoted:  After  God  had  made  all 
other  creatures,  he  created  man.  In  the  chapter  on  the  Decree,  not 
only  is  the  fact  of  the  creation  of  angels  presented  as  a  part  of  the 
one  divine  plan:  their  number  is  said  to  be  very  great,  and  to  be  so 
certain  and  definite  that  it  cannot  be  either  increased  or  dimin- 
ished; and  their  destinies,  whether  to  everlasting  life  or  to  ever- 
lasting death,  are  affirmed  (L,.  C.  13)  to  be  fixed  in  this  creative 
decree.  It  is  said  (L.  C.  16)  that  as  thus  created  they  were  spir- 
its, immortal,  holy,  excellent  in  knowledge,  mighty  in  power,  in 
order  to  execute  the  commands  of  God,  and  to  praise  his  name, 
— yet,  like  man,  subject  to  moral  change.  It  is  further  said  (19) 
that  God  in  his  providence  has  permitted  some  of  these  angels  to 
fall  wilfully  and  irrecoverably  into  sin  and  damnation,  yet  limit- 
ing and  ordering  such  fall  and  all  their  sins  as  fallen  to  his  own 
glory  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  that  he  has  established  the  rest  in 
holiness  and  happiness,  employing  them  all  at  his  pleasure  in  the 
administration  of  his  power,  mercy  and  justice.  Among  the  sins 
forbidden  in  the  first  Commandment  is  the  worshiping  of  angels, 
however  excellent  in  character  or  beneficent  in  their  ministries  to 
men.  The  employments  of  the  holy  angels  are  indicated  as 
chiefly  the  adoration  of  the  Deity,  and  his  service  in  whatever 
sphere.  The  sins  of  the  fallen  angels  are  said  (V:  iv)  to  be  not 
only  wisely  and  powerfully  bounded  in  their  influence  but  also, 
like  the  sin  of  man,  ordered  and  governed  by  God  in  such  ways 
as  shall  make  these  sins,  in  which  the  temptation  of  our  first 
parents  must  be  specially  included,  tributary  to  his  own  holy  ends. 
In  the  chapter  on  the  Fall  of  Man  (VI)  that  fall  is  said  to  have 
been  caused  by  the  subtlety  and  temptation  of  one  of  these  angels, 
who  must  first  have  fallen  himself  from  his  original  estate  of  ex- 


206  GOD   IN   HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

alted  capacity  and  spiritual  holiness.  In  the  chapter  on  the  L,ast 
Judgment  (XXXIII)  some  of  these  fallen  angels  are  included 
with  mankind  in  the  solemn  adjudication  there  described, and  in  the 
damnation  visited  upon  the  reprobate.  Other  incidental  allusions 
in  the  Symbols  illustrate  this  part  of  the  creative  work;  exhibiting 
not  only  the  plan  of  God  in  the  production  of  these  orders  of  intelli- 
gences,but  also  his  authority  over  and  his  use  of  them,  and  the  final 
disposition  which  he  will  make  of  them,  as  well  as  the  intermediate 
race  of  man.  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  mention  in  this  connection 
that  those  theorists  who  are  attempting  to  account  for  the  exis- 
tence of  the  moral  sentiments  and  aspirations  of  man  by  regard- 
ing them  as  developments  from  the  altruistic  instincts  common  to 
men  and  other  animals,  can  have  no  possible  way  of  accounting 
for  either  the  existence  or  the  character  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
angelic  world.  The  ancient  Gnostic  might  suppose  them  to  be 
evolutions  from  the  bosom  of  Deity:  the  modern  theorist  cannot 
fancy  them  to  be  evolutions  from  the  bosom  of  nature. 

The  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  represents  the  general  doctrine  of 
primitive  Protestantism  in  its  statement  (VII)  that  angels  stand 
together  with  men  at  the  head  of  all  creatures;  that  some  of  them, 
having  continued  in  obedience,  have  been  deputed  to  the  faithful 
service  of  God  and  man;  and  that  others  having  fallen  by  their  own 
choice,  have  been  precipitated  into  their  own  destruction;  and 
become  the  enemies  of  the  faithful  and  of  all  good.  It  is  a  fact  to  be 
noted  here  that  the  entire  doctrine  respecting  angels,  both  holy  and 
evil,  had  greater  prominence  in  Protestant  theology,  and  also  in  the 
theology  of  Rome  during  the  era  of  the  Reformation,  than  it  has 
retained  in  later  times.  Such  prominence  may  be  illustrated  by 
the  strong  affirmation  of  the  Belgic  Conf.  (XII)  that  devils  and 
evil  spirits  are  so  depraved  that  they  are  enemies  of  God  and  every 
good  thing  to  the  utmost  of  their  power — as  murderers  ever  watch- 
ing to  ruin  the  church  and  every  member  thereof,  and  by  their 
wicked  stratagems  to  destroy  all.  This  Conf.  expressly  con- 
demns the  Sadducean  opinion  that  there  are  no  spirits  or  angels, 
and  the  Manichean  heresy  that  evil  spirits  have  their  origin  not  in 
God  but  in  themselves,  and  are  wicked  of  their  own  nature,  with- 
out being  corrupted  through  any  external  agency.  The  fact  that 
the  general  doctrine  on  both  sides  of  it,  is  now  less  emphasized, 
may  be  in  part  a  revulsion  from  the  marked  tendency  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  century  to  an  unwarrantable  amount  of  spec- 
ulation respecting  the  nature  of  angels,  their  powers,  their  occu- 
pations, and  especially  their  relations  to  the  natural  and  moral 
life  of   man.      We  see  this  revulsion  especial!)'  in  the  relative 


CURRENT   BEUEF   OF   CHRISTEXDOiM.  20*3 

retirement  of  the  conception  of  Satan  as  the  head  of  that  kingdom 
of  darkness,  concerning  which  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  often 
spoke  in  such  explicit  terms.  Such  retirement  is  not  without 
some  undesirable  results,  and  is  in  part  at  least  to  be  deplored. 
The  fact  that  there  is  such  a  confederacy  of  evil  now  as  in  the 
age  of  Christ,  and  that  a  vast  number  of  demoniac  angels  are 
associated  in  it,  and  that  in  some  significant  sense  this  kingdom  of 
sin  is  ruled  over  and  controlled  by  principalities  and  powers, 
headed  by  one  who  is  its  chief  prince  and  leader,  and  who  is  now 
as  of  old  arraying  his  forces  against  Christ  and  his  religion  on  the 
earth,  is  an  enduring  fact  which  the  thoughtful  student  of  the 
Scriptures  cannot  fail  to  recognize. 

The  act  of  creation  as  here  defined,  should  be  regarded  as 
inclusive  of  the  entire  universe,  both  material  and  moral.  And 
the  declaration  of  the  Symbols  thus  lifts  us  clearly  above  all  those 
erratic  and  unbiblical  notions  of  the  origin  of  the  universe  which, 
in  forms  more  or  less  philosophic,  are  so  widely  circulated  in  our 
time.  This  declaration  decisively  separates  the  Creator  from  his 
work,  and  sets  him  above  his  work,  in  all  the  sublimity  and  the 
awfulness  of  his  personal  being  and  power.  It  shows  us  God  as 
he  is  by  showing  us  so  grandly  what  he  has  done  ;  and  on  the 
basis  of  this  primary  view  it  affords  us  abundant  foundation  alike 
for  wonder  and  for  praise.  It  is  not  out  of  place  to  associate  with 
this  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  creation — the  most  full,  adequate 
and  impressive  to  be  found  in  Protestant  symbolism — the  kindred 
statement  of  the  Vatican  Council,  1870;  rejoicing  meanwhile  in 
the  fact  that  at  this  fundamental  point  Romanist  and  Protestant 
are  so  essentially  one  in  faith  :  The  Holy  Catholic,  Apostolic 
Roman  Church  believes  and  confesses  that  there  is  one  true  and 
living  God,  Creator  and  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  .  .  .  really 
and  essentially  distinct  from  the  world,  .  .  .  and  ineffably  exalted 
above  all  things  which  exist,  or  are  conceivable,  except  himself. 
This  one  only  true  God,  of  his  own  goodness  and  almighty  power, 
not  for  the  increase  or  acquirement  of  his  own  happiness,  but  to 
manifest  his  perfection  by  the  blessings  he  bestows  on  his  creatures, 
and  with  absolute  freedom  of  counsel,  created  out  of  nothing,  from 
the  very  first  beginning  of  time,  both  the  spiritual  and  the  phys- 
ical creation,  the  angelic  and  the  mundane,  and  finally  the  human 
creature,  sharing  the  qualities  of  both,  consisting  of  both  spirit 
and  body.  The  symbols  of  the  Greek  Church  contain  descrip- 
tions hardly  less  significant :  See  Conf.  of  Mogilas,  XXII ;  and 
the  Dosithean  Conf.  IV. 

In  respect  to  the  quality  of  this  vast  product  as  estimated  by 


208  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

the  divine  mind,  we  have  the  teaching  of  the  Confession  in  the 

simple  and  strong  phrase  quoted  from 

10.  Quality  of  the  Crea-  Scripture  :  And  all  very  good.  The 
tion:  Existence  of  evil,  nat-  ,.  .         ,  ,,.      ,  .    ,    „,    _  t 

ural  and  moral.  repetition  of  this  phrase  in  both  Cate- 

chisms shows  the  firm  confidence  of  the 
Assembly  in  the  doctrine  it  expresses.  No  like  declaration  is 
found  in  the  three  British  creeds  or  indeed,  except  by  incidental 
suggestion,  in  the  continental  formularies.  It  is  probable  that 
the  language  quoted  did  not  slip  into  the  Confession  without 
special  reason:  it  originated,  it  may  be,  in  the  consciousness  that 
the  excellence  of  the  universe,  assumed  in  antecedent  symbolism, 
was  in  fact  subject  to  serious  question, — especially  among  those 
who  more  or  less  openly  were  assailing  the  entire  Calvinistic 
scheme.  Arminian  critics  had  explained  the  existence  and  rav- 
ages of  sin  to  their  own  satisfaction,  without  impugning  the 
character  of  God,  by  referring  it  wholly  to  the  perversities  of  the 
human  will,  breaking  in  disastrously  upon  an  existing  order  of 
things.  It  was  necessary  therefore,  while  maintaining  the  full 
foresight  and  predetermination  of  God  with  respect  to  sin  and  his 
complete  sovereignty  in  its  permission,  still  to  declare  that  the 
universe  with  all  its  vast  possibilities  and  perils  was  very  good, 
as  God  looked  upon  it  in  that  memorable  evening  when  he 
ended  his  work  which  he  had  made.  The  Assembly  was  not  dis- 
posed to  admit  even  by  remote  implication  or  by  omission,  that 
the  divine  character  was  unfavorably  affected  by  such  a  wonderful 
demonstration  of  sovereignty  as  the  creation  of  the  universe,  even 
though  that  universe  should  be  marred  and  tainted  forever  by  the 
malignities  of  sin. 

So  far  as  the  material  universe  is  concerned,  the  question 
whether  it  is  very  good  can  receive  but  a  single  answer.  Whether 
it  be  the  best  possible,  is  a  purely  speculative  problem  which  the 
human  mind  is  not  competent  even  to  state  intelligibly,  and  is 
clearly  incompetent  to  solve.  We  must  rest  in  the  simple  fact 
that  God  has  made  it,  and  pronounced  it  very  good:  it  is  the  best, 
since  he  deemed  it  best.  What  sudden  breaks  occur  in  its  com- 
plex movement, — what  agitations,  convulsions,  apparent  disasters 
are  sometimes  seen  in  it, — what  pains  and  sorrows  it  inflicts  on 
man,  and  what  tragic  bereavements  it  sometimes  strews  in  his 
path,  are  explicable  only  in  the  light  of  the  moral  nature  and 
position  of  man  himself,  viewed  as  a  creature  under  discipline. 
In  other  words,  it  is  in  the  character  of  man  as  sinful,  and  in  the 
exigencies  of  a  moral  administration  over  man,  and  in  the  char- 
acter of  God  as  a  moral  Sovereign  and  Judge,  that  such   facts  in 


THE    CREATION — ITS   QUALITY.  209 

the  material  universe  must  find  their  explanation.  The  subject 
will  be  more  fully  apprehended  in  conjunction  with  the  doctrine 
of  providence,  and  still  further  in  its  connections  with  the  deeper 
problem  of  sin  and  salvation.  It  is  a  profound  doctrine  of  Paul, 
worthy  of  remembrance  here,  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth 
and  travaileth  together  in  pain  through  its  relationship  to  human 
sin,  and  is  waiting  for  its  participation  in  that  deliverance  from 
sin  which  man  is  yet  to  enjoy. 

To  the  deeper  problem  thus  suggested,  what  fitting  answer 
shall  be  given  ?  If  God  creates  a  free  moral  being,  angel  or  man, 
does  he  of  necessity  consent  to  the  possible  abuse  of  the  capacities 
thus  given,  making  such  being  constitutionally  subject  to  change, 
as  the  Confession  declares  both  men  and  angels  to  be, — and  still 
go  forward  to  the  decisive  act  of  creation,  even  when  he  knows 
that  such  abuse  of  freedom  will  occur,  and  that  his  own  act  will 
to  this  extent  make  the  sin  of  the  creature  a  dreadful  certainty  ? 
On  the  same  principle  more  broadly  stated,  does  God  determine 
in  his  creative  act  to  introduce  on  earth  a  moral  system  in  which 
his  individual  creatures,  with  all  their  endowments  and  liabilities 
shall  form  a  part; — being  limited  to  the  sad  alternative  either  of 
making  no  such  creatures  and  organizing  no  such  system,  or  of 
allowing  all  the  possible  and  all  the  certain  consequences  of  his 
act,  in  the  assaults  of  sin  on  his  holy  supremacy,  and  in  the  dis- 
obedience and  guilt  of  myriads  of  his  subjects,  even  forever?  In 
a  word,  is  the  necessity  in  the  case  a  natural  necessity,  in  either  of 
these  varieties, — and  if  God  were  thus  shut  in  to  such  an  alter- 
native, could  he  pause  over  his  finished  work  in  the  final  hour, 
and  as  he  gazed  upon  it  in  its  immensity  and  its  terrific  capabilities, 
pronounce  it  very  good  ? 

Turning  in  another  direction  for  light,  may  we  say  that  God 
permits  this  present  tainting  and  marring  of  his  universe  for  the 
sake  of  securing  in  the  end  a  higher,  grander  good, — that  sin  is 
the  natural  and  perhaps  the  necessary  means  or  condition  to  the 
right  development  of  human  character, — that  in  fact  such  char- 
acter is  in  numberless  cases  evolved  immediately  from  the  discipline 
and  the  culture  which  sin  has  occasioned  ?  May  we  go  still 
farther,  and  point  to  the  Gospel  as  a  foreseen  and  predestinated 
remedy,  to  all  the  blessings  involved  in  a  redemptive  system,  to 
Christ  himself  as  a  Savior  whose  coming  and  mission  are  mack- 
possible  only  through  sin  as  antecedent,  and  in  whose  salvation 
even  the  worst  ravages  of  sin  seem  to  be  more  than  counter 
balanced  ?  Or  must  we  confess  the  incompleteness,  of  all  such 
explanations,  however  helpful  the}-  may  in  certain  aspects  appear; 


'210  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

and  simply  rest  in  the  general  conclusion  of  the  Assembly  that 
God,  having  chosen  for  inscrutable  reasons  to  admit  sin,  hath 
joined  with  such  permission  a  most  wise  and  powerful  bounding, 
and  otherwise  ordering  and  governing  of  this  evil,  in  a  manifold 
dispensation,  so  as  to  secure  through  it  his  own  holy  ends?  In 
the  Irish  Articles  (28)  the  doctrine  is  stated  in  these  terms:  God 
is  not  the  author  of  sin:  howbeit,  he  doth  not  only  permit  it,  but 
also  by  his  providence  govern  and  order  the  same,  guiding  it  in 
such  sort  by  his  infinite  wisdom  as  it  turneth  to  the  manifestation 
of  his  own  glory,  and  to  the  good  of  his  elect.  This  is  clearly 
the  historic  norm  of  the  Westminster  statement. 

The  Symbols  are  careful  to  affirm  (V  :  iv)  that  God  himself 
neither  is  nor  can  be  the  author  or  approver  of  sin:  they  are  careful 
to  refer  sin  immediately  to  the  freedom  and  pozver  to  do  that  which 
is  good,  originally  given  to  man  as  a  moral  creature.  Yet  they 
declare  the  divine  relation  to  the  result  to  be  one  of  sovereign 
decree  and  purpose;  abating  nothing  from  the  full  sweep  of  the 
statement,  that  God  hath  from  all  eternity  freely  and  unchangeably 
ordained  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,  the  sins  of  men  and  angels 
included.  In  the  same  chapter  they  teach  that  such  sins  are  all 
in  some  way  contained  in  his  comprehending  scheme;  and  that 
not  only  his  almighty  power  and  unsearchable  wisdom,  but  also 
his  infinite  righteousness  and  goodness,  are  manifested  in  the 
ways  in  which  by  a  manifold  dispensation  he  so  orders  them  as  to 
secure  through  them  his  own  holy  ends.  He  is  said  to  be  a  God 
who  hates  sin,  and  who  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty:  he  is 
described  (II  :  ii)  as  most  holy  in  all  his  cotmsels,  hi  all  his  works, 
and  in  all  his  commands.  And  on  the  basis  of  this  view  of  what 
God  is  in  himself  and  in  his  administration,  so  far  as  his  ways 
are  known  to  us,  what  can  we  better  say  than  that  the  same  glory 
which  is  clearly  seen  in  creation,  in  providence  and  in  redemption, 
will  finally  make  itself  manifest  even  in  the  admission  into  the 
moral  universe  of  such  a  destructive  agent  as  sin  ?  The  subject 
will  recur  to  view  in  a  more  specific  form  in  conjunction  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  Symbols  respecting  the  nature  of  man,  his  original 
righteousness,  his  moral  constitution  as  free,  and  his  voluntary 
fall  into  an  estate  of  sin  and  spiritual  death.  It  will  also  make 
its  appearance  practically  in  connection  both  with  the  providen- 
tial and  moral  administration  of  God  over  the  race,  and  with  the 
Gospel  viewed  as  a  gracious  scheme  for  the  spiritual  restoration 
of  sinful  and  perishing  man.  It  is  enough  here  if  we  are  enabled 
to  see  that  God  was  not  unjust  in  creating  such  a  race  of  beings, 
and  fashioning  for  them  such  a  material  and  moral  sphere. 


END   OF   GOD   IN   CREATION.  211 

Viewing  the  fact  of  creation  in  general,   apart  from  the  more 
specific  question  just  noted,  we  may  readily  recognize  the  glory  of 

God  as  the  great  end  in  view  within 

,      n.   .         °.    ,   .      7*       ,     •  •  ,         11.    End  of  God  in  crea- 

the  divine  Mind  in  the  devising  and     ^    His  Glory  supreme, 
execution  of  his  creative  work.     It  is 

incumbent  upon  us  at  this  point  to  bear  in  mind  four  fundamental 
facts:  first,  that  the  design  of  God  in  such  a  work  as  creation 
must  from  the  nature  of  the  case  be  immeasurably  beyond  our 
capacity  for  apprehension, —  including  doubtless  specific  ends 
which  are  altogether  above  our  present  knowledge,  and  which  it 
will  be  one  of  the  special  privileges  of  eternity  to  study  and 
comprehend:  second,  that  as  is  true  of  the  divine  activity  in  other 
spheres,  this  design  must  be  multiform  and  complex  in  such 
specific  purposes  and  objects  as  we  are  now  capable  of  discerning: 
third,  that  all  particular  ends  secured  in  creation,  such  as  the 
happiness  or  the  moral  development  of  men,  must  converge  ulti- 
mately and  reach  their  consummation  in  God  himself  rather  than 
in  man:  and  fourth,  that  the  divine  glory — the  manifestation  of 
the  infinite  excellence  and  perfection  of  the  Deity  in  and  through 
creation — is  an  end  so  high  and  vast,  so  sublime  and  pure,  as  not 
only  to  justify  the  creative  work,  but  to  illuminate  it  throughout 
with  an  indescribable  and  imperishable  splendor.  Hence  the 
Symbols  justly  say:  It  pleased  God  (IV  :  i)  for  the  manifestation 
of  the  glory  of  his  eternal  power,  wisdom  and  goodness,  in  the 
beginning  to  create.  The  exhibition  of  the  constitutional  and 
moral  endowments  of  the  Godhead,  not  merely  in  but  also  to  the 
universe  so  far  as  intelligent  beings  are  included,  is  presented  in 
these  words  as  the  supreme  object  divinely  sought  in  the  creation. 
Similar  references  to  the  manifesting  or  declaring  of  the  divine 
glory  as  a  final  end  are  found  in  the  chapters  on  Decrees,  on 
Providence,  on  the  Fall,  and  on  the  Judgment, — the  same  supreme 
end  being  indicated  as  regulating  the  divine  activity  in  each  of 
these  specific  spheres  of  action.  None  of  the  other  Protestant 
symbols  is  so  full  and  emphatic  on  this  point.  Surely  this 
peculiar  emphasizing  of  the  glory  of  God  as  the  end  of  all  things 
may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  distinguishing  qualities,  if  not  one 
of  the  chief  excellencies  also,  of  the  Symbolism  of  Westminster. 
Much  of  the  disputation  around  this  doctrine  might  be  avoided 
by  careful  consideration  of  the  terms  and  modes  in  which  the 
doctrine  is  presented.  What  is  the  glory  which  is  here  to  be  made 
apparent  ?  It  is  not  a  certain  impenetrable  blaze  of  awful  sove- 
reignty :  it  is  not  some  abstract  effulgence  emanating  as  from  the 
essence  of  the  Deity,  prostrating  the  creature  irresistibly  in  the 


212  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

dust  before  a  present  Creator.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  divine  attri- 
butes and  character — of  the  power  and  wisdom,  justice  and  love 
of  God,  as  these  are  respectively  made  manifest  in  the  creative 
work.  There  is  no  real  conflict  between  this  view  and  that  which 
represents  the  happiness  of  the  creatures,  and  especially  of  moral 
creatures,  as  the  object  divinely  sought  in  the  creative  work. 
When  God  manifests  the  glory  of  his  goodness  in  his  numberless 
provisions  for  the  happiness  or  welfare  of  his  creatures,  he  rightly 
contemplates  such  happiness  or  welfare  as  an  immediate  and  a 
worthy  end.  He  loves  to  accumulate  joy  upon  joy  for  them,  and 
to  crown  their  life  with  mercies,  in  order  that  in  and  through  all 
these  manifestations  they  may  the  more  clearly  and  cordially  learn 
that  he  himself  is  intrinsically  and  absolutely  good.  Nor  is  there 
any  conflict  between  this  view  and  that  which  points  to  the  moral 
culture,  the  holiness  and  perfection  of  his  creatures,  as  an  end 
sought  in  creation.  For  in  instituting  his  moral  government  to 
be  the  expression  of  his  sense  of  justice,  and  to  train  his  children 
into  conformity  of  heart  and  life  to  what  he  knows  to  be  right, 
God  is  obviously  seeking  to  make  more  glorious  that  equity  on 
which  his  own  throne  is  set,  and  in  which  his  own  inherent  glory 
so  largely  lies.  The  antitheses  or  antagonisms  often  supposed  to 
exist  at  these  points,  and  at  others  like  them,  are  certainly  not 
warranted  by  any  proper  conception  of  the  phrase — the  manifest- 
ation or  declaration  of  his  personal  and  eternal  glory.  That  the 
happiness  and  the  holiness  of  the  creature  are  real  and  invaluable 
ends,  and  were  so  regarded  by  God  in  the  scheme  of  creation, 
cannot  be  questioned.  Nor  on  the  other  hand  can  it  be  questioned 
that  the  ultimate  end  of  God  must  be  found  in  himself  rather  than 
in  the  creation  viewed  as  a  product.  Still  this  supreme  end  is  to 
be  realized  only  in  and  by  the  creation  regarded  as  an  expression 
of  his  intrinsic  glory, — the  happiness  and  the  moral  excellence 
of  his  creatures  being  at  once  the  issues  of  and  the  witnesses  to 
the  excellence  and  the  perfection  of  the  Being  who  created  all 
unto  himself. 

May  not  God  thus  equitably  find  the  end  of  all  his  actions  in 
himself,  and  in  the  disclosure  of  his  glory  to  his  rational  creatures  ? 
May  he  not  take  holy  delight  in  thus  making  manifest  to  his  moral 
universe  what  he  himself  is,  as  to  his  attributes,  purposes,  feelings, 
desires,  character?  May  we  not  with  Edwards  accept  the  dis- 
tinction between  secondary  and  consequential  ends,  and  that  end 
which  is  original,  independent,  supreme,  and  which  can  be  dis- 
cerned only  in  what  God  is  and  what  in  creation  he  reveals  himself 
to  be  ?     May  we  not  recognize  here  an  end  which  is  single  and 


DIVINE    GLORY    IN    CREATION.  213 

sufficient — which  has  and  can  have  no  other  end  beyond  it  or 
behind  it  as  a  condition  of  its  existence  ?  May  we  not  say  that 
the  highest  happiness  and  the  moral  perfection  of  the  rational 
universe  can  be  secured  only  in  and  through  its  subordinate  rela- 
tions to  this  ultimate  and  final  good  ?  As  the  holiness  of  man  is 
infinitely  above  his  happiness,  and  as  his  true  happiness  is  con- 
ditioned upon  the  possession  of  true  holiness,  may  we  not  presume 
that  both  the  holiness  and  the  happiness  of  man  are  secondary  to 
and  conditioned  upon  his  apprehension  of  that  transcendent  holi- 
ness in  God,  which  it  is  the  divine  purpose  in  creation  to  make 
forever  manifest,  forever  glorious,  through  all  the  moral  universe  ? 
How  far  removed  from  all  conceptions  of  selfishness  such  a  dispo- 
sition must  be  in  him  is  easily  seen,  since  the  highest  welfare,  the 
completed  excellence,  the  final  flower  and  consummation  of  all 
created  life,  can  be  secured  only  through  such  manifestation.  If 
Cod  had  not  thus  been  pleased  to  show  forth  the  glory  of  his  power 
and  wisdom  and  goodness,  there  could  have  been  no  created  exist- 
ence :  if  it  should  please  him  at  any  instant  to  pause  in  this 
declaratory  process,  all  such  existence  would  instantly  cease  to 
be.  From  this  effulgence  our  being,  our  happiness,  our  excellence, 
are  forever  flowing :  within  its  celestial  radiance  it  will  be  our 
supreme  bliss  and  destiny  to  be  forever  glorified.  Edwards  (End 
of  God  in  Creation),  eloquently  compares  this  manifested  glory 
of  God  to  the  effulgence  or  emanation  of  light  from  a  luminary 
such  as  the  sun.  Light,  he  says,  is  the  external  expression, 
exhibition  and  manifestation  of  the  excellency  of  the  luminary. 
It  is  the  abundant,  extensive  emanation  and  communication  of  the 
fullness  of  the  sun  to  innumerable  beings  that  partake  of  it.  It 
is  by  this  that  the  sun  itself  is  seen,  and  his  glory  beheld,  and  all 
other  things  are  discovered  :  it  is  by  a  participation  of  this  com- 
munication from  the  sun,  that  surrounding  objects  receive  all  their 
luster,  beauty  and  brightness.  It  is  by  this  that  all  nature  is 
quickened,  and  receives  life,  comfort  and  joy.  .  .  .  Here,  he  adds, 
is  both  an  emanation  and  remanation.  The  refulgence  shines 
upon  and  into  the  creature,  and  is  reflected  back  to  the  luminary. 
The  beams  of  glory  come  from  God,  and  are  something  of  God, 
and  are  refunded  back  again  to  their  original ;  so  that  the  whole 
is  of  God,  and  in  God,  and  through  God. 

Such  in  brief  was  the  doctrine  of  Creation,  as  to  its  personal 
cause  and  source,  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  creative  pro- 
cedure, and  as  to  the  worth  of  the  creation  as  a  product  and  to  its 
final  purpose — as  enunciated  by  the  divines  of  Westminster.     In 


214  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

passing  from  the  contemplation  of  this  great  theme  to  the  closely 
related  doctrine  of  Providence,   as  presented  in  the  succeeding 

chapter  (V)  in  the  Confession,  we  shall 

1 2.  Providence :  definition  find  the  same  Hnes  of  thought  recurring 
of:  Preserving- and  govern-  .  ,  , -  ... 

ing-  described.  to  vlew>  and  the  same  <luenes  arising, 

though  under  somewhat  different  as- 
pects. While  the  act  of  creation  is  in  some  particulars  unique, 
and  is  never  to  be  repeated,  yet  the  continuous  work  of  providence 
is  one  which  involves  kindred  mysteries,  and  is  explicable  only  on 
similar  principles.  The  vital  connection  between  the  two  doc- 
trines will  be  apparent  at  a  glance.  If  the  view  of  creation  just 
stated  be  accepted  as  sound,  the  fact  of  a  divine  providence  over 
that  which  has  been  created,  and  the  nature  and  scope  of  such 
providence,  will  readily  follow.  The  term,  providence,  which 
subjectively  signifies  simply  the  divine  foreknowledge  and  super- 
intending cognizance  of  all  that  is  to  occur,  and  assumes  the 
existence  of  an  antecedent  decree  or  purpose  in  the  mind  of  Deity, 
is  happily  defined  in  the  Shorter  Catechism,  objectively  (11)  as  a 
most  holy,  wise  and  powerful  preserving  a7id  governing ,  on  the  part 
of  God, — a  preserving  and  governing  which  include  all  his  creatures 
and  all  their  actions.  This  definition  is  expanded  in  the  Larger 
Catechism  (18)  only  so  far  as  was  needful  to  set  forth  the  divine 
glory,  as  the  true  end  of  providence  as  well  as  creation  :  ordering 
them  and  all  their  actions  to  his  own  glory.  The  two  words,  pre- 
serve and  govern,  are  expanded  in  the  Confession  into  uphold, 
direct,  dispose  and  govern, — these  terms  describing  still  more  fully 
the  divine  relation  to  the  support,  activity,  operation  and  result 
of  all  creatures,  actions  and  things.  A  broader  or  loftier  definition 
of  providence  than  is  contained  in  these  words,  can  hardly  be 
framed. 

Preservation  as  a  composite  term  indicates,  first  of  all,  that 
divine  upholding  on  which  the  planets  in  their  courses  and  the 
soul  in  man  are  alike  continuously  dependent.  Created  existence 
surely  can  have  no  power  to  perpetuate  itself  in  being;  nor  can  we 
regard  such  existence  as  so  constituted  that  it  will  run  on  perpetu- 
ally, as  a  clock  when  wound,  without  divine  interposition  at  each 
instant.  We  are  not  at  liberty  to  regard  nature  either  as  acting 
independently  of  God,  or  dividing  with  him  the  dominion  of  the 
world,  or  as  administering  a  species  of  vice-royalty  while  God 
resides  at  some  infinite  distance.  Whatever  may  be  said  as  to  the 
forms  or  contents  of  the  world,  or  to  the  agency  of  secondary  causes 
in  determining  these,  the  ultimate  causality  must  be  ascribed 
to  God,  and  to  him  as  immanent  or  resident  in  and  throughout 


PROVIDENCE    DEFINED.  21  5 

nature — the  one  dominating  and  supreme  origin  and  power. 
The  deistic  conception  of  the  Deity  as  being,  in  the  terse  phrase  of 
Carlyle,  an  absentee  God,  sitting  idle  ever  since  the  first  Sabbath, 
on  the  outside  of  the  universe,  and  seeing  it  go,  is  one  which  has  no 
basis  in  sound  philosophy,  and  which  is  contradicted  by  countless 
evidences  of  the  divine  presence  and  power  both  in  nature  and  in 
human  life  and  history.  Nor  has  the  assumption  of  even  a  tem- 
porary or  partial  independence  of  God  on  the  part  of  nature  or  of 
man,  though  often  claimed,  any  rational  foundation.  However 
mysterious  the  intermingling  of  the  primal  power  that  sustains, 
with  the  specific  activities  of  the  creature  sustained,  philosophy 
itself  can  admit  no  other  hypothesis  than  that  God  is  at  each 
instant  the  upholder,  the  fundamental  support,  as  he  is  the  orig- 
inal source  and  fount,  of  all  creatures,  actions  and  things.  Such 
support  or  upholding  should,  however,  be  carefully  distinguished 
from  the  false  hypothesis  of  a  continuous  creation,  the  immediate 
production  of  existing  things  out  of  nothing  at  each  and  every 
moment, — a  pantheistic  hypothesis  which  is  at  variance  with  our 
fundamental  conceptions  of  secondary  causes  in  nature  and  of  the 
human  will  as  a  real  cause,  and  which  inevitably  makes  God  rather 
than  man  the  author  and  the  upholder  of  sin. 

Preservation  also  implies  direction, — such  an  impartation  of 
impulse  or  tendency  at  the  outset,  and  such  a  regulative  main- 
taining of  the  impulse  or  tendency  when  imparted,  as  constitute 
or  involve  a  real  control  of  every  creature  and  of  every  act.  This 
divine  determination,  as  will  appear  hereafter,  is  always  in  har- 
mony with  the  nature  of  the  subject  directed,  whether  it  be  a  flow- 
ing river  or  a  human  spirit.  We  may  simply  note  here  that  God 
not  only  keeps  his  creatures  filled  with  life — they  living  and  mov- 
ing and  having  their  being  in  him  alone:  he  also  imparts  to  each 
its  own  determining  principles,  gives  each  its  distinctive  bent  and 
aim,  and  sends  each  forth  under  his  own  omnipotent  impact  to 
work  out  its  appointed  end.  Moreover,  he  disposes  as  well  as 
sustains  and  controls,  surrounding  each  creature  with  a  specific 
group  of  attendant  conditions,  and  setting  each  in  exactly  the 
sphere  where  its  investiture  of  capacity  may  best  bring  to  pass 
the  determinate  result  for  each.  The  location  of  his  creatures 
also  in  their  connections  with  one  another,  in  such  manner  as  to 
secure  his  chosen  ends  through  the  involved  interblending  of  ten 
thousand  different  agents,  often  not  only  separate  but  apparently 
diverse,  is  one  of  the  most  obvious  as  well  as  the  most  amazing 
manifestations  of  divine  providence.  Man  cannot  comprehend 
such  supreme  disposing  or  even  know  his  own  place  in  it;  he  dare 


216  GOD   IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

not  resist  it,  for  he  is  overawed  with  what  even  he  may  see  of  its 
ineffable  wisdom:  he  can  only  rest  in  the  aphorism  that  while 
man  proposes,  God  thus  disposes,  and  bow  down  in  submissive 
adoration  before  him.  Respecting  the  relations  of  such  support, 
direction,  disposing,  to  the  free  acts  of  moral  beings,  and  especially 
to  the  sinful  action  of  man,  much  remains  to  be  considered:  at 
this  point  it  is  sufficient  to  note  that  nothing  contained  in  such 
free  or  such  sinful  activity  can  militate  against  the  doctrine  of 
providence  as  here  defined. 

This  conception  of  providence  culminates  in  the  idea  of  govern- 
ing, as  the  correlative  to  such  preservation  in  the  three  aspects 
named.  God  governs  the  universe  providentially,  in  the  general 
sense  that  he  is  forever  at  the  head  of  this  stupendous  movement, 
and  that  under  his  guidance  that  movement  is  ever  pressing  on, 
slowly  yet  surely  and  gloriously,  toward  one  great  issue  which  he 
has  chosen.  God  governs  providentially  in  the  more  specific 
sense  that  each  part,  each  fragment,  each  division  of  this  compre- 
hensive structure  is  wholly  in  his  hand,  and  is  made  to  accomplish 
what  he  wishes  in  conjunction  with  his  general  design.  The  nat- 
uralistic notion  of  a  merely  general  providence  which  is  concerned 
with  creatures,  actions  and  things  only  in  the  aggregate,  and 
which  governs  them  in  some  generic  way  only,  is  at  variance  alike 
with  the  clear  testimonies  of  Scripture,  with  what  we  may  discern 
in  fact  respecting  the  organic  relations  of  each  particular  element 
in  the  universe  to  the  vast  whole,  and  with  the  wisest  and  deepest 
philosophy  of  nature  and  of  man.  He  who  believes  that  God 
governs  generically  or  comprehensively,  must  also  believe  that  he 
governs  continuously  each  and  every  creature,  each  and  every 
thing,  that  he  has  made.  Without  such  government,  specific  as 
well  as  comprehensive,  providence  would  not  be  providence:  with- 
out such  a  conclusive  administration  in  which  all  creatures,  actions 
and  things  are  finally  to  be  embraced,  that  providence  would  be  at 
once  an  enigma  and  a  terror.  A  governing  as  well  as  sustaining 
and  directing  God,  continuously  ruling  over  all  that  exists,  is  the 
great  fact  which  explains,  combines,  glorifies  the  whole. 

No  definition  of  providence  so  exact  and  so  comprehensive  as  this 
can  be  found  elsewhere  in  Protestant  symbolism.  The  Lutheran 
creeds  hardly  present  the  subject,  except  in  the  Small  Cate- 
echism  of  Luther,  which  teaches  with  great  minuteness  that  God 
preserves  to  us  body  and  soul;  eyes,  ears  and  all  our  limbs;  rea- 
son and  all  our  senses;  also  clothing  and  shoes,  food  and  drink, 
house  and  home,  wife  and  child,  land,  cattle  and  all  our  property; 
— providing  us  richly  and  daily  with  all  the  necessaries  of  life, 


METHOD   OF   PROVIDENCE.  217 

protecting  us  from  all  danger,  and  preserving  and  guarding  us 
from  all  evil;  and  all  this  out  of  pure,  paternal,  divine  goodness  and 
mercy,  without  any  merit  or  worthiness  of  ours.  The  French 
Confession  simply  affirms  (VIII)  that  God  having  created  all 
things,  governs  and  directs  them,  disposing  and  ordaining  by  his 
sovereign  will  all  that  happens  in  this  world.  The  Belgic  Con- 
fession (XIII)  teaches  that  after  creating  all  things,  God  did  not 
forsake  them,  or  give  them  up  to  fortune  or  chance,  but  rules  and 
governs  them  according  to  his  holy  will,  so  that  nothing  happens 
in  this  world  without  his  appointment.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism 
presents  the  doctrine  in  practical  and  hortatory  rather  than  exact 
form  in  these  words:  Providence  is  the  almighty  and  everywhere 
present  power  of  God,  whereby  as  it  were  by  his  hand  he  still 
upholds  heaven  and  earth,  with  all  creatures;  and  so  governs 
them  that  herbs  and  grass,  rain  and  drought,  fruitful  and  barren 
years,  meat  and  drink,  health  and  sickness,  riches  and  poverty, 
yea,  all  things  come  not  by  chance,  but  by  his  fatherly  hand. 
The  Irish  Articles  briefly  say  that  God  having  created  all  things, 
(18)  doth  continue,  propagate,  and  order  them  according  to  his 
own  will.  In  the  Scotch  Confession  (Art.  I)  we  have  a  statement 
as  cogent  as  it  is  quaint,  and  one  from  which  the  more  elaborate 
dogma  of  Westminster  may  well  have  been  in  part  derived:  Be 
whom,  (the  triune  Deity  previously  described)  we  confesse  and 
beleve  all  thingis  in  hevin  and  eirth,  aswel  visible  as  invisible,  to 
to  have  been  created,  to  be  reteined  in  their  being,  and  to  be  ruled 
and  guyded  be  his  inscrutable  Providence  to  sik  end  as  Eternall 
Wisdome,  Gudnes  and  Justice  hes  appoynted  them,  to  the  mani- 
festatioun  of  his  awin  glorie.  How  far  beyond  this  and  beyond  all 
other  confessional  statements  the  definition  of  Westminster  goes, 
in  both  philosophic  accuracy  and  practical  force,  may  easily  be 
perceived. 

The  Symbols  are  also  singular  in  their  exposition  of  the  method 
as  well  as  the  fact  of  providence.  On  the  one  side,  we  are  taught 
that  while  God  is  as  truly  sovereign  in 

providence  as  in  creation,  working  or-  l3'  Metnod  of  Providence: 
,.       .,    ,      ^  ,.  .  ,     .       Providence     and     Miracle: 

dmanly  by  the  use  of  means,  yet  he  is     Provldence  and  Second  Cau. 

free  to  work  without ,  above ,  and  against     ses  § 
means  at  his  pleasure.     We  are  also 

taught  that,  in  relation  to  his  foreknowledge  and  decree,  all  things 
come  to  pass  infallibly  and  immutably,  whether  with  or  without 
such  means.  In  the  same  connection  he  is  described  as  the  First 
Cause,  and  the  Great  Creator, — phrases  implying  that  his  sover- 
eignty in  providence  is  the  natural  and  necessary   conse<  r  ;: 


218  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

of  his  causal  and  creative  relation  to  all  creatures  and  things. 
Similar  expressions  frequently  occur  elsewhere. 

As  miracles  are  nowhere  specifically  described  in  the  Symbols, 
it  may  be  presumed  that  the  Assembly  intended  to  provide  a  place 
for  miracle  in  this  high  affirmation  respecting  the  ability  of  God 
to  work  without  or  above  or  even  against  all  means,  if  adequate 
occasion  for  such  interposition  should  arise.  They  doubtless  re- 
garded miracles  as  occurrences  lying  within  the  general  domain  of 
providence,  or  at  least  as  events  occurring  within  the  sphere  of 
nature  ;  but  at  the  same  time,  as  events  and  occurrences  not 
attributable  in  any  way  to  the  direct  action  of  secondary  causes, 
but  referable  only  to  the  immediate  volition  and  energy  of  God. 
It  is  probable  also  that  they  recognized  that  attestational  func- 
tion of  miracles,  by  which  these  become  in  no  sense  arbitrary 
infractions  of  the  laws  of  nature,  or  empty  displays  of  a  power 
above  nature,  but  rather  the  significant  indices  and  witnesses 
of  spiritual  truth  such  as  is  contained  in  revelation.  So  far  as 
we  can  see,  miracles  are  justifiable  only  in  the  light  of  such  a 
function  and  testimony:  in  this  connection,  they  seem  not  only 
natural  and  right  but  indispensable.  For  how  otherwise  could 
God  verify  his  own  Word  than  by  signs  and  wonders  manifested 
within  the  domain  of  nature,  yet  manifestly  supernatural  in  their 
origin  ?  Must  not  all  such  attestation  occur  on  the  one  side  in  the 
sphere  of  nature  with  which  man  is  already  familiar,  and  where  the 
whole  process  may  be  accurately  noted  and  measured  ?  And  on  the 
other  hand, must  it  not  be  made  obvious  to  the  beholder  that  it  is  not 
nature  itself  which  is  producing  the  result, — that  that  result  is  one 
which  nature  is  clearly  incompetent  to  produce, and  which  therefore 
must  have  come  into  the  sphere  of  nature  directly  from  a  super- 
natural source,  intelligent,  potential,  supreme  ?  If  such  a  source 
exists,  spiritual,  personal,  sovereign,  then  for  adequate  ends,  and 
especially  to  make  known  his  will  to  his  moral  creatures,  that 
supreme  Being  may  thus  enter  into  nature  and  use  her  wondrous 
mechanism  in  any  way  he  pleases,  in  the  execution  of  his  sublimer 
purpose.  He  may,  as  the  Confession  teaches,  work  without  the 
aid  of  secondary  agencies;  he  may  work  altogether  above  them,  yet 
in  harmony  with  their  natural  movements;  he  may  even  work 
against  them,  in  the  sense  of  arresting  their  ordinary  action,  or  of 
holding  them  forcibly  in  abeyance,  while  he  speaks  forth  his  spirit- 
ual and  saving  Word  in  and  through  them.  The  only  adequate 
basis  of  opposition  to  such  a  doctrine  of  miracles  must  be  found, 
not  in  questioning  the  fact  that  man  needs  a  revelation,  or  insisting 
on  the  in  variableness  of  nature,  but  in  denying  openly  that  there 


PROVIDENCE    AND   MIRACLE.  219 

is  any  such  sovereign  Deity,  above  and  beyond  the  universe  of 
created  things. 

The  argument,  atheistic  or  pantheistic,  against  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  miracles  rests  simply  on  the  assumption  that  there 
exists  no  Being,  or  at  least  no  conscious  Being,  who  is  both 
capable  and  desirous  of  communicating  to  mankind  spiritual  or 
saving  truth  beyond  what  nature  and  reason  supply.  Mill, 
(Logic)  defines  a  miracle  as  not  so  much  a  contradiction  to  the 
law  of  nature,  as  a  new  effect  produced  in  the  realm  of  nature  by 
the  introduction  of  a  new  cause  —  the  will  of  God.  Of  the 
adequacy  of  that  cause,  if  it  were  really  present, — he  adds — there 
can  be  no  doubt,  and  the  only  antecedent  improbability  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  miracle  is  the  improbability  that  any  such  cause 
exists.  In  like  manner  the  speculative  authors  of  the  Unseen 
Universe  admit  that,  if  the  invisible  was  able  to  produce  the 
present  visible  universe  with  all  its  energy,  it  could  a  fortiori 
very  easily  produce  such  transmutations  of  energy  within  that 
universe  as  would  account  for  the  events  which  took  place  in 
Judea.  The  deistic  argument,  accepting  the  evidence  that  such 
a  competent  cause  exists,  rests  on  the  more  specific  assumption 
that  God  has  given  to  men  in  nature  and  in  the  soul  all  the 
religious  truth  needful  in  this  life, — that  supernatural  truth  in 
whatever  form,  if  not  impracticable  in  the  nature  of  things,  is 
altogether  improbable, — that  miracles,  regarded  as  infractions  of 
the  laws  of  nature,  cannot  occur  in  such  a  providential  system  as 
God  has  established  on  earth, — that,  should  such  miracles  take 
place  at  any  time,  their  occurrence  could  never  be  adequately 
proved, — and  that  if  historically  proved,  the  fact  of  miracle  would 
be  a  hindrance  rather  than  an  aid  to  religious  faith.  This  type 
of  objection  has  already  been  considered  in  part.  It  may  now  be 
repeated  that  if  such  a  being  as  the  God  revealed  in  Scripture 
really  exists,  no  valid  argument,  physiological  or  psychological, 
can  be  urged — as  Mill  admits — against  the  presumption  that,  if 
he  desires  to  communicate  truth  to  mankind  or  to  enforce  duty 
by  some  other  process  than  through  the  reason  or  the  light  of 
external  nature,  he  is  entirely  capable  of  making  such  super- 
natural communication.  It  is  a  wise  remark  of  Leibnitz  that  in 
miracles  nothing  is  changed  but  natural  facts,  which  in  their  very 
nature  are  contingent  and  hence  may  be  changed;  and  since  they 
are  established  by  God,  they  may  be  modified  at  any  time  by  an 
act  of  the  divine  will.  He  adds  that  miracles  interfere  with 
nothing  but  natural  necessity,  which  has  in  itself  no  basis  in 
eternal  truth  and  reality;  and  that    miracles   consequently  can 


220  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

never  be  against  reason,  but  only  above  it.  A  living  God  must 
certainly  be  able  to  reveal  himself  in  any  way  he  chooses.  Nor 
does  the  fact  that  man  already  has  some  knowledge  of  God  and 
his  will,  prove  either  that  he  needs  no  further  knowledge,  or  that 
he  could  not  apprehend  it  if  given  in  such  forms  as  God  might 
select.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sin  of  man,  clouding  his  mind 
and  dulling  his  spiritual  sensibilities  to  the  religious  truth  already 
possessed,  furnishes  a  strong  reason  for  expecting  that  a  gracious 
Being  such  as  God  is  would  bestow  upon  him  such  superadded 
disclosures. 

But  if  God  desires  to  grant  such  additional  revelation,  it 
becomes  a  matter  of  necessity  that  he  should  attest  his  communi- 
cation in  such  ways  as  will  verify  it  beyond  question  to  the 
observant  mind  of  man.  We  have  already  seen  that  merely 
natural  attestations  would  be  insufficient  to  convince  men  of  the 
reality  of  any  revelation  made,-»-that  God,  if  we  may  reverently 
speak  it,  must  prove  himself  to  be  in  and  with  the  revelation, 
by  evidences  of  another  class,  which  are  fitted  to  convince  and 
sufficient  to  convince  the  observer.  But  we  have  also  seen  that 
such  evidences  must  lie  within  the  sphere  of  nature  or  the  kindred 
sphere  of  human  history,  where  the  mind  may  apprehend  them 
and  appreciate  their  attestational  force.  Miracles,  and  prophecies 
also,  are  evidences  of  this  class,  and  God  has  therefore  uttered 
prophecies  or  wrought  miracles,  clear  and  palpable,  wherever  he 
has  thus  revealed  himself  supernaturally  to  mankind.  On  this 
fact,  thus  justified  on  unchallengeable  grounds,  Christianity  rests 
its  claim  as  a  supernatural  faith, — not  indeed  on  such  external 
evidence  alone,  but  on  this  in  conjunction  with  the  inward  attest- 
ation of  the  Holy  Ghost,  certifying  by  a  process  above  all  logic 
that  the  authenticated  and  historical  Scriptures  are  indeed  the 
living  Word  of  the  living  God.  The  question  whether  the 
occurrence  of  such  miracles  can  be  proved,  as  urged  by  Hume 
and  others,  is  one  which  cannot  here  be  fully  discussed,  but  which 
may  be  answered  in  a  word:  The  proof  of  such  occurrence  rests  on 
the  same  basis  as  the  proof  of  any  other  historical  event,  and  may 
as  readily  be  accepted  after  careful  examination  by  intelligent  and 
candid  minds.  The  admitted  supernaturalness  of  miracles,  instead 
of  rendering  them  incapable  of  proof,  as  Hume  assumes,  becomes 
in  fact  an  additional  evidence  in  favor  of  their  historic  occurrence: 
Butler,  Analogy:  Part  II:  Ch.  2. 

But  while  proper  place  is  thus  provided  in  the  Confession  for 
miracle  as  an  event  in  some  sense  above  providence,  providence 
itself  is  described  as  ordinarily  making  use  of  means;  God  ordering 


PROVIDENCE   AND   SECOND   CAUSES.  221 

all  things  to  fall  out  according  to  the  nature  of  second  causes, 
either  necessarily,  freely  or  contingently.  Providence  is  thus 
presented  as  one  vast  scheme  in  which  a  multitude  of  subordinate 
forces  and  activities  are  apparent,  each  working  out  its  specific 
class  of  results  in  harmony  with  its  own  nature,  while  all  combine 
in  the  furtherance  of  the  one  comprehensive  issue  preconceived 
in  the  divine  mind.  The  three  classes  of  these  secondary  causes 
have  already  been  described  in  the  discussion  of  the  various  ways 
in  which  God  executes  his  eternal  and  original  decrees:  those 
which  belong  to  the  sphere  of  material  things,  acting  under  a 
law  of  necessity  which  is  absolute  and  unchanging;  those  which 
find  their  chief  representative  in  the  human  will,  and  which 
though  deriving  their  efficiency  from  God  are  still  relatively  free 
and  in  some  degree  independent  of  his  control;  and  those  (really 
belonging  to  the  second  class)  which  induce  results  such  as  God 
could  have  chosen  only  in  the  way  of  permission,  and  such  as  he 
must  powerfully  bound  if  he  does  not  altogether  prevent  them. 
And  the  Symbols  teach  that  in  each  of  these  three  spheres  pro- 
vidence works  equally,  though  by  diversified  methods  and 
agencies,  but  always  works  supremely,  and  in  perfect  wisdom  and 
righteousness  as  well  as  with  an  infinite  potency. 

Objection  is  often  made  to  this  conception  of  divine  providence 
on  the  ground  of  both  its  vastness  and  its  minuteness,  as  includ- 
ing alike  planetary  systems  and  the  tiniest  atom,  and  also  on 
the  further  ground  of  its  inconceivable  complexity.  That  noth- 
ing in  nature  is  either  too  great  or  too  small  to  be  comprehended 
within  such  providence  is  obvious,  although  the  mind  in  what- 
ever direction  it  turns  is  utterly  baffled  by  the  consequent  mystery 
that  confronts  it.  A  still  greater  mystery  presents  itself  when- 
ever the  attempt  is  made  to  comprehend  a  process  which  embraces 
alike  the  movements  of  nations  and  races,  and  the  most  trivial  act 
or  volition  of  the  individual  man  whose  personal  identity  seems 
totally  lost  amid  the  almost  innumerable  multitude  of  mankind. 
But  the  inconceivable  complexity  of  such  a  problem,  the  marvel- 
ous blending  and  interblending  of  so  many  agencies  in  such  ways 
as  to  secure  through  all  their  interactions  one  comprehensive 
result,  one  perfect  consummation,  is  perhaps  the  deepest  mystery 
of  all.  What  Bishop  Butler  in  his  discussion  of  the  government 
of  God  as  a  scheme  imperfectly  comprehended,  impressively 
describes  as  this  little  scene  of  human  life,  shrinks  into  utter 
nothingness  when  conceived  in  its  relations  to  such  an  inexplicable 
process  as  this.  Nor  is  it  strange  that  such  a  doctrine  should 
perplex  even  the  most  thoughtful  Christian  minds, — still  less  that 


222  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

it  should  confound  the  natural  man,  and  lead  him  even  to 
bewilderment  or  despair.  Yet  in  the  presence  of  such  vast 
mystery  there  remains  a  firm  foundation  for  the  religious  belief 
that  in  and  through  all  such  complexity  an  eternal  purpose  is 
present,  and  that  God  at  last  will  transform  this  mingled  web 
into  a  vision  of  transcendent  beauty  and  glory.  One  of  the  most 
impressive  passages  in  the  great  treatise  of  Jonathan  Edwards  on 
the  Work  of  Redemption,  is  that  in  which  he  compares  the  pro- 
vidence of  God  to  a  large  and  long  river,  having  innumerable 
branches,  beginning  in  different  regions,  and  at  a  great  distance 
one  from  another,  but  all  conspiring  to  one  common  issue.  After 
their  very  diverse  and  contrary  courses  which  they  hold  for  a 
while,  yet  they  all  gather  more  and  more  together,  the  nearer 
they  come  to  their  common  end,  and  all  at  length  discharge 
themselves  at  one  mouth  into  the  same  ocean.  The  different 
streams  of  this  river,  he  adds,  are  apt  to  appear  like  mere  jumble  and 
confusion  to  us,  because  of  the  limitedness  of  our  sight,  whereb}- 
we  cannot  see  from  one  branch  to  another,  and  cannot  see  the 
whole  at  once,  so  as  to  discover  how  all  are  united  in  one.  Their 
course  seems  very  crooked,  and  different  streams  seem  to  run 
for  a  while  different  and  contrary  ways;  and  if  we  view  things  at 
a  distance,  there  seem  to  be  innumerable  obstacles  and  impedi- 
ments in  the  way  to  hinder  their  ever  uniting  and  coming  to  the 
ocean,  as  rocks  and  mountains  and  the  like;  but  yet  if  we  trace 
them,  they  all  unite  at  last,  and  all  come  to  the  same  issue,  dis- 
gorging themselves  in  one  mouth  into  the  same  great  ocean, — 
not  one  of  all  the  streams  failing  of  coming  hither  at  last. 

Of  the  working  of  Providence  in  nature,  nothing  further  need 
be  said  in  this  connection,     That  God  executes  his  decrees,  in  the 

language  of  the  Catechism,  in  absolute 
14.    Providence  and  free-  •     ,     A,  •.       L  ^1  , 

dom:     Providence  and  sin.     sovereignty  throughout  the  vast  realm 

of  nature,  is  a  postulate  which  not- 
withstanding the  manifold  perplexities  and  mysteries  involved  in 
it,  no  thoughtful  mind  can  refrain  from  accepting.  It  is  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Symbols,  as  to  the  providential  ordering  of  all  things 
in  such  a  way  that  they  fall  out  according  to  the  nature  of  second 
causes,  freely,  which  specially  demands  attention  here.  What- 
ever they  teach  as  to  the  deadness  of  the  human  will  when  sinful, 
and  whether  in  fact  their  statements  on  the  two  points  of  dead- 
ness and  liberty  do  actually  harmonize,  it  cannot  be  questioned 
that  an  important  distinction  is  recognized  in  them  between  causes 
which  are  necessary  and  causes  which  are  in  some  profound  sense 
and  measure  free.     However  strong  the  emphasis  laid  on  the  fact 


PROVIDENCE  AND  FREEDOM  :  PROVIDENCE  AND  SIN.   223 

<that  in  providence  all  things  come  to  pass  immutably  and  infallibly, 
as  well  in  human  life  as  in  nature,  yet  the  broad  antithetic  state- 
ment stands  (Ch.  IX),  that  God  hath  endued  the  will  of  man  with 
that  natural  liberty  that  it  is  neither  forced,  nor  by  any  necessity 
of  nature  determined  to  good  or  evil.  It  may  be  admitted  that  a 
strong  bias  existed  in  the  Assembly  toward  the  laying  of  supreme 
stress  on  the  former  part  of  the  composite  fact:  its  members  were 
too  true  to  their  cardinal  position  respecting  the  divine  sover- 
eignty, to  allow  any  occasion  to  pass  for  the  emphatic  iteration  of 
the  doctrine,  though  they  must  sometimes  have  been  conscious 
that  they  were  pushing  their  teaching  into  extreme  forms.  But 
they  were  also  too  true  to  Scripture,  and  to  their  own  deep  con- 
victions, to  let  their  formulated  system  go  forth  to  the  world  with- 
out some  clear,  strong,  regulating  statement  respecting  the  natural 
liberty,  the  true  freedom  and  consequently  the  proper  accounta- 
bility of  man,  viewed  as  a  creature  acting  voluntarily  both  in 
providence  and  in  grace.  It  is  to  their  credit  that,  even  at  the  risk 
of  inconsistency,  they  taught  so  clearly  that  the  will  of  man  even 
when  he  is  fallen,  is  never  forced  or  by  any  natural  necessity  de- 
termined either  to  good  or  to  evil. 

Postponing  the  full  exposition  of  this  language  until  we  come 
to  consider  in  detail  the  moral  constitution  and  position  of  man 
under  the  divine  law,  we  may  here  note  especially  what  is  taught 
respecting  the  general  relations  of  providence  to  human  sin.  It 
is  said  that  this  providence  extendeth  to  the  first  fall  and  all  other 
sins  of  a?igels  arid  men,  so  that  these  are  as  truly  to  be  viewed  as 
parts  and  developments  of  it,  as  are  the  movements  of  the  stars 
or  the  activities  of  unfallen  spirits  in  heaven  itself.  Nor  is  this 
providence  limited  to  a  bare  permission  of  this  result:  joined  to 
this,  and  as  correlative  to  it,  there  is  affirmed  a  most  wise  and  poiv- 
erful  bounding-  of  all  sin,  so  that  it  can  never  overleap  the  lines 
which  God  has  prescribed  for  its  imprisonment.  More  than  this: 
God  appears  providentially  otherwise  ordering  and  governing  these 
bad  developments,  and  this  in  a  manifold  dispensation,  in  some 
complex  and  diversified  methods,  in  order  after  all  to  secure 
through  them  his  own  holy  ends.  It  may  be  that  the  Assembly  were 
not  agreed  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  sin,  thus  both  permitted 
and  bounded,  could  be  made  tributary  to  the  holy  ends  by  which 
the  divine  conduct  is  regulated:  traces  of  differing  opinion  are 
apparent  not  merely  in  the  debates,  but  in  the  Symbols  them- 
selves. Yet  they  could  together  see  and  confess  that  not  merely 
the  almighty  power,  but  also  the  unsearchable  wisdom  and  even  the 
infinite  goodness  of  God  are  manifest  in  the  handling,  ordering, 


224  GOD    IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

controlling  of  this  vast  evil,  as  well  as  in  its  original  admission 
into  the  holy  order  of  the  universe. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  in  this  connection  how  careful  the 
Symbols  are  to  protect  the  divine  character  from  aspersion  in  view 
of  this  dread  mystery  of  sin,  bounded  and  finally  overruled  for 
good,  yet  permitted  both  to  come  into  and  to  remain  in  this  sub- 
lime providential  scheme.  While  declaring  unequivocally  the 
supremacy  of  God  according  to  which  all  things  come  to  pass 
immutably  and  infallibly — subtracting  nothing  from  the  fullness 
of  their  teachings  on  this  point,  they  still  affirm  that  God  neither 
is,  nor  can  be,  the  author  or  approver  of  sin, — his  direct  causal 
force  sustaining  no  perceptible  relation  to  either  its  introduction 
or  its  dreadful  growth  or  progress.  On  the  other  hand,  they  for- 
tify this  position  by  the  added  declaration,  that  the  sinfulness  of 
sin  in  every  case  and  in  all  varieties  procccdeth  only  from  the  crea- 
ture and  not  from  God.  According  to  these  statements,  God  has 
put  forth  no  decree  of  which  sin  is  the  immediate  and  inevitable 
consequence:  he  has  exercised  no  volition,  exerted  no  energy,  to 
induce  sin  or  to  perpetuate  it;  while  in  some  sense  giving  con- 
sent to  its  presence,  he  has  never  approved  or  blessed  it.  Sin 
came  rather  from  the  creature,  and  from  the  creature  whether 
angel  or  man  as  constitutionally  free,  and  from  the  creature  in 
the  exercise  of  a  liberty  divinely  given,  under  a  responsibility 
such  as  carries  with  it  everlasting  issues  and  retributions  divinely 
inflicted.  While  God  neither  produces  nor  approves,  he  does 
bound,  limit,  govern  and  order  sin,  by  methods  manifold  and  full 
alike  of  wisdom  and  of  grace,  in  the  determination  that  at  last 
every  perfect  attribute  of  his  character  shall  be  more  clearly  dis- 
played, and  the  righteousness  of  his  administration  be  made 
forever  glorious  in  the  eyes  of  all  his  creatures. 

Comparing  the  Symbols  at  this  point  with  other  Protestant 
confessions  we  discern  a  general  resemblance,  associated  with  some 
marked  contrasts  in  thought  and  expression.  The  Augsburg  Con- 
fession teaches  (XIX)  that  although  God  doth  create  and  pre- 
serve nature,  yet  the  cause  of  sin  is  the  will  of  the  wicked  ... 
which  will,  God  not  aiding,  turneth  itself  from  God.  And  as  to 
the  liberty  of  will  remaining  in  man  as  sinful,  it  affirms  (XVIII) 
that  this  will  hath  some  liberty  to  work  a  civil  righteousness,  and 
to  choose  such  things  as  reason  can  attain  unto;  but  it  hath  no 
power  to  work  a  spiritual  righteousness  without  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Of  the  relations  of  providence  to  human  sinfulness,  it  says  noth- 
ing except  that  God  doth  create  and  preserve  nature  even  when 
that  nature  is  sinful.     The  Second  Helvetic  Conf.   declares  that 


SYMBOLIC   TESTIMONIES.  225 

all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  and  all  creatures  are  conserved  and 
governed  by  the  providence  of  a  wise,  eternal  and  omnipotent 
God, — affirms  that  this  providence  is  in  harmony  with  human 
effort,  and  justifies  instead  of   rendering  such  effort  useless, — 
holds  that  sin  originates  with  man  under  this  providential  sys- 
tem, he  declining  toward  evil,   and  involving  himself  in  trans- 
gression and  death, — and  finally  remands  the  inquiry  respecting 
the  nature  of  the  divine  relation  to  this  result,  to  that  category 
of  questiones  curiosae  respecting  whose  discussion  God  has  inter- 
posed  his   solemn   prohibition.     The    Catechism   of  Heidelberg 
holds  (9-10)  that  God  so  made  man  that  he  could  perform  the 
law,  but  that  man,  through  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  by  will- 
ful disobedience  deprived  himself  of  this  ability;  God  on  the  one 
side  permitting  this  lapse  into  evil,  and  on  the  other  holding  man  to 
full  and  just  account  for  all  his  transgression.     The  Belgic  Con- 
fession contains  the  single  proposition  that  God,  having  created 
all  things,  (XIII)  rules  and  governs  them  according  to  his  holy 
will,  so  that  nothing  happens  without  his  appointment:  never- 
theless, God  neither  is  the  author  of,  nor  can  be  charged  with, 
the  sins  which  are  committed.     Of  the  British  creeds,   the  Irish 
Articles  contain  by  far  the  most  elaborate  and  interesting  state- 
ment of  the  doctrine  in  the  strong  declaration  (11),  that  God  from 
all  eternity  did  by  his  unchangeable  counsel  ordain  whatsoever  in 
time  should  come  to  pass,  yet  so  as  thereby  no  violence  is  offered 
to  the  wills  of  the  reasonable  creatures,  and  neither  the  liberty 
nor  the  contingency  of   the  second  causes  is  taken  away,   but 
established  rather.     In  addition  we  are  taught  (21)  that  the  image 
of  God,  as  originally  given  to  man,   consisted  especially  in  the 
freedom  of  his  mind,  and  the  true  holiness  of  his  free  will;  and 
that  sin  is  not  a  necessity  of  nature  but  consists  in  the  willful 
departure  of  the  soul  from  God  and  from  holiness — God  permitting 
such  departure.     God,   however,  is  not  the  author  of  sin,  how- 
beit  (28)  he  doth  not  only  permit,  but  also  by  his  providence 
govern  and  order  the  same,  guiding  it  in  such  sort  by  his  infinite- 
wisdom  as  it  turneth  to  the  manifestation  of  his  own  glory.     No 
continental  creed  is  so  full  or  so  clear  on  this  point,  and  the  West 
minster  Symbols  do  little  more  than  to  repeat  what  is  here  so 
tersely  and  strongly  stated. — The  subject  will  come  up  again  for 
consideration  in  connection  with  the  study  of  Man  in  his  moral 
constitution,  his  liberty  of  will,  his  fall,   his  condition  as  sinful 
yet  responsible  before  God,  and  the  gracious  possibilities  remain 
ing  in  him. 

In  connection  with  these  generic  relations  of  providence  to  man 


226  GOD    IN  HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

an/i  to  sin,  the  Confession  introduces  two  special  aspects  of  the 

same  theme,  of  which  the  first  is  the 
15,  Providence  over  Saints  .  ,      .  ,.         e  .,.  ., 

d  the  f  hurch  special  relation  ot  this  providence  to 

saints  and  to  the  Church.  It  is  a 
beautiful  description  which  is  here  given  (Sec.  v)  of  the  tender 
ministries  of  God  by  his  providence  toward  his  own  children  by 
grace.  Sometimes  indeed  he  is  said  to  leave  them  for  a  season  to 
manifold  temptatio?is,  and  the  corruption  of  their  own  hearts, — his 
object  being,  it  is  said,  to  chastise  them  for  their  former  sins,  or 
to  discover  unto  them  the  hidden  strength  of  corruption  and 
deceitfulness  of  their  hearts,  so  that  they  may  be  humbled. 
Sometimes  they  are  said  to  be  by  his  providence  raised  to  a  more 
close  and  constant  dependence  for  their  support  upon  himself,  and  are 
taught  new  lessons  of  trust  in  him  who  thus  makes  his  providen- 
tial conspire  together  with  his  gracious  ministries  for  their  highest 
good.  It  is  said  that  sundry  other  j  ust  and  holy  ends  are  secured 
by  these  providential  ministrations, — God  especially  contemplat- 
ing the  true  welfare  of  his  children  even  in  his  control  of  nature, 
and  particularly  subordinating  to  their  benefit  all  the  general 
movements  and  events  of  human  life.  Providence  over  the  mate- 
rial universe,  and  providence  over  the  world  of  humanity  in  gen- 
eral, are  here  regarded  as  tributary  to  that  more  specific  and 
gracious  providence  which  finds  the  choicest  field  of  its  activity 
within  the  experience  and  life  of  those  whom  God  regards  as  in 
the  highest  spiritual  sense  his  children. 

It  has  been  with  some  justice  urged  as  a  criticism  upon  this 
confessional  statement,  that  it  emphasizes  especially  the  disciplin- 
ary aspects  of  the  doctrine,  but  brings  out  too  slightly  its  com- 
forting aspects  and  relations.  The  Westminster  divines  were 
apparently  more  anxious  to  set  forth  the  sovereignty  in  providence 
even  toward  the  righteous,  than  to  portray  the  divine  fatherhood 
as  thus  ministering  in  infinite  tenderness  to  every  saint,  and 
ordering  all  things  for  good  to  those  who  are  graciously  the 
children  of  God.  A  chastising,  rebuking,  humbling,  reforming 
providence  presents  itself  in  the  foreground  of  the  picture.  There 
should  be  added  in  our  thought  the  conception  of  a  ministering, 
supporting,  comforting  providence,  a  solace  in  all  affliction,  a 
crowning  joy  in  all  prosperity,  an  inward  presence  and  power  and 
blessing,  as  well  as  an  external  protection  against  sin  and  tempt- 
ation, and  a  chastening  hand  in  seasons  of  wandering  from  duty. 
We  need  as  believers  to  see  a  divine  Father,  watching  with  bound- 
less tenderness  over  his  elect  children,  dwelling  ever  in  and  with 
them  for  their  temporal  and  their  spiritual  good,  as  well  as  a 


PROVIDENCE    OVER    SAINTS    AND   THE    CHURCH.  227 

glorious  Sovereign,  ruling  over  them  and  overcoming  all  their 
enemies  by  his  resistless  power.  In  a  word,  the  doctrine  should 
always  inspire  us  and  all  believers,  not  only  to  trustful  submission, 
but  to  filial  and  joyous  hymns  of  praise. 

And  as  this  conception  of  the  doctrine  presents  what  may  be 
regarded  as  the  loftiest  view  of  that  providence,  so  the  sublimest 
phase  of  this  conception  is  found  in  such  providence  as  (Sec.  vii) 
surrounding  upholding,  protecting  the  Church.  In  regard  to  the 
written  Scriptures,  we  are  taught  elsewhere  that  as  the  Book  of 
God  the  Bible  hath  by  his  singular  care  and  providence  been  kept 
pure  in  all  ages.  In  like  manner  we  are  here  taught  that  the 
providence  of  God  after  a  most  special  manner  taketh  care  of  his 
Church,  and  disposeth  all  things  to  the  good  thereof.  It  has  been 
questioned  whether  the  doctrine  of  such  special  providence  over 
saints  and  over  the  Church,  as  here  defined,  is  not  somewhat  at 
variance  with  the  generic  teaching  of  our  Lord  touching  a  divine 
care  which  includes  alike  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  which 
sendeth  rain  equally  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust.  We  are  cer- 
tainly not  to  conceive  of  two  schemes  of  providence,  working  by 
divergent  methods,-  and  bringing  to  pass  one  result  for  the  wicked, 
and  another  for  the  holy.  But  while  as  our  Lord  taught,  the 
plan  of  God  in  providence  does  include  all  men,  it  still  is  true 
that  this  providence  is  administered  in  the  interest  of  grace,  and 
in  many  ways  concerns  itself  specifically  with  the  welfare  and  the 
culture  of  those  who  believe.  And  as  the  Church,  the  spiritual 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  is  really  even  above  the  individual 
Christian  the  supreme  object  of  divine  interest  and  love,  it  cannot 
be  otherwise  than  that  God  even  after  a  most  special  manner 
does  dispose  all  things  to  the  good  thereof.  Here  we  may  devoutly 
recognize  Christ  as  the  Lord  of  providence  as  well  as  redemption, 
causing  all  things  to  work  together  for  good  to  his  people,  and 
lifting  the  welfare  and  glory  of  his  Church  into  special  prominence 
as  the  transcendent  object  to  be  gained  through  his  mediation. 
And  what  a  commentary  on  this  teaching  do  we  find  in  the 
remarkable  career  of  that  Church, — in  the  story  of  its  fortunes, 
conflicts,  advances,  influence  and  attainments  among  men!  If 
there  be  any  object  on  which  we  have  conclusive  evidence  that 
the  triune  God  has  lavished  supreme  providential  care — any 
any  object  for  whose  highest  good  all  other  things  have  mani- 
festly been  disposed — is  it  not  that  Holy  Church  whose  existence 
has  been  the  marvel  of  the  ages,  and  whose  present  position  in 
the  world  is  the  one  problem  which  unbelief  confesses  itself 
unable  to  solve? 


228  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

It  is  impracticable  in  this  Lecture  to  enter  upon  an  examination 
of  the  various  questions,   some  of  them  speculative  and  others 

more  or  less  distinctly  practical,  which 

16.  Providence  and  Prayer,     spontaneously  suggest   themselves   in 

how  related:  Prayer  effec-     ,,  .  c  , ,  .,  c  ~   A 

this  surve3^  of  the  providence  or  God 

toward  his  saints  and  toward  his 
organized  Church.  Most  of  these  will  come  within  range  as  we 
progress  in  these  confessional  studies.  We  may  here  pause  to 
consider,  in  part  at  least,  one  intensely  practical  question  arising 
in  this  connection, — whether  prayer  has  any  true  place  in  a  pro- 
per conception  of  providence,  and  whether  the  answers  to  prayer 
are  really  in  some  way  joined  in  and  made  parts  of  this  universal 
scheme  of  administration.  Prayer  is  tersely  defined  (L,.  C.  178, 
S.  C.  98)  as  the  offering  up  of  our  desires  unto  God  for  things 
agreeable  to  his  will,  in  the  name  of  Christ; — including  indeed 
the  confession  of  our  sins,  and  thankful  acknowledgment  of 
mercies  already  received,  as  well  as  such  petition  for  further 
good.  Does  prayer,  as  thus  defined,  really  avail  in  the  way  of 
obtaining  anything  which  in  the  grand  scheme  of  providence 
would  not  otherwise  have  been  given  to  the  petitioner  ?  Does 
God  alter  or  modify  that  general  scheme,  putting  some  new  ele- 
ment or  effect  into  it,  as  often  as  the  desire  of  one  of  his  spiritual 
children  is  made  known  to  him  in  the  sweet  communion  and 
mystery  of  prayer?  Have  our  petitions  any  real  efficiency  to 
secure  results  which  would  not  have  transpired  otherwise  ?  Shall 
we  say  with  Kant  that  prayer,  philosophically  viewed,  is  only  a 
slight  paroxysm  of  madness — an  exercise  of  the  soul  which  rests 
on  no  rational  basis?  Or  on  the  other  hand,  with  Luthardt, 
(Fundamental  Truths)  that  prayer  is  a  real  power  in  the  world, 
which  it  pleaseth  God  to  take  up  into  the  mingled  web  of  his 
providential  government?  To  these  queries  the  Symbols  furnish 
a  practical  rather  than  a  speculative  answer.  They  teach  what 
is  most  cardinal  and  essential  in  the  case, — that  God  exists  in 
his  personality  and  supremacy,  with  full  power  to  sway  every- 
thing throughout  the  created  universe  as  he  pleases, — that  he  is 
actually  exercising  both  a  providential  and  a  moral  government 
over  men,  administering  both  forms  of  such  government  in  the 
interest  of  humanity,  and  especially  in  the  interest  of  his  church 
and  people, — that  he  has  enjoined  prayer(XXI:iii)  upon  all  men 
as  an  imperative  duty,  to  be  observed  according  to  his  will,  in  the 
name  of  Christ  and  by  the  help  of  the  divine  Spirit,  with  the 
confident  expectation  that  suitable  answers  will  be  graciously 
given, — and  that  he  does  in  fact  regard  the  desires  and  pleadings 


PROVIDENCE    AND    PRAYER.  229 

of  his  children,  and  so  orders  events  as  to  secure  in  such  adminis- 
tration the  blessings,  natural  and  spiritual,  which  they  really 
need  and  for  which  they  truly  pray.  The  spirit  in  which  prayer 
should  be  offered  for  such  blessings  is  also  prescribed,  and  the 
proper  subjects  of  petition  are  named,  including  not  merely 
spiritual  blessings,  but  all  things  that  are  truly  needful,  whether 
for  ourselves  or  others  or  for  the  Church:  L,.  C.  182-4;  Directory 
for  Worship,  Ch.  V.  The  promises  of  God  in  his  Word  are  repeat- 
edly cited  as  giving  unquestionable  assurance  that  all  true  prayer, 
whether  for  spiritual  or  for  temporal  good,  shall  be  heard  and 
answered.  We  are  certainly  guarded  by  such  teaching  against 
the  skeptical  suggestion  that  prayer  is  valueless,  or  the  kindred 
vSUggestion  that  it  has  a  subjective  value  only,  and  is  to  be  offered 
simply  as  an  expression  of  the  feeling  and  spirit  of  the  offerer. 
There  is  indeed  a  real  value  in  such  subjective  effect  of  sincere 
prayer,  as  a  development  of  faith,  a  choice  of  the  highest  good, 
a  sweet  sense  of  dependence,  a  conscious  humility  and  submis- 
sion, and  an  awakened  joy  and  peace  in  God  as  a  source  of  all 
blessing.  But  the  statements  quoted  imply  much  more  than  this: 
a  real  outward  or  objective  efficiency  is  clearly  assumed  in  them 
— an  actual  and  vital  connection  of  inestimable  significance  be- 
tween prayer  and  the  resultant  blessing. 

But  of  the  nature  of  that  connection  nothing  is  said.  Old  as 
the  problem  is  in  Christian  theology,  it  was  not  an  issue  of  special 
prominence  during  the  period  in  which  the  Symbols  were  written. 
That  the  Assembly  heartily  and  unanimously  believed  in  the  ob- 
jective efficiency  of  prayer,  cannot  be  doubted  by  any  reader  of 
the  record  of  their  religious  convocations  and  devotions.  They 
were  not  deterred  in  their  earnest  supplications  either  by  their  pro- 
found conviction  that  God  had  foreordained  immutably  whatso- 
ever comes  to  pass,  or  by  their  faith  in  the  divine  omniscience  as 
already  cognizant  of  their  various  needs,  or  in  the  fatherly  be- 
nevolence of  God  whereby  he  is  made  willing  to  grant  his  children 
all  needful  good  even  before  they  ask  him.  But  whether  such 
efficacy  should  be  explained  on  the  simple  theory  of  the  divine 
will,  working  as  the  sole  force  in  the  field  of  providence,  or  on 
that  of  an  established  concursus  between  the  divine  will  and  all 
secondary  forces  or  causes  tending  to  produce  results  in  that  field, 
or  on  that  of  an  arranged  harmony  between  the  two  spheres  of 
providence  and  grace  whereby  the  issues  of  the  former  are  eter- 
nally fitted  into  the  need  and  unfolding  of  the  latter,  the  divines 
of  Westminster  did  not  assume  to  say.  The  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem may  lie  beyond  the  range  of  mortal  vision.     But  we  may  be 


230  GOD   IN   HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

assured  even  ou  rational  grounds  that  in  such  an  economy  as  that 
which  God  is  administering  in  providence,  prayer  becomes  in  some 
way  a  real  power, — that  its  efficacy  is  not  limited  to  subjective 
results  experienced  by  the  offerer,  and  that  not  only  spiritual  but 
temporal  good  is  included  within  its  scope.  Though  it  is  not  a 
physical  cause  or  form  of  energy,  whose  effects  can  be  measured 
as  those  of  physical  causes  or  energies  may  be,  still  an  immanent 
Deity,  living  himself  within  nature  yet  above  it,  may  utilize  a 
prayer  as  a  real  force  or  power,  inducing  results  which  would 
not  otherwise  have  been  effected  in  his  great  providential  scheme. 
To  use  the  admission  of  Tyndall,  it  is  no  departure  from  scientific 
method  to  place  behind  natural  phenomena  an  Universal  Father 
who,  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  his  children,  alters  the  currents 
of  these  phenomena.  It  is  not  involved  in  this  that  every  true 
prayer  shall  be  answered  in  the  precise  time  and  way  and  form 
indicated  by  the  petitioner,  since  all  true  prayer  is  willingly  con- 
ditioned by  the  supreme  will  of  God,  and  since  he  may  find  it  for 
the  highest  welfare  of  the  suppliant,  either  to  withhold  altogether 
the  blessing  desired,  or  to  bestow  instead  of  it  some  larger  and 
better  gift.  Though  such  prayer  be  in  fact  a  movement  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  within  and  upon  the  soul  of  him  who  offers  it — a  gen- 
uine prayer  of  faith  according  to  the  Bible  for  some  object  as  wor- 
thy, for  example,  as  a  revival  of  religion — there  may  be  external 
conditions,  such  as  the  coldness  or  worldliness  of  a  church,  which 
preclude  the  granting  of  the  request,  precious  though  the  answer 
would  assuredly  be. 

It  is  a  suggestive  fact  that  the  Protestant  symbols  generally, 
while  agreed  in  enforcing  the  duty  and  exalting  the  privilege  of 
prayer,  say  nothing  speculatively  as  to  the  manner  in  which  such 
prayer  is  answered,  in  the  complex  economy  of  providence. 
Luther  in  his  Small  Catechism  says  that  Christ  affectionately  en- 
courages us  to  believe  that  God  is  our  Father,  and  we  are  truly 
his  children,  so  that  we  may  cheerfully  and  with  all  confidence 
pray  to  him  as  dear  children  ask  their  dear  father.  He  adds  that, 
though  the  kingdom  of  God  comes  indeed  of  itself,  and  his  good 
and  gracious  will  is  indeed  done  of  itself  without  our  prayer,  and 
though  even  the  wicked  without  any  prayer  receive  their  daily 
bread,  still  we  ought  to  pray,  as  dear  children  trusting  their  dear 
Father.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  in  the  same  spirit  rests  in  the 
simple  statement:  My  prayer  is  much  more  certainly  heard  of  God 
than  I  feel  in  my  heart  that  I  desire  these  things  of  him  .  .  .  As 
our  King,  having  power  over  all  things,  he  is  both  able  and  willing 
to  give  us  all  good,  and  that  thereby  not  we,  but  his  holy  name 


PROVIDENCE    TOWARD    THE    WICKED.  231 

may  be  glorified  forever.  This  reticence  as  to  the  theory  of  prayer 
is  the  more  remarkable,  if  viewed  in  contrast  with  such  elaborate 
expositions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  are  found  in  conjunction 
with  so  many  of  these  Confessions,  and  also  in  the  Institutes 
and  other  theologies.  It  was  a  necessary  step  in  the  restoration 
of  evangelical  faith,  that  the  subject  of  prayer  should  be  thus 
practically  expounded  and  illustrated  by  the  teaching  of  the  Master 
himself,  both  as  a  marked  antithesis  to  the  ritualisms  of  Rome, 
and  as  a  natural  outgrowth  from  the  deeper  spiritual  life  realized 
in  the  Reformation.  L,iddon,  (Some  Elements  of  Religion),  dis- 
courses eloquently  on  prayer  as  the  characteristic  act  of  religion — 
an  act  which,  in  a  sphere  above  all  speculation,  justifies  itself 
whenever  the  soul  becomes  convinced  of  the  existence  of  a  Being 
such  as  God,  and  conscious  of  its  own  need  and  dependence  on 
him  for  blessing.  Specially  is  prayer  the  characteristic  act  of  the 
Christian  religion,  whether  exemplified  in  the  Old  Testament,  or 
illustrated  in  Christ  and  his  discourses  and  in  the  apostolic  teach- 
ing. Of  its  real  efficacy  in  securing  both  temporal  and  spiritual 
blessing,  no  Christian,  appreciating  the  injunctions  and  the  prom- 
ises of  Holy  Writ,  can  reasonably  doubt,  however  perplexing  or 
insoluble  the  method  of  divine  providence  in  answering  such 
prayer  may  be.  Protestantism  has  ever  rested  eminently,  and  in 
the  most  vital  sense  still  rests  in  the  doctrine,  that  true  prayer  is 
not  only  heard  before  God,  but  becomes  in  his  administration 
of  things  a  causal  force,  actually  effecting  the  order  of  that 
administration,  and  obtaining  results  which  would  not  otherwise 
have  been  enjoyed  by  the  suppliant  or  by  others.  And  this  doc- 
trine is  to  be  accepted  as  true,  however  great  the  diversity  in 
accounting  for  such  causal  efficiency,  or  even  in  the  absence  of 
any  adequate  mode  of  explanation.  In  any  view  the  ultimate 
ground  of  prayer  lies  in  the  fact  that  God  is  free  Will  and  that  as 
free  Will  he  can  and  does  control  both  the  system  of  nature  and 
the  course  of  humanity;  and  in  the  further  fact  that  his  Will  is 
capable  of  being  influenced  by  our  desires — by  the  free  will  in  us  as 
his  subjects  and  his  children:  McCosh,  Divine  Gov.  B  II:  Ch.  II; 
Hopkins,  Prayer  and  the  Prayer  Guage. 

The  other  special  aspect  of  the  doctrine  under  consideration 
relates  to  the  agency  of  divine  providence  with  respect  to  wicked 

and  ungodly  men.     Enough  has  been  m  . 

. ,    ,       ,        .,  ,*    t1      ,.  .  17.  Providence  toward  the 

said  already  with  regard  to  the  divine     wlcked .  Providence  and  ret. 

permission  of  such  sinfulness,  and  to     ribution 
the  providential  ordering  and  bound- 
ing of  it  in  such  ways  as  to  prevent  the  impairing  of  the  divine 


232  GOD   IN    HIS   ACTIVITIES. 

government  thereby.  It  is  sufficient  at  this  point  simply  to 
direct  attention  to  the  kind  and  patient  action  of  providence  toward 
the  evil  and  the  unjust, — the  forbearance  or  long  suffering  of  the 
Deity  in  view  of  continued  wickedness  and  unbelief.  While  every 
sin,  even  the  least,  (L,.  C.  152)  being  against  the  sovereignty,  good- 
ness and  holiness  of  God,  and  against  his  righteous  law,  deserveth 
his  wrath  and  curse,  yet  he  is  described  as  most  loving,  gracious, 
merciful,  (Conf.  II :  i)  long- suffering,  abundant  in  goodness  and 
truth,  and  in  this  temper  showing  mercy  even  to  the  unthankful 
and  the  rebellious.  Such,  especially  under  the  Gospel,  is  the 
action  of  providence  in  the  interest  of  grace, — God  bringing  all 
the  resources  of  his  love  and  care  to  bear  upon  every  sinner,  often 
through  long  periods  of  time,  if  haply  the  sinning  soul  may  thus 
be  brought  to  repentance.  At  this  point  his  providence  becomes 
a  willing  handmaid  to  his  scheme  of  grace.  In  strict  equity  the 
postponing  of  punishment  justly  due  on  the  instant  of  transgres- 
sion, the  present  chastisement  mingled  with  the  long  delay  of 
penalty,  the  bestowment  meanwhile  of  undeserved  temporal  good, 
the  winning  voices  of  a  vast  chorus  of  blessings  hourly  sent,  are 
explicable  only  on  the  principle  that  in  all  this  God  is  steadily 
endeavoring  to  bring  the  sinful  soul  back  to  himself  in  penitence 
and  allegiance.  The  purpose  and  the  offered  possibility  of  grace 
and  ultimate  salvation,  in  a  word,  are  the  key  and  the  only  key 
to  the  wondrous  benignities  of  such  providence. 

But  there  is  another  and  very  different  action  of  providence,  in 
the  case  of  those  who  notwithstanding  all  divine  inducements  per- 
sist in  sin.  Here,  as  the  chapter  declares,  (Sec.  vi)  God  sometimes 
withholdeth  his  grace,  whereby  they  might  have  been  enlightened 
in  their  understandings  and  wrought  upon  in  their  hearts.  He  also 
sometimes  withdraweth  the  gifts  which  they  had,  when  these  gifts 
are  persistently  perverted  and  abused.  God  also  expose th  them, 
it  is  added,  to  such  objects  as  then  co?ruption  makes  occasion  of  sin, 
leaving  them  at  liberty  to  work  out  the  wickedness  they  have 
desired.  Nay  more:  He  gives  them  over  to  the  temptations  of  the 
world  and  the  power  of  Satan;  whereby  it  comes  to  pass  that  they 
harde?i  themselves  even  under  those  means  which  he  useth  for  the 
softening  of  others.  Terrible  as  this  description  is,  and  severe  as 
the  conviction  that  dictated  it  may  seem  to  many  minds,  the  de- 
lineation is  unquestionably  true.  Providence,  in  this  case,  is  seen 
to  be  acting  in  the  form,  on  one  side  of  chastisement,  but  on 
another  of  just  retribution.  The  same  process  which  is  employed 
so  constantly  to  encourage  and  reward  the  righteous,  following 
them  even  in  this  life  with  blessings,  and  verifying  the  divine 


PROVIDENCE    AND    RETRIBUTION.  233 

tenderness  toward  them  in  numberless  forms  of  mercy,  is  now 
turned  as  a  sharp  sword  against  the  persistent  enemies  of  God, 
and  made  even  in  this  world  an  instrument,  first  of  discipline, 
then  of  retribution. 

The  doctrine  of  a  providence  which  is  not  only  disciplinary  but 
retributive  in  this  life,  as  introductory  to  further  retribution  hereaf- 
ter, in  the  case  of  those  who  prove  themselves  incorrigibly  wicked, 
receives  occasional  illustration  in  the  earlier  Protestant  creeds, 
as  it  is  indeed  a  clear  and  solemn  doctrine  of  Scripture.  Luther 
suggests  it  in  his  catechetical  explanation  of  the  commandments, 
where  such  retribution  is  said  to  be  specially  set  forth  by  the 
divine  hand,  and  the  Catechism  of  Heidelberg  in  like  manner 
affirms  that  the  just  judgments  of  God  in  time  as  well  as  in  eternity 
rest  upon  those  who  sin  against  him.  The  Second  Helvetic  Con- 
fession pronounces  its  condemnation  on  those  who  say  that  God 
concerns  himself  about  celestial  things,  but  neither  sees  nor  cares 
what  is  done  by  man  whether  good  or  evil  in  this  life.  The  Belgic 
Confession  represents  divine  providence  as  supreme  over  all  alike, 
and  as  working  out  its  sovereign  effects  in  the  case  of  both  the 
righteous  and  the  ungodly,  during  this  life  as  well  as  hereafter. 
Other  references  of  like  character  might  be  quoted.  Yet  it  should 
be  said  that  no  such  comprehensive  doctrine  of  retributive  provi- 
dence in  the  present  life  as  the  Christian  Church  now  generally 
maintains,  was  developed  during  the  century  of  the  Reformation; 
and  that  the  thought  of  Protestantism  was  then  turned  chiefly  upon 
that  period  beyond  this  life  when  all  beneficent  and  gracious  provi- 
dence is  forever  withdrawn  from  the  wicked,  and  when  discipline 
and  chastisement  change  into  unmixed  and  perpetual  retribution. 

In  the  Larger  Catechism  (19)  this  conception  of  providence 
as  disciplinary  and  retributive  is  applied,  after  the  manner  of  some 
earlier  creeds,  such  as  the  French  Confession,  (VII)  the  Belgic 
(XII)  the  Irish  Articles,  (20)  to  the  fallen  angels  as  well  as  to 
wicked  and  ungodly  men.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  affirmed  that 
God  in  his  majestic  providence  establishes  the  holy  angels  in  holi- 
ness and  happiness,  and  employs  them  in  the  administration  of  his 
power,  mercy  and  justice, — so  acting  upon  them  and  so  utilizing 
them  that  they  are  confirmed  in  holy  character,  and  made  meet  for 
their  blessed  estate  forever.  But  on  the  other  hand,  under  the 
same  majestic  scheme  of  providence,  God  is  said  not  only  to  have 
permitted  some  of  the  angels  wilfully  and  irrecoverably  to  fall  into 
sin  and  damnation,  but  also  to  be  limiting  and  ordering  that  fall 
and  all  their  sins  to  his  own  glory  in  such  manner  that,  while  they 
are    consigned    to  wrath    to  be  for  their  sin    inflicted,    his  own 


234  GOD   IN   HIS  ACTIVITIES. 

supremacy  and  glory  are  forever  secured  in  them.  There  is  indi- 
cated in  these  statements  a  doctrine  respecting  probation  as  appli- 
cable to  angels  as  well  as  to  mankind; — possibly  a  still  broader 
probation  which,  with  all  its  solemn  alternatives  of  blessing  and 
penalty,  and  as  a  mode  of  developing  character,  is  carried  on 
under  diversified  conditions,  throughout  the  entire  universe  of 
rational  and  moral  beings.  We  may  at  least  say  that  this  affirmed 
extension  of  the  scope  of  providence  to  the  angelic  world  as  well 
as  to  humanity,  and  this  action  of  providence  both  in  rewarding 
and  in  punishing  other  orders  of  spiritual  being  as  well  as  man- 
kind, are  fitted  both  to  enlarge  our  conceptions  of  such  provi- 
dence, and  to  inspire  us  with  completer  trust  in  Him  by  whom  it 
is  in  all  these  impressive  forms  administered. 

The  doctrine  of  providence,  as  thus  set  forth  in  the  Symbols, 
obviously  includes  the  moral  as  well  as  the  more  material  or  nat- 
ural   administration    of    God.       That 
18.  Providential  and  moral     ,        ,  ,.         c   ,.~  ,  ,, 

administrations :  Moral  gov-  broad  llGe  of  dlfference.  bet™een  these 
ernment  introduced.  two  administrations  which  Butler  drew 

in  the  following  century  and  which  has 
been  so  carefully  recognized  in  later  times,  especially  among  those 
who  have  realized  the  need  of  such  distinction  in  their  exposition 
of  the  scheme  of  grace,  seems  hardly  to  have  been  apparent  to 
the  divines  of  Westminster.  In  their  treatment  God  as  providen- 
tial Ruler  and  God  as  moral  Governor  are  practically  confused, 
obviously  to  the  injury  of  both  conceptions.  That  such  confusion 
is  a  serious  defect  will  probably  be  admitted  by  any  one  who  has 
fully  apprehended  the  conception  of  God  as  moral  Governor,  en- 
acting distinctively  ethical  law  and  under  a  special  scheme  of 
probation  exercising  his  sovereignty  over  spiritual  creatures  by 
peculiar  processes,  for  the  sublimest  spiritual  ends.  In  treating 
all  divine  administration  as  included  in  the  single  term,  provi- 
dence, as  the  Assembly  did,  this  important  distinction  was  easily 
overlooked.  In  the  Larger  Catechism,  (20)  for  example,  what 
is  termed  the  covenant  of  life,  or  the  covenant  of  works,  is  de- 
scribed as  an  event  occurring  in  the  general  scheme  of  providence. 
God  is  there  represented  as  not  only  placing  man  in  Paradise, 
appointing  him  to  dress  it,  giving  him  liberty  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of 
the  earth,  putting  the  creatures  under  his  dominion,  and  ordain- 
ing marriage  for  his  help,  but  also  as  entering  into  a  covenant  of  life 
with  him  upon  condition  of  personal,  perfect  a?id perpetual  obedience, 
and  thus  instituting  a  plan  or  scheme  of  moral  probation,  in  close 
conjunction  with  his  providential  dealing.  In  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism, ( 12)  this  is  styled  a  special  act  of  providence,  consequent  upon 


PROVIDENTIAL   AND    MORAL   ADMINISTRATIONS.  235 

that  more  generic  operation  of  the  same  providence  which  sup- 
plies the  physical  needs  of  man,  and  which  powerfully  preserves 
and  governs  man  and  all  his  actions.  In  the  exposition  of  the 
L,aw  of  God  (XIX)  where  the  subject  presents  itself  more  fully, 
we  are  taught  that  the  same  covenant,  viewed  as  a  covenant  of 
works,  binds  not  only  our  first  parents  but  also  their  posterity; — 
the  law  continuing  after  the  fall  to  be  a  perfect  rule  of  righteous- 
ness, and  as  such  forever  binding  all,  as  well  justified  persons  as 
others,  to  the  obedience  thereof.  And  the  position  of  man  under 
that  law  is  represented  as  a  part  of  the  general  scheme  not  of  grace 
or  redemption  but  of  providence, — a  special  act  of  that  divine 
Agent  who  under  the  same  economy  provides  fruitful  seasons,  and 
directs  the  planets  in  their  courses  through  the  sky. 

Butler  in  his  admirable  chapter  on  the  Moral  Government  of 
God  (Analogy  Part  I:  Ch.  3)  emphasizes  the  distinction  thus 
overlooked  by  the  Assembly  between  what  he  styles  the  natural 
(or  providential)  government  of  Deity  and  the  higher  form  of 
administration  described  as  moral,  and  indicates  some  of  the  spe- 
cific differences  between  them.  These  differences  have  been  more 
fully  noted  and  elaborated  by  more  recent  writers,  following  out 
the  lines  of  analysis  which  his  profound  mind  had  pointed  out. 
They  appear  chiefly  in  the  different  spheres  and  scope  of  the 
divine  action,  in  the  diversity  in  the  types  of  law  employed  and 
the  application  of  such  law,  in  the  nature  of  the  subjects  gov- 
erned and  the  agency  or  motive  employed,  and  in  the  ends  to  be 
acomplished  through  each  mode  of  administration. — But  as  the 
whole  subject  will  present  itself  again  for  more  complete  inspec- 
tion in  our  consideration  of  man  as  under  moral  law,  and  also  of 
the  law  of  God  itself,  viewed  as  the  supreme  rule  of  right,  further 
reference  to  it  may  be  omitted  at  this  point  in  our  studies. 

The  present  Lecture  may  fitly  close  with  a  general  survey  of  the 
doctrine  respecting  God  in  his  Activites  within  the  three  specific 
spheres  described,  as  to  its  intrinsic  grandeur  on  one  side  and  its 
spiritual  value  on  the  other.  Whatever  objection  may  be  raised  to 
the  conception  of  the  divine  Decree  as  now  defined,  and  however 
overwhelming  the  sense  of  mystery  induced,  the  conception  itself, 
when  seen  to  include  not  only  man  and  the  earth  he  inhabits,  but 
also  all  worlds  and  their  inhabitants  within  the  one  comprehen- 
sive, imperial,  and  immutable  purpose,  becomes  so  great  that  our 
minds  are  utterly  lost  in  the  effort  to  measure  its  sublime  immen- 
sity. Equally  great  is  the  conception  of  the  work  of  Creation, 
when  contemplated  in  its  vastness,  its  majesty  and  its  impenetra- 
ble mystery, — a  work  whose  contemplation  at  once  prostrates  the 


236  GOD    IN    HIS    ACTIVITIES. 

thoughtful  miud  in  humility  and  compels  the  soul  to  adoration. 
But  the  task  of  Providence  seems  even  greater,  and  still  more 
overpowering.  So  far  as  we  know,  the  work  of  creation  is  ended, 
but  the  task  of  providence,  including  in  its  scope  not  merely  our 
human  life  and  this  earth  but  millions  of  other  worlds  with  their 
immeasurable  myriads  of  creatures,  and  caring  for  all  these  con- 
tinuously and  incessantly,  by  day  and  by  night  through  all  the 
generations,  never  forgetting  the  least  insect  that  flutters  through 
its  brief  day  of  being, — this  task  baffles  all  description,  puts  to 
silence  all  philosophy  and  all  human  theologies,  and  permits  no 
mortal  utterance  but  that  of  reverential  wonder  and  worship.  In 
the  presence  of  such  truth,  revealed  alike  in  nature  and  in  Scrip- 
ture, and  verified  by  the  profoundest  convictions  of  the  sanctified 
soul,  of  what  avail  are  the  speculations  and  doubts  of  men  ? 

It  is  well  that  this  doctrine  of  providential  administration  over 
man  whether  holy  or  sinful,  and  over  the  Church,  should  have 
had  such  prominence  and  been  so  strongly  emphasized  in  the  Sym- 
bols of  Westminster,  and  in  the  Protestant  Confessions  generally. 
While  in  form  no  issue  had  arisen  during  the  Reformation  involv- 
ing this  doctrine  especially,  yet  it  was  indispensable  to  the  life  and 
vigor  of  Protestantism  that  it  should  emphasize  thus  earnestly  a 
truth  on  which  the  first  Reformers  had  occasion  so  constantly  to 
rest  in  their  severe  conflict  with  the  papal  power.  It  was  often 
necessary  that  they  should  thus  recognize  practically  as  well  as  in 
theory  the  Hand  that  protected  and  fed,  and  the  Arm  that  strength- 
ened and  upheld  them  as  Christian  men,  in  the  presence  of  their 
dangerous  foes.  It  was  often  necessary  that  they  should  contem- 
plate this  providence  as  especially  extended  toward  the  true 
Church,  and  as  disposing  all  things  to  the  good  thereof.  Nor 
were  the  men  of  Westminster  so  far  beyond  such  hostile  beset- 
ments,  that  their  sense  of  the  value  of  this  doctrine  had  become 
dim  or  impotent.  They  also  were  men  who  had  occasion  to  believe 
in  providence  practically, — in  a  providence  such  as  they  here 
described  and  extolled,  so  vast  as  to  include  all  men  and  creatures 
and  all  their  actions,  so  minute  as  to  minister  to  the  smallest  want 
not  only  of  the  Church  but  of  every  part  and  member  thereof, 
and  so  ethical  as  well  as  material  in  its  scope  as  to  embrace  the 
moral  rule,  the  moral  life,  the  moral  destinies  of  all  mankind.  In 
such  a  providence  they  believed,  not  merely  as  a  theory  or  dogma, 
but  far  more  as  a  blessed  spiritual  fact:  and  to  that  belief  they 
gave  expression  in  a  form  which  no  other  creed  of  Christendom 
has  surpassed,  and  which  cannot  fail  to  command  the  permanent 
admiration  of  Christian  minds. 


LECTURE  FIFTH— MAN. 

His  Origin  and  Nature  :  His  Probation — Covenant  of 
Works  :  The  Fall  and  its  Issues  :  Original  Sin  :  Man- 
kind as  Depraved — Free  Will  :    Man  under  Law. 

C.  F.  Chap.  IV  :  VI :  VII  :  IX.  L.  C.  17,  20-29;  91-95. 
S.  C.  10,   12-19,  82-84. 

Following  their  elaborate  presentation  of  the  doctrine  of  Scrip- 
ture concerning  God  in  his  nature  and  attributes  and  general 
activities,  the  Westminster  Symbols  proceed  at  once  to  a  corre- 
sponding delineation  of  Man  as  to  his  original  constitution,  his 
fall  into  sin,  his  condition  as  fallen,  and  his  possible  restoration 
through  grace.  The  Confession  and  the  Catechisms  follow  essen- 
tially the  same  order  here  :  this  is  also  the  general  order  both  of 
the  preceding  Protestant  creeds,  and  of  the  prevalent  theology 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  Such  arrangement  also  justifies 
itself  on  logical  or  scientific  grounds,  since  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  man  as  he  was  and  is,  and  possibly  may  be  made  through  grace, 
is  as  essential  as  a  like  knowledge  of  God  himself  to  any  adequate 
apprehension  of  the  scheme  of  salvation.  Both  parties  in  that 
supreme  transaction  must  be  thoroughly  estimated  before  the 
transaction  itself,  with  all  that  is  logically  consequent  upon  it  in 
Christian  theology,  can  be  scientifically  known  or  duly  appre- 
ciated. 

But  this  delineation  of  man  is  by  the  necessities  of  the  case 
limited  or  partial  rather  than  exhaustive.  The  main  object  of  the 
Symbols  being  to  set  forth  the  central  fact  of  salvation,  it  was 
hardly  needful  to  enter  upon  a  broad,  philosophic  analysis  of 
human  nature,  with  any  view  to  a  complete  account  of  what  man 
is  in  his  rational  and  ethical  constitution.  What  was  required  was 
rather  such  a  practical  description  of  man  as  a  moral  being — such 
an  account  of  the  manner  of  his  fall  into  sin  and  of  his  condition 
when  fallen,  as  would  bring  out  clearly  the  biblical  doctrine 
respecting  his  need  of  a  justifying  and  regenerating  process,  a  full 
and  complete  method  of  salvation,  such  as  is  set  forth  in  the 
Word  of  God.  Such  an  account  is  here  carefully  given  ;  and 
whatever  may  be  said  of  the  underlying  philosophy  implied  in 


238  MAN. 

it,  of  its  searching  severities,  or  the  spiritual  effects  it  induces,  it 
justly  deserves  the  highest  praise  for  clearness  of  statement,  con- 
sistency of  position,  and  close  adherence  to  the  letter  and  spirit 
of  the  Scriptures.  Standing  chronologically  at  the  close  of  the 
long  series  of  anthropological  declarations  made  by  evangelical 
Protestantism  in  opposition  to  Rome  on  one  side  and  Pelagianism 
on  the  other,  it  may  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  series,  as 
expressing  most  comprehensively  and  with  greatest  accuracy  and 
thoroughness  the  divine  truth  concerning  man  as  maintained 
essentially  in  all. 

Turning  first  to  the  teaching  of  the  Symbols  respecting  the  ori- 
gin and  nature  of  man,  we  may  recall  at  the  outset  what  has  been 

said  already  as  to  the  primal  act  of  cre- 
1.    Creation  of  Man :  true       ..  ^,      ,    ,       ,.         -  ,-     «  .   - 

and  false  conceptions.  Unity  atlon-  The  declaration  of  the  Confes- 
and  antiquity  of  the  Race.        sion  (IV:  n)  that  after  God  had  made  all 

other  creatures  he  created  man,  expresses 
the  universal  and  impregnable  belief  of  Christendom  as  to  the  ori- 
gin of  our  race.  The  same  divine  fiat  which  produced  the  material 
universe  of  nothing-,  and  which  had  already  given  existence 
and  rational  endowment  to  angelic  beings,  is  here  said  to  create 
man  as  the  final  product  of  its  sovereign  activity.  The  Symbols 
rest  at  this  point  on  the  simple  testimony  of  the  Bible,  taken  as  an 
authentic  record  of  facts.  This  creative  act  includes  of  course  both 
the  soul  and  the  body  of  man.  The  sublime  language  of  Scripture 
simply  assures  us  that  at  the  divine  inbreathing  man  became  a  liv- 
ing soul;  and  we  may  rest  upon  the  inspired  declaration,  though 
the  creation  of  a  soul  is  an  act  too  wonderful,  too  transcendent,  to 
be  in  any  sense  whatever  conceived  by  finite  minds.  In  respect  to 
the  bodily  organism,  it  is  said  with  biblical  simplicity  (L,.  C.  17) 
that  God  formed the  body  of  the  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  the 
woman  of  the  rib  of  the  man, —  a  description  which  must  be  re- 
garded as  at  least  essentially  true,  however  metaphorical  the  lan- 
guage or  inconceivable  the  divine  procedure.  We  have  in  these 
declarations  no  suggestion  of  any  process  of  evolution  from  prim- 
itive germs,  or  of  development  from  antecedent  and  inferior 
orders  of  creatures.  We  have  no  hint  of  potencies  existing  in 
unorganized  matter,  or  of  any  process  by  which  out  of  such  mat- 
ter man  might  have  emerged  without  the  immediate  volition  of  a 
personal  Deity.  The  formation  of  the  body  of  man  from  the  dust 
of  the  ground  is  not  indeed  a  creation  ex  nihilo,  as  was  the  crea- 
tion of  the  earth  or  of  the  physical  universe;  yet  it  was  none  the 
less  a  divine,  personal,  creative  process.  Shall  it  be  claimed  that 
this  is  simply  an  illustration  of  the  comparative  ignorance  of  the 


CREATION   OP   MAN  :     UNITY   AND    ANTIQUITY.  239 

period  in  which  the  Symbols  were  produced,  and  that  their  state- 
ments cannot  stand  the  tests  of  a  more  scientific  age  ?  The  suffi- 
cient answer  to  this  claim  is  that,  while  the  science  of  our  time 
has  extensively  challenged  the  authenticity  of  the  biblical  record, 
it  has  not  yet  proved  that  record  unreliable.  Its  theories  respect- 
ing the  origination  of  man  from  antecedent  forms  of  existence 
really  give  us  at  the  best  no  account  of  that  primal  force,  by  which 
matter  became  endowed  with  such  creative  potencies,  or  by  which 
those  processes  of  evolution  or  development  have  been  instituted 
which  reach  their  culmination,  as  is  alleged,  in  man.  It  is  at  least 
a  present  fact  that  no  satisfying  verification  of  such  naturalistic 
theories  of  the  origin  of  the  human  race  has  as  yet  been  attained ; 
these  hypotheses  still  stand  before  us  rather  as  ingenious  guesses 
or  suggestions  than  as  established  truths.  And  so  long  as  matter  is 
not  actually  detected  in  the  process  of  passing  from  inorganic  into 
organized  forms — so  long  as  the  various  species  of  organic  life  are 
not  seen  to  be  shifting,  one  into  another,  but  rather  are  found  to 
remain  as  changeless  and  unchangeable  as  the  system  of  nature 
itself,  so  long  must  the  biblical  record  concerning  the  origin  of 
man  be  accepted  as  essentially  correct.  If  what  is  now  admitted 
to  be  hypothesis,  wholly  or  chiefly,  shall  hereafter  be  transmuted 
into  scientific  fact,  clear  and  unquestionable,  the  question  whether 
this  divine  record  is  longer  worthy  of  our  trust,  will  become  one 
of  great  practical  moment:  until  then,  it  is  no  mark  of  an  unin- 
telligent or  unscientific  mind  to  receive  that  record  as  true. 

In  like  manner  does  this  teaching  exclude  the  theory  of  several 
creations,  or  of  a  plurality  of  species  in  man.  That  great  dif- 
ferences now  exist  in  the  various  tribes  or  races  of  mankind,  and 
that  such  differences  have  existed  in  general  with  little  modifica- 
tion during  so  much  of  the  career  of  humanity  as  is  described  in 
authentic  history,  is  to  be  freely  granted.  It  may  also  be  admitted 
that  great  difficulties  stand  in  the  way  of  any  natural  explanation 
of  these  differences.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  it  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned that  changes  have  occurred  historically  in  given  instances, 
which  reveal  the  possibility  of  still  greater  changes  during  the 
remoter  past.  Nor  is  it  an  unwarrantable  conjecture  that  such 
greater  changes  may  have  been  providentially  wrought,  possibly 
in  conjunction  with  the  developments  of  human  sinfulness,  at 
some  specific  period  in  the  primitive  history  of  mankind.  It  is 
also  certain  that  philological  and  archaeological  researches  are  now 
pointing  more  and  more  decisively  toward  a  common  origin  for 
the  race.  And  if  to  these  evidences  there  be  added  the  underlying 
elements  of  unity  so  decisively  manifested  in  the  constitution  of 


240  MAN. 

mankind,  however  diverse  humanity  is  in  respect  to  certain  out- 
ward characteristics,  we  may  be  warranted  on  scientific  grounds 
alone  in  regarding  the  race  as  one  in  origin.  Moreover  the  wit- 
ness of  Scripture  to  the  moral  unity  of  mankind,  with  the  mutual 
relations  flowing  therefrom,  and  to  the  common  experience  of  the 
race  as  sinful,  and  its  common  need  of  one  great  salvation,  must 
be  regarded  by  the  Christian  mind  as  furnishing  a  demonstration 
still  more  definite  and  complete. 

As  to  the  antiquity  of  this  one  race,  the  Symbols  say  nothing: 
questions  of  chronology,  based  on  Scripture,  were  not  considered 
in  the  Assembly.  It  may  be  presumed  that  the  body  simply  ac- 
cepted the  current  view,  based  on  the  Hebrew  text,  rather  than 
that  suggested  by  the  Septuagint.  Of  this,  the  fact  that  the 
Annals  of  Ussher  were  published  but  shortly  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  Assembly  (1650-54)  and  were  adopted  in  current 
editions  of  the  Authorized  Version,  may  be  taken  as  incidental 
evidence.  But  if,  in  view  of  the  larger  figures  given  in  the  Sep- 
tuagint or  suggested  by  Egyptian  or  Babylonian  or  Chinese  an- 
nals, or  of  the  apparent  necessity  for  a  longer  period  in  order  to 
account  adequately  for  the  growth  of  nations,  and  the  spread  of 
the  race  since  the  era  of  the  Flood,  more  time  than  this  is  requisite, 
the  Symbols  do  not  forbid  such  supposition.  Yet  the  prolonga- 
tion of  this  period  to  tens  of  thousands  of  years,  stretching  far 
back  of  even  the  most  extended  data  obtainable  from  such  sources, 
is  certainly  not  as  yet  demanded  by  any  reliable  discoveries 
respecting  the  presence  of  man  upon  the  earth,  nor  is  it  consis- 
tent with  due  regard  to  the  historic  quality  of  the  Sacred  Writ- 
ings. At  least  the  testimonies  of  geology,  the  human  remains 
authentically  reported,  the  primeval  implements  found,  the  lake 
dwellings,  and  other  like  traces  of  the  earliest  known  antiquity , 
furnish  thus  far  no  such  array  of  evidence  as  justifies  a  serious 
challenging  of  the  biblical  account.  Here,  as  in  respect  to  the 
question  of  the  origin  of  man,  it  is  safe  to  ask  for  more  conclusive 
proof,  before  that  account  is  set  aside  as  unhistoric. 

The  three  problems  thus  named  respecting  the  origin,  unity  and 
antiquity  of  the  human  race  deserve  thoughtful  consideration  at 
the  hands  of  the  Christian  scholar, — not  merely  for  purposes  of 
defense  against  current  forms  of  unbelief,  but  far  more  in  view  of 
certain  practical  relations  which  they  sustain  alike  to  Christian 
theology  and  to  religious  experience.  It  is  a  matter  of  vital 
moment  to  both  doctrine  and  faith  that  we  should  regard  man  as 
the  immediate  and  the  glorious  product  of  a  divine  volition,  rather 
than  the  final  issue  of  some  primordial  process  originating  we  know 


HIS    CONDITION    AND    ENDOWMENTS.  241 

not  when  or  how,  and  carried  on  we  know  not  how  or  whither. 
Still  more  important  is  it  in  many  practical  aspects  to  hold  to  the 
essential  oneness  in  nature  and  the  consequent  moral  brotherhood 
of  mankind,  alike  in  the  estate  of  sin  and  in  the  higher  estate  and 
experience  of  redemption.  Nor  are  there  lacking  serious  reasons, 
especially  in  the  interpretation  of  human  history,  for  the  strenu- 
ous maintenance  of  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  respecting  the  date 
of  the  advent  of  man  upon  the  earth.  And  in  view  of  such  prac- 
tical relations  of  these  three  current  problems,  it  surely  is  not 
wise  for  the  Christian  scholar  either  to  ignore  these  problems  as 
trivial,  or  to  hasten  too  readily  to  the  acceptance  of  any  merely 
hypothetical  solution. 

The  description  given  by  the  Symbols  (IV  :  ii)  of  the  consti- 
tution of  man  as  created  is  exact,  full  and  practical.     As  to  his 
physical  nature,   he  was  constituted 
male  and  female,— not  with  infantile        2*    Constitution  of  man  as 

...,-,.  «     ,    .     ..,   r  ,«       ,     created:  His  original  endow- 

potentialities  merelv,  but  with  full  and  .     «..,,,*.„    « . 

r  i  *  .         ments :  Physical,  intellectual 

matured  capacity  for  the  propagation     and  moral.  Image  of  God# 

of  the  species  according  to  the  divine 

command,  and  for  the  exercise  of  vice-regal  control  over  nature. 
This  is  said  to  be  a  divine  provision  in  providence,  God  ordaining 
marriage  for  his  help,  and  thus  sending  him  forth  in  every  way 
physically  endowed  for  his  appointed  destiny  on  the  earth.  This 
provision  for  man  as  a  physical  being  is  further  illustrated 
(L.  C.  20)  in  the  placing  him  hi  Paradise  and  appointing  him  to 
dress  it,  in  order  that  his  bodily  organism  might  receive  both  supph* 
and  exercise  according  to  its  need.  God  further  recognized  the 
claims  of  this  physical  constitution  in  man,  by  giving  him  liberty 
to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  earth,  and  by  causing  nature  to  supply 
with  luxuriant  fullness  his  corporeal  necessities.  Man  in  his  phys- 
ical structure,  with  his  varied  appetites  and  desires,  and  with  his 
capacities  for  useful  activity  and  for  self-perpetuation,  was  thus 
physically  a  glorious  illustration  of  the  divine  wisdom  and  good- 
ness. Made  after  the  angels  and  all  other  creatures,  and  consti- 
tuted on  different  principles  b)^  the  union  in  him  of  the  flesh  and 
the  spirit,  he  was  peculiarly  fitted  even  in  his  corporeal  structure 
and  adaptations  to  show  forth  the  praises  of  him  by  whose  hand 
and  skill  he  had  been  formed. 

Intellectually,  our  first  parents  were  (L.  C.  20)  endued  with 
living,  reasonable  and  immortal  souls  : — this  mental  quality  sepa- 
rating them  decisively  from  all  varieties  of  merely  animal  being. 
For  the  term,  soul,  here  implies  more  than  a  merely  sentient 
existence  such  as  inferior  creatures  may  enjoy.     The  soul  of  man 


242  max. 

was  a  living  thing — a  product  flowing  immediately  from  the  life 
of  God,  breathed  into  him  by  a  divine  communication,  and 
endowed  with  forms  and  measures  of  intelligence  which  ally  it 
with  angels  rather  than  with  the  beasts  that  perish.  And  this 
soul  was  reasonable  in  its  constitution  and  its  modes  of  activity  : 
it  possessed  capacities  for  perception,  for  judgment,  for  rational 
processes  of  the  loftiest  type.  It  is  said  in  the  same  connection 
that  God  created  man  after  his  own  image  or  likeness  in  knowledge 
as  well  as  in  holiness, — not  indeed  as  knowing  all  that  God  knows, 
or  acquiring  knowledge  as  God  possesses  it,  but  rather  as  having 
capacities  which  enabled  him  to  perceive  divine  things,  and  to 
comprehend  such  truths  as  God  chose  to  reveal.  Such  capacity 
was  indeed  indispensable  to  the  exercise  of  those  moral  endow- 
ments with  which  man  was  also  gifted  ;  but  it  was  likewise 
essential  to  the  effectual  filling  of  his  physical  sphere,  and  to  the 
proper  care  and  use  of  his  corporeal  structure.  The  instincts  of 
an  animal,  the  sentient  intelligence  manifested  sometimes  b}r  infe- 
rior orders  of  being,  were  not  sufficient  for  a  living  person  filling 
such  higher  and  larger  relations.  It  was  not  essential  that  man 
should  have  been  at  creation  a  philosopher,  endowed  with  exten- 
sive knowledge  concerning  the  divine  purposes  or  the  structure  or 
government  of  the  universe.  Still  less  are  we  constrained  to  think 
of  him  as  a  child  or  a  savage,  intellectually, — growing  slowly 
through  educational  processes  into  such  knowledge  as  was  essen- 
tial alike  to  his  physical  and  his  moral  existence.  The  divine 
enduement  was  immediate,  adequate,  glorious, — a  sublime  part  of 
that  process  of  creation  from  which  all  life  and  being  sprang. 

The  moral  endowments  of  man  are  specially  indicated  in  the 
phrase,  after  his  own  image  (IV:ii),  and  in  the  corresponding 
terms,  righteousness  and  true  holiness.  The  Irish  Articles  (21) 
define  the  image  of  God  in  man,  as  consisting  especially  in  the 
wisdom  of  his  mind  and  the  true  holiness  of  his  free  will, —  a 
statement  including  both  natural  likeness  in  the  matter  of  person- 
ality, and  moral  or  spiritual  likeness  in  respect  to  the  essential 
elements  of  character.  While  this  resemblance  to  God  consisted 
partly  in  the  rational  capacities  of  man — in  the  intellectual  equip- 
ment which  lifted  him  altogether  above  the  animal  creation,  the 
main  element  in  that  resemblance  must  be  regarded,  as  these 
Articles  teach,  as  moral — lying  in  the  intrinsic  holiness  of  the  free 
will.  The  primitive  man  was  specially  like  God  in  his  distinct- 
ively ethical  and  spiritual  nature  and  disposition.  The  law  of  God 
was  written  in  their  hearts,  in  such  a  sense  and  measure  that  our 
first  parents  were  able  to  comprehend  at  once  the  divine  claims 


IMAGE   OF   GOD:     ORIGINAL   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  243 

and  to  appreciate  their  personal  obligation  to  obedience.  Con- 
science as  well  as  reason  was  central  and  supreme  in  their  higher 
constitution.  They  also  had  power  to  fulfill  what  they  had 
capacity  to  see  and  to  appreciate.  This  gift  of  free  will  in  the 
direction  of  holiness, — this  innate  consciousness  of  ability  to  do  as 
well  as  to  perceive  and  feel  the  right, — constituted  the  highest  ele- 
ment in  their  moral  nature,  and  made  them  definitely  like  angels 
and  like  God.  It  is  therefore  strongly  said  (IX  :  ii)  that  man  in 
his  state  of  innocency  had  freedom  and  power  to  will  and  to  do  that 
which  is  good  and  well-pleasing  to  God.  The  duplicated  expres- 
sions, freedom  and  power,  to  will  and  to  do,  good  and  well-pleasing 
(or  good  inherently  and  good  as  acceptable  with  God),  are  indic- 
ative of  the  confidence  and  heartiness'  with  which  this  declaration 
was  made.  The  language  differs  widely  from  the  Roman  dogma 
of  original  righteousness,  as  being  not  a  native  endowment  in  man 
but  rather  a  superadded  gift, — a  gift  whose  loss  or  forfeiture  in 
the  Fall  simply  placed  him  back  in  the  relatively  characterless  state 
in  which  according  to  the  doctrine  of  Romanism  he  was  created. 
Still  more  decisively  does  it  exclude  the  Pelagian  conception  of 
moral  indifferentism — an  inchoate  condition  of  soul,  having  in  it 
merely  the  possibilities  of  character  according  as  the  independent 
will  might  determine,  in  the  presence  of  future  opportunities  of 
choice.  However  helpful  such  a  conception  might  at  first  sight 
appear,  as  an  explanation  of  the  moral  career  of  either  Adam  or 
his  posterity,  it  is  decisively  excluded  by  the  emphatic  record  of 
the  Bible  :  In  our  image — after  our  likeness.  As  created,  our  first 
parents  possessed,  not  the  mere  possibility  of  righteousness  and 
true  holiness,  but  rather  such  a  positive  stamp  and  disposition 
spiritually  as  predisposed  them  toward  righteous  and  holy  living. 
The  image  of  God  is  thus,  in  the  fine  phrase  of  Calvin,  the  uncor- 
rupted  excellence  of  human  nature  which  shone  in  Adam  and  Eve 
before  their  defection.  The  germs  of  a  divine  character,  with 
freedom  and  power  to  grow  progressively  into  actual  goodness  and 
into  complete  likeness  to  God  and  acceptance  with  him,  were  thus 
implanted  within  them.  In  other  words,  so  far  as  nature,  consti- 
tution, tendency  were  concerned,  they  were  positively  holy  from 
the  first  moment  of  their  conscious  existence. 

Such  is  doubtless  the  meaning  of  the  theological  phrase,  origi- 
nal righteozcsness.  That  phrase  was  derived  directly  from  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles,  in  which  (IX)  it  appears  in  the  antithetic 
definition  of  original  sin.  Similar  descriptions  are  found  in  several 
of  the  continental  symbols.  For  illustration,  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism declares  (6)  that  man  was  created  in  real  or  true  righteousness 


244  MAN. 

or  holiness;  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  (Cap.  VII)  that  he  was 
created  good,  in  the  image  and  similitude  of  God;  the  French  Con- 
fession, (IX)  that  he  was  created  pure  and  perfect,  in  the  image  of 
God;  the  Belgic  Confession,  (XIV)  that  God  formed  man  after  his 
own  image,  good,  righteous  and  holy.  It  was  not  intended  by  this 
phrase  to  teach  that  man  possessed  at  the  start  a  righteousness  like 
that  of  God  or  of  angels,  or  even  like  that  attained  by  sanctified  men 
under  the  Gospel.  In  other  words  he  did  not  possess  a  developed 
or  matured,  but  rather  an  inchoate  righteousness,  yet  one  contain- 
ing within  itself  the  germs  or  beginnings  even  of  such  ethical  per- 
fection as  dwells  in  angels  or  in  God  himself.  It  was  as  truly  a 
capacity  in  the  primitive  man  as  the  capacity  to  reason, — a  strong 
and  clear  capability  and  tendency  of  the  soul  toward  God  and  all 
goodness.  In  this  sense  it  is  denominated  holiness,  as  being  much 
more  than  the  absence  of  sin, — as  being  a  positive  principle  in  the 
moral  nature,  though  not  an  immutable  principle  above  the  possi- 
bility of  change.  This  possibility  of  transgression  is  not  only 
implied  in  the  expression,  being  left  to  the  liberty  of  their  own  will: 
it  is  indicated  still  more  strongly  in  the  phrase,  (IX:ii)  yet  muta- 
bly, so  that  they  might  fall  from  it,  although  man  had  constitu- 
tional freedom  and  power  to  do  that  which  is  good.  Possessing 
indeed  the  image  of  God,  and  affiliated  with  him  in  feeling  and 
nature,  it  still  was  possible  for  our  first  parents  thus  to'pervert  the 
liberty  bestowed  on  them,  and  to  sink  into  a  condition  of  vol- 
untary sinfulness,  and  of  consequent  spiritual  death. 

Man  as  thus  constituted  and  endowed,  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  earthly  creation.     It  is  said  (L,.  C.  20)  that  the  providence  of 

God  toward  man  was  exhibited  in  blac- 
3.    Place  in  nature :    Do-  7.      .      .        ,.         ...'.'.      ,. 

minion  over  nature :  Divine  m*  hwl  tn  Parad*se>  appointing  him  to 
estimate  of  man.  dress  z/»  and  g*ving  him  liberty  to  eat 

of  the  fruit  of  the  earth.  This  earth, 
in  its  primitive  beauty  and  fertility,  is  thus  represented  as  the 
predestined  and  fit  abode  of  our  first  parents;  and  a  corresponding 
right  of  occupancy  and  use  was  thus  divinely  vested  in  them.  We 
may  presume  that,  when  the  Creator  looked  upon  the  world  at  the 
close  of  the  creative  process  and  pronounced  it  very  good,  he  was 
contemplating  it  specially  as  the  home  of  man — a  paradise  suited 
to  the  nature  and  needs  of  the  beings  whom  he  had  formed  out  of 
the  dust  to  be  its  occupants,  and  for  whose  posterity,  even  in  the 
sinfulness  that  was  to  come  upon  them,  it  constituted  a  fitting 
abode.  From  what  is  suggested  in  Scripture  as  to  the  effects  of 
the  curse  upon  the  earth  itself, — as  to  the  changes  wrought  in 
the  system  of  nature  in  order  to  make  the  world  an  appropriate 


PLACE    IN    NATURE  :     DOMINION   OVER    NATURE.  245 

disciplinary  sphere  for  a  race  of  sinners,  we  may  to  some  extent 
surmise  what  was  the  beauty,  the  adaptation,  the  divine  perfect- 
ness  of  the  original  Eden.  The  simple  sketch  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  given,  is  intended  only  to  furnish  to  our  faith  some 
glimpses  of  that  pristine  paradise  such  as  would  make  us  more  con- 
scious of  the  correlative  sadness  of  our  present  estate,  and  more 
ardent  in  our  aspirations  after  the  nobler  paradise  that  is  through 
grace  to  be  regained. 

Into  this  primitive  estate  our  first  parents  were  introduced,  not  as 
owners  but  rather  as  stewards,  with  unchallenged  right  of  appro- 
priation, yet  under  adequate  accountability  to  God  for  whatever 
use  they  might  make  of  the  blessings  with  which  they  were 
intrusted.  It  is  well  to  recognize  here  the  universal  fact  of  stew- 
ardship, not  merely  as  belonging  to  the  state  of  grace,  or  implied 
in  the  position  of  man  as  sinful  under  law,  but  rather  as  a  fact  that 
must  exist  wherever  moral  beings  are  found.  Absolute  ownership 
of  anything  is  impossible  even  to  angels:  God  alone  is  absolute 
owner  of  all.  Hence  every  moral  being  is  a  steward,  having  par- 
tial or  temporary  ownership,  but  accountable  to  God  at  last  for 
each  gift  he  receives,  for  each  power  he  wields,  for  each  oppor- 
tunity or  privilege  he  enjoys.  Such  was  the  position  of  man  in 
the  primitive  Eden.  He  was  placed  in  it  by  its  true  owner;  he 
was  appointed  to  dress  and  keep  it;  he  was  given  liberty  to  apply 
to  his  own  needs  whatever  it  contained.  This  stewardship  was 
vested  in  him  in  the  original  constitution  of  nature;  nor  did  his 
subsequent  sin,  and  his  expulsion  from  paradise,  absolve  him  from 
the  duties  of  such  stewardship  over  the  world  in  which  he  was 
still  to  dwell.  That  stewardship  follows  his  descendants  univer- 
sally, however  perverted  or  corrupt  their  actual  administration  of 
such  stewardship  may  be.  It  follows  them  still  more  impressively 
in  the  estate  of  grace,  and  becomes  a  primal  law  in  their  adminis- 
tration of  these  natural  trusts  under  the  Gospel.  It  belongs 
indeed  to  man  as  a  moral  being,  and  will  hold  and  control  him 
always, — the  apparent  severities  of  it  fading  away  as  his  dispo- 
sition is  sanctified,  and  its  value  as  an  element  in  his  spiritual 
experience  and  perfection  becoming  more  and  more  apparent, 
even  forever. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  phrase,  do?ninion  over  the  oeatnres, 
should  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  this  primal,  comprehensive, 
inevitable  stewardship.  The  right  of  appropriation  carries  with 
it  the  right  of  control:  adequate  authority  is  essential  to  adequate 
use.  God  has  to  this  extent  crowned  man  with  glory  and  with 
honor,  as  in  some  true  sense  his  vice-gerent  on  the  earth,  and  has 


246  MAN. 

ordained  him  to  have  dominion  over  the  other  works  of  his  hand. 
All  things  are  put  under  his  feet — are  subordinated  to  his  adminis- 
tration :  whatsoever  passeth  through  the  paths  of  the  seas  is 
subject  unto  him.  The  failure  of  man  to  retain  this  primeval 
supremacy,  the  revolt  of  nature  against  his  sinful  authority,  his 
present  inability  to  control  or  even  to  use  the  earth  now  groaning 
with  him  and  travailing  as  in  pain  and  in  rebellion  together  with 
its  discrowned  lord,  may  in  some  degree  make  manifest  the  mingled 
dignity  and  tenderness  of  his  original  dominion.  In  like  manner, 
the  prophetic  hints  which  are  given  us  in  the  imagery  of  deserts 
blossoming  as  roses,  and  of  lions  going  forth  with  lambs  under  the 
the  gentle  leadership  of  children  in  the  millennial  age,  show  us 
graphically  what  that  primitive  authority  was.  We  may  fitly 
regard  it  as  an  enthronement  and  gracious  crowning  of  human- 
ity, in  order  to  the  perfect  realization  of  the  divine  purpose  and 
ideal. 

How  glorious  a  being  was  man,  as  thus  endowed  with  rational 
faculties,  robed  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness,  made  the  stew- 
ard of  God  on  earth,  and  vested  with  a  regency  which  was  lim- 
ited only  by  his  primary  relations  to  Deity  !  Surely  it  is  not  wise 
to  set  aside  this  biblical  and  confessional  view  of  man  as  created, 
and  to  substitute  for  it  any  of  those  naturalistic  theories  which, 
in  order  to  subvert  the  biblical  doctrine  of  a  moral  fall  from  this 
lofty  primeval  condition,  represent  man  rather  as  starting  from 
some  low  estate  of  .savagery,  gradually  accumulating  mental  ca- 
pacity and  acquiring  knowledge  of  himself  and  his  earthly 
environment,  and  slowly  and  painfully  developing  through  long 
ages  into  his  present  estate  of  comparative  maturity.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  radical  conflict  between  such  theories  and  the  bib- 
lical records,  many  considerations  will  arise  in  our  further  study 
of  the  moral  condition  and  experience  of  mankind,  to  show  that 
these  theories  are  on  both  philosophic  and  ethical  grounds  un- 
tenable. It  is  sufficient  here  to  note,  first,  the  low  estimate  which 
is  thus  put  upon  man  and  his  moral  endowments;  secondly,  the 
evidences  afforded  by  human  history  of  extensive  moral  lapses  in 
the  career  of  men  and  races;  and  thirdly,  the  witness  of  Christian 
experience,  not  to  a  spiritual  development  from  antecedent  germs 
of  character,  but  to  a  moral  restoration  or  renovation  such  as  cer- 
tifies in  consciousness  to  the  dreadful  reality  of  that  antecedent 
moral  fall  which  the  Word  of  God  faithfully  describes. 

Equally  inadmissible  is  it  to  regard  the  primeval  man  as  a  char- 
acterless being  in  whom  only  mere  possibilities  existed,  and  who 
was  left  to  shape  a  sphere  and  career  for  himself  under  the  action 


PURE    AND    HOLY    AS    CREATED.  247 

of  interior  impulses  or  outward  currents  of  motive,  with  no  pos- 
itive tendency  to  holiness  in  his  nature.  The  pro  roundest  phil- 
osophy of  human  nature  leads  rather  toward  some  such  conception 
as  is  here  presented  on  the  authority  of  the  inspired  Word.  Here 
also  the  Confessions  of  the  Reformation  are  essentially  agreed. 
Man,  affirms  the  Formula  of  Concord,  (Art.  I)  was  created  of 
God  in  the  beginning  pure  and  holy  and  free  from  sin.  Man, 
says  the  first  Helvetic  Confession,  (VII)  was  the  most  perfect 
image  of  God  on  earth,  and  was  made  first  among  visible  crea- 
tures, sancte  a  Deo  conditus.  Now  concerning  man,  declares  the 
Second  Helvetic  symbol  (VII),  Scripture  teaches  that  he  was  at 
the  beginning  made  good,  according  to  the  image  and  similitude 
of  God,  and  was  placed  in  paradise,  and  had  all  things  subjected 
to  him.  God  created  man,  says  the  Belgic  Confession,  (XIV)  out 
of  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  formed  him  after  his  own  image  and 
likeness;  good,  righteous,  and  holy,  capable  in  all  things  to  will 
agreeably  to  the  will  of  God.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  affirms 
(6)  that  God  created  man  good,  and  after  his  own  image, — that 
is  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness,  that  he  might  rightly  know 
God  his  Creator,  heartily  love  him,  and  live  with  him  in  eternal 
blessedness  to  praise  and  glorify  him.  We  confesse  and  acknawl- 
edge  this  our  God,  says  the  Scotch  Confession,  (Art.  II)  to  have 
created  man,  to  wit,  our  first  father  Adam,  to  his  awin  image  and 
similitude,  to  whome  he  gave  wisdome,  lordship,  justice,  free-wil, 
and  cleir  knawledge  of  himselfe,  sa  that  in  the  haill  nature  of  man 
there  culd  be  noted  no  imperfectioun.  Against  this  high  and  pure 
conception  of  the  original  state  and  character  and  mission  of  man, 
modern  skepticism  has  certainly  been  able  to  urge  no  valid  argu- 
ment; it  stands  as  a  truth  abundantly  confirmed  in  the  light  of 
both  reason  and  Revelation:  Argyle,  Primeval  Man. 

Accepting  the  doctrine  of  the  Symbols  as  to  the  original  consti- 
tution of  man,  physical,  intellectual  and  moral,  and  to  his  pecul- 
iar place  and  position  in  nature,   we 

are  led  to  consider  two  further  inqui-        4'  Tw0  sPecific  «uestions: 

.  .  ,.,,'.„       Origin  of  the  Soul  in  Man: 

nes    respecting  him    which    logically     ImmortaIity  of  Man  on  the 

present  themselves  for  examination  at     earth, 
this  point. — The  first  of  these  is  the 

question  respecting  the  propagation  of  the  race.  Ignoring  for 
the  present  the  inquiry  as  to  the  extent  to  which  sin  may  have 
affected  the  natural  law  of  increase  and  disturbed  its  actual  opera- 
tions, we  may  simply  note  the  universality  of  that  law  as  seen 
in  ail  vegetable  and  animal  life,  and  specially  as  divinely  ordained 
for  man  in  the  terse  phrase,  male  and  female  created  He  them,  and 


248  MAN. 

ill  the  positive  injunction  to  be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish 
the  earth,  through  the  divine  benediction  upon  their  marital  union. 
God  did  not  choose  to  replenish  the  earth  with  inhabitants  after 
the  similitude  of  our  first  parents  by  a  continuous  series  of  creative 
acts, — as  he  did  not  choose  to  preserve  vegetable  or  animal  life 
on  the  earth  by  that  process.  He  chose  rather  to  set  up  this 
special  provision  in  and  throughout  the  realm  of  nature,  by  which 
the  succession  of  the  original  species  of  creatures  should  be  pre- 
served, so  long  as  he  should  desire  to  continue  such  creatures  in 
being.  And  man  becomes  the  crowning  illustration  of  that  pro- 
vision, living  on  in  the  organic  unity  of  the  race  from  generation 
to  generation,  while  the  individual  man  is  continually  dropping 
off  as  a  withering  leaf  from  the  great  tree  of  life.  And  it  may 
well  be  noted  here  that  a  proper  study  and  appreciation  of  this 
marvelous  law  and  process  sheds — as  we  shall  fully  see  hereafter — 
a  peculiar  light  not  otherwise  discernible  upon  some  of  the  pro- 
foundest  doctrines  of  Holy  Writ. 

Respecting  the  origin  of  the  souls  of  men,  subsequent  to  the 
original  creative  act,  three  theories  have  received  consideration. 
Of  these  the  first  affirms  the  existence  of  the  soul  in  some  state 
of  being  antecedent  to  the  present  life, — transferred  hither,  as 
some  have  held,  just  as  a  gardener  transplants  a  flower  from  an 
inferior  soil  to  one  more  favorable  to  growth  and  fruitage, — or 
sent  here,  as  others  imagine,  as  criminals  are  sent  to  a  prison  in 
punishment  for  offenses  committed  in  some  anterior  state  of  being. 
Neither  form  of  this  hypothesis  contributes  anything  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  prime  problem  of  the  origin  of  the  soul  thus  sent  or 
transplanted;  nor  does  the  second  aid  us,  as  has  been  claimed,  in 
explaining  the  universal  and  original  sinfulness  of  mankind. 
Neither  has  any  warrant  whatever  in  Scripture  or  in  human  con- 
sciousness: both,  and  especially  the  second,  involve  very  serious 
questionings  as  to  the  divine  wisdom  and  righteousness  in  such  a 
mysterious  transference  :  Miiller.  Christ.  Doct.  of  Sin.  Current 
opinion  is  mainly  divided  between  the  two  hypotheses  of  tradu- 
cianism  and  creationism;  the  first  affirming  that  souls  are,  as  the 
term  suggests,  procreated  simultaneously  or  in  conjunction  with 
the  bodily  organism ;  the  second  holding  that  souls  are  continuously 
created  by  God  as  bodies  are  fashioned  to  receive  them,  and  are  by 
divine  volition  incorporated  individually  in  their  physical  habita- 
tions. A  modified  form  of  creationism,  basing  itself  on  the  trich- 
otomic  analysis  of  man,  regards  the  body  and  the  soul  as  procre- 
ated physiologically  while  the  spirit  (pneuma)  is  placed  in  the 
developing  organism  by  the  direct  act  of  Deity. 


A 


ORIGIN    OF   THE    SOUL.  249 

While  some  considerations,  such  as  the  analogies  of  nature  else- 
where, the  general  transmission  of  physical  traits  from  parent  to 
child,  especially  the  universal  prevalence  of  sin  as  a  taint  in  every 
procreated  life,  and  also  various  intimations  of  Scripture,  favor 
the  former  hypothesis,  still  very  serious  objections  may  be  urged 
against  it,— especially  on  the  ground  that  it  almost  inevitably  makes 
sin  so  much  an  element  in  the  physical  nature,  so  much  an  inher- 
ent force  in  the  very  constitution,  as  to  impair  greatly  if  not  to  des- 
troy that  consciousness  of  liberty  and  of  consequent  responsibility 
for  sin,  on  which  the  Bible  seems  to  rely  fundamentally,  alike  in 
its  faithful  warnings  against  all  transgression,  and  in  its  tender 
exhortations  to  obedience  and  holiness.  That  serious  objections 
maybe  urged  against  the  .second hypothesis  is  also  obvious, — ob- 
jections which  have  led  many  Calvinistic  divines  especially  in  this 
age  to  prefer,  notwithstanding  all  its  difficulties,  the  traducian 
explanation.  The  creation  of  a  soul  that  is  constitutionally  with- 
out sin,  and  its  incorporation  into  a  bodily  organism  which  is 
tainted  with  the  corruption  of  sin,  is  indeed  an  inexplicable  mys- 
tery, and  one  which  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  God  would  seem 
to  preclude,- — yet  hardly  more  inexplicable  or  startling  than  that 
God  would  establish  an  universal  law  of  procreation  by  which  at 
his  own  command  souls  tainted  at  their  very  genesis  with  sin 
constitutionally  transmitted,  are  to  be  propagated  through  human 
action  in  conjunction  with  human  bodies  during  countless  genera- 
tions. It  is  urged  with  justice  that  creationism  as  a  theory  tends  to 
destroy  our  sense  of  the  unity  or  solidarity  of  the  race,  and  especi- 
ally to  impair  our  conviction  of  its  universal  corruption  or  depravity, 
as  affirmed  in  Scripture, — yet  this  tendency  which  certainly  every 
thoughtful  mind  must  guard  itself  against, is  hardly  .so  dangerous  as 
the  opposite  liability  just  named.  The  strongest  argument  practi- 
cally in  its  favor  is  derived  from  the  prevalent  language  of  the  Bible 
respecting  each  and  every  soul  as  immediately  a  creature  and  a 
child  of  God,  first  by  nature  and  then  through  grace;  and  from 
the  innate  consciousness  and  conviction  by  which  each  and 
every  soul  is  directly  certified  to  itself,  not  as  having  been  born 
through  an  impact  first  divinely  given  to  our  first  parents  and 
transmitted  from  them  through  all  the  generations,  but  rather 
as  having  itself  been  created  by  an  immediate  fiat  of  Deity. 

Amid  the  perplexities  arising  from  these  antithetic  hypotheses,  it 
is  not  strange  that  Cicero,  discussing  the  same  problem  in  his  Tus- 
culan  Questions,  should  say  at  last:  Which  of  these  explanations 
may  be  the  true  one,  only  some  deity  is  able  to  discern.  Nor  is  it 
strange  that  Augustine,   after  leaning  at  one  time  toward  the 


250  MAN. 

traducian  and  at  another  toward  the  creationist  hypothesis — after 
saying  that  either  both  soul  and  body  are  alike  derived  in  their 
corrupt  state  from  man,  or  the  soul  being  pure  is  corrupted  by  the 
body,  as  if  in  a  corrupt  vessel  where  it  is  placed  by  the  secret  (or 
inscrutable)  justice  of  the  divine  law,  should  add:  Which  of  these 
is  true  I  would  rather  learn  than  teach,  lest  I  should  presume  to 
teach  what  I  do  not  truly  know.  From  Jerome  on  one  side  and 
Tertullian  on  the  other,  down  to  our  own  age,  the  problem  has 
been  earnestly  discussed,  but  remains  as  yet  unsolved:  Shedd, 
Hist,  of  Doct. ,  Anthropology.  Among  the  Scholastics  creationism 
evidently  found  the  greatest  measure  of  favor:  Anselm  affirming 
that  the  claim  that  man  receives  his  rational  mind  through  con- 
ception is  unproveable;  Aquinas,  that  an  immaterial  substance  such 
as  the  soul  could  only  be  produced  by  direct  creation;  St.  Victor 
affirming  it  to  be  the  true  Catholic  faith  that  souls  are  daily  cre- 
ated denihilo  to  be  associated  with  living  bodies;  and  Peter  Lom- 
bard tersely  adding,  Creando  enim  infundit  Deus  et  infundendo 
creat:  Hagenbach,  Hist.  Doct. 

Later  Lutheran  theologians,  though  the  position  of  Luther 
himself  is  doubtful,  generally  favored  traducianism,  although  the 
Formula  of  Concord  expressly  declares  (Art.  I)  that  God  not  only 
created  the  body  and  soul  of  Adam  and  Eve  before  the  fall,  but 
has  also  created  our  bodies  and  souls  since  the  fall,  though  these 
are  now  corrupt,  and  now  acknowledges  our  minds  and  bodies 
to  be  his  creatures  and  his  work.  On  the  other  hand  many  Calvinis- 
tic  theologians  of  more  recent  date  discredit  creationism,  although 
Calvin  himself  and  his  immediate  successors  such  as  Beza  gave  it 
the  preference.  Calvin  indeed  declines  (Inst.  B.  1:1)  to  enter  on 
what  he  describes  as  a  tedious  question  (anxia  disputatio)  with 
which  the  Fathers  were  not  a  little  perplexed,  whether  the  soul 
of  the  son  proceeds  by  derivation  or  transmission  from  the  soul 
of  the  father;  but  adds  that  we  ought  not  to  regard  the  contagion 
of  sin  as  caused  or  originating  in  the  substance  of  either  the  body 
or  the  soul.  He  prefers  to  rest  the  fact  of  a  corruption  springing 
from  Adam  and  transfused  from  parent  to  children  in  a  perpetual 
stream,  on  a  divine  ordination  whose  nature  he  subsequently  de- 
scribes in  part  under  the  head  of  original  sin;  and  quotes  the 
striking  sentence  of  Augustine,  that  neither  the  guilty  unbeliever 
nor  the  justified  believer  generates  innocent  but  guilty  children,, 
since  the  generation  of  both  is  from  corrupted  human  nature. 
The  Symbols  cannot  be  quoted  authoritatively  in  favor  of  either 
theory,  though  their  teaching  respecting  the  corruption  of  human 
nature  constitutionally  and  hereditarily  seems  more  in  harmony 


TRADUCIANISM    AND    CREATIONISM.  251 

with  traducianism, — especially  as  seen  in  certain  phrases  such  as 
the  root  of  all  mankind,  and  such  declarations  as  that  original  sin 
is  conveyed  from  our  first  parents  unto  their  posterity  by  ordinary 
or  natural  generation:  L,.  C.  22.  Yet  there  are  not  wanting  other 
terms  and  statements  respecting  the  soul  as  a  divine  creation,  and 
the  experience  of  the  soul  in  the  state  of  grace,  which  give  some 
measure  of  countenance  to  creationism, — a  fact  which  suggests 
the  query  whether  there  be  not  some  important  elements  of  spir- 
itual truth  in  both  hypotheses.  This  survey  of  opinion  may  fitly 
close  with  the  following  statement  of  Lotze  in  explication  of  the 
creationistic  view:  At  the  place  where,  and  at  the  moment  when, 
the  germ  of  an  organic  being  is  formed,  amid  the  coherent  system 
of  the  physical  course  of  nature,  this  fact  furnishes  the  incite- 
ment, or  the  moving  reason,  which  induces  the  all-comprehending 
One  Being — present  not  otherwheres  but  even  here — to  beget 
from  himself  besides,  as  a  consistent  supplement  to  such  physical 
fact,  the  soul  belonging  to  this  organism. 

The  second  of  these  special  topics  is  the  speculative  question 
whether,  had  our  first  parents  remained  sinless,  they  would  have 
enjoyed  an  immortality  on  the  earth.  It  is  positively  taught  in 
the  Symbols,  that  immortality  in  some  form  and  under  some  con- 
ditions is  an  inherent  endowment  of  the  human  soul, — God  having 
created  man  with  the  intention  that  he  should  live  henceforth 
forever.  The  dogma  of  an  immortality  secured  only  as  a  gift  of 
grace,  bestowed  on  the  righteous  alone,  is  nowhere  suggested  in 
Scripture,  except  in  the  special  and  higher  Pauline  sense  of  the 
term.  It  is  also  implied  (L,.  C.  20)  that  man  would,  by  rendering 
to  God  perfect  and  perpetual  obedience  according  to  the  covenant 
of  life,  have  had  such  immortality  not  in  heaven  but  on  the  earth, 
of  which  the  tree  of  life  is  a  pledge;  and  physical  death  is  directly 
represented  (28)  as  one  of  the  temporal  consequences  of  his  trans- 
gression, according  to  the  curse  originally  pronounced  upon  him. 
To  offset  the  physiological  objections  to  this  view,  based  on  the 
fact  that  death  was  already  in  the  world  before  the  Adamic  trans- 
gression,— that  the  human  body  like  other  animal  organisms  is  in 
its  own  nature  perishable, — and  that  the  divine  provision  for  the 
propagation  of  species,  both  animal  and  human,  presupposes  the 
death  of  progenitors  in  order  to  make  room  for  their  posterity,  it 
has  been  held  that  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life  standing  in  the  midst 
of  the  garden,  which  Augustine  described  as  a  holy  sacrament, 
would  have  been  for  man  a  perfect  antidote  to  this  general  law  of 
decay,  and  that  his  bodily  organism  by  partaking  of  this  preserv- 
ative fruitage  would  have  enjoyed  perpetual  vitality  and  nerpetual 


252  MAN. 

youth  in  this  world.  It  is  also  claimed  that  the  divine  arrangement 
for  the  continuance  of  the  race  through  physical  propagation 
might  have  worked  out  quite  otherwise  if  sin  had  not  deranged 
and  corrupted  it,  and  also  that  the  earth,  if  not  blasted  by  sin, 
might  have  nourished  on  its  broad  surface  an  innumerable  multi- 
tude of  the  posterity  of  Adam.  May  it  not  be  that  what  we  call 
death,  whenever  occurring,  would  have  been  to  a  holy  race  simply 
a  natural  and  blessed  transference  from  an  earthly  to  some  celes- 
tial life — a  transference  which  would  carry  with  it  no  taint  of  pain 
or  trial  ?  May  it  not  be  that  death,  being  in  the  world  as  a  uni- 
versal fact,  was  utilized  after  the  fall  as  an  expression  of  the  divine 
feeling  toward  sin,  and  was  so  altered  and  shadowed  by  attendant 
pains  and  miseries  as  to  make  it  a  fit  emblem  or  type  of  the 
spiritual  death  in  which  sin  finds  its  dreadful  consummation, — God 
using  it  in  this  way  just  as  he  used  the  rainbow,  which  must 
always  have  been  a  glorious  vision  in  nature,  as  a  sign  of  his 
gracious  promise  to  mankind  after  the  flood?  And  is  it  not  in 
some  degree  a  confirmation  of  this  view,  that  under  the  Gospel 
death  is  again  transformed,  glorified  and  gladdened,  and  made  to 
the  true  Christian  the  very  gate  of  heaven;  God  leaving  the  dark 
fact,  but  graciously  changing  its  nature  and  meaning,  as  an 
element  in  the  new  economy  of  redemption  ? 

As  thus  created  and  endowed,  man  was  by  the  nature  of  the 

case  a  being  under  law.     What  is  more  specifically  described  as 

probation,  under  the  covenant  of  life 

5.    Probation:  Man  under     or  covenant  of   works     is  not  to  be 

law:  His  ability  and  muta-  ,    ,       ..     ..  .   .  .  .    ,  ., 

biljt  regarded  as  itself  initial,  but  rather  as 

a  special  exhibition  or  aspect  of  a  more 
broad  and  fundamental  fact — that  man  from  the  first  instant  of  his 
existence  was  a  being  under  moral  as  well  as  natural  law.  The 
existence  of  a  moral  law,  with  its  eternal  principles  of  right  and 
its  divine  authoritativeness, — a  law  adjusted  to  the  nature  and 
position  of  man,  and  capable  of  guiding  him  into  a  state  of  ma- 
tured spiritual  perfection, — was  as  indispensable  to  him  as  the 
existence  of  a  material  world  suited  to  his  bodily  nature  and 
development.  The  principles.embodied  in  that  law  were  as  eternal 
as  God  :  they  had  their  origin  in  his  own  perfect  nature.  Their 
incorporation  in  the  forms  of  law  for  the  creature  were  coincident, 
so  far  as  man  was  concerned,  with  the  creation  of  the  being  whom 
they  were  to  govern.  Law  existed  thus  when  man  began  to  exist; 
from  the  first  instant  of  his  conscious  ethical  life  he  was  under 
law.     Duties  at  once  devolved  upon  him  ;   a  moral  stewardship, 


PROBATION  :      MAN    UNDER    LAW.  253 

consciously  exercised,  laid  its  claim  upon  his  reason  and  his  con- 
science; he  knew  that  the  Being  who  made  him  was  also  sovereign 
over  him,  and  was  as  such  to  be  implicitly  and  unreservedly 
obeyed. 

This  conception  of  moral  law  as  primary  and  fundamental  in  the 
life  of  our  first  parents  is  indispensable  to  a  proper  appreciation 
of  the  particular  transaction  described  as  the  covenant  of  works. 
To  regard  the  specific  enactment  then  set  up  and  disobeyed,  as 
the  only  moral  precept  which  man  knew  or  could  obe)-, — to  con- 
ceive of  him  as  acting  prior  to  the  period  of  the  particular  temp- 
tation and  fall,  without  consciousness  of  his  responsibility  to  God, 
in  a  spontaneous  mood  of  love  and  devotion,  is  unwarranted  by 
Scripture.  The  Symbols  clearly  recognize  the  important  distinc- 
tion between  the  primal  condition  of  man  as  under  law,  and  the 
historic  transaction  which  introduced  sin  into  the  world.  It  is 
declared (IV :ii)  that  our  first  parents  at  their  creation  had  the  law 
of  God  w?  itlen  in  their  hearts,  as  really  as  they  had  the  power  to 
fulfill  it.  In  the  chapter  on  the  L,aw  of  God  (XIX)  it  is  further 
affirmed  that  Adam  was  bound  from  the  first  to  personal,  entire, 
exact  and  perpetual  obedience.  It  is  also  said  that  beside  this  law 
written  on  their  hearts,  they  received  a  command  not  to  eat  of  the 
tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  In  the  chapter  on  the  Fall 
(VI) it  is  further  intimated  that  the  law  preceded  the  command, and 
that  the  latter  was  simply  one  part  or  section  of  the  former, — the 
fundamental  duty  of  obedience  being  revealed  and  tested  by  the 
specific  requisition,  not  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil:  L,.  C.  20-21. 

The power  to  fulfill  such  comprehending  law,  or  to  obey  it  fully, 
was  a  necessary  correlative  to  the  law  itself.  Had  no  such  power 
been  granted  to  man — had  he  been  created  without  the  faculty  of 
moral  volition,  or  set  in  a  position  where  that  faculty  could  not 
be  exercised,  he  would  have  been  no  more  amenable  to  such  ethical 
law  than  the  brute  creatures  over  whom  he  wielded  dominion. 
Ability  and  obligation  were  parallel  and  commensurate  here. 
The  elements  of  such  ability,  then  as  now,  were  rational  percep- 
tion of  the  law  enjoined,  moral  appreciation  of  it,  and  the  purpose 
and  choice  of  obedience  to  it.  The  power  to  fulfill  included 
the  power  to  perceive  and  the  ability  of  conscience  to  feel  the 
pressure  of  ethical  claims,  as  well  as  the  natural  capacity  to  accept 
and  observe  each  divine  demand.  It  implied  also  the  existence  of 
external  occasions  and  conditions  requisite  to  the  right  and  effect- 
ive exercise  of  these  powers.  This  faculty  or  capability  is  further 
defined  in  the  phrase,  natural  liberty  (IX:  i)  or  liberty  engrafted 


254  MAN. 

upou  or  incorporated  in  the  nature.  It  is  also  distinctly  set  forth 
in  the  chapter  on  Free  Will,  in  the  declaration  that  man  in  his 
state  of  innocency  had  freedom  and  power  to  will  and  to  do  that 
which  is  good  and  well-pleasing  to  God.  This  affirmation  was 
indeed  a  necessary  consequence  from  the  Augustinian  position 
already  affirmed  respecting  the  nature  and  tendency  of  man 
as  originally  holy:  being  constituted  righteous,  and  thus  set 
toward  a  career  of  holiness,  he  must  have  possessed  all  the  facul- 
ties requisite  to  the  prosecution  of  such  a  career. 

It  is  hardly  needful  to  enter  here  upon  any  extended  investi- 
gation of  the  nature  of  the  primeval  man  as  a  moral  being.  If  he 
was  made  in  the  image  of  God,  after  the  divine  likeness,  endowed 
with  an  original  bias  toward  righteousness,  and  fitted  for  true 
holiness  in  heart  and  life,  he  must  have  possessed  in  high  degree 
all  the  moral  endowments  requisite  to  such  an  experience.  He 
must  have  had  clear  reason  to  discern  the  divine  law  of  right,  and 
to  judge  between  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong  in  action  and 
disposition.  He  must  have  had  a  conscience  which  responded 
quickly  to  such  discernment  with  corresponding  ethical  feeling — 
approval  and  joy  in  view  of  the  right  obeyed,  and  shame  and  the 
sense  of  spiritual  pain  in  view  of  even  the  possibility  of  wrong. 
He  must  have  had  the  natural  liberty  to  follow  the  judgment  of 
the  reason  and  the  pure  impulses  of  conscience,  and  the  power  to 
choose  the  right  and  to  act  accordingly,  in  a  sphere  of  experience 
far  above  the  compulsions  or  determinations  of  external  nature. 
Whatever  speculative  questions  may  arise  at  this  point  respecting 
the  essential  nature  of  the  reason  or  the  conscience  or  the  free 
will  in  the  primeval  man,  we  may  safely  accept  the  statement  of 
fact  here  given  as  entirely  conclusive,  and  as  sufficient  for  all 
practical  uses  in  our  present  investigation. 

Yet  mutably,  so  that  he  might  fall  from  it,  is  the  antithetic  dec- 
laration of  the  Symbols.  This  is  defined  (IV:  ii)  in  the  more 
ample  phrase,  yet  under  a  possibility  of  tra?isgressio?i,  being  left  to 
the  liberty  of  their  own  will,  which  was  subject  to  change,  or  (L,.  C. 
17)  subject  to  fall.  Such  a  statement  indicates  the  broad  differ- 
ence between  the  original  righteousness,  the  true  holiness,  already 
affirmed  as  having  been  given  to  man  at  his  creation,  and  the 
higher  type  of  holiness  seen  in  God  himself  or  in  angelic  exis- 
tences. The  pure  will  of  God  is  not  subject  to  change;  even  the 
possibility  of  transgressing  law  hardly  seems  to  exist  in  such  a 
Being;  he  cannot  lie  or  deceive  or  forswear  himself.  The  angels 
who  have  never  sinned,  in  the  act  of  keeping  their  holy  estate 
have  attained  a  degree  of  spiritual  perfection  from  which  any 


POSSIBILITY    OF    TRANSGKKSSION.  255 

large  possibility  of  transgression  seems  to  be  excluded.  It  is  said, 
however,  (L,.  C.  16)  that  even  the  angels  though  they  were  spirits, 
immortal,  holy,  excelling  in  knowledge  and  mighty  in  power, 
were  at  their  creation  subject  to  change — a  statement  which  appears 
to  warrant  the  inference  that  such  exposure  to  a  lapse  into  trans- 
gression and  sin  is  an  inevitable  condition  of  finite  existence.  In 
the  state  in  which  our  first  parents  were  placed,  this  possibility 
certainly  existed:  their  will,  though  holy,  was  like  the  angelic  will, 
subject  to  change;  the  shadow  of  moral  mutability  hung  darkly 
over  them.  The  center  of  this  mutability  is  here  located  in  the  will, 
yet  it  doubtless  extended  through  all  their  moral  nature,  and  was 
as  vital  a  fact  in  the  understanding  and  conscience  as  in  their  voli- 
tional power.  In  these  statements  the  foundation  is  laid  for  the 
emphatic  teaching  of  the  Symbols  at  a  later  stage  respecting  the 
human  rather  than  the  divine  authorship  of  sin,  and  the  conse- 
quent culpability  and  condemnation  of  the  race  on  account  of 
transgression.  The  abstract  question,  how  can  a  holy  being  ever 
fall  into  sin,  is  here  answered  by  pointing  to  the  mutability  of  man 
as  a  being  finite,  undeveloped,  essentially  weak  in  the  presence  of 
strong  temptation.  To  seek  to  discover  the  cause  of  the  first  sin 
outside  of  the  defection  of  the  human  will,  says  Augustine,  is  as  if 
one  sought  to  see  darkness  or  hear  silence.  To  the  further  question, 
why  God  has  chosen  to  create  a  race  thus  mutable  and  exposed  to 
fall,  the  chief  suggestions  in  the  Symbols  point  toward  a  necessity 
lying  in  the  constitution  of  man  as  finite  and  immature,  and  in 
the  relations  of  temptation  to  the  perfecting  of  holy  character 
through  grace.  May  it  not  be  that  a  creature,  a  race,  in  whom 
such  character  is  finally  to  be  developed,  must  of  necessity  start 
from  this  point  of  mutability,  being  made  subject  to  change,  and 
therefore  commencing  its  moral  career  under  the  possibility  of 
transgression  ? 

Holding  in  view  this  general  conception  of  man  as  in  the 
nature  of  things  a  being  under  law  generically  and  comprehen- 
sively, we  may  proceed  to  consider  the 

specific  transaction  involving  his  actual        6-    Covenant  of  Life :    Its 
r  .  .  r  „       ,  •  ,   •    ,        -i_  j     nature,  conditions,  and  ob- 

temptation  and  fall,  which  is  described     .  ct$ 

(L,.  C.   20.   S.    C.   12)   in  the  phrase, 

covenant  of  life — a  phrase  which  signifies  a  life,  or  a  mode  of 
living,  under  some  ethical  regulations  divinely  prescribed  and  vol- 
untarily observed.  It  has  its  foundation  not  so  much  in  a  formal 
compact  in  which  God  and  man  act  as  equal  parties,  and  which 
man  might  be  at  liberty  to  accept  or  reject  when  proposed  to  him, 
but  rather  in  the  enduring  nature  and  relationship  of  both  God  and 


256  MAN. 

man  as  moral  beings,  and  therefore  existing  as  of  necessity.  The 
phrase,  covenant  of  works,  more  widely  current  in  later  Calvin- 
istic  theology,  also  occurs  repeatedly  in  the  Confession,  but  carry- 
ing substantially  the  same  significance,  as  in  Ch.  VII:  i— iii,  and 
also  Ch.  XIX:  i,  where  the  law  given  to  Adam  is  described  as  a 
covenant  bjr  which  Adam  and  all  his  posterity  were  bound  to  per- 
sonal, entire,  exact  and  perpehial  obedie?ice.  It  is  noticeable  that 
the  instituting  of  such  a  snecial  relation  is  referred  in  the  Sym- 
bols, not  immediately  to  the  primary  demand  for  moral  govern- 
ment and  a  moral  training  for  man,  but  rather  to  the  voluntary 
condecension  of  God  toward  his  earthly  subjects,  and  to  the  divine 
desire  to  give  them  ampler  fruition  of  him  as  their  blessedness  and 
reward.  It  is  said  (VII:  i)  that,  so  great  is  the  distance  between 
God  and  the  creature,  that  although  obedience  is  by  the  nature  of 
the  case  due  from  the  creature  to  him,  the  joy  and  fullness  of  such 
obedience  could  never  be  possessed,  except  through  some  more 
close,  explicit,  intimate  transaction,  such  as  that  recorded  in  the 
narrative  of  the  Fall,  and  theologically  described  as  the  covenant 
of  life  or  of  works.  Stated  generically,  it  is  certainly  true  that 
the  largest  appreciation  and  enjoyment  of  God  become  possible, 
not  through  a  merely  general  submission  of  ourselves  to  his  author- 
ity, but  rather  through  the  cordial  doing  of  his  will  in  the  most  spe- 
cific details.  His  rewards  of  obedience  are  specific  as  well  as  freely 
given;  and  they  become  specific  only  as  they  are  seen  to  follow 
specific  acts  of  loyalty  and  of  love.  Yet  we  are  not  at  liberty  to 
dissociate  the  particular  transaction  here  to  be  considered  from  its 
primordial  relations  to  the  comprehending  law  under  which  man 
was  placed,  at  the  outset  of  his  moral  existence.  Underneath  the 
particular  covenant  of  works  or  of  life,  or  the  covenant  of  law,  as 
the  Irish  Articles  describe  it,  lay  continually  the  broad  fact  that 
all  human  works  were  also  duties,  and  that  the  human  life  was 
true  life,  and  especially  indefectible  life,  only  as  it  became  through- 
out in  the  deepest  and  most  absolute  sense  a  life  in  God. 

We  are  confronted  at  this  point  by  the  dark  problem  as  to  the 
divine  intention  in  the  instituting  of  this  special  covenant  —  a 
problem  already  suggested,  and  one  which  in  various  forms  will 
again  and  again  confront  us.  The  statements  just  quoted  repre- 
sent it  as  the  purpose  of  God  to  bestow  upon  man  in  this  way 
larger  fruition  of  himself,  and  therefore  higher  blessedness  than 
man  could  otherwise  have  reached.  God  sought,  in  other  words, 
to  lessen  the  distance  between  man  and  himself,  and  to  give  to  man 
wider  opportunity  both  to  glorify  him  and  to  enjoy  him  forever. 
Was  this  really  the  divine  purpose?     Was  this  transaction,  from 


COVENANT  OF  LIFE  :  COVENANT  OF  WORKS.       257 

which  in  fact  the  fall  with  all  its  disastrous  consequences  resulted, 
intended  to  be  a  covenant  unto  life, — a  transaction  whose  legiti- 
mate issue  would  have  been  an  enlarged  religious  experience  and 
joy  as  a  reward  forever?  These  declarations  are  certainly  not 
favorable  to  the  supralapsarian  conception  of  the  fall,  as  a  pre- 
determined event  in  the  same  sense  as  creation  itself.  They  lead 
us  rather  to  the  difficult  alternative  of  a  loving  intention  of  God 
frustrated  for  the  time — a  divine  plan  for  the  higher  cultivation  of 
man,  and  the  closer  union  of  the  race  with  himself  in  moral  fel- 
lowship and  blessedness,  brought  to  naught  temporarily  by  the 
mutable  will  and  spiritual  weakness  of.  the  very  creature  on  whom 
he  was  seeking  to  bestow  these  larger  benefits.  Certainly  an 
original  intention  that  Adam  should  fail  in  carrying  out  the  divine 
desire  as  expressed  in  this  transaction — an  original  purpose  that 
he  should  rather  fall,  with  such  consequent  adjustment  of  all  the 
details  as  to  make  the  issue  sure  as  the  Will  that  chose  it,  is  a 
supposition  which  seems  to  do  violence  to  our  purest  conceptions  of 
God,  and  seriously  to  shake  our  faith  in  his  moral  administration. 
The  conditions  revealed  in  this  transaction  are  the  specific  pro- 
hibition on  the  one  side,  and  the  specific  requisition  of  obedience 
on  the  other.  Of  the  reasons  for  precisely  such  a  prohibition,  the 
Symbols  say  nothing;  they  simply  state  the  fact — the  forbidding 
to  eat  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  The  test 
was  certainly  plain,  direct,  equitable,  practical;  suited  in  every- 
way to  the  nature  and  circumstances  of  those  to  whom  it  was  to 
be  applied.  It  was  simply,  in  the  language  of  an  eminent  Amer- 
ican divine  (Hodge),  an  outward  and  visible  test  to  determine 
whether  Adam  was  willing  to  obey  God  in  all  things.  In  the 
strong  language  of  the  Welsh  Calvinistic  communion:  The  law  of 
our  nature  was  all  contained  in  this  covenant,  so  that  it  was 
impossible  to  transgress  the  special  command  of  the  covenant 
without  transgressing  at  the  same  time  the  entire  law  of  our  nature. 
Of  the  character  of  the  obedience  required,  nothing  is  said  beyond 
the  fact  that  it  was  to  be  free  and  cordial  and  perpetual — such 
obedience  as  was  due  from  such  beings  to  their  Creator  and  their 
Sovereign.  It  is  said  that  as  a  reward  of  such  obedience  life  was 
promised  to  Adam  so  long  as  the  obedience  was  personal  and perfect '. 
This  pledge  of  life  is  synonymous  with  that  fruition  of  God  already 
described  as  the  object  in  view  in  the  instituting  of  this  special 
test.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  this  promise  is  nowhere  stated  in 
Scripture,  though  it  is  doubtless  implied, — God  in  this  as  in  all 
other  moral  discipline  graciously  appending  assurances  of  his 
approbation  wherever  true  obedience  is  rendered.     While  it  is  not 


258  MAN. 

the  right  or  privilege  of  an  obedient  soul  to  demand  compensation 
for  duty  done — while  even  angels  can  urge  no  claim  for  reward  in 
view  of  their  holiest  service,  it  still  is  inherently  just  in  God  to 
bestow  such  reward,  and  what  inherent  justice  does  not  forbid, 
paternal  love  and  grace  rejoice  to  bestow. 

If  this  probationary  transaction  be  described  as  a  cove?ia?it,  as 
is  done  in  the  Symbols  and  in  the  later  Calvinistic  theology  largely, 
care  must  be  taken  to  guard  against  some  false  impressions  which 
the  term  naturally  conveys.  A  covenant,  in  ordinary  language, 
is  a  contract  or  an  agreement  or  a  bargain,  in  which  the  parties  are 
acting  essentially  on  the  basis  of  equality,  with  mutual  arrange- 
ment of  conditions  and  results.  Each  agrees  to  the  stipulations 
appended :  each  obligates  himself  freely,  under  the  terms  pro- 
posed. But  here  Adam  had  no  choice,  either  as  to  the  general 
administration  set  up  over  him  as  a  moral  being,  or  to  the  partic- 
ular command  imposed  upon  him;  he  did  not  formally  and  freely 
assent  to  the  penalty  threatened  or  select  the  rewards  of  obedience. 
His  part  in  the  transaction  included  only  the  specific  exercise  of 
his  personal  capacity  for  choice,  in  the  moral  position  in  which  he 
found  himself  placed  by  the  divine  sovereignty.  It  may  indeed 
be  presumed  that,  finding  himself  set  in  the  center  of  such  moral 
alternatives,  Adam  did  freely  acquiesce  in  the  probationary 
arrangement  thus  made,  and  did  cordially  yield  obedience  for  a 
time  to  the  simple  command  imposed  upon  him.  Yet  the  trans- 
action can  be  viewed  as  a  covenant  only  in  a  restrictive  sense;  and 
it  may  justly  be  questioned  whether  the  use  of  this  conception  for 
theological  purposes  has  not  been  extended  in  later  times  quite 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  biblical  affirmation  or  warrant.  It  was 
indeed  natural  that  the  revelation  of  a  gracious  covenant  estab- 
lished between  Christ  and  the  believer, —  a  covenant  in  which 
elements  of  human  assent,  free  and  tender  and  loyal,  are  seen  to 
be  primary  and  fundamental,  should  lead  on  to  "this  affirmation  of 
a  covenant  of  substantially  the  same  nature,  exhibiting  itself 
under  an  administration  of  works, — historical  redemption  in  the 
form  of  a  covenant  between  God  and  man  after  the  fall,  suggesting 
a  similar  relation  between  them  under  the  same  form  before  the 
fall.  It  may  also  freely  be  admitted  that  the  Cocceian  conception 
of  the  entire  dealing  of  God  with  man  under  the  aspect  of  a  series 
of  covenants,  was  an  improvement  in  some  respects  upon  the  more 
speculative  conception  of  a  series  of  eternal  decrees,  or  of  one 
comprehensive  and  fontal  decree,  of  which  all  events  in  time  were 
simply  the  irresistible  growth  and  fruition.  This  new  presentation 
of  the  subject  in  an  historic  light,  bearing  the  name  of  Cocceius  as 


PROBATION  :     ITS   REACH    AND    EFFECT.  259 

its  chief  exponent,  but  to  some  extent  known  and  accepted  before 
his  day  in  both  Holland  and  Scotland,  had  risen  into  considerable 
prominence  as  early  as  the  era  of  the  Assembly  :  Dorner,  Hist. 
Prot.  Theology.  And  the  Westminster  divines  were  obviously 
conscious  of  the  relief  thus  afforded  from  the  fatalistic  impression 
almost  inevitably  conveyed  by  the  older  Calvinism,  through  such 
philosophic  and  abstract  rather  than  historic  presentation.  But 
it  is  probably  true  that  they  followed  the  tendency  of  the  Reformed 
theology  of  their  time  in  elaborating  the  doctrine  of  the  covenants, 
as  the  federal  school  had  done,  to  a  degree  beyond  what  either  the 
language  or  the  inferential  suggestions  of  Scripture  would  warrant. 
At  least,  while  stating  with  marked  fullness  those  elements  in  this 
probationary  transaction  which  liken  it  to  a  human  covenant,  they 
cannot  be  said  to  have  pointed  out  with  equal  fullness  those  broad 
differences  which  separate  it  radically  from  all  compacts  or  agree- 
ments of  men  :    See  Ball,  Covenant  of  Grace. 

This  will  be  more  apparent  if  we  consider  in  a  preliminary  way 
what  is  taught  in  the  Symbols  respecting  the  relations  of  this 
transaction  to  the  posterity  of  Adam. 

Without  forestalling  at  this  point  their      s7'    Reach  of  this  proba. 
*\        .   .     ,    .  tion :  Adam  how  far  a  Public 

general  teaching  as  to  original  sin,  we     persQn .  representati0n. 

may  note  their  description  of  Adam  as 

head  of  the  race,  and  as  covenanting  in  that  capacity  for  his  de- 
scendants as  well  as  for  himself.  It  is  said  (XIX)  that  God  bound 
him  and  all  his  posterity  under  the  obligation  of  exact  and  per- 
petual obedience;  and  that  life  spiritual  and  indefectible  was 
promised  to  him,  and  in  him  to  his  posterity,  on  condition  that 
such  obedience  should  be  rendered.  He  is  described  as  a  public 
person  (L,.  C.  22),  and  as  entering  into  covenant  not  for  himself 
only,  but  for  all  mankind  descending  from  him  by  ordinary  gener- 
ation. Our  first  parents  are  further  represented,  (Chap.  VT.iii) 
as  the  root  of  all  mankind,  and  consequently  as  involving  the 
entire  race  in  the  retributive  issues  flowing  from  their  personal 
failure  under  the  divine  testing.  Such  expressions,  while  they 
suggest  the  general  problem  just  named,  (which  will  be  more 
fully  considered  at  a  later  stage)  press  upon  us  at  this  point  the 
particular  question;  In  what  sense  and  to  what  extent  did  Adam 
thus  act  representatively  ? 

It  is  granted  by  those  who  advocate  specially  the  doctrine  of 
the  covenants,  that  we  have  in  the  biblical  record  itself  no  pos- 
itive intimation  that  our  first  parents  were  conscious  of  any  such 
representative  relation  under  the  divine  law,  or  that  they  did  in 
fact  consent  to  act  for  their  entire  posterity,  or  agree  that  their 


260  MAN. 

descendants  to  the  end  of  time  should  be  legally  bound  to  face 
the  penal  issues  of  their  personal  failure  under  the  primitive  pro- 
bation. It  is  admitted  (Hodge,  Theol.  11:217)  that  the  confes- 
sional statement  that  God  entered  into  covenant  with  Adam,  even 
in  the  limited  personal  rather  than  the  official  or  representative 
sense,  does  not  rest  upon  any  express  declaration  of  Scripture. 
There  is  in  fact,  (Smith.  H.  B.  Christ.  Theol.  378)  a  lack  of  his- 
torical foundation  for  anything  beyond  the  divine  announcement 
and  pledge  in  respect  to  the  consequences  of  obedience  and  diso- 
bedience. Yet  it  is  claimed  that  the  covenant  of  grace  implies 
such  an  antecedent  and  antithetic  covenant  of  works,  having  like 
representative  quality.  Reference  is  made  to  retributive  conse- 
quences that  have  in  fact  flowed  down  upon  the  posterity  of  Adam 
through  the  Fall,  as  implying  an  agreement  on  his  part  to  accept 
such  consequences;  and  it  is  inferred  that,  since  in  Adam  all  died, 
he  willingly  consented  that  his  descendants  should  each  and  all 
die  in  the  event  of  his  failure  to  keep  the  law.  It  is  also  argued 
that  this  species  of  federal  or  representative  headship  underlies  all 
the  providential  dealing  with  mankind,  and  that  men  recognize 
it  as  just  by  incorporating  it  extensively  in  human  law.  And  on 
such  grounds  it  is  affirmed  that  Adam  acted  not  in  his  individual 
capacity  merely,  but  as  the  legal  or  federal  as  well  as  natural  head 
and  representative  of  the  race, — entering  thus  into  direct  cove- 
nant with  God  for  them  as  fully  as  for  himself. 

It  is  certainly  a  suggestive  response  to  this  claim  to  say  that  no 
such  doctrine  appears  in  the  Institutes  of  Calvin,  or  in  any  of  the 
earlier  theological  systems  accepted  in  the  Reformed  churches,  and 
that  when!the  Cocceian  view  was  first  formulated, it  was  regarded  by 
the  earlier  Calvinists  as  questionable  if  not  erroneous.  The  affirm- 
ation that  the  headship  of  Adam,  in  this  sense  of  that  phrase,  has 
entered  into  the  faith  of  all  Christian  churches,  and  is  more  or 
less  clearly  presented  in  all  their  authorized  symbols  (Hodge,  II: 
122)  is  one  which  rests  on  inadequate  historical  foundations.  It 
is  true  that  the  symbols  of  the  Reformation  generally  maintain, 
in  opposition  to  the  false  conception  of  individualism  in  its  vari- 
ous guises,  the  moral  unity  of  the  race,  and  the  special  relationship 
of  our  first  parents  by  virtue  of  which  the  race  became  involved 
organically  in  the  consequences  of  their  transgression.  But  it  is 
also  true  that  no  confession,  prior  to  that  of  Westminster,  repre- 
sents this  connection  as  forensic  and  representative  rather  than 
natural;  and  that  the  introduction  of  the  doctrine  of  legal  repre- 
sentation marks  a  distinct  stage  in  the  development  of  historical 
Calvinism — a  stage  which  certainly  brought  with  it  some  impor- 


THE  FAU,  OF   MAN.  261 

tant  improvements,  but  which  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  the 
consummating  step  in  that  development.  It  is  also  a  noticeable 
fact  that  the  conception  of  a  representative  and  legal  covenant, 
though  incorporated  in  the  Westminster  Symbols,  has  never  been 
able  to  win  its  way  to  universal  acceptance;  and  that  many  of 
those  who  hold  it  are  now  inclined  to  rest  the  legal  upon  an  ante- 
cedent natural  headship,  while  in  some  quarters  there  is  a  decided 
return  to  the  older  conception  of  Calvin  and  his  immediate  disci- 
ples: Shedd.  Dogm.  Theol. 

But,  whatever  may  be  said  respecting  the  theological  statement 
of  a  federal  covenant,  no  thoughtful  mind  can  be  indifferent  to 
the  underlying  fact  that  the  probation  of  our  first  parents  was 
intended  to  reach  their  posterity,  and  did  in  some  way  involve  in 
its  dark  issues  the  entire  race.  Though  the  proof  texts  appended 
to  the  Confession  and  Catechisms  can  hardly  be  said  to  establish 
the  particular  propositions  with  which  they  are  associated,  they 
clearly  justify  the  broader  statement  just  made,  and  demonstrate 
beyond  question  the  moral  unity  of  the  race,  and  the  ordained 
community  of  all  in  sin  and  in  condemnation.  This  is  the  generic 
doctrine  common  to  both  the  earlier  and  the  later  Calvinism,  and 
those  who  are  not  satisfied  with  the  positive  teaching  of  the  Sym- 
bols as  to  the  covenant  of  works,  still  receive  with  utmost  cordiality 
the  great  underlying  truth.  Nor  do  they  reject  the  clearly  biblical 
doctrine  of  a  blessed  covenant  of  grace,  or  question  at  any  point  the 
spiritual  oneness  established  between  Christ  and  his  chosen,  though 
they  fail  to  discover  in  Scripture  adequate  evidence  of  a  corre- 
sponding transaction  antecedent  to  the  economy  of  redemption. 

Further  discussion  of  the  question  may  be  postponed  until  we 

have  occasion  to  examine  current  theories  of  original  sin  on  the 

one  hand,  and  corresponding  theories 

respecting  the  plan  of  salvation  on  the  8*    Tne  Fal1 :   the  divine 

,,           TT7  decree  permitting:  sin:  God 

other.     We  may  now  turn  to  contem-  . ,.    "  ..          * 

J  not  its  author, 

plate  the  Fall  as  an  event  occurring 

under  the  eternal  decree,  and  carrying  with  it  the  dark  problem 
respecting  the  divine  permission  of  sin.  What  has  already  been 
said  as  to  the  different  views  presented  in  the  Assembly  touching 
the  divine  purpose  or  purposes,  and  the  various  aspects  of  the 
decrees  of  God  as  absolute  or  permissive,  need  not  be  repeated  here. 
Whether  the  majority  of  the  members  were  sublapsarian  or 
supralapsarian,  it  is  clear  that  the  doctrine  of  a  single  decree, 
primal  in  eternity,  fontal  in  relation  to  all  events,  and  sovereign 
and  irresistible  in  its  unfolding,  had  great  weight  in  determining 


262  MAN. 

the  form  in  which  the  fact  of  the  Fall  was  conceived  and  de- 
scribed. Yet  it  is  evident  that  the  Fall  itself  viewed  as  a  historic 
fact  was  not  regarded  as  included  in  this  one  timeless  decree,  in 
the  same  sense  and  measure  as  the  antecedent  fact  of  creation,  01 
the  subsequent  fact  of  salvation.  Consequently  in  approaching 
this  historic  fact  it  became  needful  to  conceive  rather  of  this 
decree  as  plural — as  unfolding  itself  in  a  series  of  ivise  and  holy  acts, 
wherein  the  divine  relation  to  the  result  is  seen  to  be  not  single 
but  multiform;  not  always  necessary  and  absolute,  but  sometimes 
relative  and  in  a  sense  conditional.  While  therefore,  theoretic- 
ally, supralapsarianism  seemed  to  become  the  regulative  dogma 
in  the  case,  the  sublapsarian  modification  was  practically  requi- 
site, in  order  to  defend  adequately  the  divine  administration  in 
the  permission  of  the  first  sin.  Hence  it  was  said  as  to  that  orig- 
inating sin,  that  God  was  pleased  (VI  :i)  according  to  his  own  wise 
and  holy  counsel  to  permit  it, — having  purposed  in  connection 
with  such  permission  to  order  it  to  his  own  glory.  In  the  chapter 
on  Providence  it  is  in  the  same  way  affirmed  that  this  wise,  potent, 
good  providence  of  God  extendeth  itself  even  to  the  first  Fall,  as 
well  as  to  all  other  sins  of  angels  and  men.  Yet  the  relation  of 
the  divine  volition  to  the  first  sin  and  to  all  subsequent  sin  as  a 
fact  must  be,  in  some  important  aspects,  vitally  different  from  its 
relation  either  to  inanimate  nature  or  to  the  holiness  of  moral 
beings.  It  cannot  be  said  that  God  provides  sin  although  he  fore- 
sees it — provides  it  as  he  makes  provision  for  food  or  raiment  or 
for  a  scheme  of  salvation.  To  assert  this  would  be  to  affirm  that 
he  is  both  the  author  and  the  approver  of  sin;  but  this,  it  is  said, 
he  neither  is  nor  can  be.  The  doctrine  of  his  personal  perfection 
is  to  be  maintained  at  whatever  cost;  and  certainly  any  causal 
relation  to  human  sinfulness,  wherein  God  was  seen  to  be  in  any 
direct  sense  its  author,  would  seem  to  be  grossly  inconsistent  with 
such  perfection. 

But  what  constitutes  a  permissive  decree  ?  What  are  the  exact 
relations  of  the  Deity  to  sin,  and  how  can  his  permission  of  sin 
be  justified  ?  Certainly  not  on  the  ground  of  ignorance,  whether 
constitutional  or  voluntary.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  God 
as  choosing  not  to  knovv  what  are  to  be  the  free  acts  of  his  moral 
creatures,  without  admitting  that  he  must  first  know  what  he  de- 
termines to  be  ignorant  of:  otherwise  it  becomes  impossible  to 
regard  his  choice  of  ignorance  as  wise  or  righteous.  To  imagine 
him  constitutionally  ignorant, — setting  up  a  moral  system  whose 
progressive  developments  he  could  know  only  as  they  were  to  be 
revealed  in  time   and  whose  outcome  he  could  therefore  vnt  bavp 


DIVINE    PERMISSION    OK   SIN.  263 

perceived  from  the  beginning  or  even  perceive  now,  is  to  fancy  him. 
in  the  phrase  of  the  psalmist,  altogether  such  an  one  as  ourselves. 
We  cannot  admit  in  either  form  the  supposition  that  God  did  not 
know  beforehand  whether  the  Fall  would  occur,  or  what  conse- 
quences would  follow  it  through  the  disordered  constitution  and 
experience  of  our  race.  The  Symbols  therefore,  at  all  hazards, 
affirm  the  full  foreknowledge  of  God  respecting  sin,  and  his  intelli- 
gent allowance  of  it.  God  knozvs  whatsoever  may  or  can  come  to 
pass  upon  all  supposed  conditions,  it  is  said  in  the  chapter  on  the 
Eternal  Decree;  neither  has  he  decreed  anything  because  heforesazv 
it  as  future — something  that  would  occur  independently  of  his  de- 
termination, or  that  would  turn  upon  conditions  existing  or  sup- 
posed, outside  of  and  above  himself.  It  is  expressly  said  (L,.  C.  19) 
that  God  by  his  providence  permitted  some  of  the  angels  willfully 
and  irrecoverably  to  fall  into  sin  and  damnation;  and  that  this 
providence  (V:iv)  extendeth  itself  even  to  the  first  Fall,  and  all 
other  sins  of  angels  and  men. 

These  statements  clearly  imply  not  merely  a  foreknowledge  of 
all  events  whether  evil  or  good  as  future,  but  also  a  species  of 
causal  relation  to  them,  so  that  in  some  sense  they  occur  through 
divine  determination  as  well  as  through  simple  consent.  The 
will  of  God  was  certainly  underneath  the  will  of  our  first  pa- 
rents, as  w7ell  when  they  transgressed  as  when  they  obeyed  the 
divine  commands:  as  a  sustaining  energy  God  is  underneath  the 
volitions  of  the  sinner,  as  well  as  those  of  the  noblest  saint.  His 
hand  did  not  in  that  dark  hour  drop  our  first  parents  out  of 
existence,  or  abandon  its  supervisory  control  over  them:  it  does 
not  withdraw  itself  even  when  the  apostate  soul  is  disobeying 
and  cursing  the  very  power  that  keeps  it  in  being.  God  upholds 
even  the  lost;  and  it  may  be  among  the  sorest  of  their  pangs 
that  they  know  themselves  to  be  kept  in  existence  perpetually  by 
the  Being  from  whom  they  have  revolted  utterly  and  forever.  Sin 
is  thus  not  the  creation  of  man  as  wholly  independent  of  God;  a 
divine  permission  underlies  it,  as  the  divine  power  underlies  all 
things,  all  events — everything  that  is  human.  While  God  never 
creates  in  man  a  sinful  volition,  he  creates  and  sustains  man  as  a 
being  capable  of  putting  forth  such  volition.  God  powerfully 
bounds,  and  in  many  ways  restrains  the  sinful  propensities  of  men; 
but  he  does  not  take  away  these  propensities,  or  set  man  in  cir- 
cumstances where  free  action  becomes  impossible  and  holiness  is 
compulsory,  or  transform  him  into  an  irrational  creature,  wholly 
incapable  of  sinning.  He  does  not  prevent  sin,  as  he  might,  by 
destroving  the  sinner  at  once  and  forever:   rather  for  wise  and  holy 


264  MAN. 

ends  he  permits  the  sin  as  a  dread  alternative,  though  he  neither 
is  nor  can  be  its  author  or  approver. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  in  such  permission  God  is  acting  under 
a  law  of  necessity,  either  natural  or  spiritual.  Reference  has 
already  been  made  to  the  speculative  theory  that,  on  natural 
grounds,  it  seems  impracticable  to  create  a  moral  being,  endowed 
as  Adam  was,  and  to  set  him  in  such  a  probationary  sphere  as  that 
of  Eden,  without  making  sin  somewhere  in  the  unfolding  life  of 
such  a  being,  not  only  a  possibility  but  even  a  dreadful  certainty. 
More  broadly  it  has  been  maintained  that  to  our  finite  apprehension 
the  creation  not  of  a  single  being,  but  of  a  race  of  moral  creatures, 
all  thus  endowed  and  thus  exposed,  seems  an  act  involving  by  nat- 
ural necessity  the  probable  if  not  the  certain  fall  of  some  among 
the  myriads  of  such  free  yet  immature  existences.  Other  theorists 
have  turned  their  thoughts  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  affirmed 
— as  we  have  seen — that  sin,  though  not  in  itself  good,  is  an  essen- 
tial condition  of  the  highest  good  for  the  moral  universe;  or  more 
specifically  that  it  was  only  through  the  admission  of  such  sin  as 
an  antecedent,  that  the  world  could  have  known  Christ,  or  tasted 
the  peculiar  bliss  of  salvation  through  him.  Yet  the  great  problem 
cannot  be  fully  solved  through  any  such  conceptions  of  necessity, 
natural  or  spiritual,  constraining  God  either  to  refrain  altogether 
from  the  creation  of  moral  beings,  or  to  consent  as  by  a  species 
of  compulsion  to  the  existence  of  moral  evil  in  the  universe  which 
had  emanated,  beautiful  and  pure,  from  his  creative  hand.  There 
surely  was  freedom  in  that  consent;  it  was  a  real  permission  and 
purpose — in  some  sense  a  decree.  Yet  with  this  permissive  decree 
involving  such  sad  issues,  there  was  also  a  supreme  determina- 
tion, as  the  Symbols  strongly  affirm,  that  what  was  thus  allowed 
should  finally  be  ordered  to  his  own  glory. 

To  this  conclusion,  which  is  little  more  than  a  confession  of 
ignorance  on  one  side  and  an  affirmation  of  faith  on  the  other,  not 
only  the  Westminster  teaching  but  Protestant  symbolism  generally 
leads  us.  The  Augsburg  Conf.  (XIX)  declares  that  not  God  but 
the  will  of  the  wicked  is  the  sole  cause  of  sin;  and  the  Formula 
of  Concord  teaches  that,  though  man  by  his  own  choice  becomes 
a  sinner,  no  power  but  that  of  God  can  control  or  cure  the  evil 
which  sin  has  wrought.  In  like  manner  the  Second  Helvetic  Conf. 
(VIII)  refers  the  Fall  wholly  to  the  will  of  man  and  the  tempta- 
tion of  Satan;  yet  affirms  that  God  will  not  only  justify  himself 
in  the  permission  of  it,  but  will  overrule  it  and  make  it  subservient 
to  his  own  glory  and  the  magnifying  of  his  grace  in  Christ. 
Such  was  the  general  position  of  the  primitive  Protestantism; 


THE    FALL  :     ITS   HISTORIC    QUALITY.  265 

and  though  before  the  era  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  theolo- 
gians and  schools  had  suggested  various  solutions  of  the  problem — 
as  in  later  times — nothing  better  could  be  said  then,  or  has  been 
said  since,  than  that  God  on  the  one  hand  has  not  only  known 
that  sin  would  occur,  but  has  determined  that  in  his  providential 
scheme  of  things  it  shall  have  a  place,  while  on  the  other  hand 
he  is  still  the  master  over  it  and  all  its  consequences,  and  will  so 
order  all  that  at  the  end  his  own  glory  shall  not  be  tarnished  but 
rather  made  more  illustrious  thereby. 

Turning  from  these  more  speculative  inquiries,  we  may  note 
the  practical  fact  that  the  Fall  is  treated  throughout  the  Symbols 
as  neither  mythical  nor  allegorical,  but 

in  a  true  and  proper  sense  an  historic        9*  Tlie  Fal1 :  Its  hlstoric 
tt    ,   ,7  .,    ~  quality :  The  primal  temp- 

event.      Had  the  narrative  in  Genesis    ?  .,„ 

tation. 

been  merely  an  ancient  tradition,  treas- 
ured up  in  the  memory  and  conviction  of  mankind,  and  at  last 
transmitted  orally  or  through  antecedent  documents  to  Moses  for 
permanent  preservation  in  the  pages  of  inspired  Scripture,  it 
would  still  possess  marked  significance  as  a  helpful  though  unau- 
thoritative explanation  of  the  most  vital  and  appalling  fact  in 
human  experience — the  fact  of  existing  sin.  Had  it  been  a  mere 
allegory,  sketched  by  Moses  himself  or  some  one  else,  and  prefaced 
to  the  personal  and  tribal  history  he  was  preparing,  it  would  still, 
in  view  of  the  extensive  and  profound  impression  made  by  it  not 
only  upon  the  thought  but  equally  upon  the  life  of  mankind, 
stand  forever  first  among  possible  human  explanations  of  the 
evidently  lapsed  and  degenerate  condition  of  the  race.  But  on 
either  of  these  hypotheses,  it  would  be  impossible  to  explain  the 
position  and  the  marked  effect  of  this  narrative  in  the  Scriptures. 
The  constant  assumption  of  its  historic  quality,  the  numerous 
inferences  drawn  from  it  in  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New,  the  testimony  of  our  Lord  respecting  it,  the  fundamental 
character  of  the  doctrine  taught  by  it,  in  its  relations  to  the  entire 
scheme  of  biblical  doctrine,  compel  us  either  to  accept  the  record 
as  real  history  or  to  set  aside  the  cardinal  hypothesis  of  its  inspi- 
ration. From  this  conclusion  the  diversified,  shifting,  largely 
naturalistic  hypotheses  of  recent  criticism  have  thus  far  justified 
no  retrocession. 

Assuming  on  such  grounds  the  historic  quality  of  the  record, 
we  may  note  briefly  the  incidents  of  the  temptation  and  the  fall. 
That  sin  came  into  our  world  from  another,  and  was  induced 
through  the  agency  of  a  malevolent  tempter,  is  directly  stated. 
Our  first  parents,  being  seduced  by  the  subtilty  and  temptation  of 


266  MAN. 

Satan  (VI  :i),  sinned  in  eating  the  forbidden  fruit.  Although 
they  existed  from  the  first  under  a  possibility  of  transgressing ,  and 
were  as  free  beings  subject  to  change,  and  were  divinely  placed  in 
a  position  where  these  liabilities  might  work  out  disastrous  results, 
yet  the  Symbols  agree  with  Scripture  in  referring  these  results 
primarily  to  another  world,  and  to  preternatural  influence  emanat- 
ing from  a  being  other  than  human.  It  is  said  (V  :  v),  that  God 
even  now  doth  oftentimes  leave  for  a  season  his  own  children  to  man- 
ifold temptations ;  and,  also,  in  the  same  connection,  that  in  his 
providence  he  sometimes  gives  wicked  men  over,  not  only  to  the 
innate  action  of  their  own  lusts,  but  also  to  the  temptations  of  the 
world,  and  the  power  of  Satan.  All  men  as  fallen  are  declared 
(X.  C.  27)  to  be  not  only  by  nature  children  of  wrath,  but  also 
bond-slaves  to  Satan  :  and  in  the  commentary  on  the  first  com- 
mandment (L,.  C.  105)  we  are  warned  against  all  compacts  and 
consulting  with  the  devil,  and  hearkening  to  his  suggestio?is,  as 
among  the  sins  strictly  and  solemnly  forbidden.  And  in  the 
exhortation  to  remember  the  Sabbath  (L,.  C.  121),  we  are  taught 
that  Satan  with  his  i?istruments  do  much  labor  to  blot  out  the  glory 
and  even  the  memory  of  it,  to  bring  in  all  irreligion  and  impiety. 
It  is  also  said  in  the  chapter  (XVII)  on  the  Perseverance  of  the 
Saints  that  Christians  may  through  temptations  of  Satan  and  of  the 
world,  fall  into  grievous  sin;  and  in  the  chapter  (XX)  on  Christ- 
ian Liberty,  it  is  said  that  such  liberty  consists  partly  in  being 
delivered  from  bondage  to  Satan  as  well  as  from  interior  sinfulness. 
Among  the  specific  humiliations  of  our  L,ord  himself  is  named  his 
conflicting  with  the  temptations  of  Satan — with  the  terrors  of  death 
and  the  powers  of  darkness  (L,.  C.  48-49);  and  one  element  in 
his  exaltation  is  seen  in  his  vanquishing  not  only  death  itself,  but 
him  that  had  the  power  of  it :  1,.  C.  52. 

These  extracts,  together  with  others  less  conspicuous,  bring 
into  definite  form  the  Westminster  conception  of  Satan,  and 
especially  of  his  relations  to  the  first  sin  and  to  all  subsequent  sins 
of  men.  The  subject  has  already  been  introduced  under  the  head 
of  Creation,  but  calls  for  some  further  consideration  here.  Con- 
corning  the  angels  in  general  we  are  taught  (L,.  C.  16)  that  God 
made  them  spirits  immortal,  holy,  excelling  in  knowledge,  mighty 
in  power,  .  .  .  yet  subject  to  change, — the  possibility  of  falling 
away  being  thus  incorporated  in  their  structure  as  in  that  of  our 
first  parents.  What  has  been  described  as  a  defectibility  insepa- 
rable from  finite  and  dependent  nature,  appears  in  their  constitu- 
tion as  really  as  in  that  of  man,  though  under  different  laws  or 
forms  of  development.     The  lapse  of  some  among  the  angels  was 


SATAN    AND    HIS   AGENCY.  267 

an  event  occurring,  like  the  fall  of  man,  within  the  providence  of 
of  God, — He  by  his  providence  permitting  some  of  them  willfully 
and  irrecoverably  to  fall  into  sin  and  damnation.  It  is  also  affirmed 
that  he  limits  and  orders  their  fall  and  all  their  sins  to  his  own 
glory,  while  he  establishes  the  rest  in  holiness  and  happiness, — mean- 
while at  his  pleasure  employing  them  all,  both  good  and  evil,  as 
the  language  implies,  in  the  administration  of  his  power,  mercy 
and  justice.  In  the  chapter  on  the  Eternal  Decree  the  same  species 
of  predestination  which  is  affirmed  concerning  mankind,  is  also 
affirmed  respecting  the  angels  both  good  and  evil  :  By  the  decree 
of  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  his  own  glory,  some  men  and 
angels  are  predestinated  unto  everlasting  life,  and  others  fore- 
ordained to  everlasting  death;  these  atigels  and  men,  thus  predes- 
tinated and  foreordained,  being  particularly  and  unchangeably 
designed :    See  the  Irish  Articles,  12,  20. 

Whether  the  fall  of  some  among  the  angels  occurred  long  prior 
to  the  lapse  of  man,  or  in  immediate  conjunction  with  that  lapse, 
and  as  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  temptation  to  which  man 
was  subject,  is  a  matter  unrevealed;  many  considerations  favor 
the  latter  hypothesis,  though  the  former  is  more  frequently  ac- 
cepted: Hickok,  Humanity  Immortal.  In  either  case,  we  must 
recognize  a  fallen  angel  as  the  agent,  executing  in  some  sense  a 
divine  purpose,  though  engaged  in  the  gratification  of  his  own 
envious  or  malicious  desires.  The  Formula  of  Concord  affirms 
(1:13)  that  the  devil  cannot  create  any  substance,  but  can  only 
by  way  of  accident,  under  the  permission  of  the  L,ord,  deprave  a 
substance  created  by  God.  He  brings  sin  malevolently  into  our 
world,  and  in  that  initial  act  institutes  among  men  a  dark  and 
baleful  dominion  whose  growth  and  issues  constitute  in  large  de- 
gree the  history  of  humanity.  It  has  been  remarked  that,  as 
theological  science  advances,  the  place  of  Satan  in  theology  is 
growing  less  and  less  prominent.  But  while  this  may  be  true, 
especially  with  reference  to  the  relations  of  Satan  to  the  atonement 
and  to  justification,  no  sound  theology  can  be  indifferent  to  the  fact 
that  such  a  malevolent  agency  exists,  and  from  the  beginning  has 
been  intimately  associated  with  the  sin  and  moral  degeneration 
of  man.  To  regard  the  conception  as  mythical  or  poetic  is  simply 
impossible:  to  treat  it  as  trivial,  is  to  ignore  the  strong  and  con- 
clusive Pauline  affirmations  respecting  the  principalities  and  pow- 
ers of  evil  who  are  battling  in  this  world  with  the  advancing 
kingdom  of  Christ.  On  this  point  the  Protestant  creeds  are  em- 
phatic in  their  unanimity.  The  Confession  of  Augsburg  affirms 
(XIX)  that  although  God  doth  create  and  preserve  nature,  yet 


268  MAN. 

the  cause  of  sin  is  the  will  of  the  wicked;  to  wit,  of  the  devil  and 
ungodly  men;  which  will,  God  not  aiding,  turneth  itself  from 
God.  The  Formula  of  Concord  declares  that  sin  springs  from  the 
devil — peccatum  enim  ex  diabolo  oritur — and  from  the  depraved 
and  evil  will  of  man.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  teaches  (9) 
that  God  so  made  man  that  he  could  perform  the  law,  but  that 
man  through  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  by  willful  disobedience 
deprived  himself  and  all  his  posterity  of  this  power  :  See  Second 
Helvetic  Confession,  VIII :  sed  instinctu  serpentis ;  Canons  of 
Dort,  diaboli  instinctu  ...  a  Deo  desciscens;  First  Scotch  Conf. 
(Ill)  slaves  to  Sathan,  and  servandis  unto  sin.  It  is,  however, 
to  the  Westminster  Symbols  that  we  turn  for  the  completest  dec- 
larations touching  the  active  relation  of  the  Evil  One,  not  merely 
to  the  primal  sin,  but  to  all  other  sins  of  men,  to  the  trials  and 
buffetings  of  saints,  and  even  to  the  disciplinary  experiences  of 
our  L,ord.  And  in  the  thrice  recorded  account  of  his  temptation 
at  the  hands  of  his  arch  enemy  and  ours,  we  have  an  analytic 
transcript  not  merely  of  the  primitive  trial  and  testing  of  our 
humanity  in  Paradise,  but  equally  of  all  the  malevolent  workings 
of  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life, 
in  the  heart  of  that  humanity  from  Eden  down  to  the  present  age. 
The  first  temptation  and  the  first  lapse  are  continually  repeating 
themselves  in  history,  and  will  so  repeat  themselves  until  Satan 
is  forever  overthrown. 

The  specific  incidents  of  the  primal  temptation  wherein  our 
first  parents  fell  and  the  race  in  some  deep  sense  fell  with  them, 
need  not  be  detailed  here.  There  is  a  simple  truthfulness  in  the 
story  which  at  qnce  compels  our  belief  in  it,  while  its  tragic 
elements  constrain  us  to  involuntary  tears.  The  words  of  the 
tempter  and  his  subtle  reasonings,  the  beguiled  interest  of  Eve, 
the  surrender  of  Adam,  the  discovery  of  their  sin  and  guilt,  the 
instinctive  fleeing  from  the  divine  presence,  the  summoning  voice 
of  an  offended  Deity,  the  confession  and  expulsion,  and  the  wan- 
dering forth  of  the  convicted  pair  to  seek  their  existence  hence- 
forth, not  amid  the  profuse  luxuriance  of  Eden,  but  on  the  surface 
of  an  earth  condemned  and  smitten  in  conjunction  with  their  sin, — 
all  this  is  profoundly  real  to  the  child  and  the  philosopher  alike,  and 
as  touching  and  tragic  as  it  is  real.  Without  it  we  could  have  no 
adequate  knowledge  either  of  that  fallen  estate  into  which  human- 
ity has  evidently  come,  or  of  that  scheme  of  grace  which  is  revealed 
in  Christ,  and  whose  realization  will  be  to  humanity  a  paradise 
regained.  They  who  deny  the  fall,  or  who  regard  the  story  as  a 
poetic  allegory  simply,  or  some  ancient  tradition,  can  have  no 


THE    FALL  :     ITS    CONSEQUENCES.  2(>0 

adequate  explanation  of  man  as  he  is — no  adequate  historic  basis 

for  their  hope  respecting  what  man  may  through  grace  become. 

While  our  first  parents  kept  the  command,  they  were  happy  in 

their  communion  with  God  and  had  dominion  over  the  creatures. 

By    their   yielding  to  the  temptation 

they,  it  is  said,  fell  from  their  original  ,0-  The  consequent  curse: 

.j,                     ,                .          ...   ~    ,  sin    and  death:    humanity 

righteousness  ana  communion  with  (rod,  .      ,       .       .     .             J 

s                                                             '  and  nature  involved. 
(VI:n)   and    became    in   consequence 

dead  in  sin,  and  wholly  defiled  in  all  the  faculties  of  soul  and  body. 
They  were  thus  plunged  into  an  estate  of  sin  and  misery, — an 
estate  whose  sinfulness  lay  not  merely  in  the  absence  of  their 
original  righteousness  and  in  their  proper  condemnation,  but  also 
in  the  corruption  of  their  entire  spiritual  nature, — an  estate  whose 
misery  lay  not  merely  in  the  loss  of  divine  communion,  but  also 
in  their  exposure  to  punitive  sufferings  in  the  present  life,  to 
bodily  death,  and  even  to  everlasting  punishment:  S.  C.  17-19. 
The  distinction  between  the  inward  and  the  outward  consequences 
of  sin  in  this  life  is  emphasized  in  the  Larger  Catechism,  (28); 
the  former  being  enumerated  as  blindness  of  mind,  a  reprobate 
sense,  strong  delusions,  hardness  of  heart,  horror  of  conscience 
and  vile  affections;  the  latter  including  antithetically  the  curse  of 
God  upon  the  creatures  for  our  sakes,  and  all  other  evils  that  befall 
us  in  our  bodies, names,estates, relations  and  employments, together 
with  death  itself.  In  this  enumeration  we  have  not  merely  an 
interpretation  of  the  primitive  curse  as  seen  in  the  expulsion  of 
the  guilty  pair  from  Paradise  and  their  subsequent  doom  to  a  ca- 
reer of  labor  and  pain  and  sorrow,  but  also  a  comprehensive  state- 
ment of  the  consequences  of  the  Fall,  as  these  have  developed 
themselves  in  the  life  of  their  descendants  through  all  the  subse- 
quent ages. 

The  triple  or  quadruple  form  of  the  original  curse  or  condem- 
nation— upon  the  man,  upon  the  woman,  upon  Satan  and  the 
serpent  as  his  instrument,  and  upon  the  earth  as  the  changed 
abode  of  a  fallen  and  sinful  race — is  simply  suggested  by  casual 
phraseology  in  the  Symbols.  The  Assembly  may  have  regarded 
these  specific  matters  as  unnecessary  in  a  general  Confession:  they 
may  have  discovered  differences  of  opinion  among  themselves  on 
some  of  these  points  which  rendered  a  confessional  statement 
impracticable.  In  respect  to  the  consummating  word,  death,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  Assembly  contemplated  both  physical  mortality 
and  spiritual  deadness, — the  former  as  symbolic  of  the  latter. 
Whether  man  would  have  continued  in  this  world  unchanged 
and  immortal,  or  would  have  passed  at  some  time  into  a  higher 


270  MAN. 

condition  through  some  painless  and  ripening  process,  in  marked 
contrast  with  physical  death  as  we  now  behold  it,  they  did  not 
positively  determine,  though  they  evidently  preferred  the  former 
supposition.  But  they  justly  recognized  death,  in  the  painful 
form  in  which  it  now  occurs,  as  being  the  culminating  aspect  of 
the  divine  condemnation  pronounced  upon  sin  in  this  life, — all 
other  ills  in  body  or  name,  in  estate  or  relation  or  employment, 
being  subordinated  to  this  concluding  expression  of  divine  wrath. 
Hence,  following  the  Scriptures,  they  employed  physical  death 
as  the  most  solemn  emblem  in  nature  of  that  degeneracy  and  decay 
into  which  sin  plunges  the  soul:  hence  the  significance  of  their 
impressive  grouping  of  the  inward  consequences  of  sin,  set  over 
against  those  outward  and  material  evils  which  under  the  verdict 
of  God  follow  evermore  both  the  original  lapse  and  all  succeeding 
transgression.  That  sin  as  a  free  act  of  man  necessarily  brought 
such  a  curse  with  it,  and  that  this  curse,  displaying  itself  both  in 
spiritual  loss  and  corruption  and  in  external  ill,  was  a  just  as 
well  as  an  inevitable  issue  of  transgression,  they  were  heartily 
agreed  in  affirming. 

The  fourfold  distribution  of  the  curse,  though  alluded  to  but 
casually  in  the  Symbols,  is  deserving  of  particular  consideration. 
Upon  Adam  specifically  came  the  curse  of  labor,  in  the  triple  form 
of  toil,  humiliation  and  sorrow.  His  original  supremacy  over 
nature  and  all  inferior  creatures  was  now  forfeited:  his  fair  home 
in  Eden  was  lost;  he  became  a  wanderer  upon  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  condemned  to  secure  daily  food  amid  its  thorns  and  thistles 
by  the  sweat  of  his  face,  and  with  unceasing  sorrow  of  heart, — 
humbled  as  dust  henceforth  in  the  presence  of  that  nature  over 
which  he  had  heretofore  been  the  divine  vice-gerent.  Upon  Eve 
came,  in  addition  to  her  share  in  the  sentence  pronounced  upon 
Adam,  and  her  prescribed  humiliation  as  henceforth  less  the  com- 
panion and  more  the  servant  of  man,  the  special  pain  of  child- 
bearing  in  forms  fitted  to  remind  her  through  all  the  future  of  her 
share  in  the  guilt  of  the  first  trangression.  We  are  not  to  sup- 
pose that  the  natural  law  of  propagation  was  altered  in  conse- 
quence of  the  Fall,  but  simply  that  the  process  of  parturition, 
heretofore  comparatively  painless,  now  became  eminent  among 
the  severest  forms  of  bodily  anguish,  and  as  such  was  selected  as 
a  suitable  expression  of  the  divine  displeasure.  Upon  the  serpent 
as  the  instrument  of  Satan  in  the  temptation,  came  the  humiliat- 
ing mode  of  locomotion, — not  indeed  an  actual  change  but  simply 
a  judicial  characterization  of  an  existing  mode,  as  in  marked  con- 
trast with  the  erect  posture  and  movement  of  man,  and  as  symbolic 


THE    DISTRIBUTED    CONDEMNATION.  271 

of  that  greater  humiliation  and  curse  which  were  in  the  process 
of  time  to  come  upon  the  tempter  himself,  in  view  of  his  share  in 
the  fatal  transaction.  We  discern  also,  in  connection  with  this 
curse,  that  first  Messianic  promise  with  which  the  darkness  of 
that  hour  of  condemnation  was  illumined, — the  divine  assurance 
that  the  seed  of  the  woman  should  yet  bruise  the  head  of  the  se- 
ducing angel,  destroying  his  baleful  influence  over  humanity  and 
compelling  him  ultimately  to  crawl  as  a  defeated  and  hated  serpent 
in  the  world  which  he  had  sought  to  rule. 

To  the  curse  thus  pronounced  specifically  upon  each  of  the 
three  parties  in  the  transaction,  there  should  be  added  the  blight 
which  came  upon  the  earth  itself,  viewed  as  henceforth  the  abode 
of  a  sinful  race,  changing  it  from  a  paradise  into  a  prison,  suited 
to  the  effectual  disciplining  and  the  ultimate  restoration  of  fallen 
man.  The  world  was  still  to  be  his  habitation,  but  it  was  to  be 
so  altered  in  its  outward  conditions  and  features  as  to  correspond 
with  the  new  type  of  moral  administration  and  training  which  sin 
had  rendered  necessary.  How  extensive  that  change  was  in  range 
or  character  we  have  no  knowledge,  except  what  is  suggested  in 
the  Pauline  phrase  respecting  the  physical  earth  as  groaning  and 
travailing  with  pain  together  with  sinful  man,  and  the  bright  pic- 
tures of  prophecy  respecting  deserts  blossoming  with  roses,  and 
peace  and  beauty  filling  the  world  in  the  day  of  human  redemption. 
But  we  are  assured  that  sin  created  the  necessity  for  a  new  system  of 
government  over  man  as  fallen,  a  system  less  paternal  than  that 
of  Paradise,  more  marked  by  checks  and  chastisements  and  forms 
of  retribution,  yet  designed  to  save  from  utter  destruction  and 
ultimately  to  restore  to  divine  favor  a  race  now  through  transgres- 
sion estranged  from  God.  Adam  was  henceforth  to  be  treated  as 
a  faithful  father  would  treat  an  undutiful  son — as  a  just  yet 
humane  sovereign  would  treat  his  rebellious  subjects,  in  order  to 
bring  them  back  to  loyalty.  The  dignity  of  violated  law  must 
be  maintained;  the  right  of  administration  must  be  upheld;  chas- 
tisement and  "even  retribution  must  be  introduced,  since  herein 
lay  the  only  possibility  of  restoration.  The  very  earth  must  be 
utilized  as  one  instrumentality  in  this  disciplinary  and  restorative 
process:  the  very  ground  must  be  cursed  for  the  sake  of  man,  in 
order  that  it  might  thus  become  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  him  back 
to  loyalty  in  Christ.  Nor  is  this  provision  to  be  regarded  as  vindi- 
catory only.  God  still  loved  the  hapless  pair  whom  he  was 
constrained  in  equity  to  condemn,  and  we  may  well  believe  that 
the  earth  was  no  more  wild  or  sterile  or  dark  than  infinite  wisdom 
and  infinite  mercy  permitted  it  to  become:   McCosh,  Divine  Gov. 


272  MAN. 

Here  we  reach  the  interesting  question,  more  than  once  appear- 
ing in  the  Assembly,  respecting  the  mode  and  nature  of  the  trans- 
mission   of    the    sinfulness    and    the 

11.  Original  sin:  theories  condemnation  thus  incurred,  from  our 
of  transmission :   the  essen-     n  ,,    .  .__ 

tial  fact  parents    to    their    posterity, — in 

other  words,  their  theory  of  original 
sin.  Calvin  adequately  defines  the  phrase  (Inst:  Book  II:  Chap. 
I)  as  the  depravation  of  a  nature  previously  good  and  pure;  or 
more  fully,  an  hereditary  pravity  and  corruption  of  our  nature, 
diffused  through  all  the  parts  of  the  soul,  rendering  us  obnoxious 
to  the  divine  wrath,  and  producing  in  us  those  works  which  the 
Scripture  calls  works  of  the  flesh.  This  pravity  or  corruption 
occurred  to  our  first  parents  as  an  immediate  consequence,  and  as 
a  proper  punishment  of  their  transgression.  While  external^ 
they  were  punished  with  the  withdrawal  of  the  divine  favor  and 
fellowship,  and  by  an  accumulation  of  earthly  ills  in  person  and 
estate,  they  also  became  retributively  defiled  in  all  the  faculties  of 
soul  and  body  by  a  process  of  inward  corruption,  and  thus,  in 
apostolic  phrase,  became  truly  dead  in  sin.  And  the  Symbols 
affirm  that  this  depravation  or  deadness  was  in  some  way  trans- 
mitted to  all  their  posterity,  and  is  to  be  viewed  as  an  expression 
in  their  case  also  of  the  divine  disapproval  of  sin,  and  an  evidence 
of  the  universal  liability  to  the  wrath  and  curse  of  God.  Was 
this  transmission,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Westminster  divines, 
natural  or  forensic;  and  was  this  liability  regarded  by  them  as 
immediate  or  mediate  ? 

Many  expressions  in  the  Symbols  seem  to  justify  the  conception 
of  a  natural,  or  organic  and  constitutional,  transmission  of  the 
original  sin  or  sinfulness,  and  of  a  guiltiness,  or  amenability  to 
law,  directly  consequent  upon  the  possession  of  this  corrupted  na- 
ture. This  was  the  form  which  the  doctrine  had  assumed  in  the 
earlier  creeds,  both  Lutheran  and  Reformed.  It  was  incorporated 
essentially  in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  and  in  the  Irish  Articles, 
both  of  which  agree  in  defining  original  sin  as,  in  the  words  of  the 
latter,  the  fault  and  corruption  of  the  nature  of  every  person  that 
naturally  is  engendered  and  propagated  from  Adam.  So,  in  the 
Larger  Catechism  (25:26)  original  sin  is  described  as  consisting  not 
merely  in  the  guilt  of  the  original  offense,  but  also  in  the  want  of 
righteousness,  the  corruption  of  the  moral  nature,  the  disability 
toward  spiritual  good,  and  the  dominating  inclination  of  the  soul 
toward  evil.  And  this  depravation  of  the  whole  man  is  further 
said  to  have  been  conveyed  from  our  first  parents  unto  their  posterity 
by  natural  generation.     The  language  of  the  Shorter  Catechism 


ORIGINAL  SIX  :     EXPLANATION.  273 

(16)  presents  the  same  view: — all  mankind  descending  from  him 
by  ordinary  generation,  sinned  in  him  and  fell  with  him  in  his  first 
transgression.  With  this  agrees  the  Confession  (VI)  in  the  dec- 
laration that  our  first  parents,  being  the  root  of  all  mankind  .  .  . 
the  same  corrupted  nature  is  conveyed  to  all  their  posterity  de- 
scending from  them  by  ordinary  generation.  In  all  these  phrases 
it  is  a  natural  or  constitutional  process  which  is  affirmed,  rather 
than  a  legal  and  formal  imputation.  The  language  used  con- 
forms almost  literally  to  the  declaration  of  Calvin:  Adam  was  not 
only  the  progenitor  but  the  root  of  mankind,  and  therefore  all 
the  race  were  necessarily  vitiated  in  his  corruption  .  .  .  His  trans- 
gression not  only  procured  misery  and  ruin  for  himself,  but  also 
precipitated  our  nature  into  similar  destruction.  .  .  .  From  a 
putrefied  (or  corrupted)  root  have  sprung  putrid  (or  corrupt) 
branches,  which  have  transmitted  their  putrescence  (pravity)  to 
remoter  generations. 

The  phrase,  the  guilt  of  this  sin  was  imputed,  going  before  the 
clause  just  quoted,  respecting  the  conveyance  of  a  corrupt  nature 
by  natural  or  ordinary  generation,  has  been  interpreted  as  indi- 
cating the  approval  by  the  Assembly  of  the  doctrine,  then  com- 
paratively novel,  of  a  judicial  rather  than  natural  transaction — a 
procedure  in  law,  in  which  each  descendant  of  Adam  is  first  viewed 
as  guilty,  and  is  then  visited  retributively  through  the  infliction 
upon  him  of  this  vitiated  moral  nature.  This  judicial  procedure 
has  been  regarded  as  a  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  Cocceian 
conception  of  a  covenant  of  works,  viewed  as  antithetic  to  the 
covenant  of  grace, — a  covenant  in  which  Adam  literally  acted 
under  law  for  the  race  as  their  appointed  representative,  and  in 
which  he  formally  obligated  them  to  meet  and  share  with  him 
in  the  retributive  issues  consequent  upon  his  failure.  It  has  been 
supposed  that  such  a  judicial  transaction  better  explains  the  his- 
toric transmission  of  sin  and  corruption  that  followed  the  fall,  by 
thus  placing  the  guilt  first  as  a  legal  fact,  and  then  regarding  the 
transmission  as  a  retributive  consequence  of  the  guiltiness  so 
imputed.  It  has  also  been  claimed  that  we  gain  in  this  way  some 
relief  from  the  impression  of  sinfulness  as  constitutional,  organic, 
hereditary,  and  consequently  not  properly  a  matter  for  which  each 
individual  soul  can  be  held  responsible  before  God,  since  it  is 
through  his  peculiar  organization  of  the  race  that  such  sin  has 
thus  been  propagated.  Reserving  the  full  analysis  of  the  dogma 
of  imputation  until  it  appears  again  in  the  imputation  of  our  sin 
to  Christ,  and  the  imputation  of  his  righteousness  to  us  as  believ- 
ers, it  may  be  questioned  here  whether  this  forensic  theory  does 


274  MAN. 

not  in  fact  bring  in  difficulties  even  greater  than  those  it  proposes 
to  remove.  At  least  it  forces  upon  the  mind  the  query  whether 
imputation  of  the  guilt  of  one  person  to  another,  or  of  one  person 
to  millions  upon  millions  of  others,  bound  to  him  by  the  ties  of 
natural  descent  merely,  through  a  procedure  so  immediate  and 
apparently  so  arbitrary,  is  either  consistent  with  equity ,  or  essen- 
tial as  an  element  in  the  general  doctrine  of  sin  propounded  in  the 
Symbols.  Certainly,  the  older  Protestant  theory  of  natural  head- 
ship, as  set  forth  in  the  continental  as  well  as  the  British  creeds, 
has  more  distinctive  warrant  both  in  their  language,  and  in  the 
general  drift  of  their  teaching  :  See  Conf.  Augsburg,  Art.  II ; 
Form.  Concord,  I  ;  First  Helv.  VII-VIII  ;  Second  Helv.  VIII ; 
Cat.  Heidelberg,  10;  Belgic  Conf.  XV. 

It  may  be  questioned  further  whether  the  thoroughly  Calvinistic 
conception  of  a  vitiated  nature,  propense  to  sin  and  the  root  of 
all  actual  transgressions,  introduced  at  this  point  as  an  interme- 
diate or  mediating  factor,  is  not  as  much  in  harmony  as  either 
preceding  view  with  the  spirit  if  not  with  the  letter  of  the  Sym- 
bols. The  Confession,  for  example,  affirms  (VI)  that  this  corrup- 
tion of  nature  existing  in  each  descendant  of  Adam,  both  itself  and 
all  the  motions  thereof,  is  truly  and  properly  sin, — as  if  our  sinfulness 
began,  not  in  a  judicial  imputation  to  us  of  the  sin  of  Adam,  or 
in  some  organic  connection  with  the  first  transgression,  but  simply 
in  the  possession  and  the  developments  of  this  corrupted  nature. 
To  the  same  purport,  it  is  declared  in  the  section  following,  that 
original  like  actual  sin — this  corruption  of  nature  as  well  as  the 
motions  thereof — doth  in  its  own  nature  bring  guilt  npo?i  the  sinner. 
Here,  in  the  possession  and  in  the  workings  of  this  nature,  our 
guiltiness  or  amenableness  to  punishment  most  visibly  commences. 
We  cannot  share  literally  in  the  guilt  springing  from  the  wrong 
action  of  another,  even  though  he  were  our  first  parent;  his  act 
becomes  the  cause  or  occasion  of  our  corruption,  but  it  is  in  the 
corruption  itself  that  our  true  guiltiness  is  seen  to  begin.  Edwards 
in  his  treatise  on  Original  Sin  seems  to  suggest  this  view,  in  his 
statement  that  the  sin  of  the  apostacy  of  Adam  does  not  rest  on 
his  posterity  because  God  imputes  it  to  them,  but  it  is  truly  and 
properly  theirs — theirs  because,  as  he  implies,  they  have  the  apos- 
tate nature,  and  on  this  ground  God  imputes  it  to  them.  The 
strong  declaration  that  we  all  sinned  in  him  as  a  person,  as  if  in 
the  words  of  Augustine  we  all  were  that  one  person,  and  fell 
with  him  in  his  transgression,  as  if  his  act  were  literally  our  act, 
must  be  interpreted  in  such  manner  as  to  preserve  the  proper  dis- 
tinction between  him  and  his  descendants  severally,  and  also  to 


IMPUTATION,    IMMEDIATE   AND    MEDIATE.  275 

maintain  their  proper  criminality  for  that  sinful  nature,  and  for 
those  sinful  acts  which  are  specifically  their  own.  For,  there  is 
great  danger  that,  in  such  merging  and  confusion  of  separate 
personalities  and  personal  acts,  we  shall  either  teach  men  that  God 
is  more  responsible  than  they  for  their  wrongdoing,  or  lead  them 
otherwise  into  low  and  narrow  views  both  of  what  God  and  his 
claims  are,  and  of  what  they  themselves  are  as  his  free  and 
accountable  creatures. 

That  the  conception  of  an  imputation  which  is  mediate  rather 
than  immediate  has  some  degree  of  warrant  in  the  Reformed  the- 
ology, is  quite  apparent.  For  example,  Calvin  (B.  II :  Ch.  I), 
says  that,  our  nature  being  so  totally  vitiated  and  depraved,  we 
are  on  account  of  this  very  corruption  considered  as  convicted  and 
justly  condemned  in  the  sight  of  God.  .  .  .  This  liableness  to 
punishment  arises  not  from  the  delinquency  of  another,  for  when 
it  is  said  that  the  sin  of  Adam  renders  us  obnoxious  to  the  divine 
judgment,  it  is  not  to  be  understood  as  if  we,  though  innocent, 
were  undeservedly  loaded  with  the  guilt  of  his  sin.  But  he  is 
said  to  have  involved  us  in  guilt,  because  we  are  all  subject  to  a 
curse,  in  consequence  of  his  transgression.  See  also  the  French 
Confession,  prepared  largely  by  Calvin  :  Toute  la  lignee  d'Adam 
est  infect6e  de  telle  contagion  qui  est  le  peche  originel,  et  un  vice 
hereditaire  .  .  Ce  vice  est  vraiment  pech6.  Other  similar  illus- 
trations might  be  quoted  without  doing  violence  to  the  general 
Protestant  doctrine  on  the  whole  subject.  The  Auburn  Decla- 
ration, after  affirming  the  fact  that,  while  Adam  was  created  in  the 
image  of  God  and  endued  with  righteousness  and  true  holiness, 
his  posterity  came  into  the  world  not  only  destitute  of  such  quali- 
ties but  inclined  to  evil,  declines  to  make  any  theoretical  explan- 
ation, but  simply  affirms  (Art.  Ill)  that  by  a  divine  constitution 
Adam  was  so  (in  some  way)  the  head  and  representative  of  the 
race  that,  as  a  consequence  of  his  transgression  (by  some  process), 
all  mankind  became  morally  corrupt  and  liable  to  death  temporal 
and  eternal.  And  if  there  be  added  to  this  the  sound  statement 
(Hodge,  Theol.  II :  211),  that  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  and 
hope  that  no  human  being  ever  actually  perishes  who  does  not 
personally  incur  the  penalty  of  the  law  by  his  own  actual  trans- 
gression, the  whole  subject  in  its  theoretic  aspects  may,  without 
any  wrong  to  the  Symbols  and  their  doctrine,  be  left  to  the  adju- 
dication of  the  individual  judgment,  guided  by  the  teaching  of 
Holy  Writ. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  best  interpretation  of  the  Symbols  as 
to  the  manner  in  which  original  sin  is  transmitted,  and  made  the 


276  MAN. 

fountain  and  origin  of  both  actual  transgressions  and  personal 
guilt, — whether  indeed  this  is  not  an  instance  in  which  the 
divines  of  Westminster  consciously  admitted  a  variety  of  state- 
ments somewhat  incongruous,  in  deference  to  the  various  opinions 
existing  among  themselves,  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the 
clearness,  the  strength  and  cogency,  of  their  generic  teaching 
respecting  the  essential  fact.  They  were  not  Pelagians,  asserting 
only  a  corruption  that  flows  down  upon  the  race  through  mere 
contact  and  imitation.  Nor  were  they  partially  Augustinian,  rec- 
ognizing a  liability  and  an  infection,  but  limiting  sinfulness  or 
exposure  to  retributive  results,  to  personal  action  only.  They  held 
tenaciously  to  .such  unity  and  solidarity  of  the  race  under  a  divine 
constitution,  as  rendered  certain  an  actual  transmission  of  pravity 
in  the  nature,  and  the  existence  in  each  soul  even  from  birth  of 
such  bias  toward  evil,  such  real  inclination  to  sin,  as  involves 
from  the  first  a  true  culpability  and,  apart  from  grace,  certain 
condemnation.  In  other  words,  they  affirmed  as  a  fact  what  is 
beyond  question  a  fundamental  fact,  however  explained  or  inexpli- 
cable— a  fact  occurring  directly  under  the  divine  constitution  or 
appointment,  and  therefore  to  be  reverently  recognized  and  affirmed, 
in  the  presence  of  whatsoever  difficulty.  Further  evidence  of  this 
will  appear  when  we  come  to  consider  specifically  their  correlative 
conceptions  of  law  and  grace,  as  seen  in  the  complete  deliverance 
and  moral  restoration  of  the  race  through  Christ. 

The  spiritual  condition  into  which  mankind  was  thus  brought 
through  the  Adamic  connection,   whether  natural  or  forensic, 

immediate  or  mediate,  is  nowhere  de- 
12.  Depravity  defined:  the     scrjbed  in  the  Symbols  by  the  theolog- 
essential    fact:    terms  and     ...  ,  .,         _->.,.  , 

,  ical  term,  depravity.     Familiar  as  that 

phrases.  , 

term  has  become  to  us,  in  connection 

with  the  Calvinistic  theology,  there  is  some  just  ground  for 
objection  to  its  technical  use;  especially  as  it  has  now  come  in  cur- 
rent speech  to  designate  not  a  moral  state  common  to  all  mankind, 
but  a  peculiar,  special,  intense  measure  of  sinfulness  in  the  indi- 
vidual man,  particularly  along  the  lines  of  sensuous  indulgence 
or  personal  viciousness.  But  the  moral  state  common  to  all  men 
which  the  term  was  originally  employed  in  theology  to  designate, 
is  set  forth  in  the  Confession,  (VI:iv)  in  language  almost  fearful 
in  its  breadth  and  impressiveness.  It  is  generally  styled  corruption , 
and  from  it  as  from  a  defiled  fountain  we  are  all  said  in  our  nat- 
ural estate  to  be  utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made  opposite  to 
all  good,  and  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil.  The  Larger  Catechism, 
(25)  adds  the  intensive  phrase,   and  that  continually,  but  happily 


DEPRAVITY   DEFINED.  277 

modifies  the  proposition  of  the  Confession  by  the  limiting  clause, 
all  that  is  spiritually  good.  The  chapter  on  Free  Will  (IX), 
introduces  the  same  limitation  in  the  declaration  that  man  has  lost 
all  ability  of  will  to  any  spiritual  good  accompanying  salvation — all 
power,  in  other  words,  to  produce  in  himself  any  of  those  graces 
such  as  repentance,  faith,  regeneration,  sanetificatiou,  which 
accompany  salvation  or  are  its  proper  signs  and  attendants.  If 
therefore  the  term,  depravity,  is  to  be  used  in  the  exposition  of 
the  doctrine,  special  care  must  be  taken  to  protect  the  confessional 
statement  from  perversion  by  the  proper  emphasizing  of  these 
modifying  clauses,  as  was  doubtless  intended  by  the  Assembly. 
The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  in  its  recent  Declaratory  Act,  seeks 
alleviation  from  the  sweep  of  the  confessional  terminology  by 
affirming  that,  although  the  whole  nature  of  man  is  fallen  and 
corrupt,  there  remain  in  him  tokens  of  his  greatness  as  created 
in  the  image  of  God.  One  is  reminded  by  this  statement  of  that 
impressive  passage  in  one  of  the  sermons  of  John  Howe,  in 
which  he  describes  fallen  man  as  a  temple  in  ruins — a  magnifi- 
cent temple,  though  in  ruins,  on  whose  lofty  front  are  still 
legible  the  solemn  words, — Here  God  Once  Dwelt. 

Certain  adjective  terms  in  theological  use  in  this  connection  also 
need  to  be  carefully  defined.  When,  e.  g. ,  this  depravity  is  said 
to  be  total  (totalis),  it  is  not  to  be  understood  that  every  sinner  is 
as  bad  as  he  can  be,  or  that  no  amiable  qualities  remain  in  him, 
or  that  all  sinners  are  alike  and  equally  corrupted  and  defiled  in 
sin,  but  simply  that  this  spiritual  corruption  is  not  a  matter  of  the 
will  or  of  the  conscience  or  the  affections  alone,  but  involves  the 
whole  moral  man — he  being  thereby  defiled  in  all  the  faculties  and 
parts  of  soul  and  body.  The  Formula  of  Concord  expresses  the 
same  truth  in  the  statement  that  original  sin  is  no  trivial  corrup- 
tion, but  is  so  profound  a  corruption  of  human  nature  as  to  leave 
nothing  sound,  nothing  uncorrupt  in  the  body  or  soul  of  man,  or 
in  his  mental  or  bodily  powers.  When  this  depravity  is  said  to 
be  utter,  (outer,  or  out  and  out),  what  is  affirmed  is  that  this 
dread  disorder  has  so  pervaded  the  whole  man,  has  so  diffused 
itself  throughout  his  nature,  so  suffused  his  entire  moral  being 
that,  left  to  itself,  it  will  only  go  on  and  on  like  some  mortal  dis- 
ease, until  at  last  the  uttermost  possibility,  the  outermost  margin 
of  sinfulness  possible  to  the  individual,  will  be  reached.  And 
when  the  term,  universal,  is  used  to  indicate  the  fact  that  the  entire 
race  is  involved  in  this  dreadful  corruption,  similar  discrimination 
should  be  made,  such  as  will  guard  against  certain  injurious  infer- 
ences  which  might   easily  be    derived    from    an  affirmation   so 


278  MAN. 

sweeping.  It  should  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  these,  and 
such  kindred  expressions  as,  dead  in  sin,  wholly  defiled,  incapable  of 
life,  altogether  averse  from  good,  zvholly  inclined  to  all  evil,  and 
others  scattered  through  the  Symbols,  had  a  technical  meaning 
in  the  apprehension  of  the  Westminster  divines  and  among  the 
theologians  of  the  Reformation  generally,  which  is  quite  separa- 
ble in  thought  from  the  impressions  they  now  make  in  the  ordinary 
speech  of  men.  And  certainly  the  preacher  of  our  time  cannot 
be  too  careful,  while  diminishing  nothing  from  the  awful  solemnity 
of  the  truth  itself,  to  avoid  the  use  of  terms  or  phrases  which  by 
conveying  erroneous  impressions  may  greatly  weaken  the  claim 
of  that  truth  on  human  belief  and  acceptation. 

In  the  recent  Revision  several  changes  were  proposed,  looking 
not  toward  any  abandonment  of  the  essential  doctrine,  but  toward 
the  correction  of  false  interpretations  respecting  it,  such  as  the 
strong  language  of  the  Symbols  has  sometimes  suggested.  It 
was  proposed,  for  example,  to  modify  the  phrase  (VI  :iv),  made 
opposite  to  all  good,  by  introducing  the  language  found  elsewhere, 
(1^.  C.  25)  all  that  is  spiritually  good;  by  omitting  the  word  all 
from  the  phrase,  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil,  on  the  ground  that  no 
individual  transgressor,  however  corrupt,  is  wholly  inclined  to 
every  sort  of  evil;  by  affirming  that  the  providence  and  grace  of 
God  do  in  fact  not  only  restrain  u?irege?ierate  me?i  from  much  that  is 
evil,  but  also  incline  them  to  exercise  many  social  a?id  civil  virtues: 
and  by  declaring  (IX:iii)  that  the  sinner  is  indisposed  to  rather  than 
averse  from  all  spiritual  good,  and  that  this  aversion  or  lack  of 
moral  disposition  in  no  degree  impairs  his  responsibility  for  per- 
sonal sinfulness.  The  value  of  such  modifications  in  descriptive 
phraseology  will  be  readily  apprehended:  the  changes  proposed 
doubtless  express  what  is  at  present  the  general  if  not  universal 
view  of  the  doctrine  thus  defined. 

The  essential  fact  which  the  Confession  and  the  Catechisms  are 
alike  anxious  to  impress  upon  human  conviction,  is  the  fact  that 
this  depravity,  total  and  utter  and  universal,  this  indisposition  and 
aversion  to  all  spiritual  good,  this  inclination  and  proneness  to 
evil,  is  something  from  which,  left  to  himself,  man  will  never  gain 
deliverance.  This  interior  root  and  spring  in  the  moral  nature, 
from  which  do  proceed  all  actual  transgressions,  is  in  other  words 
ineradicable  through  any  energies  resident  in  the  soul  apart  from 
grace.  It  demands  the  intervention  of  some  higher  power,  some 
divine  energy,  in  order  to  the  thorough  correction  of  the  evil,  and 
to  the  implanting  of  a  spiritual  good  which  accompanies  or  indicates 
salvation.      On  this  vital  point    the   evangelical   creeds  of   the 


OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED  :     NATURAL   GOODNESS.  279 

Reformation  were  substantially  agreed.  Sociuianism  might  affirm, 
as  it  did,  the  inherent  capability  of  man  to  restore  and  even  save 
himself.  The  Roman  communion  might  insist,  as  it  did,  on  the 
presence  in  man  of  moral  capabilities  which,  if  not  coordinate 
with  the  divine  Spirit,  might  still  aid  in  preparing  the  soul  for 
salvation,  and  even  in  bringing  about  that  salvation.  Ajrminian- 
ism  might  hesitate,  as  it  did,  to  accept  so  positive  and  sweeping 
a  doctrine  of  sinfulness,  and  prefer  to  describe  the  fact  in  more 
mediate,  less  uncompromising  terms.  Here  and  there  a  theologian 
like  Zwingli  or  Melancthon  might  be  inclined  to  synergistic  views 
of  that  great  process  of  spiritual  restoration,  for  which  the  Gospel 
is  sent  to  men.  But  the  Confessions,  from  that  of  Augsburg  down 
to  that  of  Westminster,  were  agreed  in  the  essential  truth  which 
the  language  just  considered  was  intended  to  convey.  It  is  indeed 
a  fair  criticism  that  some  at  least  of  the  terminology  employed  in 
them  defeats  its  own  end  by  its  extreme  intensity,  especially  as  we 
find  it  in  the  Reformed  symbolism.  But  respecting  the  essential 
fact  all  were  agreed  in  declaring  this  original  sin  or  sinfulness  to 
be  a  cardinal  tenet  in  the  Gospel  scheme;  and  in  affirming  the 
spiritual  impossibility  of  deliverance  and  restoration  from  such 
sin  except  through  the  gracious  ministries  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
The  objections  which  have  been  urged  against  this  doctrine  in 
later  times  have  been  in  part  anticipated  in  the  Symbols.  It 
is,  for  example,  alleged  that  this  concep- 
tion of  the  corrupted  estate  of  man  is  at  13«  Objections  urged: 
variance  with  observed  facts,   since  we     Creed  statement  justified: 

,  ,     Case  of  infants  and  of  the 

often  see  m  unrenewed  men  honesty  and     heatnen 

charity,  and  a  willing  loyalty  to  the  claims 

of  righteousness,  in  the  various  relations  of  life.  But  even  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg  guarded  against  this  objection  by  admit- 
ting on  one  side  (XVIII)  that  man  by  nature  hath  some  liberty 
to  work  a  civil  righteousness,  and  to  choo.se  such  things  as  reason 
can  reach  unto,  while  on  the  other  side  it  denied  that  man  has 
power  to  work  out  a  spiritual  righteousness,  without  the  aid  of  the 
divine  Spirit.  So  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  declare  (X),  that  the 
condition  of  man  after  the  fall  of  Adam  is  such  that  he  cannot 
turn  and  prepare  himself,  by  his  own  natural  strength  and  good 
works,  to  faith  and  calling  upon  God.  The  Westminster  divines 
also  were  careful  to  guard  their  very  strong  affirmation  respecting 
the  universal  depravation  of  mankind  by  the  statement  (XVI : 
vii)  that  unregenerate  men  may  do  things  which  God  commands, 
and  which  may  be  of  iise  to  themselves  and  others  ;  }ret  declaring 
that,  inasmuch  as  these  things  are  not  done  in  a  right  manner  and 


280  MAN. 

for  the  right  end,  the  glory  of  God,  they  cannot  be  in  a  spiritual 
sense  pleasing  to  God,  or  make  the  doer  meet  to  receive  grace  from 
God.  In  the  proposed  Revision  an  improved  statement  was  sug- 
gested to  the  effect  that,  inasmuch  as  these  good  works  do  not 
proceed  from  a  heart  purified  by  faith,  they  do  not  meet  the  full 
requirements  of  the  divine  law,  and  therefore  cannot  be  pleaded 
as  a  ground  of  acceptance  with  God.  Amiable  qualities,  com- 
mendable purposes  and  acts,  elements  of  character  which  are 
attractive  in  the  eyes  of  men,  may  thus  exist  in  the  same  person 
in  whom  such  spiritual  corruption  remains  as  will  render  him  not 
only  undeserving  of  salvation,  but  deserving  rather  of  the  divine 
condemnation.  The  Declaratory  Act  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land teaches  that,  although  the  natural  man  is  unable  without 
the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  return  to  God,  he  is  jet  capable 
of  affections  and  actions  which  in  themselves  are  virtuous  and 
praiseworthy. 

The  case  of  infants  dying  in  infancy  has  often  been  urged  as  an 
objection,  on  the  ground  that  depravity  in  the  sense  here  defined 
is  not  properly  affirmable  of  this  class,  which  comprises  so  large 
a  portion  of  the  human  race.  The  history  of  opinion  in  regard 
to  the  salvability  of  infants  is  one  of  very  great  interest.  The 
Council  of  Trent,  following  the  general  trend  of  patristic  and 
mediaeval  belief,  held  that  all  infants  as  members  of  the  human  race 
are  under  divine  condemnation,  and  consequently,  unless  they  re- 
ceive the  grace  of  baptism,  in  fact  or  at  least  by  intention,  are  justly 
consigned  to  punishment  in  some  appropriate,  possibly  merely 
negative  form.  The  Augsburg  Confession  in  like  manner  re- 
garded baptism  as  essential  to  deliverance  from  such  punishment, 
inasmuch  as  the  taint  of  original  sin  is  not  otherwise  except  in 
extraordinary  cases  removable.  Dorner  (Hist,  of  Prot.  Theol.) 
represents  Luther  as  affirming  this  necessity,  but  also  as  sa5'ing 
with  reference  to  the  unbaptized  children  of  Christians:  The  holy 
and  merciful  God  will  think  kindly  of  them;  what  he  will  do  with 
them  he  has  not  revealed.  The  Formula  of  Concord  condemns  as 
an  Anabaptist  heresy  the  opinion  that  the  unbaptized  offspring  of 
believers  should  be  accounted  as  belonging  to  the  children  of  God, 
but  does  not  positively  affirm  the  opposite.  Later  Lutheranism 
has  generally  regarded  the  necessity  of  baptism  in  such  cases  as 
relative  and  ordinary  rather  than  absolute,  and  has  so  far  forth 
modified,  though  without  abandoning,  the  earlier  position.  In 
respect  to  the  infants  of  unbelievers  and  especially  to  infants  born 
in  paganism,  dying  in  infancy,  Lutheran  symbolism  is  entirely 
silent:   Krauth,  Conservative  Reformation.    Among  the  Refo: 


INFANTS    DYING    IX    [NFANCY.  281 

theologians,  Zwingli  is  conspicuous  in  affirming  positively  not 
only  that  all  children  of  believers  baptized  or  unbaptized,  if  dying 
in  infancy,  should  be  regarded  as  elect,  but  also  that  all  who  die 
in  infancy  outside  of  the  pale  of  the  church,  and  even  in  heathen 
lands,  may  through  the  superabounding  mercy  of  God, be  saved, — 
their  death  in  infancy  being  taken  as  a  sure  sign  of  their  election. 
But  no  continental  Confession  presents  a  distinct  or  positive  doc- 
trine as  to  the  latter  class.  The  Saxon  Articles,  the  Helvetic  Con- 
fessions and  some  others  emphasize  the  obligation  to  baptize  the 
offspring  of  believers,  but  say  nothing  respecting  the  fate  of  other 
infants.  The  Ten  Articles  of  Henry  VIII,  affirm  that  children 
dying  in  infancy  shall  undoubtedly  be  saved  by  virtue  of  baptism, 
but  otherwise  not;  while  the  Scotch  Confession  of  1580  rejects 
the  cruel  judgment  of  Rome  against  infants  departing  without  the. 
sacrament,  but  goes  no  further.  One  notable  index  of  the  preva- 
lence of  broader  views  during  that  century,  at  least  in  individual 
minds,  appears  in  the  striking  declaration  of  the  martyr  Bishop 
Hooper:  It  is  ill  done  to  condemn  the  infants  of  Christians  wdio 
die  without  baptism.  He  would  likewise  judge  well,  he  said,  of 
the  infants  of  infidels  who  have  no  other  sin  in  them  but  original. 
He  held  it  not  w^roug,  he  added,  for  a  Christian  man  to  believe 
that  the  death  and  passion  of  Christ  extended  as  far  for  the  salva- 
tion of  innocents  as  the  sin  of  Adam  made  all  his  posterity  liable 
to  condemnation:  See  Warfield,  Development  of  the  Doctrine  of 
Infant  Salvation. 

Such  was  the  state  of  opinion  at  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  In  the  controversy  which  soon  arose  between  the 
Calvinists  and  the  Arminians  in  Holland,  we  hear  the  latter  party 
charging  their  opponents  with  holding,  or  with  being  obliged  in 
logic  to  hold,  the  offensive  tenet  of  the  damnation  of  all  infants, 
even  the  offspring  of  the  elect,  on  the  ground  of  constitutional 
depravity  inherited  by  them  as  members  of  the  race.  Hence  we 
find  the  Synod  of  Dort  by  way  of  response  protesting  vehemently, 
in  the  Conclusion  to  its  Canons,  against  the  unwarranted  allega- 
tion that  many  children  of  the  faithful  are  torn,  guiltless,  from 
the  breasts  of  their  mothers — ab  uberibus  matrum  innoxies  abripi 
— and  tyranically  plunged  into  Gehenna,  nekher  baptism  nor  the 
prayers  of  the  church  at  all  profiting  them.  Following  shortty 
after  this  conies  the  more  positive  statement  of  the  Westminster 
Confession  (X:iii)  which  directly  affirms  that  elect  infants  (elect 
of  infants  :  Minutes,  162)  or  the  infants  of  believers,  as  was 
quite  certainly  meant,  are  regenerated  and  saved  by  Christ  through 
the  vSpirit.     This  was  unquestionably  a  notable   ad  n  the 


282  MAN. 

statement  of  Dort  and  on  all  antecedent  symbolism,-  indicating 
in  fact  the  highest  point  which  the  Protestantism  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  reached,  in  respect  to  the  problem  of  the  salvability 
of  children  dying  in  infancy,  while  yet  under  the  shadow  and 
taint  of  the  universal  pravity.  The  clause  admits  the  deprava- 
tion, but  sets  over  against  it  the  redemptive  grace  of  Christ  and 
the  regenerative  efficiency  of  the  Spirit,  as  a  sufficient  ground  of 
faith  and  hope  respecting  the  salvation  of  all  infants  who  are  elect. 
To  meet  an  obvious  objection  as  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Spirit  in 
cases  where  personal  or  conscious  faith  could  not  be  exercised, 
the  Confession  taught  the  broad  and  grand  truth  that  the  Spirit 
worketh  when  and  where  and  how  he  pleaseth,  even  in  the  uncon- 
scious babe.  Their  doctrine  of  infant  baptism  (Conf.  XXVIII: 
iv;  L.  C.  166,  177;  S.  C.  95:  also,  Direct,  for  Worship,  Ch.VIII) 
is  clearly  based  on  this  biblical  ground, — infants  being  thus  bap- 
tized, not  because  they  are  sinless  in  nature,  but  because  divine 
grace  is  able  to  remove  such  sinfulness,  even  from  the  infantile 
soul,  and  therefore  to  save  even  the  unconscious  offspring  of  be- 
lievers. 

Large  advances  have  been  made,  especially  in  this  century, 
upon  the  Westminster  teaching  at  this  point.  All  infants,  whether 
living  to  become  adult  or  dying  in  infancy,  are  indeed  to  be 
regarded — to  quote  the  language  of  the  Auburn  Declaration — as  a 
part  of  the  human  family,  and  their  sufferings  and  death,  when 
they  occur,  are  to  be  accounted  for  on  the  ground  of  their  being 
involved  in  the  general  moral  ruin  of  the  race,  induced  by  the 
apostacy  of  our  first  parents.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the  broad 
proposition  is  now  generally  if  not  universally  admitted,  that  all 
infants  dying  in  infancy,  whether  children  of  believers  or  the  off- 
spring of  unregenerate  parentage,  whether  in  Christian  or  in  pagan 
lands,  and  whether  after  the  advent  of  Christ  or  before,  are  to  be 
regarded  as  included  in  the  election  of  grace,  and  therefore  as 
regenerated  and  saved  by  Christ  through  the  Spirit.  This  is  the 
positive  proposition  of  the  proposed  Revision,  and  it  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  representing  the  present  doctrine  of  evangelical  Prot- 
estantism generally.  The  Declaratory  Act  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,  with  some  caution,  affirms  that,  while  the  Gospel  is  the 
ordinary  means  of  salvation  for  those  to  whom  it  is  made  known, 
yet  it  does  not  follow,  nor  is  the  Confession  to  be  held  as  teaching, 
that  any  who  die  in  infancy  are  lost.  If  it  be  offered  as  a  criticism 
upon  the  divines  of  Westminster  that  they  did  not  attain  to  such  a 
positive  and  catholic  view,  it  should  also  be  said  to  their  praise  that 
the  largest  confessional  statement  ever  made  on  this  interesting 


OTHER   ELECT   PERSONS:     THE    HEATHEN.  283 

subject  came  from  them.  The  symbolism  of  the  Reformation  will 
be  searched  in  vain  for  any  counterpart. 

The  question  whether  their  associated  phrase,  other  elect  per- 
sons, referred  simply  to  the  imbecile  or  insane,  or  other  persons  in 
gospel  lands  who  are  incapable  intellectually  of  being  outwardly 
called  by  the  ministry  of  the  Word,  or  included  also  the  heathen 
world  outside  the  geographic  range  of  Christianity,  must  be  an- 
swered frankly  in  favor  of  the  former  and  narrower,  though  an  emi- 
nent American  divine,  (Shedd)has  maintained  the  legitimacy  of  the 
wider  interpretation.  In  one  view  it  seems  surprising  that  the  ear- 
lier Protestantism  should  have  done  so  little,  and  even  thought  .so 
little,  in  regard  to  the  pagan  peoples  in  other  continents.  The 
Confessions,  both  Lutheran  and  Reformed,  say  almost  nothing 
respecting  the  spiritual  state  or  fate  of  the  heathen  races.  The 
fact  is  explained  in  part  by  the  extensive  lack  of  information  as  to 
the  religious  condition  of  the  unnumbered  millions  of  heathendom, 
but  chiefly  by  the  absorbing  demands  made  upon  the  Protestant 
churches  in  the  maintenance  and  propagation  of  their  doctrine 
and  polity,  in  the  presence  of  an  overshadowing  papacy  on  one 
side,  and  of  developing  heresy  and  unbelief  on  the  other.  Their 
eyes  rested  easily  on  the  imbecile,  the  insane,  the  mentally  incom- 
petent dwelling  among  them:  the  heathen  world  was  too  remote 
and  too  obscure  to  attract  largely  their  thought.  It  is  the  glory 
of  later  Protestantism,  and  especially  of  the  evangelical  churches 
of  this  century,  that  they  have  come  to  realize  the  depraved  and 
the  lost  condition  of  that  vast  world,  and  have  in  some  measure 
obeyed  the  summons  of  the  Master  to  preach  his  Gospel  to  every 
creature  in  whatever  land  or  island  of  earth.  Some  interesting 
evidences  of  the  rise  of  a  broader  missionary  feeling  in  some  sec- 
tions of  primitive  Protestantism,  and  especially  in  Britain,  will  be 
mentioned  hereafter. 

That  the  heathen  as  truly  as  the  men  and  women  of  Christian 
lands,  are  to  be  regarded  as  by  nature  sinful,  corrupt,  and  under 
divine  condemnation,  was  unquestionably  the  general  belief  of  the 
Westminster  divines.  At  least  no  trace  appears  in  the  Symbols 
of  the  opinion  now  prevalent  in  some  quarters  that,  inasmuch  as 
the  heathen  know  not  the  Gospel,  and  therefore  have  not  con- 
sciously rejected  Christ,  they  are  to  be  accounted  innocent  before 
God.  The  Confession  (I:i.X:iv)  teaches  that  the  light  of  nature 
and  the  works  of  providence  do  so  far  manifest  the  goodness,  wis- 
dom and  power  of  God,  as  to  leave  men  inexcusable;  and  further 
that  men  are  not  to  be  saved  in  any  other  way  than  through  Christ, 
be  they  never  so  diligent  to  frame  their  lives  according  to  the  light  of 


284  m  ax. 

nature.  This  language  was  undoubtedly  intended  to  apply  pri- 
marily to  the  adherents  of  what  in  the  next  century  became  the 
formulated  and  assuming  deism  of  England,  with  its  claim  of 
salvation  attainable  through  personal  righteousness,  and  its  con- 
temptuous rejection  of  salvation  through  personal  faith  in  a 
personal  and  divine  Christ.  But,  in  common  with  Protestantism 
generally,  the  Assembly  were  read}-  to  apply  the  principle  in  the 
broadest  form,  even  as  inclusive  of  the  whole  race  descended  from 
Adam.  They  indeed  recognized  the  just  distinction  (L,.  C.  151: 
89)  that  sin  is  aggravated  X>y  the  enjoyment  of  light  and  privilege, 
and  that  at  the  final  judgment  the  heathen  are  to  be  condemned 
only  on  clear  evidence  and  full  conviction  of  their  own  consciences. 
This  does  not  imply,  as  Dorner  seems  to  infer,  two  separate 
standards  of  character  in  that  final  adjudication:  the  difference  in 
such  moral  testing  is  in  degree  rather  than  in  kind. 

Of  the  possible  salvability  of  some  among  the  heathen,  we  find 
an  occasional  expression  of  hope  among  the  Reformers,  as  in  the 
case  of  Zwingli  who,  while  affirming  in  his  Theses  (3)  that  Christ 
is  the  onl}r  way — unica  via — for  the  salvation  of  all  wTho  have  been, 
are,  or  may  be,  still  expresses  the  hope  that  men  like  Socrates, 
dwelling  outside  of  the  Gospel,  yet  living  up  to  the  light  they  have, 
may  be  saved  through  the  Christ  whom  they  have  never  personally 
known.  But  no  creed  of  Protestantism  incorporates  such  a  hope, 
nor  has  more  recent  Protestantism  taken  any  other  ground  than 
that  the  heathen  world,  without  Christ  and  his  redemption,  is  in 
some  deep  and  drea'dful  sense  lost.  The  recent  Revision  goes  so 
far  as  to  affirm  that  all  elect  persons  who  are  not  outwardly  called 
by  the  Word  may  still  be  saved,  even  though  they  dwell  in  pagan 
lands, — and  the  hope  that  there  may  possibly  be  many  such  is  not 
directly  forbidden  by  the  Symbols  as  they  stand.  The  Declarator}^ 
Act  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  affirms  that, 
while  the  duty  of  sending  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen  who  are  sunk 
in  ignorance,  sin  and  misery,  is  imperative,  and  while  the  outward 
and  ordinary  means  of  salvation  for  those  capable  of  being  called 
by  the  Word  are  the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel,  yet  in  accepting 
the  Standards  it  is  not  required  to  be  held  that  God  may  not  ex- 
tend his  grace  to  any  who  are  without  the  pale  of  ordinary  means, 
as  it  may  seem  good  in  his  sight.  A  similar  statement  appears 
in  the  Declaratory  Act  of  the  Free  Church,  1892.  Still  evangel- 
ical Christendom  can  be  said  to  hold  no  other  doctrine  than  that 
the  heathen  universally  need  the  Gospel  in  order  to  their  enlight- 
enment and  salvation;  and  that  it  is  therefore  the  imperative  duty 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  proclaim  that  Gospel,  i  age,  until 


SIN  :     ITS    NATURE    AND    GUILT.  285 

y 

the  whole  earth  shall  have  the  opportunity  to  know  and  believe 
in  him,  as  the  one  and  only  Savior  of  mankind. 

From  this  view  of  depravity,  or  sin  in  the  nature,  consequent 
upon  the  original  transgression  and  infecting  the  race  universally, 
we  may  now  turn  to  contemplate  sin 

as  a  fact  in  all  its  baleful  manifesta-  u\  sin'  lts  nature  :  lts 
tions  in  human  life.  No  better  defini- 
tion of  sin  has  ever  been  given  than  that  found  in  the  Shorter 
Catechism:  any  want  of  conformity  unto  or  transgression  of  the  law 
of  God.  Some  of  the  creeds  of  the  Reformation,  as  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  and  the  Formula  of  Concord,  fail  to  make  the 
distinction  here  so  clearly  indicated  between  original  sin  and  that 
sin  which  is  personal,  conscious,  voluntary.  The  intense  descrip- 
tion of  sin  found  in  the  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  (VIII)  while  it 
recognizes  this  distinction,  still  fails  to  set  forth  in  practical  and 
comprehensive  form  this  personal  sin,  with  which  after  all  we  have 
most  to  do  individually.  The  chapter  in  the  Confession  (VI) 
admits  the  distinction  in  the  phrase,  both  original  and  actual,  and 
teaches  that  both  the  original  sin,  and  all  the  motions  thereof,  are 
truly  and  properly  sin;  and  also  affirms  that  all  actual  sin,  being 
a  transgression  of  the  righteous  law  of  God  and  contrary  thereto, 
involves  the  sinner  in  guilt  and  condemnation  in  the  deepest  sense 
possible.  The  Larger  Catechism,  (24)  adds  to  the  definition  in 
the  S.  C.  the  explanatory  phrase,  given  as  a  rule  to  the  reaso?iablc 
creature.  But  that  definition,  simple,  terse,  solemn  and  convin- 
cing, stands  by  its  own  light  as  the  best  description  of  sin  ever 
incorporated  in  any  creed. 

Of  the  two  elements,  the  transgression  is  the  first  to  attract  our 
attention.  It  includes  all  infraction  of  the  divine  law,  in  what- 
ever form  that  law  may  present  itself  as  a  rule  of  life  to  the  rea- 
sonable creature.  Nor  is  such  infraction  to  be  limited  to  overt 
action,  as  Roman  Catholicism  has  been  inclined  to  limit  it:  it  is 
said  (XV:  iv)  to  be  the  duty  of  every  man  to  repent  of  his  par- 
ticular sins,  particularly;  and  in  the  Direct,  for  Worship  (V),  the 
minister  is  instructed  in  his  public  prayer  to  confess  sins  in 
thought,  in  word  and  in  deed,  sins  secret  and  presumptuous,  sins 
habitual  and  accidental — in  a  word,  all  those  motions  of  sin  that 
appear  in  our  members  or  our  lives,  whether  open  or  secret,  and 
even  that  concupiscentia  which  is  the  immediate  germ  or  fount  of 
actual  transgression.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  teaches  in  simi- 
lar terms  (10)  that  God  is  terribly  displeased  with  both  our  inborn 
and  our  actual  sins,  and  will  punish  them  in  just  judgment  in  time 


286  MAN. 

and  in  eternity,  unless  we  repent  of  them  and  find  forgiveness  in 
Him  who  is  described  in  its  opening  sentence  as  our  only  comfort 
in  life  and  in  death.  The  Westminster  phrase,  any  transgression, 
involves  all  and  every  form  of  transgression,  in  deed  or  word  or 
thought,  whether  the  law  transgressed  be  the  law  of  outward 
nature,  the  law  of  conscience,  the  moral  code  of  the  older  Scrip- 
tures, or  the  supreme  law  as  given  and  illustrated  in  Jesus  Christ. 
The  phrase,  want  of  conformity,  introduces  a  still  more  solemn 
and  inclusive  conception.  It  points  to  the  failure  of  man  to  come 
up  in  act  and  in  feeling  to  that  divine  law  to  which  the  human  soul 
is  ever  and  inevitably  subject.  For  that  law  is  not  a  prohibition 
simply;  it  is  also  a  demand,  precept,  injunction.  It  may  be  dis- 
obeyed by  neglect  as  truly  as  by  direct  transgression.  And 
all  neglect  of  it  is  as  truly  voluntary,  and  therefore  as  truly 
a  matter  of  accountability  as  any  overt  action.  Moreover, 
such  sinful  neglects  are  far  more  frequent  than  sinful  acts  are; 
they  constitute  in  fact  a  condition  or  state  of  the  soul,  and  are 
as  continuous  as  they  are  voluntary.  It  is  especially  noticeable 
that,  while  the  Old  Testament  emphasizes  and  condemns  wrong 
action,  all  transgression  in  deed,  the  New  Testament,  (and  emi- 
nently our  Iyord)  dwells  rather  on  this  state  of  the  soul,  which 
expresses  itself  in  such  continuous  and  willing  negligence  of 
divine  claims,  and  pronounces  this  the  greater,  deeper,  more 
damnable  form  of  sin.  Such  want  of  conformity  is  therefore 
rightly  placed  before  all  overt  transgressions,  in  the  terse  defini- 
tion here  given.  And  in  the  remarkable  list  of  things  forbidden 
in  the  exposition  of  the  Ten  Commandments  (X.  C.  104-148)  we 
have  an  impressive  witness  to  the  intens^  of  the  conviction  of 
the  Westminster  divines  on  this  vital  point  in  the  doctrine  of  sin. 
No  earlier  creed  recognizes  this  element  of  sin  so  fully,  though 
nearly  all  of  them  refer  to  the  inward  sinfulness,  the  state  of  will- 
ful negation  as  to  spiritual  things,  as  one  of  the  primal  grounds 
of  the  divine  condemnation. 

>  A  third  element  in  the  Westminster  doctrine  appears  in  its  rec- 
ognition of  sin,  whether  overt  or  negative,  as  committed  not 
merely  against  the  law  of  God,  but  against  God  himself  as  stand- 
ing behind  his  law,  and  by  his  presence  emphasizing  it  as  the  utter- 
ance of  his  supreme,  sovereign,  majestic,  holy  will.  It  is  the  law 
of  God,  that  law  which  he  has  given  as  a  rule  of  life  to  the  rea- 
sonable creature,  which  is  thus  neglected  or  trampled  under  foot. 
Sin  is  therefore  disobedience — the  disobedience  of  the  creature; 
his  revolt  of  will  and  spirit  from  the  Creator,  the  Father  in  provi- 
dence, the  moral  Governor.     All  sin  is  therefore  rebellion,  if  not 


SIN  :     ITS    FOUR    MAIN    ELEMENTS.  287 

open,  still  actual, — if  not  expressed  in  action,  still  cherished  as 
the  fixed  disposition  of  the  soul, — rebellion  against  God  and  his 
moral  administration,  involving,  were  such  a  thing  possible,  the 
overthrow  of  his  august  sovereignty,  and  the  prostration  of  his 
government  as  a  vanquished  dominion  before  the  moral  universe. 
It  was  natural  that  the  authors  of  the  Confession,  even  more  than 
those  who  had  gone  before  them  in  the  Reformation,  should  bring 
in  at  this  point  their  exalted  estimate  of  the  divine  supremacy, 
and  should  stamp  all  sin  with  this  blackest  seal, — that  in  essence 
it  is  always  and  evermore  a  crime  against  God  personally,  and  trea- 
son against  his  holy  government.  Calvin,  more  than  any  other 
Reformer,  had  emphasized  this  aspect  of  sin,  as  many  passages 
in  his  Institutes  plainly  indicate.  But  even  he  did  not  present 
the  doctrine  in  such  solemn  and  awful  aspect  as  we  find  it  (VI:vi) 
stated  in  the  Symbols:  Every  sin,  both  original  and  actual,  being 
a  transgression  of  the  righteous  law  of  God,  and  contrary  thereto, 
doth  in  its  own  nature  bring  guilt  upon  the  sinner,  whereby  he 
is  bound  over  to  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the  curse  of  the  law. 

Nor  do  the  Symbols  fail  to  recognize  that  inward  principle 
of  selfhood,  that  deep  disposition  and  purpose  of  the  sinner  to 
gratify  himself  and  have  his  own  way,  even  against  all  divine  law, 
which  is  the  key  to  all  such  disobedience, — the  dreadful  spring 
and  fount  of  all  such  rebellion  against  God  and  his  holy  gov- 
ernment. In  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge  it  is  quaintly  said 
that,  until  God  make  us  deny  ourselves,  we  never  look  to  God  in 
anything,  hut  fleshly  self-interest  alone  doth  rule  us,  and  move  all 
the  wheels  of  our  actions.  Many  kindred  expressions  may  be  found 
in  the  Confession  and  Catechisms.  While  on  one  side  we  are 
taught  (II:ii)  that  to  God  is  due  from  angels  and  men,  and 
every  other  creature,  whatsoever  worship,  service  or  obedience  he 
is  pleased  to  require  of  them,  we  are  taught  on  the  other,  that  the 
only  reason  why  men  do  not  recognize  this  supreme  claim  lies  in 
that  selfish  hardness  of  heart,  that  love  of  self  and  of  selfish  pleas- 
ure, which  becomes  (XIII  :  i)  a  dominion  of  the  whole  body  of  sin, 
— a  counter  dominion,  established  in  the  very  centers  of  the  soul, 
which  flaunts  its  godless  banner  in  the  air,  and  bids  defiance  to 
every  claim  of  Deity.  Such  selfhood  dominating  in  the  breast, 
by  its  very  nature  impels  the  sinner  to  ignore  all  divine  claims, 
to  transgress  at  will  any  divine  command,  to  reject  every  ap- 
pointed standard  of  duty,  and  to  cast  God  himself,  so  far  as  this 
is  possible,  out  of  the  thoughts  and  out  of  the  life.  Milton  has 
justly  ascribed  the  fall  of  the  tempter  to  the  indulgence  of  this 
unholy  disposition,   and  inspired  Scripture  recognizes  it  as  the 


288  MAN. 

inward  and  essential  root  of  all  actual  sin,  whether  in  the  form  of 
transgression,  or  in  that  inward  want  of  conformity  which  is  the 
antecedent  of  all  transgression.  Here  human  sin  culminates:  no 
broader,  deeper,  darker  view  is  possible. 

The  strength  of  this  confessional  description  of  sin  in  its  four 
essential  aspects,  will  be  at  once  recognized.     While  the  West- 
minster divines,  following  the  general 

15.  Strength  of  this  con-  trend  of  the  protestant  symbols,  dwelt 
ception:  other  views  of  sin,  ,  ,  ,     .     - 

their  deficiency.  very    limch'    PerhaPs    relatively    too 

much,  on  the  more  recondite  doctrine 
of  original  sin  as  transmitted  in  the  race,  and  of  pravity  or  .sin- 
fulness as  imbedded  in  the  nature,  they — as  we  have  seen — by  no 
means  ignored  or  minified  that  sin,  personal  and  voluntary,  of 
which  every  man  is  conscious,  and  which  in  every  man  is  the 
immediate  and  the  main  ground  of  condemnation.  For  their  sin, 
is  the  expression  used  again  and  again  to  indicate  the  essential 
basis  of  the  divine  wrath  and  curse  upon  sinners.  They  well 
realized  that  clear,  solemn,  convincing  views  of  personal  sin  were 
absolutely  prerequisite  to  that  doctrine  of  redemption  from  both 
the  curse  and  the  power  of  sin  through  Christ  as  Mediator,  which 
they  made  central  and  supreme  in  their  confessional  system.  Nor 
have  the  study  and  experience  of  two  centuries  shown  that  they 
were  in  any  degree  too  intense,  too  sweeping,  too  solemn  in  their 
descriptions  of  such  personal  sinfulness.  Practical  experiment 
under  widely  varying  conditions,  and  long  continued,  has  proved 
the  essential  truthfulness  of  their  teaching.  So  far  as  evangelical 
belief  has  adhered  to  what  they  taught — so  far  as  the  Protestant 
pulpit  has  repeated  and  emphasized  their  profound  and  thoroughly 
biblical  instructions,  just  so  far  has  the  correlative  doctrine  of 
gracious  redemption  won  its  appropriate  victories,  and  gathered 
its  peculiar  fruitage  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men.  And  on  the 
other  hand,  so  far  as  there  has  been  any  deviation  from  this  strong 
and  impressive  conception  of  sin — so  far  as  men  have  attempted 
to  weaken  these  descriptions  and  to  substitute  less  scriptural 
notions,  just  so  far  has  the  power  of  the  pulpit  been  impaired, 
and  the  glory  of  the  Gospel  as  a  saving  scheme  been  dimmed. 

More  recent  times  have  developed  many  antagonistic  theories 
of  sin  as  seen  in  the  individual  man.  It  has  been  said  that  sin  is 
only  an  error,  originating  in  ignorance  or  in  forgetfulness, — men 
not  so  much  intending  to  do  wrong  as  falling  into  wrong,  because 
they  do  not  at  the  moment  clearly  discern  the  right.  It  has  been 
said  that  sin  is  merely  such  stumbling  as  naturally  occurs  to  a 
finite  and  limited  being  like  man, — he  being  but  an  infant  taking 


fai.sk  theories  of  sin.  289 

here  and  there  a  misstep  in  the  effort  to  act  morally — a  misstep 
which  only  prepares  him  for  firmer  virtue  in  the  end.  It  has  been 
said  that  sin  is  only  the  result  of  that  divine  arrangement  in  human 
development  by  which  the  sensibilities  and  desires  begin  to  act 
before  the  judgment  is  sufficiently  matured  to  control  them, — the 
will  yielding  to  their  impulsion  because  it  has  not  yet  come  into 
the  experience  of  anything  higher.  It  has  been  said  that  sin 
grows  out  of  the  organic  relation  subsisting  between  mind  and 
matter,  or  out  of  the  peculiar  constitution  of  man  as  composed  of 
body  and  spirit;  ever  depositing  itself  upon  the  soul,  to  use  an  old 
Gnostic  metaphor,  as  rust  does  on  iron;  something  springing  spon- 
taneously and  inevitably  from  the  eternal  antithesis  between  soul 
and  body,  mind  and  matter.  It  has  been  said  that  sin  results 
from  the  correlation  divinely  established  between  moral  good  and 
moral  evil, — men  learning  what  moral  good  is  only  through  the 
experiment  of  moral  evil,  and  becoming  matured  in  virtue  only 
through  the  negations  and  the  disciplines  of  transgression.  To 
all  such  theories  one  simple,  vital,  irrefragable  objection  may  be 
urged, — that  one  and  all  they  ignore  the  fundamental  fact  that 
men  universally  feel  themselves  in  conscience  accountable  for  their 
personal  sin,  and  are  perpetually  sensible  of  guilt  corresponding 
to  such  sin.  Nor  can  it  be  claimed  that  this  witness  of  conscience 
is  a  matter  of  education  or  tradition  simply  :  such  conviction  of 
sin  is  almost  as  innate  in  man  as  consciousness  itself.  It  is  also  a 
fundamental  objection  that,  while  ignoring  or  under-estimating 
this  vital  matter  of  personal  accountability  for  personal  sin  before 
God,  these  theories  in  fact  endeavor  to  put  off  the  blame  of  such 
sin  upon  the  constitution  of  man,  or  upon  some  peculiarity  in  his 
condition  or  development  in  life,  or  upon  the  constitution  of  nature, 
or  even  upon  the  purpose  and  arrangement  of  the  Deity. 

While  such  explanations  or  apologies  are  to  be  set  aside  on 
these  fundamental  grounds,  it  is  equally  incumbent  on  those  who 
adhere  to  the  Symbols  to  guard  themselves  sedulously  against 
any  defective  conceptions  of  sin  which  may  be  at  any  time  cur- 
rent within  the  circle  of  evangelical  faith.  The  early  Arminian 
party  did  not  dare,  as  their  Remonstrance  clearly  shows,  (Art.  Ill) 
to  impair  or  lessen  in  any  way  the  prevailing  Protestant  doctrine 
as  to  the  reality  and  dreadfulness  of  sin,  and  the  full  responsibil- 
ity and  guiltiness  of  the  sinner.  To  have  demurred  at  this  point 
would  have  been  fatal  to  their  entire  attempt  to  modify  or  melior- 
ate that  firm  though  severe  Calvinism  to  whose  influence  and 
tendency  they  were  so  strongly  opposed.  But  it  is  true  that  in 
later  times  some  of  their  disciples,  in  their  strenuous  revulsion 


290  MAN. 

from  the  intense  language  if  not  the  intense  dogmatism  of  some 
Calvinistic  theologies,  have  been  led  into  serious  deficiency  in  both 
thought  and  utterance  on  this  vital  point.  There  is  little  danger 
that  such  revulsion  will  lead  really  evangelical  minds  to  open  apol- 
ogies for  sin,  or  to  regard  sin  as  rather  a  negation  than  a  positive 
and  universal  fact,  or  even  to  emphasize  unduly  the  benefits  of 
which,  in  an  economy  of  grace,  human  sin  may  become  the  occa- 
sion, whether  to  the  sinner  or  to  others.  Yet  it  is  always  danger- 
ous even  to  become  in  the  least  indifferent  or  insensible  to  the 
sinfulness  of  sin,  or  to  ignore  in  any  way  that  need  of  solemn  and 
humbling  conviction  of  sin,  without  which  true  repentance  and 
true  faith  are  not  likely  to  find  place  in  the  soul.  To  protect  the 
church  of  Christ  against  such  tendencies,  and  hold  that  church  up 
to  the  highest  and  most  practical  standards  at  this  point,  is  one  of 
the  noblest  offices  of  the  Westminster  formularies.  Subtracting 
all  that  may  justly  be  charged  as  to  intensit)'  of  language  or  dog- 
matism in  opinion,  or  to  undue  assumption  of  authoritativeness, 
apparent  in  the  discussions  and  deliverances  of  the  Assembly,  we 
may  on  fair  comparision  place  their  teaching  on  this  subject  at 
the  head  of  the  list  as  excelling  in  clearness,  in  fullness,  and  in 
practical  effectiveness.  The  Reformers  from  Luther  and  Calvin 
down  to  the  Synod  of  Dort  were  indeed  by  no  means  indifferent  to 
the  fundamental  doctrine  of  sin  in  its  personal  and  practical  as- 
pects. The  careful  student  of  the  creeds  will  come  upon  many 
a  striking  .statement,  many  a  forceful  proposition,  many  an  elab- 
orate exposition  of  biblical  truth,  which  will  convince  him  not 
only  of  the  positive  Augustinianism  or  rather  Paulinism  of  the 
Reformers  generally,  but  also  of  their  profound  experience  of  the 
essential  truthfulness  and  worth  of  their  accepted  doctrine.  That 
the  Assembly  of  Westminster  did  not  fall  below  them  in  either 
knowledge  or  experience  or  depth  of  conviction,  but  the  rather 
led  all  the  rest  in  the  exposition  of  that  doctrine,  will  not  be 
questioned  by  any  one  who  in  the  light  of  comparative  symbolism 
duly  estimates  their  confessional  teaching. 

It  has  been  urged  in  more  recent  times  that  this  strong  doc- 
trine of  sin,  coupled  with  the  equally  strong  doctrine  of  prav- 

ity    and    of    original    or    transmitted 

16.    Free   will   in    man :       .   r  .  .    .      r  .,v  ....     , 

confessional  statements:  the     sinfulness,  ism  fact  either  positively 

doctrine  defined ;  conflicting     subversive  of   the  antithetic    doctrine 

theories.  of  free  will  in  man,  or  at  least  tends 

to   the  neutralizing    of    that   doctrine 
as  a  cardinal  element  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel.     There 


FREE    WILL   IN   MAN.  291 

is  little  doubt  that  many  of  the  Reformers  were  conscious  of  the 
antinomy  thus  suggested.  Men  like  Melancthon  realized  the  seri- 
ous dilemma  into  which  men  of  the  type  of  L,uther  were  bringing 
both  themselves  and  the  Protestant  cause  at  this  point,  and  did 
what  they  could  to  forestall  the  mischievous  antagonism.  Logi- 
cians like  Calvin  appreciated  the  difficulty,  and  endeavored  earn- 
estly to  relieve  it,  though  with  but  indifferent  success.  It  is 
especially  suggestive  of  the  universal  interest  in  the  problem,  that 
either  an  entire  chapter  or  a  separate  article  or  distinct  section  on 
this  subject  is  found  in  the  Augsburg  Conf .  and  Formula  of  Con- 
cord, in  the  First  and  Second  Helvetic,  in  both  the  Belgic  and 
French  Confessions,  and  also  in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  and  the 
Canons  of  Dort.  That  the  general  teaching  of  these  symbols 
emphasized  strongly  the  actual  deadness  of  will  in  the  sinner,  and 
in  this  way  tended  to  impair  the  doctrine  of  responsibility  for  sin, 
will  hardly  be  questioned.  It  is  to  the  prevalence  of  such 
emphatic  and  in  some  instances  dogmatic  teachings,  that  we  are 
to  trace  the  rise  of  the  Synergistic  controversy  in  Germany  and 
corresponding  developments  elsewhere,  culminating  in  the  Armin- 
ianism  of  Holland  and  its  resultants  in  the  British  Isles.  Some 
of  the  creeds  were  more  moderate  in  statement  than  others,  and  in 
some  we  seem  to  detect  indications  of  a  policy  to  which  later  the- 
ology has  in  some  cases  been  constrained, — the  policy  of  stating, 
the  two  antithetic  truths,  meanwhile  leaving  as  insoluble  the  prob- 
lem of  their  combination.  An  eminent  historian  (Schaff)  has 
claimed  that  the  Westminster  Confession  itself  expressly  teaches 
freedom  of  will  as  well  as  foreordination,  but  leaves  the  solution 
of  the  apparent  antinomy  to  scientific  theology. 

The  Chapter  on  Free  Will  (IX)  in  the  Confession  is  a  remark- 
ably skillful  statement.  It  consists  of  five  sections,  of  which  the 
first  is  a  generic  description  or  definition  of  the  will  as  one  of  the 
constituent  faculties  of  the  soul,  while  the  other  four  describe  this 
faculty  in  action,  in  the  four  moral  spheres  of  inuocency,  of  sin, 
of  grace  and  of  glory.  This  analysis  of  the  four  spheres  or  states 
wherein  the  will  may  act,  was  taken  directly  from  the  Formula 
of  Concord,  and  is  one  of  very  great  value  in  the  proper  explica- 
tion of  the  doctrine.  What  man  was  capable  of  doing  before  the 
fall,  what  he  can  or  cannot  do  since  the  corruption  of  the  fall, 
what  he  may  be  enabled  to  do  when  converted  and  translated  into 
a  state  of  grace,  and  what  he  will  do  when  made  immutably  free  to 
good  alone  in  the  estate  of  glory,  are  successively  described  with 
signal  care.  The  several  sections  of  the  chapter  should  be  contem- 
plated in  their  vital  relations  to  each  other,  and  the  entire  chapter 


292  MAN. 

ought  never  to  be  interpreted  by  itself,  but  should  rather  be  stud- 
ied in  conjunction  with  all  the  other  suggestions  on  the  subject 
which  appear  here  and  there  throughout  the  Symbols.  It  was 
obviously  the  general  plan  of  the  Assembly,  wherever  differences 
of  view  existed  or  where  such  antitheses  in  doctrine  occurred,  to 
provide  place  somewhere  in  the  Symbols  for  the  expression  of 
such  differences,  or  for  the  recognition  of  truths  which,  though 
well  grounded  in  themselves,  seemed  to  their  apprehension  to  be 
mutually  conflicting.  Thus  in  interpreting  this  chapter,  we 
should  take  carefully  into  account  all  that  had  been  previously 
said  in  the  Confession  respecting  the  liberty  of  will  bestowed 
on  our  first  parents,  the  character  of  God  as  precluding  the  pos- 
sibility of  his  being  the  author  or  approver  of  sin,  and  the  crimi- 
nality of  man  in  the  fall,  and  in  all  his  acts  as  a  fallen  and 
corrupted  being.  We  should  also  note  with  care  what  is  taught 
in  subsequent  chapters,  and  especially  in  that  (XIX)  on  the 
Moral  L,aw,  and  also  the  many  expressions  in  the  two  Catechisms, 
which  affirm  on  one  side  the  deadness  of  the  sinful  will,  but  main- 
tain on  the  other  the  guilt  of  all  transgression  and  all  want  of 
conformity  to  the  divine  law,  resulting  from  the  depraved  yet 
voluntary  disposition  and  purpose. 

The  first  section  in  this  remarkable  chapter  affirms  that  the  will 
of  man  is  endowed  of  God  with  natural  liberty,  and  that  this  lib- 
erty is  of  such  a  character  as  to  preclude  the  thought  that  man  is 
under  natural  necessity — under  any  species  of  outward  force,  by 
which  his  will  is  determined  to  good  or  evil.  We  are  reminded  at 
once  of  the  statement  in  chapter  IV,  respecting  our  first  parents 
as  having  the  law  of  God  written  in  their  hearts  and  power  to  ful- 
fill it;  and  by  antithesis,  of  the  statement  in  chapter  VI,  that  their 
descendants  are  utterly  indisposed,  disabled  and  made  opposite  to  all 
good,  and  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil.  In  the  third  section  in  this 
chapter  we  find  the  startling  affirmation  that  man,  being  in  this 
state  of  sin,  has  wholly  lost  all  ability  of  will — an  affirmation  which 
would  be  wholly  incongruous  with  that  of  the  first  or  opening 
section,  if  the  loss  affirmed  were  not  limited  by  the  vital  phrase, 
to  any  spiritual  good  accompanying  salvatio?i.  This  phrase  clearly 
shows  that  the  Westminster  divines  did  not  intend  to  contravene 
in  the  third  section  what  they  had  affirmed  as  to  natural  liberty,  or 
the  power  to  will  and  to  do,  in  the  first  section;  but  were  simply 
endeavoring  to  teach  what  all  evangelical  minds  agree  in  believ- 
ing, that  no  sinner  ever  will,  ever  can,  restore  himself  by  mere 
volition  to  a  state  of  holiness  in  the  sight  and  estimate  of  God. 
To  meet  the  apparent  antinomy  involved  in  these  sections,  the 


SYMBOLIC   TESTIMONIES.  293 

proposed  Revision  suggested  an  additional  sentence  in  the  first  sec- 
tion: Wherefore  man  is  and  remains  a  free  moral  agent,  retaining 
full  responsibility  for  all  his  acts,  in  his  states  alike  of  innocencj^, 
of  sin,  of  grace  and  of  glory.  And  for  the  same  reason  it  was 
proposed  to  substitute  for  the  sweeping  and  somewhat  misleading 
phrase  all  ability  of  will,  the  better  phrase,  all  disposition, — a 
change  which  would  locate  the  inability  of  the  sinner  where  it 
mainly  if  not  entirely  belongs,  within  the  moral  nature.  The  four 
states  mentioned  in  the  first  sentence  are  those  described  in  the  four 
following  sections  of  the  chapter  :  these  constitute  the  only  four 
states  in  which  it  is  possible  for  man  as  a  spiritual  being  to  act. 

Careful  study  of  the  Protestant  symbols  will  reveal  the  fact  that, 
notwithstanding  varieties  in  forms  of  statement  and  in  clearness 
and  fullness  of  expression,  they  were  substantially  one  in  their 
general  doctrine;  and  also  the  further  fact  that  the  divines  of 
Westminster  in  the  language  just  quoted  fairly  comprehended  that 
doctrine  and  gave  it  exact  and  practical  expression  throughout. 
The  Augsburg  Confession  quoted  with  approval  the  saying  of 
Augustine,  that  there  is  in  all  men  a  free  will  which  hath  the  power 
of  reason,  but  added  (XVIII),  that  this  will  hath  no  power  to 
work  out  spiritual  righteousness  (or  true  holiness)  without  the 
Spirit  of  God;  and  condemned  the  Pelagian  dogma  that  by  the 
power  of  nature  alone  we  are  able  to  love  God  above  all  things. 
The  Formula  of  Concord,  compiled  in  full  view  of  the  Synergistic 
controversy,  carried  the  doctrine  of  the  inability  of  the  sinful  will 
to  its  full  length,  in  antagonism  to  the  affirmation  of  Melancthon 
respecting  the  consenting  will  of  man  as  a  concurrent  cause  of 
holy  action.  The  French  Confession,  (IX)  tersely  said  that, 
although  man  has  a  will  that  incites  him  to  do  this  or  that,  yet  this 
will  is  altogether  so  captive  to  sin  that  he  has  no  other  liberty  (or 
ability)  to  do  right  that  than  which  God  gives  him.  The  Belgic 
Confession  goes  still  farther  along  the  same  line,  admitting  that 
some  remains  of  the  original  will  have  survived  the  fall,  but 
declaring  that  man  has  nothing  of  himself,  and  can  do  nothing  of 
himself  in  the  direction  of  holiness,  unless  it  be  given  him  of 
heaven.  These  references  sufficiently  indicate  the  concurrent 
teaching  of  Protestantism  not  only  on  the  continent  but  in  Britain 
prior  to  the  Assembly.  And  the  debates  in  that  body,  so  far  as 
preserved,  show  how  carefully  the  antecedent  symbolism  had  been 
studied,  and  how  thoroughly  it  was  accepted  by  most,  if  not  by 
all  of  the  members. 

It  is  impracticable  here  to  enter  into  any  analytic  investigation 
of  the  doctrine  thus  presented,  with  a  view  to  its  defense  or 


294  MAN. 

confirmation.  The  question  whether  the  human  will  is  truly  free 
except  as  it  is  empowered  and  enfranchised  by  grace,  is  one  which 
from  the  era  of  the  Assembly  until  now  has  never  ceased  to 
interest  alike  the  theologian  and  the  philosopher.  Theories  rang- 
ing from  complete  determinism  to  the  most  absolute  or  unlimited 
liberty  are  still,  and  are  likely  to  be,  current  among  both  classes. 
It  is  however  admitted  by  all  that  the  will  even  of  an  archangel 
is  a  finite  rather  than  an  infinite  power,  and  that  there  are  natural 
boundaries  beyond  which  even  the  quickening  force  of  grace  will 
not  enable  the  soul-  of  man  to  pass.  It  is  also  admitted  by  most 
thoughtful  minds  that  sin  both  hereditary  and  personal  has  infec- 
ted not  merely  the  intellect  and  the  moral  sensibilities,  including 
the  conscience,  but  also  and  in  some  respects  especially  the  will — 
eminently  when  acting  in  the  spiritual  or  religious  sphere.  The 
nature  and  extent  of  this  moral  limitation,  the  relative  proportion 
of  the  hereditary  and  the  personal  elements  in  it,  the  agency  of 
motives  external  and  internal  as  affecting  volition  and  determ- 
ining character,  the  relation  of  natural  inability  to  moral  ability 
and  to  full  accountability  before  God,  are  matters  respecting  which 
wide  diversity  prevails — a  diversity  which  is  not  likely  soon  to 
pass  away.  But  what  the  divines  of  Westminster  incorporated  in 
their  astute  and  balanced  statement,  embodies  fairly  all  that  is 
essential  now  in  a  churchly  confession  :  and  when  taken  in  con- 
junction with  all  that  since  their  day  has  been  said  in  the  way  of 
explanation,  by  those  who  adhere  cordially  to  the  essence  and 
substance  of  their  teaching,  it  well  represents  in  our  age  as  in 
theirs  the  best  and  safest  conclusion  to  which  either  a  thoughtful 
philosophy  or  a  broad  and  calm  theology  has  thus  far  attained. 

At  this  point  it  is  desirable  to  recur  to  the  contemplation  of  man 
as  a  creature  living  under  law,  as  well  as  possessing  a  free  and 

therefore  accountable  will,  and  to  con- 

17.  Man  under  law:  moral     sider  more  distinctly  the  underlying 

government:  its  nature  and  r  , 

conception  ot  a  moral  government  over 

man,  as  already  suggested  under  the 
doctrine  of  Providence.  The  correlated  conception  of  God  as 
Moral  Governor  as  well  as  fontal  and  creative  Spirit,  ruling  by  the 
necessities  of  his  own  infinite  nature  over  his  moral  creatures,  and 
in  such  rule  exhibiting  all  the  qualities  and  endowments  of  his  per- 
fect character,  has  likewise  been  introduced  in  the  general  analysis 
of  God  in  his  essential  being.  It  has  been  intimated  that  the  West- 
minster divines  seem  to  have  failed  to  recognize,  at  least  in  their 
confessional  statements,  that  broad  distinction  which  Bishop  Butler 
a  century  later  unfolded  so  well  in  his  incomparable  Analog)-, 


MAN  UNDER  LAW  :  MORAL  GOVERNMENT.        295 

between  the  providential  and  the  moral  government  of  God. 
That  such  a  distinction  exists,  and  that  in  some  directions  it  is  a 
distinction  of  great  practical  importance,  may  be  easily  discerned. 
Though  both  forms  of  government  are  administered  by  the  same 
divine  Mind  and  are  interblended  at  a  thousand  points,  yet  they 
obviously  differ  widely  as  to  their  subjects,  to  the  types  of  law 
enforced  and  the  form  of  authority  displayed,  to  the  ends  sought, 
and  the  motives  or  forces  employed  in  their  administration.  Provi- 
dential government  comprehends  alike  all  the  creatures  of  God  and 
all  varieties  of  physical  control  over  such  creatures,  while  moral 
government  relates  specifically  to  moral  beings,  and  particularly — 
as  here  considered — to  men  as  accountable  creatures.  The  different 
types  of  law  are  illustrated,  for  example,  in  the  law  of  gravitation 
as  contrasted  with  the  law  of  love, — the  first  type  acting  under 
physical  necessity,  and  the  other  on  the  principle  of  freedom.  In 
moral  government  the  authority  brought  to  bear  is  personal, — the 
Governor  as  a  person  dealing  with  persons,  in  a  sway  radically 
unlike  that  of  nature.  The  ends  sought  in  providential  govern- 
ment are  vital  preservation  and  general  control ;  in  moral  gov- 
ernment the  control  is  purely  spiritual,  and  has  its  proper  issue  in 
character  alone.  The  final  outcome  of  the  one  is  realized  in  time; 
that  of  the  other  only  in  eternity,  as  a  state  of  holiness  or  unholi- 
ness,  blessing  or  retribution.  So  the  forces  employed  are  as  dis- 
tinct as  the  energy  that  guides  a  planet  through  the  sky  is  distinct 
from  that  spiritual  power  which  draws  a  soul  into  loving  unity 
with  Deity.  Moral  government  finds  its  best  analogue  in  human 
governments,  both  parental  and  civil,  where  results  in  conduct  are 
secured  through  apprehensible  law,  and  by  virtue  of  intelligent 
motives,  such  as  right  or  wrong,  reward  or  punishment.  At  each 
of  these  points,  and  in  particular  aspects  which  need  not  be  men- 
tioned here,  the  providential  and  the  moral  government  of  God  are 
to  be  thus  carefully  distinguished  from  each  other.  The  latter  may 
be  sufficiently  defined  for  the  present  purpose,  as  the  exercise  of 
the  divine  authority  over  the  human  race  upon  principles  and  by 
methods  consistent  with  the  moral  nature  of  man,  with  supreme 
reference  to  the  present  development  of  character,  and  to  the 
ultimate  distribution  of  awards  and  penalties  in  a  future  state: 
See  Taylor,  N.  W.  Moral  Government  of  God  ;  Harris,  God, 
Creator  and  Lord  of  all. 

The  fact  of  such  a  distinctive  moral  government  might  be 
established  by  simple  reference  to  the  correlated  fact  of  physical 
or  providential  government.  It  might  be  proved  still  more  con- 
clusively from  the  obvious  nature  of  man  as  a  moral  being,  from 


296  MAN. 

his  possession  of  moral  qualities  on  one  hand,  fitting  him  to  be  thus 
governed,  while  on  the  other  hand  he  is  seen  to  be  incapable  of 
governing  himself,  and  therefore  to  be  in  need  of  some  superior 
moral  agency  to  rule  over  him.  The  fact  is  also  demonstrable,  as 
Butler  has  well  shown,  from  experience, — it  being  palpable  to  all 
right  reason  and  conscience  that  there  is  a  law  above  man,  made 
for  him,  and  actually  dominating  over  his  moral  as  truly  as  his 
natural  life.  And  it  is  also  a  fact  of  vital  significance  that  the 
providential  government  of  God  appears  to  be  everywhere  tribu- 
tary to  such  moral  administration;  nature  always,  working  in  the 
interest  of  morality,  as  in  the  inflictions  wrought  through  natural 
processes  in  the  form  of  retribution  for  sin,  and  the  corresponding 
benediction  which  nature  herself  pronounces  on  the  obedient  and 
worthy  soul.  What  Matthew  Arnold  vaguely  defines  as  a  power 
in  the  world,  not  ourselves,  working  for  righteousness,  is  thus 
continually  manifesting  itself  in  human  experience,  as  not  merely 
a  preternatural  power,  but  a  supreme  and  holy  Person,  swaying 
all  things  and  all  events  in  the  interest  of  holiness.  God  in  his 
providence  seems  alwa)^s  to  be  thus  contemplating  man  as  the  final 
end  of  both  his  preservation  and  his  physical  control.  He  is 
educating  man  ethically  while  he  sustains  him  as  a  being;  he  seeks 
supremely  the  development  of  character,  alike  in  every  bountiful 
harvest  he  bestows,  and  in  every  privation  or  sorrow  of  our  life 
under  his  providential  administration. 

More  will  be  said  hereafter  respecting  the  foundations  of  the 
moral  government  here  described,  and  the  principles  regarded  and 
applied  in  its  administration.  It  is  enough  at  this  stage  to  note 
the  fact  that  this  government  is  no  arbitrary  rule,  assumed  on  the 
basis  of  mere  power  though  the  power  were  omnipotent,  but  is 
grounded  rather  in  the  nature  of  both  God  and  man  as  moral 
beings,  and  in  the  indisoluble  relationship  established  between 
them  in  both  creation  and  providence.  How  far  the  Westminster 
divines  recognized  the  doctrine  as  now  defined,  is  not  clear  from 
their  confessional  statements.  Traces  of  such  recognition  appear 
here  and  there,  especially  in  the  Catechisms,  and  in  the  Directory 
for  Worship.  But  as  to  the  essential  fact  that  God  rules  over  man 
ethically  as  well  as  physically, — as  to  the  law  of  God,  standing 
out  in  human  life  as  representative  of  his  moral  government  and 
enforcing  it,  their  teachings  are  all  that  is  needful.  When  we 
come  to  the  study  of  their  exposition  of  that  law,  especially  as 
explained  in  the  Larger  Catechism,  we  shall  find  abundant  evi- 
dence that  they  held  and  affirmed  this  sovereign  administration  of 
God  over  men   and   angels,   over  all   the   moral   universe,    as  a 


OBEDIENCE,    HIS    SUPREME    DUTY.  297 

transcendent  fact,  far  beyond  and  above  all  his  displays  of  dom- 
inating potency  in  the  wide  realm  of  nature.  Without  limitation 
or  reserve  they  strenuously  taught  the  essential  truth  that  man, 
though  in  a  sense  free,  is  still  under  moral  law,  and  is  bound  to 
personal  and  perpetual  obedience  to  such  law,  under  all  conditions 
and  beyond  all  escape. 

Whether  this  fundamental  truth  is  best  apprehended  under  the 
image  of  a  covenant  of  works,  or  a  covenant  of  life,  as  described 
in  Chapter  VII,  or  in  the  simpler  way 

and  form  just  stated,  the  essential  truth        ,8«    »«*  f  obedience, 
J.  '      .  ,     _TT1  personal   and   perpetual: 

in  the  case  is  never  to  be  ignored.    When     responsibility  defined. 

it  is  said  in  that  chapter  that  God  was 

pleased  to  express  his  will  and  his  authority  by  way  of  covenant, 
and  when  the  first  covenant  is  defined  as  a  divine  arrangement 
wherein  life  was  promised  to  Adam,  and  in  him  to  his  posterity 
upon  condition  of  perfect  and  personal  obedience,  we  have  in  the 
phraseology  simply  a  somewhat  unique  statement  of  the  universal 
fact  that  man  is  a  creature  divinely  placed  under  law,  not  by  his 
own  consent  or  contract,  but  because  God  as  his  Creator  and 
Sovereign  is  pleased  so  to  place  him;  and  of  the  further  fact  that 
obedience,  personal,  perfect  and  perpetual,  is  his  immediate,  his 
unquestionable  duty.  He  has  no  choice  as  to  whether  such  law 
shall  be  enacted,  or  what  shall  be  its  requisitions,  or  in  what  way 
it  shall  be  enforced,  or  what  rewards  or  penalties  shall  follow 
obedience  or  its  opposite.  At  all  these  points  God  is  supreme  and 
alone;  man  can  have  no  option  or  alternative;  his  liberty  and  his 
life  are  centered  in  the  single  word,  Obedience. 

It  is  well  to  note  here,  though  in  a  preliminary  way,  the  char- 
acteristics of  that  law  to  which  man  is  thus  subject,  and  the 
grounds  of  its  majestic  supremacy  over  him.  It  has  its  deep 
foundation, not  in  the  individual  conviction  or  conscience, neither  in 
the  coincidences  of  human  conscience  or  the  agreements  of  human 
society,  nor  in  those  fixed  moral  relationships  by  which  the  race  is 
held  together  in  unity.  Nor  is  its  ultimate  basis  to  be  found  in  the 
nature  of  right  and  wrong,  viewed  as  rational  principles  or  intui- 
tions, but  rather  in  the  will  of  God; — not  in  that  will  contem- 
plated as  an  imperial  dictum,  as  Calvin  seems  to  suggest,  God 
making  right  by  simply  declaring  it  such,  but  rather  in  that  will 
viewed  as  the  Logos  or  expression  of  the  complete  and  holy  nature 
of  the  Deity.  As  such  it  becomes  the  absolute  rule  of  righteous- 
ness, to  which — it  is  not  improper  to  say — God  himself  yields  per- 
fect and  perpetual  obedience.  The  appeal  of  this  holy  law 
therefore  is  not  to  the  fears  or  superstitions  of  man,  but  to  their 


298  MAN. 

reason  and  their  conscience, — becoming  thus,  in  the  phrase  of  the 
Confession,  a  law  written  on  their  hearts.  Its  authority  lies  partly 
in  what  it  is  thus  seen  b3r  reason  and  felt  by  the  conscience  to  be, 
but  ultimately  in  Him  who  enacted  it, — the  Lawgiver  standing 
always  behind  the  law  for  its  proper  enforcement.  Its  rewards 
and  penalties  are  found,  partly  in  what  nature  may  bring  upon 
obedience  or  its  opposite,  but  are  chiefly  such  as  involve  char- 
acter whether  holy  or  unholy,  and  such  as  God  in  infinite  wisdom 
chooses  to  bring  on  the  obedient  soul  or  on  the  transgressor.  Its 
administration  is  supremely  and  eternally  equitable;  each  subject 
being  judged  by  it  according  to  his  ability, — no  harsh  or  cruel 
exaction  ever  made, — no  sin  ever  escaping  penalty,  and  no  obedi- 
ence ever  failing  of  reward.  In  the  exalted  phrase  of  Scripture, 
the  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  his  testimonies  are  sure,  his  statutes 
right,  his  commandments  pure,  his  administration  clean  and 
enduring,  and  his  judgments  true  and  righteous  altogether. 

The  supremacy  of  that  law  over  man  is  by  the  nature  Of  the 
case  absolute:  its  right  to  rule  over  him  is  both  legitimate  and  irre- 
sistible. Man  cannot  alter  it;  he  cannot  question  it;  he  cannot 
evade  it.  He  can  no  more  throw  off  its  imperatives  than  he  can 
dethrone  its  Maker.  It  is  as  far  above  him  as  God  is,  and  its 
sway  is  as  imperial  as  that  which  controls  the  stars.  Both  by  its 
own  nature  and  by  the  will  of  him  who  enacted  it,  it  is  ever  dom- 
inant and  regal  over  mankind.  In  respect  to  time,  it  must  con- 
tinue thus  to  rule  from  the  first  creation  of  finite  moral  existences 
onward  to  the  remotest  ages  of  eternity.  In  respect  to  space,  it 
extends  through  every  realm  of  moral  being  from  the  most  central 
heavens  outward  to  the  farthest  orb  where  thought,  feeling,  con- 
scious personality  are  found.  As  to  contents,  it  comprehends  in  its 
vast  sweep  every  act,  every  choice  or  impulse,  or  even  thought 
that  springs  up  within  the  conscious  soul  of  man.  As  to  applica- 
tion, it  fits  every  conceivable  case  that  can  arise  within  the  myr- 
iad varieties  and  manifestations  of  human  experience.  In  every 
aspect  it  is  indeed  perfect,  whether  men  obey  or  resist  it:  it  would 
shine  out  eternally  with  undiminished  splendor,  though  the  entire 
universe  of  moral  beings  should  conspire  for  its  overthrow. 

It  is  in  the  contemplation  of  such  a  law  and  of  a  government 
thus  administered,  that  we  gain  some  just  conception  of  the 
nature  and  scope  of  human  responsibility  before  God.  The  term, 
responsibility,  simply  implies  the  intrinsic  and  inevitable  obliga- 
tion of  every  soul  to  render  proper  obedience — to  yield  complete, 
cordial,  perpetual  allegiance  to  this  administration  in  whatever 
form  it  may  present  itself.     It  is,  in  other  words,  absolute  amena- 


MISERIES   OF   DISOBEDIENCE.  299 

bility  to  the  divine  law,  and  to  him  who  has  enacted  it  as,  in  the 
language  of  the  Confession,  a  rule  of  life  for  the  reasonable  creature. 
Such  responsibility  implies  the  possession  of  power  or  ability  to 
render  obedience:  it  cannot  apply  to  the  animal,  the  child,  the 
imbecile,  who  are  incapable  of  recognizing  the  law  as  enforced. 
It  implies  the  exercise  of  personal  choice  in  view  of  the  demands 
of  that  law;  intelligence,  conscience,  personal  volition,  are  always 
involved  in  it.  Obligation,  personal  and  free,  is  the  universal  cor- 
relative,— the  binding  of  the  soul  by  an  indissoluble  bond  to  the 
throne  of  the  holy  Lawgiver.  The.word,duty  ,is  another  term  which 
signifies  what,  in  the  nature  of  things,  is  due  from  us  or  owed  by 
us  to  him  who  is  our  Creator  and  our  eternal  Sovereign.  Still 
another  term  is  accountability — the  answer  of  the  soul  to  God, 
judicially  required,  for  the  manner  in  which  it  has  regarded  his 
law,  and  has  lived  and  acted  under  its  righteous  authority.  How 
fully  the  Westminster  divines  recognized  all  that  is  implied  in 
such  terms — how  fully  they  emphasized  the  cardinal  fact  repre- 
sented in  them,  will  appear  more  in  detail  when  we  come  to  con- 
sider the  second  great  division  of  the  Symbols — that  which  treats, 
not  of  what  we  are  to  believe  concerning  God,  but  of  what  duty 
God  requires  of  man. 

One  further  truth  remains  to  complete  our  survey  of  the  an- 
thropology of  the  Symbols.  It  is  that  which  describes  in  such 
solemn  terms  the  failure  of  man  to  keep 

what  is  called  the  covenant  of  life,  or        19'    Failure  of  man  under 

.,  r         1  j  ^i  law :  miseries  of  disobedi- 

the  covenant  of  works,  and  the  estate  „„„„.  „„ro,-Ki^  ^i-„,» ~ 

'  ence :  possible  deliverance. 

not  merely  of   sin  but  of  misery,  into 

which  by  that  failure  humanity  has  fallen  and  is  continuously 
falling.  It  is  probably  a  defect  in  their  presentation,  that  they 
dwell  so  much  relatively  on  this  misery  as  an  entailed  or  heredi- 
tary infliction,  and  too  little  relatively  on  it  as  the  immediate  con- 
sequence of  that  individual  probation,  that  personal  choice  and 
action  under  the  divine  law,  which  is  the  chief  spring  and  source 
of  all  retributive  miseries.  It  surely  involves  no  denial  or  mini- 
fying of  the  awful  fact  of  transmitted  sinfulness  and  consequent 
retributive  exposure,  if  we  emphasize  also,  and  even  more  earn- 
estly, that  personal  responsibility  under  which  each  soul  of  man 
consciously  exists,  or  lay  stress  on  the  miseries  that  flow  in 
directly  upon  the  soul  as  the  result  of  its  individual  failure  in  duty 
and  in  obedience.  It  is  the  safe  position  of  an  eminent  American 
teacher,  (Smith,  H.  B.  Theol.)  that  the  sin  common  to  the  race 
first  shows  itself  in  the  individual  in  the  form  of  personal  prefer- 
ence or  consent;  and  that  then,  and  not  till  then,   are  personal 


300  MAX. 

liabilities  and  desert  incurred.  He  rightly  adds  that  it  is  not  a 
true  statement,  that  each  individual  of  the  race  is  personally 
deserving  of  eternal  damnation,  as  is  sometimes  said,  on  account  of 
the  sinful  act  of  Adam. 

The  Confession  (VII)  strongl}'  teaches  both  that  death  in  sin 
rests  on  all  the  posterity  of  Adam  because  they  are  sinful,  and 
that  all  personal  sin  binds  the  transgressor  as  a  criminal  over  to 
the  wrath  of  God,  and  makes  him  subject  to  death,  with  all 
miseries  temporal  and  eternal.  The  Shorter  Catechism  (19),  de- 
clares in  similar  terms  that  all  men  as  fallen  are  made  liable  to  all 
the  miseries  of  this  life,  to  death  itself,  and  to  the  pains  of  hell 
forever.  The  ^L,arger  Catechism  (27),  varies  the  statement  by 
affirming  further  that  the  sinner  has  lost  the  favor  of  God  and  is 
under  his  displeasure, — that  he  is  the  child  of  wrath  and  a  bond- 
slave to  Satan, — and  that  he  is  justly  liable  to  all  punishments  in 
this  world  and  in  that  which  is  to  come.  It  also  proceeds  (28),  to 
describe  with  painful  minuteness  the  punishments  of  sin  in  this 
world  as  both  inward  and  outward;  inward,  as  blindness  of  mind, 
a  reprobate  sense,  strong  delusions,  hardness  of  heart,  horror  of 
conscience,  and  vile  affections;  outward,  as  the  curse  of  God  upon 
the  creatures  for  our  sake,  and  all  other  evils  that  befall  us  in  our 
bodies,  names,  estates,  relations  and  employments,  as  well  as  phys- 
ical death  itself.  We  have  here  a  marked  illustration,  not  of  the 
inhuman  severity  or  cold  indifference  to  the  miseries  of  their  fel- 
low men,  sometimes  charged  as  characterizing  the  divines  of  West- 
minster, but  rather  of  their  unswerving  fidelity  to  truth  and  to 
fact,  and  to  the  spiritual  and  eternal  welfare  of  mankind.  There 
is  nothing  in  their  enumeration  which  is  not  essentially  true  in  the 
case  of  every  one  who  refuses  to  obey  God  and  his  government; 
and  in  setting  forth  to  the  view  of  all  these  earthly  miseries  of  sin, 
they  were  only  following  the  example  of  Him  who  faithfully 
warned  men  of  the  multiplied  evils  of  sin  in  this  life,  while  he  also 
spoke  with  solemn  emphasis  of  the  outer  darkness,  of  the  worm 
that  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  that  is  never  quenched.  It  is  guilty 
weakness  rather  than  holy  courage,  which  leads  to  the  ignoring 
or  concealment  of  the  essential  truth  on  such  a  matter,  and  which 
beguiles  men  into  the  destructive  belief  that  sin  is  but  a  slight 
evil,  an  occasional  fall,  an  incidental  and  superficial  taint,  which 
God  is  always  ready  to  overlook  and  to  forgive,  even  though  the 
indulgence  in  it  goes  on  without  restraint. 

Postponing  all  reference  to  the  miseries  of  sin  in  the  life  to  come, 
as  these  are  faithfully  set  forth  in  the  Symbols,  we  may  close  our 
survey  of  the  natural  man  as  they  describe  him,  with  the  question 


DELIVERANCE   POSSIBLE.  301 

of  questions  whether  deliverance  from  such  moral  miseries,  and 
restoration  to  the  favor  and  image  of  God,  are  possible  to  a  being 
who  has  so  far  fallen  from  his  high  estate,  and  by  his  refusal  to 
yield  perfect  and  perpetual  obedience,  has  become  involved  in  such 
criminality  before  that  Being  to  whom,  by  his  moral  constitution, 
endowments  and  position,  he  is  made  forever  responsible.  Con- 
templating man  as  we  thus  find  him,  we  may  still  claim  in  answer, 
that  there  are  gracious  possibilities  remaining  in  him  and  in  his 
providential  environment,  which  do  justify  the  hope  that  he  may 
yet  be  saved  from  his  sin  and  its  condemnation.  He  cannot  in- 
deed escape  by  his  own  act  from  either  his  moral  corruption  or  his 
personal  guiltiness.  The  verdict  of  the  law  has  already  been 
pronounced  upon  him;  the  solemn  decision  of  the  Judge  is  already 
uttered.  Nor  has  the  sinner  any  such  compensatory  or  restora- 
tive power  in  himself,  as  justifies  the  expectation  that  by  his  own 
energies  he  may  yet  come  back  to  duty  and  to  God.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  man  is  not  a  devil,  and  behind  the  sinning  man  there 
stands  a  better  man,  ever  summoning  the  recreant  soul  to  obedi- 
ence. The  moral  nature  though  corrupted  is  still  capable  of  be- 
ing regenerated  and  restored,  by  divine  though  not  by  human 
power.  And  the  very  discords  within  the  soul,  as  well  as  its  bet- 
ter aspirations,  the  longing  of  the  sinning  race  for  deliverance, 
its  sacrifices  and  its  prayers  and  worship,  all  point  to  such  a  pos- 
sibility. The  providence  of  God  toward  the  sinner,  in  its  tender 
constraints  and  its  faithful  warnings,  also  seems  to  warrant  the 
expectation  that  the  God  of  providence  will  not  leave  the  trans- 
gressor to  perish  forever.  In  like  manner,  his  moral  administra- 
tion strangely  mingles  delay  with  penalty,  limits  the  influence  of 
the  evil  and  stimulates  toward  the  good,  and  in  an  thousand  multi- 
plied ways  of  mercy  suggests  the  hope,  the  expectation,  that 
sinful  man  may  yet  be  saved.  Such  are  the  natural  intimations  in 
the  case,  all  pointing  toward  such  a  happier  issue;  and  the  divine 
response  to  all  such  anticipations  and  longings,  as  Christian  sym- 
bolism universally  declares,  is  CHRIST. 


LECTURE  SIXTH— CHRIST  THE  MEDIATOR. 

His  Incarnation  :  His  Person,  Divine  and  Human  : 
His  Mission — Mediation:  His  Mediatorial  Offices  — 
Prophet,  Priest,  King  :  His  Humiliation  and  Exalta- 
tion. 

C.  F.  Ch.  VIII.  Ch.  II,  iii.  E.  C.  36-56,  85-90.  S.  C. 
21-28. 

Protestantism  was  in  essence  a  movement  for  the  restoration  of 
Christ  and  his  Mediation  to  that  supreme  place  from  which  Ro- 
manism by  its  excessive  exaltation  of  the  Church  with  her  sacra- 
ments and  priesthood,  had  in  effect  removed  them.  The  Roman 
theology,  while  recognizing  in  form  the  work  and  passion  of  the 
Son  of  God  as  the  ultimate  ground  of  salvation,  had  thrust  the 
Church  forward,  just  as  in  later  times  it  has  thrust  forward  the 
immaculate  Mary,  between  Christ  and  the  believer, — representing 
the  ministries  of  the  Church  as  mediatorial,  and  making  salvation 
turn  primarily  on  what  the  Church  could  do  for  and  upon  the  soul. 
The  intrinsic  grace  of  her  sacraments,  her  official  intercessions, 
her  absolution  and  benediction,  were  declared  to  be  indispensable: 
men  could  attain  and  enjoy  eternal  life  only  through  her.  Prot- 
estantism at  a  stroke  reversed  all  this  by  its  strong  and  just 
doctrine  that  salvation  turns  immediately  upon  the  relationship 
directly  established  between  the  believer  and  Christ,  the  one  and 
only  Redeemer,  through  personal  faith  alone,  and  without  any 
intervening  churchly  mediation.  As  Romanism  required  that  the 
soul  should  come  to  Christ  through  the  Church,  Protestantism 
held  that  the  soul  could  come  into  the  Church  only  through 
Christ ;  and  that  her  sacraments,  her  intercessions,  her  grace  and 
benediction,  were  to  be  granted  only  to  those  who  had  already 
consciously  embraced  the  Savior  himself,  and  had  entered  already 
on  the  Christian  life  through  personal  union  with  him.  Christ  was 
in  this  way  brought  directly  into  the  foreground  of  vision  and  of 
faith;  his  mediation  became  at  once  the  primal  and  the  essential 
thing;  and  the  mediating  ministries  of  the  Church  had  efficacy 
only  when  that  supreme  mediation  had  first  wrought  out  its  blessed 
result  in  the  justifying  of  the  sinner  before  God.  Everything  was 
centered  finally  in  Christ.     Behind  the  finished  and  the  glorious 


CHRISTOLOGY   OF    THE    REFORMATION.  303 

work  of  grace  stood  the  divine  and  transcendent  Person  ;  and  in 
him  the  Reformers  found  alike  the  strong  foundation  of  their  per- 
sonal faith,  and  their  peculiar  endowment  for  the  grand  work  to 
which  by  his  Word  and  Spirit  they  had  been  called. 

It  was  therefore  natural  that  the  creeds  of  the  Reformation 
should  contain  such  extensive  and  strong  articles  concerning 
Christ  and  concerning  his  Mediation. 

These  two  great  truths  are  generally        *•    Christology  of  the  Ref- 

,     °      ^    .       ormationi:   ancient  doctrine 
set  forth,  not  as  separate,  but  in  their     af«rmed 

sacred  correlation.    While  therefore  we 

are  searching  for  their  doctrine  concerning  the  Savior,  we  are  all 
the  while  brought  face  to  face  with  that  doctrine  of  justification 
through  personal  faith  in  him,  which  has  well  been  called  the 
essential  principle  of  the  Reformation.  So  far  as  his  person  was 
concerned,  the  Reformers  were  inclined  at  first  simply  to  affirm 
their  loyalty  to  the  three  ancient  creeds,  and  it  was  not  until 
Socinianism  had  become  conspicuous  at  Geneva  and  elsewhere, 
and  was  threatening  to  lead  many  among  the  Protestant  adherents 
astray,  that  it  was  found  needful  to  emphasize  the  true  and  full 
divinity  of  Christ,  as  a  cardinal  element  in  spiritual  Christianity. 
In  the  Catechism  of  Luther,  we  find  only  an  abbreviation  of  the 
doctrine  of  Nicsea,  and  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  (III)  we  have 
simply  an  expanded  statement  of  the  Chalcedonian  doctrine,  fol- 
lowed immediately  by  the  article  (IV)  on  justification,  in  which 
all  hope  of  obtaining  forgiveness  and  righteousness  before  God 
through  personal  powers,  merits  or  works  is  renounced,  and  faith 
in  the  death  and  legal  satisfaction  of  Christ  is  presented,  in  .dis- 
tinction from  all  confidence  in  church  or  priest,  as  the  true  key  to 
acceptance  with  God.  In  the  Formula  of  Concord  (III)  we  find 
an  elaborate  article  on  the  righteousness  of  faith  before  God,  in 
which  the  true  and  full  divinity  of  our  Lord  is  described  as  the 
ground  of  our  justification,  in  contrast  with  certain  papal  and 
other  errors  which  are  directly  named  and  condemned.  On  this 
point,  as  on  justification  itself,  Luther  and  his  immediate  success- 
ors in  Germany,  Melancthon  included,  were  essentially  one. 

The  Calvinistic  symbols,  as  might  be  anticipated  from  their 
later  date,  were  still  more  full  and  decisive  in  their  affirmations. 
Thus,  the  First  Helvetic  Conf .  (XI)  declares  that  Christ  is  our  only 
mediator,  intercessor,  sacrifice  and  high  priest,  our  Lord  also  and 
King,  through  whom  by  true  and  simple  faith  we  receive 
reconciliation,  redemption,  sanctification,  expiation,  wisdom,  pro- 
tection and  support, — a  statement  wholly  unintelligible  except  on 
the  basis  of  belief  in  his  true  and  proper  divinity.     In  the  Second 


304  CHRIST    THK    MEDIATOR. 

Helvetic  Coiif.  we  find  an  elaborate  chapter,  (XI)  De  Jesu  Christo. 
vero  Deo  et  homine,  unico  mundi  Salvatore:  and  on  this  unique 
and  only  Savior,  far  above  the  priesthood  and  the  church,  we  are 
told  to  rest  entirely  for  our  salvation,  all  other  hopes  being  spurned 
and  thrown  away.  The  French  Conf .  is  especially  remarkable  for 
the  fidelity  and  earnestness  wTith  which  it  describes  the  great 
Mediator,  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  through  whom  w7e  have  access 
to  the  Father,  and  from  whom  we  hold  or  derive  our  life,  as  from 
our  chief  or  Head.  The  Scotch  Conf.  (VI-VII)  expresses  in  a  way 
still  more  quaint  and  touching  the  necessity  for  acknowledging 
this  one  Mediator,  the  only  Son  of  God,  our  Head,  our  Brother, 
our  Pastor  and  the  great  Bishop  of  our  souls.  The  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  declare  (VIII),  that  the  three  ancient  creeds  ought 
thoroughly  to  be  received  and  believed,  for  that  they  may  be 
proved  by  certain  warrants  of  holy  Scripture;  and  in  three  other 
articles  (II-IV)  that  historic  symbol  sets  forth  the  eternal  being, 
the  incarnation,  the  two-fold  nature,  the  life,  suffering,  death  and 
resurrection  of  our  Lord  in  most  explicit  terms.  So  finally,  do 
the  Irish  Articles  teach  not  only  what  Christ  has  wrought  as  our 
Mediator,  but  also  what  he  is  as  an  eternal  Person,  of  one  and 
the  same  substance,  power  and  eternity  with  the  Father,  and  there- 
fore truly  and  forever  God. 

In  the  Westminster  Symbols  taken  in  their  entirety,  we  find  a 
completer  description  of  Christ  in  his  being,  his  personality  human 
and  divine,  his  mission  and  offices  and  states  whether  of  humilia- 
tion or  of  exaltation,  than  can  be  found  in  any  of  these  preceding 
creeds.  Here  the  Christology  of  Protestantism  reaches  its  full 
and  beautiful  consummation.  The  Assembly  had  on  one  hand 
the  advantage  derived  from  the  study  of  all  antecedent  symbolism. 
They  were  also  stimulated  by  the  presence  of  that  Socinian  or 
humanitarian  error  which,  having  its  original  center  in  Geneva, 
had  spread  through  different  countries  on  the  Continent,  and 
even  infected  the  British  Isles  with  its  malevolent  influence.  They 
were  also  more  familiar  with  those  technical  and  philosophic  modes 
of  stating  Christian  doctrine,  which  had  come  into  vogue  during 
the  last  half  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  earlier  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Hence  they  present  the  Trinity  in  God  (Ch.III) 
with  even  excessive  elaboration;  and  when  in  chapter  VIII,  they 
describe  the  Mediator,  they  leave  nothing  unsaid  that  would  help 
us  to  apprehend  their  doctrine  of  him  whom  they  set  forth  as  the 
second  person  in  the  Trinity,  being  very  and  eternal  God,  of  one 
substance  and  equal  with  the  Father,  the  only  begotten,  the  heir 
of  all  things,  and  judge  of  the  world.     It  is  doubtful  whether  any 


HIS    PRE-KXISTENCE  :      ONLY    BEGOTTEN.  305 

chapter  iu  the  Confession,  unless  it  be  the  first,  Of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, or  the  nineteenth,  Of  the  Law  of  God,  equals  this  in  breadth 
and  elaborateness  and  spiritual  impression.  The  description  of 
Christ  in  the  two  Catechisms  (I,.  C.  36-42:  S.  C.  21-22)  empha- 
sizes what  is  taught  so  abundantly  in  the  Confession:  and  even  in 
the  Form  of  Government  and  the  Book  of  Discipline,  the  truth  is 
constantly  flashing  out  either  in  technical  statement  or  in  illustra- 
tive reference  or  allusion.  The  Sum  of  Saving  knowledge  contains 
much  equally  full  and  impressive  teaching  on  this  vital  doctrine. 
What  a  marvel  it  is  in  the  psychology  of  unbelief,  that  any  who 
had  once  intelligently  comprehended  and  avowed  their  faith  in  this 
series  of  symbolic  testimonies,  should  ever  have  passed  over  and 
downward,  as  English  Presbyterianism  did  so  largely  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  into  an  unevangelic  and  profitless  humanitarianism  ! 
The  first  element  in  the  confessional  doctrine  concerning  Christ 
is  his  eternal  existence  and  eternal  sonship.     The  eternity  of  God 

as  a  being  existing  before  all  time  or 

„  j    «  L  j       •  2.    Eternal   existence   as 

space,  all  matter,  and  all  created  exis-     ffic  Son  Qf  God.  m  pnrase> 

fences   or   objects,    has    already  been     oniy  begotten, 
noted    as   a   fundamental    premise   in 

Christian  theology.  The  eternal  existence  of  God  as  triune,  a 
peculiar  mode  of  being  which  is  internal  and  everlasting  as  well  as 
external, — exhibited  especially  in  its  relations  to  our  salvation, — 
has  also  been  noted,  and  on  biblical  grounds  justified,  so  far  as  it  is 
possible  for  the  human  mind  to  conceive  of  such  a  profound  pecu- 
liarity. Both  the  helpfulness  and  the  limitation  and  inadequacy 
of  the  term,  Person,  to  describe  such  a  threefold  mode  or  form  of 
existence,  have  also  been  sufficiently  considered.  It  follows  now 
from  what  has  thus  been  presented,  not  merely  that  Christ  existed 
in  his  divine  personality  before  his  incarnation,  but  also  that  there 
was  no  beginning  to  his  existence, — that  as  the  second  Person  in 
the  Godhead  his  life  before  all  time  was  as  limitless  in  duration  as 
that  of  the  Father,  and  that  all  that  can  be  affirmed  or  conceived 
respecting  the  eternity  of  God  the  Father,  is  also  to  be  conceived 
and  affirmed  respecting  him.  Thus  the  Confession  describes  him 
as  being  very  and  eternal  God  and  equal  with  the  Father,  and  living 
in  ineffable  oneness  with  God  the  Father  from  all  eternity.  It  also 
represents  the  Son  as  engaged  together  with  the  Father  and  with 
the  Spirit  in  the  primal  work  of  creation,  at  the  very  beginning 
of  time.  And  the  Larger  Catechism  (36-37)  teaches  that  in  the 
fullness  of  time  the  Son  became  man,  and  so  was  qualified  by  such 
assumption  of  humanity  to  become  our  Savior.  The  Shorter  Cat- 
echism (20-21)  contains  language  equally  explicit. 


306  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

The  terms,  begotten  and  only  begotten,  employed  in  the  Symbols, 
doubtless  because  of  their  use  in  a  few  instances  in  both  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testaments,  and  because  they  were  viewed  as  correl- 
ative to  the  more  frequent  and  more  intelligible  phrase,  Son  of 
God,  have  been  the  subject  of  earnest  discussion,  and  in  some  in- 
stances have  given  rise  to  positive  error.  When  we  are  taught 
(II:iii)  that  the  Father  is  of  none,  neither  begotten  nor  proceed- 
ing, while  the  Son  is  eternally  begotten  of  the  Father;  and  again 
that  it  is  proper,  or  peculiar,  to  the  Father  to  beget  the  Son,  and 
to  the  Son  to  be  begotten  of  the  Father,  and  that  this  process  is 
eternal  in  duration,  we  are  in  some  danger,  first,  of  inferring  with 
some  divines  of  the  last  century  that  the  Son  exists  only  by  the 
will  of  the  Father,  and  consequently  that,  should  the  Father  so 
choose,  the  Son  would  instantly  cease  to  be,  and  the  trinity  would 
no  longer  be  a  fact  in  the  divine  constitution.  We  are  in  danger 
of  inferring,  secondly,  with  ancient  Arianism,  that,  since  the  Son 
exists  by  the  will  of  the  begetting  Father,  there  must  have  been 
a  time  in  the  eternal  past  when  this  process  began,  and  when  the 
Son  consequently  began  to  be, — a  conclusion  which  would  war- 
rant the  inference  that  he  was  not  truly  and  absolutely  the  Son  of 
God,  but  rather,  as  Arius  held,  the  first-born  of  every  creature. 
It  has  also  been  inferred  in  other  circles  that  these  phrases  imply, 
if  not  derivation,  at  least  such  a  measure  of  subordination,  that 
the  Son  can  do  only  what  the  Father  wills,  and  is  in  that  sense 
and  degree  inferior — consequently  divine,  but  not  complete  deity. 
It  is  obvious  at  a  glance  that  all  such  interpretations  are  to  be 
carefully  excluded:  begetting  and  begotten,  whatever  the  terms 
signify,  are  not  processes  which  justify  these  or  any  kindred  con- 
clusions. The  language  does  not  imply  either  a  creation  of  the 
Son  by  the  Father,  or  a  beginning  of  existence  in  some  past  era 
of  eternity,  or  any  inferiority  of  nature  or  endowment,  or  any 
species  of  dependence  that  would  be  inconsistent  with  full  and 
absolute  deity.  An  illustration  drawn  as  this  is  from  the  narrow 
realm  of  human  experience,  and  one  in  its  own  nature  so  incon- 
ceivable, is  always  in  danger  of  being  pressed  beyond  its  legiti- 
mate boundaries.  It  should  indeed  never  be  forgotten,  that 
whatever  is  expressed  concerning  the  triune  God  in  the  terms 
of  humanity  or  of  nature,  either  at  this  point  or  elsewhere,  must 
fall  immeasurably  short  of  describing  the  sublime  reality. 

The  confessional  statement  that  the  Son  is  the  same  in  sub- 
stance with  the  Father,  and  equal  in  power  and  glory  and  in  every 
attribute  of  his  being,  contains  all  that  we  can  know  on  this 
recondite  theme.      Accepting  the  statement  as  final,  we  may  still 


THE    ETERNAL   SON   OF   GOD.  307 

inquire  whether  the  name  given  him  indicates  an  immanent  and 
eternal  relationship,  or  only  a  relation  assumed  in  time,  and  in  the 
interest  of  redemption; — in  other  words,  whether  the  second  per- 
son in  the  blessed  Trinity,  existing  from  eternity,  was  alwaj's  a 
So?i,  or  became  a  Son  only  in  and  through  his  incarnation  and  his 
Messiahship.  The  Symbols  follow  the  general  trend  of  Scripture 
in  speaking  of  Christ  as  eternally  a  Son,  and  the  general  argument 
for  an  internal  and  eternal  Trinity  seems  to  involve  or  include 
such  eternal  sonship.  If  the  conception  be  not  pushed  too  far  in 
the  direction  just  indicated,  it  is  safer  to  rest  in  it  than  to  expose 
our  faith  in  the  full  deity  of  the  Son  to  any  errors  that  might 
spring  from  the  dogma  of  a  merely  temporary  sonship.  Still, 
inasmuch  as  the  procession  of  the  Spirit  from  the  Father,  or  from 
both  Father  and  Son,  is  to  our  apprehension  a  procession  in  time, 
a  procession  planned  indeed  from  all  eternity  but  becoming  a  fact 
only  in  time  and  in  conjunction  with  the  great  work  of  human 
salvation,  we  shall  not  be  seriously  astray  if  with  all  proper  pre- 
caution we  think  of  the  sonship  also  as  chiefly  an  event  of  time, — 
an  event  eternally  contemplated,  and  thus  eternally  existent  in 
the  divine  Mind,  but  becoming  real  and  glorious  in  and  through 
the  historic  incarnation. 

The  grand  fact  to  be  noted  here  is  the  existence  of  Christ  as  the 
Son  of  God  before  that  incarnation — his  pre-existence,  not  as  a 
creature,  but  as  divine  from  all  eternity.  It  was  proper  for  him  to 
say  that  he  existed  before  Abraham,  and  by  implication  before  all 
the  patriarchs,  even  Noah  or  Adam,  not  as  a  prophecy  or  a  promise 
merely,  but  as  a  real  person  also.  The  beloved  John  justly 
declares  that  he  was  in  the  beginning  with  God  and  was  God,  and 
that  all  things  were  made  by  or  through  him  as  their  instrumental 
cause.  What  proportion  of  the  theophanies  recorded  in  the  Pen- 
tateuch and  elsewhere  were  his  antetypal  revelations  of  himself, 
we  are  not  able  absolutely  to  determine.  That  some,  if  not  man}', 
were  actual  though  transient  utterances  of  the  eternal  L,ogos, 
given  by  way  of  preparation  for  the  more  durable  incarnation  that 
was  to  follow,  we  are  led  by  distinct  biblical  evidence  to  believe. 
The  messianic  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  shekinah  and 
cherubim  and  other  preternatural  manifestations  in  connection 
with  the  Mosaic  economy,  disclose  to  us  not  merely  a  Savior  that 
was  to  be,  but  a  Savior  who  truly  was  before  Abraham,  before 
Noah,  before  Adam,  and  who  even  during  the  tragedy  of  the  fall 
revealed  himself  as  that  seed  of  the  woman  who  should  in  time 
bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent.  The  prophetic  order  also,  with 
its  remarkable  characteristics  and  career,  may  properly  be  regarded 


308  CHRIST    THE    MEDIATOR. 

as  so  many  voices  in  the  wilderness,  certifying  to  the  existence  in 
its  time  of  One  who  wras  from  the  days  of  Moses  its  appointed 
head  and  crown — an  ever  present  Prophet  during  that  preparatory- 
dispensation.  What  we  are  taught  in  regard  to  the  decrees  of 
God  as  before  all  time,  and  to  the  special  decree  of  salvation  as 
determined  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  clearly  imply  that 
there  was  also  an  eternal  Savior,  existing  not  merely  as  a  purpose, 
but  as  a  fact  as  old  as  these  decrees.  On  such  grounds  it  may  safely 
be  affirmed  that  the  incarnation  of  that  Savior,  although  it  was 
the  chronologic  beginning  of  his  kenosisor  humiliation,  was  only 
the  more  visible  and  permanent  manifestation  of  a  process  which 
began  its  sacred  evolution  in  eternity.  Such  is  the  clear  teaching 
of  Scripture  and  of  Christian  symbolism  universally,  respecting 
the  Son  as  pre-incarnate:  and  on  this  impregnable  rock  all  merely 
humanitarian  views  of  him  must  be  dashed  into  fragments. 

Turning  therefore  to  the  incarnation,  we  are  brought  at  once  face 
to  face  with  certain   questions   of  inconceivable  moment.     The 

3.  The  Incarnation:  its  Symbols  teach  unequivocally  (S.  C. 
necessity  and  nature.  21-2)    that  this  eternal  Son  of    God 

became  man,  and  that  he  became  man 
by  taking  to  himself  a  true  body  and  a  reasonab/e  soul;  and  also  (L,. 
C.  36)  that  this  was  done  in  the  fullness  of  time,  or  in  accordance 
with  an  everlasting  purpose  and  provision.  And  the  Confession 
(Ch.  VIII :  ii)  expands  the  statement  by  saying  that  the  Son  took 
tipon  him  man 's  nature \  with  all  the  essential  properties  and  common 
infirmities  thereof,  yet  without  sin.  The  fact  thus  stated  is  in 
some  sense  ineffable.  There  were  doubtless  interior  reasons  in 
the  mind  of  the  triune  Deity  Justifying  and  requiring  such  an  incar- 
nation, which  we  are  in  no  degree  competent  to  fathom  or  conceive: 
here  as  at  so  many  other  points,  God  is  his  own  interpreter.  That 
a  sufficient  and  even  imperative  necessity  really  existed,  though 
such  necessity  were  altogether  unknown  to  us,  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  of  an  incarnation  historically  realized.  It  has  been 
held  by  some  that  such  is  the  relation  between  the  infinite  and  the 
finite,  that  the  finite  can  attain  practical  cognizance  of  the  infinite 
only  as  God  may  condescend  to  take  on  him  the  forms  and  appear 
under  the  limitations  of  the  finite.  On  this  theory  it  is  supposed 
that  there  may  be  incarnations  in  other  worlds,  suited  to  the 
spiritual  need  of  angels  and  archangels,  or  of  other  orders  of 
moral  intelligences  differentiated  in  endowment  and  condition  from 
man.  By  others  it  is  suggested  that  the  necessity  for  a  divine 
incarnation  lies  specifically  in  what  man  is,  as  a  being  composed  of 
soul  and  body,  and  thus  capable  of  comprehending  divine  realities 


HIS    INCARNATION.  809 

only  as  these  are  cast  into  human  form  and  aspect.  But  the 
Scriptures,  so  far  as  they  explain  the  incarnation,  find  the  expla- 
nation rather  in  what  man  is,  not  as  man,  but  as  a  sinner, — the 
ultimate  ground  and  need  in  the  case  lying  specifically  in  human 
sinfulness  and  helplessness,  and  in  the  divine  purpose  of  deliver- 
ance. Incarnation  and  salvation  are  on  this  view  correlated 
terms — the  first  being  an  introductory  and  essential  element  in 
the  great  redemptive  act  expressed  in  the  second:  Smith,  H.  B., 
Syst.  Theol. 

Those  who  refuse  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  true  and  proper 
divinity  of  Christ  as  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  are  constrained  to 
affirm  that  no  incarnation  of  Deity  is  necessary  to  the  spiritual 
renovation  or  development  of  man, — in  other  words,  that  God  is 
abundantly  able  through  natural  appliances  and  motives  to  secure 
this  great  end  without  himself  assuming  human  form  or  becom- 
ing a  man — to  use  the  Nicene  phrase — for  us  men  and  for  our  salva- 
tion. But  a  deeper  and  more  accurate  view  of  human  nature  as 
sinful,  and  of  mankind  as  both  corrupt  and  condemned  before  God, 
leads  spontaneously  to  the  opposite  conclusion.  Calvin  suggests, 
(Inst.  B  11:12)  that  even  if  man  had  remained  immaculately  inno- 
cent, some  incarnation  might  have  been  needful  to  bring  him  into 
full  communication  with  God,  but  affirms  that  as  sinful,  man 
could  not  dare  to  approach  God  excepting  through  an  incarnated 
mediator  such  as  Christ.  Whatever  may  be  said  as  to  any  meta- 
physical or  speculative  necessity  existing  on  the  side  of  either 
God  or  man,  there  can  be  no  adequate  reason  for  challenging  the 
moral  or  spiritual  necessity  in  the  case  which  grows  out  of  what 
man  is  as  a  sinner,  blinded,  corrupt,  helpless  before  God.  At  this 
practical  point  Christian  symbolism,  Roman  and  Greek  as  well  as 
Protestant,  is  absolutely  unified. 

The  Confession  (Ch.  VIII)  simply  declares  that  it  pleased  God 
that  such  an  incarnate  Mediator  should  be  provided;  and  then 
points  to  the  reason  contained  in  the  fact  that  no  other  than  an 
incarnate  Mediator,  divine  first  and  then  human,  could  be  ade- 
quate to  accomplish  the  great  end  in  view,  namely  human  salva- 
tion. The  L,arger  Catechism  at  this  point  as  at  many  others  is 
more  explicit  than  the  Confession,  giving  a  series  of  reasons  (38) 
why  it  was  requisite  that  the  Mediator  should  be  God;  then  (39) 
further  reasons  why  he  should  be  man;  and  finally  (40)  still 
further  reasons  why  he  should  be  both  God  and  man  in  one  per- 
son. We  can  readily  see  how  such  an  assumption  of  humanity 
was  needful  in  order  to  bring  God  practically  within  the  range  of 
human  thought,  and  especially  to  express  divine  grace  in  such  forms 


310  CHRIsT   THE    MEDIATOR. 

as  man  in  his  sin  could  apprehend  and  appreciate.  It  was  only  in 
this  way  that  God  could  adequately  set  forth  his  abhorrence  of 
sin,  and  at  the  same  time  his  gracious  desire  to  save  the  sinner;  it 
was  only  in  this  way  that  the  heart  of  man  could  be  reached,  and 
the  race  tender^  drawn  back  to  duty  and  to  God.  In  no  other 
way  could  access  to  God  and  filial  communion  with  him  be  as- 
sured, and  in  no  other  way  could  man  learn  so  well  what  moral 
perfection  is,  and  how  it  may  be  gained.  The  more  we  meditate 
upon  it,  the  more  necessary  on  many  sides  such  an  incarnate 
mediation  appears,  and  the  more  sublime  becomes  the  apostolic 
declaration  that  He  who  was  with  God  and  was  God,  became  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us,  that  we  might  in  him  behold  the  glory  of 
the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth. 

There  is  a  certain  presumption  in  favor  of  the  incarnation  in  the 
fact  that  conceptions  of  such  a  descent  of  deity  into  the  sphere  of 
humanity  for  beneficent  purposes,  have  been  held,  often  in  grotesque 
and  sensuous  forms,  throughout  the  pagan  world.  Such  concep- 
tions have  revealed  themselves  so  often  in  the  great  natural  faiths, 
oriental  and  classic,  and  in  the  writings  of  the  wisest  and  best 
representatives  of  heathenism,  as  to  justify  the  inference  that 
there  is  in  human  nature  itself,  not  only  a  deeply  seated  sense  of 
need,  but  a  half  conscious  anticipation  of  some  such  bright  possi- 
bility. But  Christianity  alone  responds  conclusively  to  this  uni- 
versal desire.  The  fact  of  such  an  incarnation  is  adequately 
certified  only  in  the  Bible.  On  the  earthly  side  of  it,  the  birth 
of  Jesus  Christ,  as  recorded  by  the  four  evangelists  and  as  af- 
firmed by  the  early  Church,  seems  as  capable  of  verification  as  the 
birth  of  any  other  person  in  ancient  times.  Even  secular  history, 
and  the  writings  of  those  who  opposed  him  and  his  Gospel,  con- 
firm our  belief  in  the  authenticity  of  the  records  concerning  his 
actual  entry  on  our  earthly  life.  Neither  is  there  just  ground  for 
questioning  the  truthfulness  of  the  evangelic  statements  respect- 
ing the  supernatural  accompaniments  of  his  birth,  such  as  the 
star  in  the  east  and  the  songs  of  the  angels,  since  to  one  who 
believes  in  a  personal  Deity,  complete  in  every  attribute  and  sov- 
ereign over  the  universe  which  he  has  made — in  such  a  personal 
Deity,  animated  by  a  holy  and  gracious  purpose  to  save  our  fallen 
race,  and  ready  to  manifest  that  purpose  even  by  an  incarnation 
of  himself  in  human  form  and  nature,  these  preternatural  manifes- 
tations must  seem  not  only  possible  in  themselves,  but  concomi- 
tants to  be  expected  and  looked  for,  as  sure  witnesses  to  the  great 
process  to  which  they  are  summoned  to  certify.  Such  manifesta- 
tions in  the  field  of  nature  and  of  human  experience  are  certainly 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    INCARNATION.  311 

admissible  in  connection  with  such  a  transaction,  if  indeed  they  are 

not  indispensable  to  its  proper  completeness.     Like  miracle  and 

pjophecy,  they  are  true  witnesses  divinely  chosen  to  testify  to  the 

world  that  an  Immanuel  has  come  to  dwell  among  men. 

The  question  whether  God  ever  reveals  or  can  reveal  himself  to 

mankind  by  processes  above  nature, — whether  that  doctrine  of  the 

supernatural  on  which  Christianity  is 

.      ,  ^  1,     ,        t    1  i        4.    Significance  of  the  in- 

fundamentally  based,  has  any  rational     carnation.  the  Kenosis> 

warrant,  reaches  its  culmination  in  the 

problem  of  the  incarnated  Son  of  God.  If  it  could  be  shown  that  God 
cannot  avail  himself  of  such  supernatural  modes  of  communicat- 
ing truth,  or  that  any  such  communication  if  given  cannot  be  his- 
torically verified,  not  only  our  faith  in  Christ  as  a  person,  but  our 
confidence  in  the  Christian  system  throughout,  would  be  fatally 
impaired.  If  on  the  other  hand,  the  fact  of  the  incarnation  can 
be  not  only  shown  to  be  possible,  but  established  on  reasona- 
ble grounds,  then  the  doors  of  the  supernatural  are  thrown  open, 
and  God  is  indeed  with  us  in  all  the  forms  and  measures  needful 
to  our  complete  restoration  to  himself.  The  truth  of  the  incar- 
nation, like  the  truth  of  the  resurrection,  becomes  in  this  aspect 
the  verifying  sign  and  assurance  of  every  other  truth  that  is  pe- 
culiar to  Christianity  as  a  supernatural  faith.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  the  incarnation  were  an  illusion,  as  unbelief  in  so  many  forms 
has  alleged,  Christianity  with  all  it  contains  would  be  but  a  vision 
of  the  night. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that'in  the  acceptance  of  this  cardinal 
doctrine,  the  various  branches  of  evangelical  Protestantism  not 
only  agree  together,  but  are  in  substantial  harmony  with  both  the 
Roman  Catholic  and  the  Greek  communion.  The  earliest  of  the 
Christian  creeds,  with  its  affirmation  concerning  the  Father, 
Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  concerning  Jesus  Christ,  his  only 
Son,  our  Lord,  who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  born  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  embodies  the  common  confession  of  all  believ- 
ers, except  the  relatively  small  humanitarian  bodies.  The  Canons 
of  Trent  and  the  Vatican  Decrees  presuppose  throughout  the 
eternal  existence  of  him  whom  one  of  them  describes  as  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  and  Redeemer  of  Mankind.  So  the 
Orthodox  Confession  of  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Oriental 
Church,  drafted  and  published  while  the  Westminster  Assembly 
was  in  session,  speaks  of  Christ  (Quest.  9)  as  Filium  a  Patre  ante 
secula  genitum,  illique  consubstantialem;  and  again  (Quest.  38) 
repeats  and  explains  the  article  in  the  Nicene  Creed, — who  for 
us  men  and  for  our  salvation  descended,  became  incarnate,  and 


312  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

was  made  a  man.  Luther  and  his  followers  were  unvarying  in 
their  loyalty  to  this  as  a  truth  fundamental  in  the  Christian  reli- 
gion; and  Calvin,  in  the  presence  of  the  Genevan  Socinianism,  was 
even  more  emphatic  in  the  same  belief.  The  French  Confession, 
prepared  under  his  influence,  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  all:  We 
believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  being  the  wisdom  of  God  and  his 
eternal  Son,  has  put  on  our  flesh  so  as  to  be  God  and  man  in  one 
person, — man  like  unto  us,  capable  of  suffering  in  body  and  soul, 
yet  free  from  the  taint  of  sin. 

But  while  the  fact  of  the  incarnation  was  thus  viewed  as  fun- 
damental,—  while  the  entire  structure  of  Protestant  theology 
whether  Calvinistic  or  Lutheran  was  reared  on  this  as  an  essential 
and  impregnable  foundation,  it  was  natural  that  maity  speculative 
questions  should  arise  in  regard  to  this  mysterious  transaction. 
Thus,  when  we  are  taught  in  Scripture  that  our  Lord,  being  in 
the  form  of  God  and  counting  it  no  prize  to  be  on  an  equality  with 
God,  emptied  himself  in  order  that  he  might  assume  the  form 
and  likeness  of  men,  what  was  this  emptying  of  himself,  this 
kenosis,  in  which  his  estate  of  humiliation  began  ?  The  biblical 
phrase  evidently  describes  a  process  which  stands  chronologically 
back  of  the  historic  incarnation  itself,  and  is  its  necessary  ground 
and  condition:  what  was  this  process?  Did  it  involve  an  actual 
depotentiation  or  renunciation,  such  that  the  incarnate  Son  no 
longer  possessed  the  attributes  of  Deity  ?  Did  he  become  a  man 
in  any  such  sense  or  measure  as  to  lose  for  the  time  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  true  and  proper  divinity  ?  Did  he  cease  to  be  very  God 
of  very  God,  in  taking  on  himself  the  aspect  and  the  conditions 
•  of  our  humanity  ?  Was  the  abnegation  such  that  he  lost  in  fact 
any  quality  or  constituent,  that  belonged  to  him  essentially  in  that 
eternity  from  which  he  came  and  dwelt  among  us  in  order  that  we 
might  behold  his  glory  ?  There  is  great  danger  that  such  specu- 
lative questions  may  be  pushed  too  far, — especially  at  the  point 
where  they  tend  to  impair  on  one  side  or  another  our  sense  of  the 
perfect  mediatorship.  A  mysterious  submission  of  the  Son  to  the 
will  of  the  Father,  a  certain  subordination  in  position  and  choice 
and  act,  seems  to  be  involved  in  the  very  idea  of  mediation,  and 
also  to  be  of  necessity  consequent  on  his  surrendery  to  the  limita- 
tions of  our  nature  and  of  our  narrow  life.  In  some  of  his  words 
and  experiences  there  appears  also  what  we  are  constrained  to 
interpret  as  a  partial  or  occasional  suspension,  in  the  exercise  of 
those  attributes  and  perfections  which  belonged  to  him  as  divine. 
But  assuredly  we  are  not  permitted  to  suppose  that  he  gave  up  such 
divine  attributes,  or  surrendered  any  of  his  divine  perfections, 


TWO    NATURES    IN    ONE    PERSON.  313 

or  was  any  less  or  any  other  than  God  during  his  Messiahship. 
Our  Lord  could  not  have   laid   aside   anything   that   belonged 
inherently  to  his  divine  personality,  or  dispossessed  himself  of  any 
essential  quality  in  his  divine  nature,  or  carried  his  abnegation  of 
himself  to  such  extent  as  to  lose  his  conscious  grasp  upon  his  true 
and  proper  divinity.     We  certainly  have  no  right  to  extend  so  far 
our  analysis  of  his  constitutional  peculiarities,  as  a  being  at  once 
divine  and  human,  as  to  warrant  any  such  conclusions  as  these. 
Dorner   (Hist.    Prot.   Theol.)  declares  it  a  heathenish  error,   a 
blasphemia,  to  say  that  the  L,ogos  himself  was  emptied,  or  that 
Jesus  had  even  according  to  his  divinity  laid  aside  his  power  and 
majesty,  in  order  to  receive  them  again  in  the  estate  of  exaltation. 
Strange  indeed  and  on  many  sides  inexplicable  was  the  contrast 
between  what  he  was  eternally,  and  what  he  became  when  for  our 
salvation  he  took  upon  himself  our  nature  and  became  a  man. 
Yet  this  marvelous  kenosis  which  historically  began  in  Bethlehem, 
but  was  continuous  throughout  his  career,  and  ended  only  on 
Calvary  and  in  the  tomb  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  is  with  all  its 
sacred  mystery  one  of  the  fundamental  truths  in  our  holy  faith — 
a  truth  back  of  the  incarnation  and  all  that  follows  in  the  earthly 
life,  yet  illustrated  throughout  that  life,  even  down  to  its  tragic 
close.     That  Christian  theology  of  all  schools  and  names  should 
agree  in  emphasizing  this  cardinal  though  mysterious  fact,  how- 
ever various  or  even  discordant  in  their  measurements  and  expla- 
nations of  it,  is  not  surprising  to  any  thoughtful  student  of  the 
Book  wherein  it  is  so  emphatically  and  continuously  affirmed. 

Taking  up  now  the  confessional  statements  respecting  the  two 
natures  in  the  one  person  of  the  Immanuel,  we  enter  at  once  upon 
grave   perplexities.     The   statement   of 

the  Confession   (VIII  :  ii)   is  the   most        5-    Two  natures  and  one 
elaborate  to  be  found  in  Protestant  sym-     Imma  '  e, 
bolism.     It  has  been  questioned  whether 

it  is  not  too  elaborate,  too  highly  specialized,  for  practical  service 
in  a  general  creed.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  the  Westmin- 
ster divines  did  not  care  to  use  all  the  abstract  and  cumulative 
language  of  the  Athanasian  or  even  the  Nicene  symbol  in  such 
description.  They  seem  to  have  preferred  the  calmer  and  more 
philosophic  statement  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon;  and  some  of 
the  phrases  employed,  as  we  shall  see,  are  simply  translations  of 
the  terminology  of  that  ancient  formula.  The  Reformation  creeds, 
while  agreed  in  the  distinct  enunciation  of  the  doctrine,  var y 
widely  in  the  extent  of  their  analysis  and  exposition.  Some 
follow  the  Catechism  of   IyUther  in  the  simple  affirmation  that 


314  CHRIST    THE    MEDIATOR. 

Christ  was  true  God,  begotten  of  the  Father  from  eternity,  and 
also  true  man,  born  of  the  virgin  Mary.  The  Formula  of  Concord 
not  only  declares  (Art.  Ill),  Christ  to  be  true  God  and  true  man, 
but  adds  the  explanation  that  in  him  the  divine  and  human  natures 
are  personally  (personaliter)  united.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism 
(35)  affirms  that  Christ  was  and  continues  to  be  the  eternal  Son 
of  God,  but  took  upon  him  the  very  nature  of  man,  of  the  flesh 
and  blood  of  the  virgin  Mary  ...  so  that  he  might  also  be  the 
true  seed  of  David.  Similar  explanations  occur  in  the  First 
Helvetic,  the  French,  the  Belgic  and  the  Scotch  Confessions,  while 
in  the  Second  Helvetic  we  find  an  entire  chapter  concerning  Christ, 
Vero  Deo  et  Homine,  with  a  specific  condemnation  of  the  various 
heresies,  all  and  singular,  which  up  to  that  time  had  been  broached 
on  this  subject  within  the  Christian  Church. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  the  union  of  the  divine  and  the 
human  in  the  incarnation  is,  and  must  forever  remain,  in  some 
aspects  an  ineffable  mystery.  The  term,  nature,  as  here  employed 
indicates  on  the  one  side  that  which  is  substantial  or  constitutional 
in  God  as  the  absolute  Spirit, — that  which  makes  him  essentially 
what  he  is,  as  differentiated  from  any  of  his  creatures.  As  ap- 
plied to  man,  the  term  must  retain  the  same  or  very  similar  mean- 
ing,— that  which  is  essential  or  inherent  in  man  as  a  being,  and 
which  differentiates  him  from  other  orders  of  existence.  And  if 
we  speak  of  two  natures,  the  divine  and  the  human,  as  combined  or 
blended  in  Christ,  we  must  hold,  not  with  ancient  Eutychianism 
that  the  human  nature  is  simply  absorbed  or  lost  in  the  divine  as 
a  drop  of  water  in  the  ocean,  nor  with  some  recent  kenotists  that 
the  divine  nature  loses  itself,  suffers  occultation,  becomes  alto- 
gether limited  and  finite,  in  virtue  of  its  blending  with  the  human; 
but  rather  that  the  two  natures  are  in  someway  so  conjoined  and 
unified  as  to  become  the  unique  and  single  basis  for  the  one  pecu- 
liar Personality.  The  Confession  emphasizes  the  presence  of  the 
human  nature  in  the  strong  phrase,  with  all  the  esse?itial properties 
and  common  infirmities  (or  finite  limitations)  thereof,  yet  without 
sin.  But  it  gives  no  countenance  to  the  opinion  that  by  its  union 
with  such  human  nature  the  divine  nature,  inherent  eternally  in 
Christ  and  constituting  him  what  he  was  as  the  very  Son  of  God, 
was  in  any  way  impaired,  depotentiated,  lost.  Rather  is  it  true 
that,  while  the  divine  condescends  to  be  blended  with  the  human, 
and  to  share  in  its  essential  properties  and  limitations,  the  human 
is  also  lifted  up,  glorified,  endowed  with  more  than  its  normal  en- 
ergy and  completeness,  in  virtue  of  that  union.  The  man  Christ 
Jesus  was  certainly  more  and  loftier  than  any  mortal  man.     As 


MYSTERY   OF    HIS    PERSON.  315 

Hooker  says,  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  consisteth  merely 
in  the  union  of  natures,  which  union  doth  add  perfection  to  the 
weaker,  but  to  the  nobler  no  alteration  at  all. 

The  Council  of  Chalcedon  had  gone  to  the  outer  verge  of  both 
thought  and  language  in  the  affirmation  that  the  two  natures  are 
to  be  recognized  and  acknowledged  as  existing  in  Christ  inconfus- 
edly, unchangeably, indivisibly  and  inseparably, — the  distinction  of 
natures  being  by  no  means  taken  away  or  obliterated  by  the  union, 
but  rather  the  properties  of  each  nature  being  fully  preserved  and 
manifested  within  the  one  personality.  And  the  Westminster 
divines  followed  this  ancient  symbol  almost  literally  in  their 
description,  (VIII  :ii)  of  two  whole,  perfect  and  distinct  natzires,  the 
Godhead  and  the  manhood,  inseparably  joined  together  in  one 
person,  without  conversion,  composition  or  confusion.  They  thus 
guarded,  so  far  as  human  language  could  guard,  against  certain 
errors  which  have  existed  in  the  church  from  the  age  of  Chalce- 
don until  now, — errors  affirming  the  too  wide  separation  of  the 
two  natures  on  one  side,  or  the  obliteration  or  ignoring  of  either 
nature  on  the  other.  May  it  not  be  that  in  this  attempt  to  go  farther 
than  any  preceding  Confession  of  Protestantism  had  done,  and 
to  supply  a  complete  definition  and  analysis,  they  fell  into  the  mis- 
take of  supposing  it  possible  for  the  mind  of  man  to  solve  the 
mystery,  not  merely  of  the  incarnation  itself  as  a  gracious  fact, 
but  also  of  the  mode  in  which  the  Son  of  God  for  our  salvation 
became  man,  and  took  upon  him  the  essential  qualities  of  human- 
ity in  the  person  of  the  Immanuel  ? 

That  mystery  comes  back  upon  us  at  once  with  even  greater 
force  whenever  we  attempt  to  define  the  other  crucial  term., person. 
For  it  was  not  simply  a  divine  nature  assuming  a  human  nature, 
but  a  divine  Person  who  descended  and  dwelt  among  us,  assuming 
in  the  language  of  the  Catechisms  not  only  a  true  body  but  also  a 
reasonable  soul.  It  was  not  the  body  only,  but  also  the  reasona- 
ble or  thinking  and  conscious  soul  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  which  the 
second  person  in  the  Holy  Trinity  thus  inhabited.  The  divine 
intellect  resided  and  expressed  itself  in  and  through  the  human 
intellect;  the  divine  sensibility  flowed  in  and  through  the  human 
sensibility;  the  divine  will  acted  in  and  through  the  human  will, 
as  truly  and  really  as  the  divine  essence  incarnated  itself  in  the 
physical  organism  of  our  L,ord.  Yet  this  combination  was  not,  as 
ancient  Nestorianism  regarded  it,  a  moral  union  merely, — two 
persons,  the  one  divine  and  the  other  human,  agreeing  to  dwell 
together  in  holy  concord,  and  to  act  together  in  all  that  concerns 
salvation.     We  have  here,  in  other  words,  more  than  a  God  and  a 


316  CHRIST   THK    MEDIATOR. 

man  in  blessed  companionship,  each  moving  in  his  own  sphere  and 
measure  independent!}',  but  both  conjoined  in  complete  harmony  in 
the  common  task  of  human  salvation.  The  divine  person  did  not 
take  to  himself  an  individual  human  person  simply,  but  that  na- 
ture which  belongs  alike  to  all  human  persons:  the  opposite  view 
involves  inevitably  a  dual  personality  which  would  be  neither  divine 
nor  human. 

Nor  can  we  accept  the  singular  notion  so  long  sporadically 
present  in  the  mediaeval  church,  that  Christ  was  simply  a  Films 
Adoptiznis,  a  man  chosen  or  adopted  to  be  the  medium  of  the  divine 
manifestation,  and  endowed  to  this  end  with  preternatural  and 
even  divine  powers  and  prerogatives, — a  certain  form  of  sonship 
included.  The  conception  of  a  man  thus  endued  with  divine  ca- 
pacities and  prerogatives,  and  in  this  way  elevated  into  vital  union 
with  God,  is  radically  antagonistic  to  the  biblical  view  of  the  Son 
of  God  as  robing  himself  in  human  nature  and,  in  the  phrase  of 
the  Confession,  becoming  man.  Nor  was  this  union  such  that  we 
may  properly  attribute  to  Christ  two  intellects,  or  two  wills,  or 
two  separate  consciousnesses,  or  on  the  Zwinglian  theory  of 
allczosis  divide  his  acts  into  two  antithetic  classes,  or  assign  them 
exclusively  to  either  of  his  natures  as  separate.  Against  that  the- 
ory the  Confession  seeks  to  guard  us  in  the  statement  (VIII :  vii) 
that  in  the  work  of  mediation  Christ  acteth  according  to  both  na- 
tures, each  nature  doing  in  each  act  what  is  proper  to  itself;  and 
in  the  further  statement  that  by  reason  of  the  unity  of  the 
one  person,  that  which  is  proper  to  one  nature  is  sometimes 
in  vScripture  attributed  to  the  person  denominated  by  the  other 
nature.  While  this  statement  is  perhaps  not  all  that  might 
be  desired,  it  is  sufficient  to  protect  our  minds  against  any 
such  analysis  of  the  acts  of  Christ  as  might  suggest  the  error 
of  a  double  personality  as  resident  in  him.  The  mysterious  yet 
sublime  fact  is  that  the  divine  Person  condescended  to  put  him- 
self under  the  limitations,  not  merely  of  an  actual  body,  but  of  a 
reasonable  soul  also,  so  that  we  see  in  all  his  acts  as  our  Mediator 
not  man  only  or  mainly,  but  God  with  us,  Immanuel.  Nor  can 
any  inferences  be  wisely  drawn  from  his  eating  or  sleeping,  his  ap- 
parent increase  in  wisdom,  his  supposed  limitations  of  knowledge 
respecting  the  future,  or  even  his  agony  in  Gethsemane  or  his  out- 
cry on  the  Cross,  which  would  lead  us  to  lose  our  belief  that  he 
was  at  each  and  ever}'  moment  of  his  life  conscious  of  the 
supreme  truth  that  he  was  indeed  the  Son  of  God,  as  well  as  our 
one  and  only  Mediator.  To  this  conception  of  one  Person,  and  that 
Person  truly  divine,  inhabiting  our  human  nature  physical  and 


ERRORS    TO    BR    AVOIDED.  ?,\7 

spiritual,  and  revealing  himself  alike  in  both,  we  must  ever  cling 

as  a  truth  cardinal  in  the  Christian  system. 

Protestant  symbolism  defined  its  own  position  on  this  cardinal 

doctrine  very  largely  by  its  condemnation  of  this  or  that  specific 

error  respecting  the  nature  or  the  per- 

r  ,,     T  i    /m.    t*        1  6.    Error  on  either  side  to 

son  of  the  Immanuel.  The  French  Con-     .  ...     _  ,,      . 

be  avoided :  Composite  view 

fession   unites  with  Calvin  himself  in     essential, 
saying :    We   detest   all    the    heresies 

that  have  of  old  troubled  the  church,  and  especially  the  diabolical 
conceits  of  Servetus  which  attribute  a  fantastical  divinity  to 
the  Lord  Jesus.  The  Scotch  Confession,  after  describing  our 
Lord  as  the  seed  of  David,  the  Angel  of  the  great  counsel  of  God, 
the  very  Messias  promised,  whom  w7e  confess  and  acknowledge 
Emmanuel,  adds:  Be  quilk  our  Confessioun  we  condemne  the 
damnable  and  pestilent  heresies  of  Arius,  Marcion,  Eutyches, 
Nestorius,  and  sik  uthers  as  either  did  denie  the  eternitie  of  his 
God-head,  or  the  veritie  of  his  humaine  nature,  or  confounded 
them,  or  zit  divided  them.  And  the  Second  Belgic  Confession 
still  more  elaborately  declares:  We  abominate  the  impious  doc- 
trine of  Arius  and  the  Arians  against  the  Son  of  God,  and  espec- 
ially the  blasphemies  of  Michael  Servetus  and  all  his  disciples, 
which  Satan  through  them  has  as  it  were  drawn  from  hell,  and 
audaciously  and  impiously  scattered  through  the  earth:  We  abom- 
inate the  dogma  of  the  Nestorians  which  makes  two  persons  of 
the  one  Christ,  and  especially  execrate  the  insanity  (vesania)  of 
Eutyches  and  the  Monothelites  and  Monophysites,  which  wars 
against  his  true  and  proper  human  nature. 

The  Westminster  Symbols  indulge  in  no  such  damnatory  dec- 
larations, but  aim  by  express  terminology  and  careful  discrimina- 
tion to  rule  out  the  particular  heresies  which  the  earlier  Confessions 
had  so  emphatically  condemned.  These  heresies  are  easily  grouped 
into  three  classes; — the  first  setting  aside,  as  ancient  Monarchian- 
ism  and  certain  Gnostic  and  Docetic  schools  and  Apollinarianism 
also  did,  the  complete  human  element  in  Christ; — the  second 
rejecting  the  divine  element  in  its  proper  fullness,  as  Arius  and 
the  Sabellians  and  their  cognate  errorists  did; — the  third,  proposing 
some  superficial  and  inadequate  statement  as  to  the  combination 
of  these  two  elements  in  the  one  Person  with  his  twofold  nature, 
at  once  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man.  And  contemplating  these 
three  clusters  of  heresy  in  the  light  of  Scripture,  we  at  once 
discern  not  only  their  inadequacy  as  explanations  of  the  biblical 
teaching,  but  also  their  dangerous  quality  and  influence  when  used 
to  set  forth  the  wrork  as  well  as  the  person  of  our  Immanuel.     In 


318  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

that  blessed  light  it  seems  impossible  to  question,  with  modern 
Unitarianism,  whether  Christ  was  truly  God  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
and  no  less  impossible  to  question,  as  some  theorists  have  done, 
whether  he  was  an  actual,  not  an  apparitional  or  spectral  man, 
our  veritable  brother  and  thus  made  our  adequate  Redeemer. 
Nor  under  the  guidance  of  the  revealing  Word  can  we  find  rest 
in  the  conclusion  that  he  was  a  man  in  part  only,  having  body  and 
soul  but  no  human  spirit,  or  that  he  was  a  duplex  being,  a  divine 
person  and  a  human  person  acting  together  for  our  salvation,  yet 
in  an  interior  sense  separate  or  dependent.  In  the  light  of  the 
inspired  Scriptures  these  opinions  each  and  all  appear  not  only 
inadequate  and  partial,  but  erroneous  and  fraught  with  spiritual 
mischiefs. 

It  may  safely  be  admitted,  however,  that  we  have  here  an  illus- 
tration of  the  fact  that  it  is  often  much  easier  to  rule  out  an  error 
when  once  fairly  understood,  than  to  formulate  in  sufficient  exact- 
ness the  divine  truth  to  which  that  error  stands  opposed.  We 
may  protect  ourselves  against  spiritual  harm  by  the  elimination 
of  a  perceptible  heresy,  while  at  the  same  time  we  may  be  unable 
to  define  to  our  own  mental  satisfaction  the  antithetic  doctrine  to 
which  our  souls  are  earnestly  clinging.  We  have  also  here  a  very 
graphic  and  painful  illustration  of  the  fact  that  it  is  much  easier 
to  interpret  the  teaching  of  Scripture  on  such  recondite  themes  in 
a  fragmentary  way  rather  than  in  its  totality,  and  then  to  frame  a 
statement  based  on  certain  passages  or  sections  of  Holy  Writ, 
meanwhile  ignoring  other  sections  or  passages  whose  recognition 
is  no  less  indispensable  to  a  full  and  rounded  view  of  the  truth 
involved.  It  is  an  obvious  fact  that  nearly  every  heresy  which  has 
ever  risen  in  the  Church  respecting  the  person  of  our  Lord,  has 
sprung  from  some  biblical  expression, — as  that  of  Arius  sprang 
from  the  Pauline  phrase,  the  first-born  of  every  creature.  Our 
supreme  task  and  duty  therefore,  here  as  elsewhere,  is  to  gather 
up  the  entire  teaching  of  the  inspired  Word,  and  to  formulate  the 
truth,  if  at  all,  in  a  statement  or  canon  which  the  entire  Word  will 
justify.  No  other  course  is  consistent  with  true  loyalty  either  to 
Scripture  or  to  Him  who  gave  it  to  be  the  light  as  well  as  life  of 
men.  And  if  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Word,  or  in  the  use 
of  such  occult  terms  as  nature  and  person  to  describe  its  complete 
teaching  respecting  the  Immanuel,  we  find  ourselves  confronted 
at  some  points  with  impenetrable  mystery,  it  is  infinitely  better  to 
pause  and  bow  in  holy  reverence,  than  to  seek  relief  from  the 
pressure  of  that  mystery  by  framing  some  inadequate  and  innu- 
tritious  dogma  for  ourselves,  out  of  what  we  may  gather  from 


MEDIATION  :     NATURE    AND    NECESSITY.  319 

some  section  or  fragment  of  the  Bible.  It  surely  takes  away 
nothing  from  the  supreme  reasonableness  of  our  trust  in  Christ, 
or  from  our  joy  in  him  as  our  only  and  adorable  Savior,  if  we  do 
not  comprehend  him  in  all  the  interior  elements  and  the  organic 
composition  of  his  sacred  Person. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  study  of  the  Immanuel  in  his  blessed 
offices  as  Mediator,  as  this  chapter  (VIII)  describes  him,  it  will 

be  essential  to -consider  briefly  the  fun- 

,  ,i-i        r        1-  i.-      -i.    ir     tai  ?•    Mediation:   its  nature 

damental  idea  of  mediation  itself.     The  .  .. 

and  necessity. 

term  signifies  in  general  any  interven- 
tion between  parties  at  variance,  for  the  purpose  of  adjusting 
difficulty  or  effecting  reconciliation.  This  intervention  is  always 
a  personal  act  in  one  form  or  another,  though  varying  widely  in 
its  manifestations.  It  may  be  undertaken  with  the  consent  of  both 
parties  at  variance,  or  of  one  only,  or  in  some  instances  where 
neither  party  desires  such  intervention.  It  may  vary  in  extent 
also,  according  to  the  nature  and  amount  of  the  disagreement  to 
be  adjusted.  It  may  be  accomplished  in  various  ways,  whether 
by  personal  influence  and  persuasion,  or  by  acts  or  measures  calcu- 
lated to  satisfy  or  conciliate  one  or  both  of  the  alienated  parties. 
Illustrations  frequently  occur  in  common  life,  in  which  through 
such  mediation  those  who  have  been  averse  or  hostile,  have  been 
brought  together  and  reconciled.  Other  illustrations  occur  from 
time  to  time  where  nations  which  have  been  at  variance  respecting 
certain  rights  or  interests,  and  perhaps  have  sought  to  maintain 
their  several  prerogatives  through  the  test  of  actual  warfare,  have 
submitted  the  issue  at  stake  to  the  arbitrament  of  other  nations, 
and  by  such  intervention  have  become  reconciled.  In  a  modified 
form,  mediation  appears  in  cases  where,  when  a  person  has  com- 
mitted some  offense  against  law,  an  intervening  person  becomes 
an  advocate,  in  order  to  secure  acquittal  or  some  melioration 
of  penalty,  or  an  intercessor  to  plead  for  the  pardon  of  one  con- 
victed of  crime.  Still  another  modified  form  appears  in  cases 
where  one  man  becomes  a  surety  or  bondsman  for  another,  or 
provides  for  the  payment  of  a  debt  which  the  party  arraigned  is 
unable  to  meet.  The  Bible  in  fact  employs  most  of  these  illus- 
trations drawn  from  human  life,  to  set  forth  that  gracious  inter- 
vention which  Christ  has  undertaken.  The  abundance  and  variety 
of  such  examples  deserve  to  be  carefully  noted,  since  all  are 
designed  and  grouped  to  bring  into  clearer  light  that  mediating 
work  of  Christ  on  which  all  our  hopes  of  salvation  rest. 

The  necessity  for  such  mediation  lies,  not  in  what  man  is  as  man, 


'°>20  CHRIST    THE    MEDIATOR. 

but  in  what  man  is  as  a  sinner,  alienated  from  God  and  in  danger 
of  perishing  forever  in  that  alienation,  unless  some  gracious  inter- 
vention shall  occur.  If  man  were  not  sinful,  there  woirid  be  no 
such  alienation,  and  therefore  no  need  of  a  Mediator:  it  is  human 
sin  which  creates  that  necessity.  Viewed  as  a  transgression  or 
neglect  of  divine  law,  as  revolt  against  the  divine  authority,  as  an 
enthronement  of  self  in  the  place  of  God,  sin  at  once  impels  the 
soul  away  from  God  and  constrains  it  to  a  separate,  rebellious  life. 
The  sinner,  like  Adam  arid  Eve,  shrinks  from  contact  with  Deity, 
and  instinctively  hides  himself  from  the  divine  presence.  He  also 
passes  by  an  inevitable  process  from  one  stage  of  indulgence  and 
hostility  to  another  and,  if  left  to  himself,  would  continue — so  far 
as  we  can  see — in  his  separation  and  his  alienation  forever.  Were 
God  to  bestow  his  providential  mercies  continually,  and  to  mani- 
fest in  no  way  his  disapproval  of  the  sin,  return  to  the  allegiance 
and  obedience  due  him  would  still  become  less  and  less  probable, — 
less  and  less  possible.  There  might  be  occasional  conviction, 
some  pangs  of  remorse,  a  degree  of  terror  in  the  contemplation  of 
such  a  downward  and  destructive  course,  but  the  alienation  would 
continue,  and  the  dark  and  dreadful  revolt  go  on  in  the  sinful 
breast  eternally. 

But  such  a  process  also  involves  of  necessity,  not  a  like  aliena- 
tion or  abhorrence  on  the  part  of  God,  but  a  progressive  with- 
drawal of  his  countenance  and  favor,  and  a  gradual  separation 
from  the  sinner,  such  as  a  just  parent  would  be  compelled  to  mani- 
fest in  the  case  of  a  disobedient  child.  God  might  not  cease  to 
love  the  transgressor,  but  he  could  not  equitably  treat  him  as  if 
he  had  never  transgressed.  He  could  not  regard  him  with  that 
love  of  complacency,  as  it  has  been  called,  with  which  he  con- 
templates the  holy  angels,  or  the  sanctified  in  glory,  or  the  true 
saint  on  earth.  He  might  pity,  might  exercise  true  compassion 
and  patience,  but  he  could  not  act  as  if  he  were  indifferent  to  the 
sin,  or  treat  the  sinner  as  if  he  were  worthy.  The  paternal  face 
must  be  hid  in  a  measure  from  the  offender;  the  sovereign  must 
frown  upon  the  rebel;  the  judge  must  manifest  his  purpose  to  con- 
vict and  condemn.  The  violated  law  must  utter  its  voice  of  re- 
buke and  warning;  the  alienation  on  the  part  of  God  must 
assume  a  judicial  as  well  as  personal  aspect.  All  the  relationships 
between  the  parties  must  of  necessity  be  changed  and  deranged — 
more  and  more  changed  and  deranged  as  the  process  of  evil  goes 
on.  And  unless  some  adequate  intervention  can  be  brought  in, 
this  derangement  of  relationship,  like  the  evil  inwrought  into  the 
sinful  character,  must  continue  forever. 


MEDIATION  :     ITS   TWO-FOLD    OBJECT.  321 

The  mediatorial  intervention  provided  must  thus  be  twofold  in 
its  effect,  internal  and  external: — a  change  in  the  temper  and  pur- 
pose must  be  wrought,  as  well  as  a  change  in  the  relations  into 
which  the  sin  of  man  has  brought  both  parties.  What  is  needed 
first  of  all  is  such  a  spiritual  transformation  of  the  sinner  himself 
as  shall  both  incline  him  to  return  to  God  in  loving  devotion,  and 
justify  God  in  welcoming  him  back  to  the  divine  embrace  and  ser- 
vice. The  salvation  needed  must  begin  with  and  in  this  interior 
transformation.  The  soul  must  first  of  all  be  brought  through 
grace  into  the  exercise  of  those  emotions,  and  the  willing  per- 
formance of  those  duties,  which  God  has  a  right  to  claim.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  the  Symbols  dwell  more  emphatically  on  the 
exterior  change  which  the  mediation  of  Christ  seeks  to  induce,  as 
the  antecedent  Protestant  creeds  had  already  done.  In  other 
words,  they  contemplate  the  objective  more  than  the  subjective 
side  of  this  mediatorial  work, — what  Christ  does  for  us  in  the  re- 
storing of  these  disordered  relationships,  rather  than  what  he  does 
within  us  in  the  restoration  of  our  corrupted  nature  to  a  state  of  love 
and  holiness.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  has  been  regarded  with 
some  justice  as  an  exception  to  this  general  tendency  in  the  Protest- 
antism of  the  sixteenth  century.  But  if  we  turn  to  the  other  creeds, 
such  as  the  Helvetic,  or  the  French,  we  shall  find  many  eviden- 
ces of  the  opposite  fact.  It  was  indeed  one  of  the  acutest  charges 
of  Romanism  against  the  Protestantism  of  that  century,  that  it 
had  separated  too  widely  our  justification  and  our  sanctification 
through  Christ  and,  while  exalting  justification  unduly,  had  lost 
sight  of  that  interior  work  within  the  soul  itself  which  the  term, 
sanctification,  describes.  In  more  recent  times  the  same  allegation 
in  substance  has  been  made,  not  wholly  without  warrant,  by 
Lutheranism  against  Calvinism, — since  the  latter  type  of  theology, 
following  its  great  leader,  has  always  laid  special,  perhaps 
extreme,  stress  on  what  has  just  been  termed  the  objective  side 
of  salvation. 

It  will  be  needful  to  recur  again  in  another  connection  to  this 
interesting  query.  But  for  the  present  it  is  sufficient  to  note,  that 
mediation  in  such  a  case  as  this  must  cover  the  whole  matter  in 
issue, — must  be  such  as  will  secure  a  radical  change,  both  in  the 
relationships  subsisting  between  God  as  Sovereign  and  Father, 
Lawgiver  and  Judge,  and  the  offending  and  criminal  sinner,  and 
also  in  the  heart  of  that  sinner  and  in  the  feeling  with  which  God 
will  regard  and  deal  with  him.  Cudworth  forcibly  stated  the  com- 
plex truth  in  his  declaration,  (Sermon  before  Parliament,)  that 
Christ  came  into  the  world  as  well  to  redeem  us  from  the  power 


322  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

and  bondage  of  our  sins  as  to  free  us  from  the  guilt  of  them.  The 
end  of  the  Gospel,  he  adds,  is  life  and  perfection, — to  make  us 
partakers  of  the  image  of  God  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness, 
without  which  salvation  itself  were  but  a  notion.  There  must  be 
no  part  of  the  malady  introduced  by  sin  which  that  mediation 
will  not  prove  itself  effectual  to  cure,  no  conflict  which  it  cannot 
sooth  to  repose,  no  alienation  which  it  cannot  transform  into  love 
and  amity,  and  an  eternal  union  of  the  renewed  soul  with  its 
reconciled  God.  So  the  Confession  declares  (VIII :i)  that  through 
Christ  sinners  are  redeemed,  called,  justified,  sanctified  a?id  glorified; 
and  in  the  list  of  the  benefits  of  such  mediation,  given  in  the 
Larger  Catechism,  (57,  et  seq)  we  find  all  that  is  requisite  subject- 
ively as  well  as  objectively  to  complete  salvation. 

Here  we  may  return  to  the  contemplation  of  Him  whom  we  have 
learned  to  regard  as  God  with  us,  in  this  specific  work  of  mediation. 

What  he  has  done  in  other  spheres  such 
8.    Christ  as  Mediator:  his  .  •  •  ■,     ,  •  ,     A     •   ■  . 

,.„    '  „  ,  ,  as  creation  or  providential  admmistra- 

qualiflcations :   official   ap-  ,         \         ,  . ,       ,    ,  . 

pointment  tion,  need  not  here  be  considered:  his 

gracious  and  glorious  mediation  should 
for  the  time  command  our  entire  interest.  It  is  a  fine  illustration 
of  the  broad  intellectual  range  of  the  Westminster  divines  and  of 
their  skill  in  language,  that  they  styled  this  chapter,  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  in  the  entire  Confession,  not  a  chapter  on  Christ 
as  Son  of  God  or  Son  of  man,  neither  on  Christ  the  Savior  or  Re- 
deemer, Prophet  or  Priest  or  King,  but  on  Christ  the  Mediator, — 
the  Mediator  who,  standing  between  God  and  man,  and  recogniz- 
ing their  variance  as  induced  by  sin,  took  upon  himself  the  mighty 
task  of  removing  all  hindrances,  satisfying  all  just  demands,  ex- 
pressing all  needful  feeling,  showing  forth  all  requisite  grace,  and 
thus  actually  securing  an  instant,  a  perfect,  an  everlasting  recon- 
ciliation between  God  and  every  truly  penitent  sinner,  not  in  one 
land  or  age  but  for  all  lands  and  all  times. 

The  term,  Mediator,  is  indeed  frequently  found,  though  with 
less  exact  and  comprehensive  meaning,  in  several  antecedent 
creeds.  Zwingli  in  his  Articles  (19)  declares  Christ  the  only  Me- 
diator (ein  einiger  Mittler)  between  God  and  man.  The  Firs': 
Helvetic  Conf.  describes  him  as  sole  mediator,  intercessor,  surety, 
and  at  the  same  time  priest  and  lord,  and  our  king.  The  Second 
Helvetic  devotes  a  chapter  (V)  to  the  unicum  viediatorcm:  sufficit 
nobis  Deus  et  mediator  Christus.  The  Catechism  of  Heidelberg 
confesses  (36)  that  he  is  our  Mediator,  who  with  his  innocence  and 
perfect  holiness  covers  (or  covers  over)  in  the  sight  of  God  the 
sins   which    we    have   committed.      The    French    Conf.    (XIX) 


HIS    QUALIFICATIONS,    INHERENT    AND    OFFICIAL.  323 

declares  that  we  should  have  no  access  to  the  Father  except 
through  this  Mediator  and  advocate;  the  Belgic  Conf.  (XXVI) 
says  that  this  Mediator  whom  the  Father  hath  appointed  between 
him  and  us,  ought  in  no  wise  to  affright  us  by  his  majesty,  or 
cause  us  to  seek  another  according  to  our  fancy;  and  the  Scotch 
Confession  teaches  (VIII)  that  in  assuming  our  nature  Christ  be- 
came our  Mediator,  while  the  Irish  Articles  contain  the  exact 
heading,  Of  Christ  the  Mediator,  which  we  have  found  in  the 
Westminster  Confession. 

That  Christ  as  Immanuel  had  all  the  inherent  and  all  the  official 
qualifications  requisite  to  the  accomplishment  of  a  task  so  mighty, 
so  sublime  as  this  mediation  between  God  and  man,  the  Symbols 
abundantly  teach  us.  At  no  point  do  they  appeal  more  frequently 
or  carefully  to  Holy  Scripture,  realizing  both  how  fundamental 
the  doctrine  must  ever  be  in  Christian  theology,  and  how  vital  the 
truth  is  in  all  evangelical  and  saving  experience.  Their  loving 
portrayal  of  him  whom  they  set  forth  as  the  one  and  only  Medi- 
ator is  so  full  and  exact,  so  warm  and  glowing  in  its  tone,  so 
powerful  in  its  conclusiveness,  as  to  leave  little  more  to  be  desired. 
His  inherent  qualifications  appear  in  his  divine  personality,  his 
true  humanity,  and  his  entire  sinlessness — the  last  as  essential  as 
each  of  the  preceding.  The  quality  of  absolute  sinlessness  in 
Christ  is  everywhere  in  Protestant  symbolism  insisted  upon; — as 
in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XV),  where  it  is  said  that  Christ  in 
the  truth  of  our  nature  (veritate)  was  made  like  unto  us  in  all 
things,  sin  only  except,  from  which  he  was  clearly  void,  both  in 
his  flesh  and  in  his  spirit.  His  official  qualifications  are  seen  in 
his  appointment  by  the  Father  to  this  service,  in  his  voluntary 
assumption  of  the  mediatorial  office,  and  in  his  acceptableness  on 
the  part  of  both  God  and  man, — so  far  as  sinful  man  consents  to 
any  such  gracious  intervention.  The  Confession  (VIII  :  iii)  de- 
scribes his  endowments  specifically,  as  one  sanctified  and  anointed, 
having  all  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge,  all  fullness  dwelling 
in  him,  holy  and  harmless  and  undefiled,  and  full  of  grace  and 
truth,  in  order  that  he  might  be  thoroughly  furnished  to  execute  the 
office  of  a  Mediator.  And  it  adds  the  further  fact  that  he  took  not 
this  office  on  himself,  but  was  thereunto  called  by  his  Father,  who 
put  all  pozver  a?id  judgment  into  his  hand.  The  Larger  Catechism 
(38—40)  proceeds  further  to  give  a  series  of  specific  reasons  why  he 
should  be  both  God  and  man  in  one  person,  in  order  that  he  might 
possess  all  the  qualifications,  inherent  and  official,  requisite  in  this 
mediatorship,  and  affirms  that  he  was  fully  furnished  with  all 
authority  and  ability  for  that  transcendent  service.     The  absolute 


324  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

fitness  of  Christ  at  every  point  for  the  unique  function  of  media- 
tion is  assumed  again  and  again  elsewhere  in  the  Symbols, — as  in 
the  original  Directory  for  Worship,  where  prayer  is  justified  and 
encouraged  specifically  on  the  ground  of  such  mediation. 

It  is  incumbent  upon  us  to  pause  at  this  point,  and  recognize 
with  distinctness  and  with  reverence  the  vital  significance  of  this 
conception  of  Christ  the  Mediator  as  a  central  element  in  the 
Christian  scheme.  As  all  that  is  antecedent  in  evangelical  theology 
leads  on  directly  to  Christ  as  the  theanthropic  Person,  so  all  that 
relates  to  him  and  his  mission  among  men  centers  in  this  view  of 
him  as  a  Mediator,  inherently  and  officially  qualified  for  such  a 
service,  and  actually  engaged  in  the  task  of  reconciling  God  and 
man  through  his  gracious  intervention.  If  Christ  is  not  thus  a 
qualified  and  anointed  Mediator,  competent  to  accomplish  the 
reconciliation  needful,  he  can  be  nothing  to  us  but  a  sublime  and 
perplexing  mystery  forever.  Everything  in  Christianity  is  con- 
centered at  this  point.  Systems  of  religious  belief  that  reject  this 
mediation  cannot  be  regarded  as  Christian.  The  recognition  of 
Christ  in  the  grandeur  of  his  teaching,  in  the  beauty  of  his  char- 
acter, in  the  attractiveness  of  his  example,  is  wholly  insufficient 
here.  What  the  sinful  world  needs  is  not  a  teacher  only,  or  a 
pattern  of  holy  living  or  a  princely  character  among  men  only,  but 
a  Mediator,  who  really  undertakes  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  sinner 
both  internal  and  external,  and  who  actually  brings  about  a  com- 
plete and  everlasting  reconciliation  between  sinners  and  God. 
Further  questions  will  arise  respecting  the  essential  elements  in 
such  mediation,  the  way  in  which  such  reconciliation  is  effected, 
the  instruments  and  forces  employed,  the  steps  taken,  the  condi- 
tions required,  the  grace  granted  ;  and  around  some  of  these 
questions,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  see,  Christian  minds  are 
still  too  much  at  variance.  But  here,  at  this  central  point,  evan- 
gelical Christendom  has  been  and  is  and  must  ever  be  essentially 
agreed  :  all  churches  and  schools  and  parties  alike  recognize  both 
the  necessity  of  such  theanthropic  mediation,  and  the  cardinal  fact 
of  facts  that  there  is  one  and  but  one  such  Mediator  between  God 
and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus. 

The  Catechisms  further  distribute  the  mediatorial  office  into  three- 
main  functions,  the  prophetic,   the  priestly  and  the  kingly;  and 

proceed  to  show  how  in  each  of  these 
9.    The  three  Offices :  rea-     %  _  ,        _. 

son  for  this  analysis  :  objec-  f"nctlo"s  our  Lord  executes  the  office 
tions.  of  a  Mediator;  his  mediation  becoming 

complete  only  when  these  are  harmoni- 
ously blended  into  one  comprehensive  intervention.     The  Sum  of 


THE   THREE    OFFICES.  325 

Saving  Knowledge  happily  embodies  the  confessional  doctrine  in 
the  statement  that  Christ  Jesus  was  clad  with  the  threefold  office 
of  Prophet,  Priest  and  King, — made  a  Prophet  in  order  to  reveal 
all  saving  knowledge  to  his  people,  and  to  persuade  them  to  believe 
and  obey  the  same;  -  made  a  Priest  to  offer  up  himself  a  sacrifice 
once  for  them  all,  and  to  intercede  continually  with  the  Father  for 
making  their  persons  and  services  acceptable  to  him ; — and  made  a 
King  to  subdue  them  to  himself,  to  feed  and  rule  over  them  by  his 
appointed  ordinances,  and  to  defend  them  from  their  enemies. 

Dorner  (Christ.  Doct.),  regards  this  threefold  conception  of  the 
mediatorial  work  of  Christ  as  having  its  ultimate  ground  in  the 
threefold  service  of  Revelation  itself,  as  indicated  in  the  three 
terms,  instruction,  atonement,  obedience.  Christ,  it  has  been  said 
by  another  European  divine,  must  be  a  prophet  to  save  us  from  the 
ignorance  of  sin,  a  priest  to  save  us  from  its  guilt,  and  a  king  to 
save  us  from  its  dominion  in  our  flesh.  Others  find  the  primal 
warrant  for  it  in  the  three  offices  of  the  Old  Testament — sacerdo- 
tal, royal,  didactic — viewed  as  antetypes  of  him  in  whom  these 
three  offices  are  conjoined,  and  on  whose  head  this  triple  crown  of 
function  and  ministry  is  fitly  placed.  Still  others  have  found  a 
psychological  basis  for  it  in  the  nature  of  man  as  composed  of  in- 
tellect, feeling  and  will, — Christ  thus  adjusting  himself  as  teacher 
and  sacrifice  and  lord  to  these  three  primal  capabilities  in  man, 
regarded  as  a  moral  being.  The  distinction  was  recognized  in 
Christian  theology  as  early  as  Eusebius  who  (B.  I:  Ch.  iii), 
describes  Christ  as  the  divine  and  heavenly  Word,  the  only  high 
priest  of  all  men,  the  only  king  of  all  creation,  and  the  Father's 
supreme  prophet  of  prophets.  Calvin  introduced  it  into  Protestant 
thought  in  the  statement  (Inst.  B  2:  15),  that  the  office  assigned  to 
Christ  by  the  Father  consisted  of  three  parts, — he  being  commis- 
sioned as  at  once  a  prophet,  a  priest  and  a  king.  It  was  accepted  al- 
most universally  in  the  Reformed  churches;  and  extensively — so  far 
at  least  as  the  priestly  and  regal  offices  are  concerned — in  Lutheran 
circles  also.  Christ,  says  Martensen,  is  the  Mediator  of  the  new 
covenant,  by  his  testimony,  by  his  propitiatory  sacrifice,  and  by 
the  founding  of  the  kingdom  of  which  he  is  Lord  and  Head. 

Vigorous  objections  have  been  raised  to  this  distribution  by 
Ernesti,  and  by  some  later  German  theologians  such  as  Knapp 
and  Ritschl, — partly  on  exegetical  grounds,  as  unwarranted  by 
any  adequate  indications  in  Scripture;  and  partly  on  the  general 
ground  that  it  tends  to  confusion  in  the  conception  of  the  one 
comprehensive  office  of  mediation,  and  introduces  into  that  con- 
ception some  elements  which  do  not  properly  belong  to  it.     It  has 


326  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

been  questioned  on  one  side  whether  these  three  terms  actually 
include  the  whole  of  that  mediation, — whether  in  the  large  num- 
ber of  metaphors,  for  example,  by  which  Christ  is  set  forth  in  the 
Scriptures,  such  as  Word  and  Life  and  Light  and  many  more, 
there  is  not  much  in  the  way  of  gracious  interposition  in  our  behalf 
which  neither  the  prophetic  nor  the  priestly  nor  the  kingly  func- 
tion, nor  all  three  together,  if  strictly  interpreted,  adequately 
represent.  On  the  other  side  it  has  been  queried  whether  these 
three  terms,  when  technically  expounded  and  applied  as  they  have 
been  in  much  Calvinistic  theology,  do  not  contain  some  things 
which  in  fact  are  not  involved  in  the  comprehending  term,  media- 
tion. It  is  especially  urged  that  our  Lord  himself  never  recog- 
nized these  technical  distinctions  in  his  mediatorial  work, — that 
while  he  spoke  occasionally  of  himself  as  king,  he  hardly  referred 
to  himself  distinctively  as  prophet,  and  never  called  himself  a 
priest,  though  alluding  sometimes  to  his  final  sacrifice;  and  it  is 
claimed  that  such  a  scholastic  distribution,  which  our  Lord  him- 
self never  distinctly  suggested,  can  have  on  one  hand  but  doubt- 
ful value  in  itself,  and  on  the  other  is  liable  to  mislead  into  technical 
or  theologic  rather  than  scriptural  conceptions  of  his  mediatorial 
office:  Van  Oosterzee,  Christ.   Dogmatics. 

In  addition  to  the  reply  to  such  objections  to  be  derived,  as  we 
have  seen,  from  the  general  trend  of  Christian  theology,  it  is  a  fact 
of  special  significance  that  our  Lord  is  actually,  and  more  or  less 
elaborately,  described  in  such  terms  as  prophet,  teacher,  priest, 
sacrifice,  intercessor,  lord  and  king,  in  most  of  the  earlier  Protestant 
creeds,  as  well  as  in  the  Symbols.  One  of  the  marked  illustra- 
tions of  this  may  be  seen  in  the  answer  to  the  question  (31)  in  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism,  why  is  Christ  called  the  Anointed  or  the 
Messiah  ?  Because  he  is  ordained  of  God  the  Father,  and  anointed 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  be  our  chief  prophet  and  teacher,  who 
fully  reveals  to  us  the  secret  counsel  and  will  of  God  concerning 
our  redemption;  and  our  only  high  priest,  who  by  the  one  sacri- 
fice of  his  body  has  redeemed  us,  and  ever  liveth  to  make  inter- 
cession for  us  with  the  Father;  and  our  eternal  king,  who  governs 
us  by  his  Word  and  Spirit,  and  defends  and  preserves  us  in  the 
redemption  obtained  for  us.  Additional  illustrations,  though 
less  extensive,  may  be  found  in  other  continental  formularies. 
The  Scotch  Confession  also  declares  Christ  to  be  the  Messiah 
promised,  the  only  head  of  his  church,  our  just  lawgiver,  our  only 
high  priest,  advocate  and  mediator,  and  our  sovereign  and 
supreme  governor.  Turning  from  confessional  to  biblical  teaching 
we  are  certainly  warranted  in  the  conclusion  that  this  analysis  of 


MEDIATION    THE    COMPREHENDING    FACT.  327 

the  mediatorial  office  is  justified  substantially,  if  not  in  the  words  of 
Christ  himself,  still  in  the  epistolary  Scriptures,  written  after  his 
decease  had  made  his  prophetic,  and  especially  his  priestly  and 
kingly  functions,  more  palpable  to  the  eye  of  faith  than  they 
could  previously  have  been.  It  certainly  is  biblical  truth  that  as 
our  Mediator  he  instructs,  reconciles,  restores;  reveals  and  pro- 
cures and  confers  salvation, — ministering  thus  in  a  threefold  way 
to  the  threefold  necessity  which  sin  has  introduced. 

There  are,  however,  some  special  liabilities  to  which  this  analy- 
sis exposes  us,  and  against  which  we  should  be  carefully  guarded. 
In  general,  it  is  important  to  protect  ourselves  against  the  suppo- 
sition that  these  three  terms,  or  indeed  any  human  terms,  can  set 
forth  adequately  in  all  his  fullness  and  glory  this  one  adorable 
Mediator.  Careful  study  of  the  multiplied,  .strong,  luminous,  im- 
pressive images  and  illustrations  employed  in  Scripture  to  describe 
him  and  his  work,  will  impress  us  with  the  conviction  that  our 
Lord  is  immeasurably  too  great  to  be  adequately  described  by  any 
anal}'sis  or  language  of  man.  It  is  important  also  to  remember 
that  the  three  functions  are  never  wholly  separable  in  fact,  but  are 
always  interblended  in  each  and  every  mediatorial  act, — the  one 
Person  acting  alike  and  simultaneously  in  each  function.  Still 
less  are  we  at  liberty  to  regard  them  as  divisible  chronologically; 
the  prophetic  function  closing  before  the  priestly  begins,  the 
priestly  ended  before  the  kingship  is  assumed.  Christ  was  in  fact 
a  king  as  truly  as  he  was  a  prophet  in  his  first  public  teaching, — 
as  truly  a  prophet  as  he  was  a  king  when  he  stood  before  Pilate  at 
his  final  trial, — and  as  truly  a  priest  at  the  beginning  of  his  medi- 
ation as  when  he  was  nailed,  our  blessed  sacrifice,  on  the  cross  of 
Calvary. 

Neither  may  we  set  these  three  functions  over  against  each  other 
in  any  aspect  of  contrast,  as  if  some  one  were  intrinsically  more 
important  than  another  in  its  bearings  on  our  salvation.  While  it 
is  true  that  the  priestly  and  sacrificial  function  seems  generally 
central  in  the  biblical  delineation,  yet  the  prophetic  function  is  no 
less  apparent  and  needful  though  introductory,  or  the  kingly 
though  consequent:  all  are  parts  of  like  import  in  the  one  sublime 
transaction.  It  is  an  obvious  and  painful  fact  that  some  Calvinis- 
tic  theologies  have  erroneously  ignored  both  the  prophetic  and 
the  kingly  function,  treating  them  as  only  in  some  secondary  sense 
mediatorial,  and  have  meanwhile  emphasized  the  priestly  function 
exclusively,  as  if  our  salvation  depended  on  this  chiefly  or  alto- 
gether. In  some  instances,  the  analytic  impulse  has  gone  so  far 
as  to  locate  the  salvatory  power  of  the  mediation,  not  merely  in  the 


328  CHRIST    THE    MEDIATOR. 

priestly  function  as  a  whole,  but  in  Christ  the  sacrifice  rather  than 
in  Christ  the  priest;  and  in  some  instances  it  has  limited  the  sacrifice 
itself  to  what  is  called  the  passive,  as  distinct  from  the  active  obe- 
dience of  Christ.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  study  these  analytic 
processes  hereafter:  it  is  sufficient  now  to  note  that  by  such  pro- 
cesses the  essential  unities  of  the  one  great  work  of  mediation  are 
very  largely  obscured  from  view,  the  real  grandeur  of  the  one  sub- 
lime intervention  being  sadly  dissipated  through  such  excessive 
analysis  and  specialization.  As  one  result,  the  prophetic  function 
of  our  Lord  as  the  one  perfect  teacher  and  example  for  our  human- 
ity, has  been  suffered  to  fall  too  largely  into  the  hands  of  errorists 
who,  emphasizing  his  teachings  and  his  human  perfections,  have 
rejected  his  sacrificial  ministry,  and  spurned  his  divine  kingship. 
As  another  result,  such  illusive  analyses  have  led  to  narrow 
views  of  what  salvation  truly  is,  as  a  gracious  process  in  character 
as  well  as  a  blessed  change  in  condition;  and  in  some  instances  to 
serious  error  respecting  the  real  relation  to  this  perfect  Redeemer  of 
a  soul  saved  through  his  grace.  That  no  small  portion  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  theology  of  the  seventeenth  and  especially  the  eighteenth 
century  is  open  to  the  charge  of  such  undue  specialization,  and  even 
of  destructive  trituration  of  the  one  mediatorial  work,  will  be 
apparent  to  any  thoughtful  student  of  the  period.  It  is  incum- 
bent upon  us  carefully  to  guard  against  such  delusive  misconcep- 
tions, and  ever  to  hold  before  our  vision  the  Immanuel,  who  is  at 
once  and  equally  our  prophet,  our  priest  and  our  king,  and  who 
in  all  these  functions  is  evermore  our  one  adorable  Mediator. 

The  first  of  the  three  offices  or  functions  just  considered  rep- 
resents Christ  as  the  supreme  teacher  and  example  for  mankind, — 

the  chief  and  head  of  the  prophetical 

10.  Christ  as  Prophet:  our  order.  In  the  Shorter  Catechism  (24) 
teacher ;  our  supreme  exam-     it  is  said  that  he  executeth  the  office  of 

a  prophet  in  revealing  to  us  by  his  Word 
and  Spirit  the  will  of  God  for  our  salvation.  This  is  expanded  in 
the  Larger  Catechism  (43)  in  the  statement  that  Christ  reveals 
that  will,  not  to  the  individual  believer  alone,  but  to  the  church  in 
all  ages ;  that  this  is  done  in  divers  ways  of  administration;  and 
that  the  whole  will  of  God  in  all  things  is  thus  made  known,  so  far 
as  our  edification  as  well  as  salvation  requires.  The  Confession 
(VIII :  i)  simply  styles  him  prophet  as  well  as  priest  and  king — a 
prophet  endowed  with  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge, 
and  full  of  grace  and  truth;  but  fails  to  tell  us  in  what  ways,  and 
in  what  directions,  the  prophetical  function  is  exercised,  except 


CHRIST    AS    PROPHET.  329 

in  the  statement  that  he  reveals  to  his  elect,  in  and  by  the  Word, 
the  mysteries  of  salvation.  This  omission  may  be  explained  in  part 
by  the  fact  that  in  the  chapter  on  Holy  Scripture  it  had  been  said 
already,  that  it  pleased  the  Lord  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  to  reveal  himself,  and  to  declare  his  will  to  his  church, 
though  this  indeed  seems  a  generic  rather  than  a  specific  and  per- 
sonal work  of  revelation.  Further  explanation  may  be  found  in 
expressions  scattered  here  and  there  through  subsequent  chapters, 
descriptive  of  the  ministries  of  Christ  by  his  Word  and  Spirit  for 
the  instruction  and  edifying  of  his  people.  But  no  such  distinct 
exposition  of  the  prophetic  function  appears  in  the  Confession  as 
we  find  respecting  the  priestly  or  even  the  kingly  function  of  the 
Mediator.  In  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge  Christ  is  said  to  be 
made  a  prophet,  to  reveal  all  saving  knowledge  to  his  people,  and 
to  persuade  them  to  believe  and  obey  the  same, — a  divine  witness, 
preaching  the  good  tidings  of  the  covenant,  not  o\\\y  by  the  holy 
prophets,  but  with  his  own  mouth.  Some  meagerness  of  state- 
ment on  this  subject  is  apparent  in  the  Protestant  symbolism 
generally — a  meagerness  which  is  explained,  at  least  in  large 
degree,  by  the  prominence  given  in  the  Reformation  to  the  priestly 
sacrifice  of  Christ  for  the  believer,  in  contrast  with  the  priestly 
ceremonials  of  Rome.  Faith  in  a  crucified  Savior  being  set  forth 
as  the  basis  of  the  entire  doctrine  of  justification,  it  was  natural 
that  the  eyes  of  all  should  be  fixed  on  the  cross,  and  on  the  aton- 
ing Person  who  hung  thereon,  rather  than  on  him  who  came  also 
to  be  the  great  prophet  and  teacher  of  mankind. 

The  conception  of  Christ  as  a  prophet  is  purely  a  biblical  con- 
ception. As  the  eternal  Logos  he  was  a  prophet  by  nature  as  well 
as  by  appointment.  His  prophetical  function  was  foretold  even 
in  the  pentateuchal  era,  and  still  more  fully  in  the  prophetic  age. 
He  was  regarded  as  a  prophet  not  only  by  his  disciples,  but  by 
the  multitudes  who  heard  him  during  his  ministry.  The  Apostles 
recognized  and  revered  him  as  the  Word  of  God  and  the  Wisdom 
of  God,  and  pronounced  him  the  head  and  crown  of  the  prophetic 
order.  This  prophetical  function  was  to  be  carried  on  partly  by 
the  direct  communication  and  inculcation  of  saving  truth,  and 
partly  by  the  indirect  effect  of  his  personality  and  his  example  as 
an  illustration  of  such  truth.  Like  the  Hebrew  prophets,  Christ 
was  a  prophet  in  a  twofold  sense — in  the  general  sense  of  religious 
teaching,  and  in  the  special  sense  of  foretelling  the  future.  As  a 
teacher  he  was  the  divine  consummation  of  the  prophetic  order, 
surpassing  all  who  preceded  or  followed  him,  alike  in  the  breadth 
and  grandeur  of    his  utterances,   in   the   manner  in   which   he 


330  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

presented  and  commended  truth,  and  in  the  majestic  authoritative- 
ness  which  marked  all  his  instructions.  Never  man  spake  like  this 
man,  was  the  spontaneous  outcry  of  those  who  heard  him  while 
he  was  on  the  earth,  and  this  is  the  profound  conviction  of  those 
who  in  later  times  have  studied  his  words,  and  appreciated  the 
doctrines  which  he  proclaimed.  Other  prophets  spake  as  under 
commission  and  under  limitations  :  he  taught  as  on  his  own 
authority,  with  absolute  freedom.  He  explained  and  made  lum- 
inous all  antecedent  teaching;  and  the  later  inspired  writers  aimed 
only  to  publish  and  illustrate  the  truth  which  he  had  given. 
Calvin  simply  expresses  the  belief  of  every  true  disciple  when  he 
declares  in  brief,  that  all  the  parts  and  branches  of  perfect  wisdom 
are  contained  in  the  sum  of  doctrine  which  he  imparted.  And 
Bishop  Butler  affirms  (Anal.  P.  II :  Ch.  V)  that  Christ  not  only 
published  anew  the  law  of  nature  which  men  have  corrupted,  and 
confirmed  by  the  evidence  of  testimony  the  truth  of  the  moral 
system  of  nature,  but  distinctly  revealed  the  manner  in  which  God 
should  be  worshiped,  the  need  and  efficacy  of  repentance,  and  the 
fact  of  future  reward  and  punishment;  thus  becoming  a  prophet 
in  a  sense  in  which  no  other  ever  was — the  Prophet  that  should 
come  into  the  world. 

As  a  foreteller  of  the  future,  our  L,ord  surpassed  all  the  sacred 
seers  who  had  gone  before  him  in  the  extent  and  scope,  in  the 
comprehensiveness  and  brilliance  and  the  vast  moment  of  his  pre- 
dictions. Others  spoke  and  recorded  what  was  supernaturally 
revealed  to  them:  he  uttered  his  prophecies  as  one  animated  by 
conscious  certainty — as  if  the  future  was  as  truly  known  to  his 
mind  as  the  present  or  the  past.  Passing  by  one  supposed  excep- 
tion to  this  transcendent  fact,  which  in  reality  is  no  exception,  we 
see  in  his  predictions  the  abundant  proof  of  his  omniscience. 
They  relate  not  only  to  the  manner  and  time  and  circumstances 
of  his  own  death,  the  subsequent  experiences  of  his  disciples,  and 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, — not  only  to  the  first  diffusion  of  the 
Gospel,  the  upbuilding  and  triumphs  of  his  church,  and  the 
mighty  changes  which  his  religion  was  to  effect  in  human  society 
in  coming  ages.  They  include  even  the  millennial  era,  the  end  of 
the  Gospel  dispensation,  his  own  second  advent,  and  the  time  and 
manner  and  meaning  of  the  final  judgment  of  mankind.  They 
carry  our  thought  onward  to  eternity,  and  show  us  what  is  to  be 
the  condition  of  the  human  race  millions  of  ages  hence.  All  that 
had  been  foretold  by  other  seers,  he  took  up  and  explained  and 
expanded;  and  what  it  had  not  been  given  to  them  to  see  of  the 
things  that  should  be  hereafter,  he  saw,  described,  and  affirmed. 


CHRIST    AS    EXAMPLE.  331 

More  than  he  has  told  us,  no  holy  prophet  was  ever  commissioned 
to  reveal :  more  than  he  has  told  us,  our  humanity  does  not  need 
in  this  life  to  know. 

But  while  our  Lord  was  a  prophet  directly  in  this  twofold  sense 
as  teacher  and  foreteller,  he  was  also  a  prophet  indirectly  but  no 
less  forcibly,  in  his  exemplification  of  divine  truth  in  his  own  per- 
sonality and  life.  That  personality  and  life  were  as  truly  a  part 
of  his  mediatorship  as  his  sacrifice  on  Calvary.  The  Bible  furn- 
ishes many  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  teaching  is  done  quite  as 
efficiently  by  what  men  are  as  by  what  they  say.  The  personal 
qualities  and  experiences  of  many  of  the  prophets,  major  and 
minor,  their  individual  peculiarities,  their  very  names  in  some 
instances,  are  seen  to  contribute  some  important  elements  to  their 
personal  mission  and  influence  as  religious  teachers.  In  other 
words,  their  characters  became  largely  the  vehicles  in  which  their 
messages  were  conveyed  and  made  effective.  And  in  Christ  as  the 
chief  prophet,  this  interesting  fact  receives  its  sublimest  illustra- 
tion. His  holy  personality  was  indeed  the  indispensable  concom- 
itant of  such  truth  as  he,  being  the  eternal  Logos,  came  into  the 
world  to  reveal.  We  have  already  recognized  his  entire  sinless- 
ness  as  a  fundamental  element  in  Christianity.  That  sinlessness 
had  been  foretold  in  the  Messianic  psalms,  and  by  the  evangelic 
prophet,  Isaiah;  it  was  confessed  by  Pilate  at  his  trial;  it  was  af- 
firmed by  Peter  in  his  first  Epistle,  taught  by  the  writer  to  the 
Hebrews,  and  believed  without  questioning  by  the  early  church. 
And  this  perfect  obedience  on  the  part  of  Christ  was  an  essential 
element  in  his  prophetical  work;  without  it  he  could  never  have 
taught  as  he  did,  or  filled  the  world  as  he  has  done,  with  the 
glory  and  the  fruitage  of  his  doctrine.  The  revelation  contained 
in  what  he  was,  though  less  direct,  is  thus  no  less  needful  to  us 
than  the  revelation  contained  in  his  sacred  words.  His  example 
is  the  sublimest  illustration  of  his  message,  and  his  pattern,  no 
less  than  his  most  significant  exposition  of  doctrine  and  duty,  be- 
comes the  supreme  law  of  our  lives  as  his  disciples.  And  while 
we  must  affirm  that  his  sinless  life  was  not  the  whole  of  his  pro- 
phetic ministry,  and  still  less  the  whole  of  his  mediatorship,  as 
has  been  erroneously  assumed,  it  is  certainly  a  most  serious  mis- 
take to  neglect  as  much  as  orthodox  Protestantism  has  done 
hitherto,  the  exaltation  of  that  spotless  life,  in  all  its  ineffable 
beauty  and  power,  as  one  among  the  things  which  constitute  him 
in  deed  and  in  truth  our  mediating  Immanuel.  Macaulay  has 
justly  as  well  as  eloquently  said,  with  reference  to  the  power  of 
this  unique  characteristic  of  Christ  as  the  exemplar  of  mankind  : 


332  CHRIST    THE    MEDIATOR. 

It  was  before  Deity,  embodied  in  a  human  form,  walking  among 
men,  partaking  of  their  infirmities,  leaning  on  their  bosoms,  weep- 
ing over  their  graves,  slumbering  in  the  manger,  bleeding  on  the 
cross,  that  the  prejudices  of  the  synagogue,  and  the  doubts  of  the 
academy,  and  the  pride  of  the  portico,  and  the  fasces  of  the  lictor, 
and  the  swords  of  the  thirty  legions,  were  humbled  in  the  dust. 

The  Westminster  teaching,  and  that  of  Protestant  symbolism 
generally,  is  much  more  full  respecting  the  priestly  function  of 

the  Mediator.     This  function  has  been 

1 1 .  Christ  as  Priest  and  as  comprehensively  described  as  includ- 
Sacriflce:   His   qualities  as     .         „  ,,  ,.         *.*..•  ■> 

both  priest  and  sacrifice.  inS  aU  that  Portlon  of  the  actinSs  and 

sufferings  of  Christ  as  our  Mediator  by 

which  he  has  made  it  congruous  with  the  holiness  and  the  wisdom 
of  God  to  deliver  sinful  men  from  the  penal  consequences  of  their 
offenses  against  his  moral  government,  and  to  restore  them  to  the 
enjoyment  of  his  immortal  favor.  This  priestly  function  consti- 
tutes the  center  and  substance  of  the  remarkable  chapter  (VIII) 
now  under  consideration.  In  one  section  (v)  it  is  said  that  by  his 
perfed  sao  ifice  of  himself  which  he  ...  .  once  offered  up  unto 
God,  he  hath  fully  satisfied  the  justice  of  his  Father,  (or  as  it  is 
elsewhere,  divine  justice)  and  thus  has  purchased  reconciliation  be- 
tween God  and  the  sinner.  In  another  section  (iv)  it  is  said  that, 
in  order  to  secure  this  result,  he  was  not  only  made  under  the  law 
and  did  perfectly  fulfill  it,  but  endured  most  grievous  torments  im- 
mediately in  his  soul,  and  most pai?iful  sufferings  in  his  body;  was 
crucified  and  died;  was  buried  and  remained  under  the  power  of 
death,  but  saw  no  corruption.  Other  sections  undertake  to  ex- 
plain the  manner  in  which  the  two  natures  in  Christ,  or  his  duplex 
nature,  shared  in  this  mediatorial  sacrifice.  Here  as  throughout 
the  work  of  mediation,  he  is  said  to  act  according  to  both  natures, 
each  of  these  natures  doing  that  which  is  proper  (proprium)  to 
itself.  Still  other  sections  show  us  how  the  benefits  of  that  sacri- 
fice were  applicable  to  those  who  had  lived  before  his  advent,  but 
had  exercised  faith  in  a  salvation  yet  to  come,  and  also  how  cer- 
tain and  effectual  the  results  of  this  mediation  are  to  every  one  in 
all  ages  who  cherishes  true  faith  in  him  as  the  anointed  high  priest 
and  the  divinely  accepted  sacrifice  for  the  world.  The  Shorter 
Catechism  (25)  teaches  that  Christ  executeth  the  office  of  a  priest 
in  his  once  offering  up  of  himself  a  sacrifice  to  satisfy  divine  justice, 
and  reconcile,  us  to  God.  And  the  Larger  (44)simply  expands  the 
expression  by  adding  the  significant  words,  a  sacrifice  without  spot, 
and  by  defining  the  reconciliation  as  a  reconciliation  not  for  here 
and  there  a  penitent  soul,  but  broadly  or  generically,  for  the  sins 


CHRIST    AS    PRIEST   AND   SACRIFICE.  333 

of  his  people  or — as  elsewhere — -for  all  those  whom,  the  Father  hath 
given  tinto  hint.  Numerous  expressions  found  throughout  the 
Symbols  convey  the  same  conception  of  our  L,ord  as  both  priest 
and  sacrifice — the  one  priest  and  the  one  sacrifice,  and  in  both 
aspects  the  one  and  only  Mediator. 

It  would  be  needless  to  quote  at  length  from  the  other  Prot- 
estant Confessions  in  order  to  show  how  universally  this  general 
view  of  the  priesthood  of  Christ  was  held  during  the  Reformation, 
and  how  fundamental  they  affirmed  it  to  be  in  its  bearings  on  the 
great  controverted  problem  of  justification  by  faith  in  him.  One 
can  hardly  take  up  a  single  creed,  even  the  most  minor  and  incom- 
plete, without  finding  this  doctrine  embedded  in  it  as  one  of  the 
foundations  of  evangeiical  belief:  see  the  Augsburg  Conf.  Art  IV; 
Form,  of  Concord,  Art.  Ill;  the  Belgic  Conf.  XXI;  the  French, 
XVII;  the  Second  Helv.  XV;  Heidelberg  Catechism  (40)  and 
others.  And  it  is  well  to  note  that  even  Roman  symbolism,  while 
emphasizing  unduly  the  intermediate  functions  of  the  church  and 
its  sacraments  and  priesthood,  was  obliged  in  the  Decrees  of  Trent 
(Ch.  VII,  on  Justification)  to  say  that  the  meritorious  cause  of  our 
salvation  is  our  L,ord  Jesus  Christ,  who  when  we  were  enemies, 
for  the  exceeding  charity  wherewith  he  loved  us,  merited  justifi- 
cation for  us  by  his  most  holy  passion  on  the  wood  of  the  cross, 
(in  ligno  crucis)  and  made  satisfaction  for  us  unto  God  the  Father. 
And  the  Orthodox  Confession  of  the  Greek  church  teaches  in 
like  manner  (45)  that  Christ  being  himself  without  sin,  hath 
purged  away  our  sin  and  its  penalty;  and  quotes  in  proof  the 
strong  language  of  Peter  that  we  are  thus  redeemed,  not  with 
silver  or  gold,  but  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ  (pretioso 
sanguine)  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish  and  without  spot.  So 
broadly  and  so  powerfully  has  the  doctrine  of  the  priesthood  and 
the  priestly  sacrifice  of  our  Immanuel,  resting  upon  the  clear  and 
abundant  testimonies  of  Scripture,  secured  its  place  among  the 
fundamental  tenets  of  Christendom. 

But  Protestantism  in  later  times  has  gone  far  beyond  Greek  or 
Roman  orthodoxy  in  defining  the  qualities  of  Christ  as  both  priest 
and  sacrifice,  and  in  describing  the  manner  in  which  his  offering 
of  himself  becomes  an  acceptable  satisfaction  to  divine  justice 
and  to  the  sacred  claims  of  the  divine  law.  The  official  qual- 
ifications of  our  L,ord  for  such  service  were  typified  in  part 
in  those  three  requisites  of  the  Mosaic  priesthood, — personal 
fitness,  direct  appointment,  actual  and  acceptable  ministration.  It 
should  be  remembered  here  that  the  Mosaic  system  had  through- 
out on  one  side  an  immediate,  and  on  the  other  a  remoter  but  main 


334  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

design  in  the  divine  plan  of  redemption.  Immediately,  it  was  an 
unique  religious  cultus,  divinely  adapted  to  work  in  the  Hebrew 
mind  obedience,  repentance,  faith,  consecration,  hope,  as  spiritual 
experiences.  But  more  remotely  yet  mainly,  it  was  designed, 
as  the  Confession  intimates,  (VIII:vi)  by  promises,  type?,  and 
sacrifices,  to  show  forth  Christ  and  his  coming  salvation.  Hence 
the  official  endowments  of  the  Jewish  priest  became  typical  of  his 
official  endowments  as  our  Mediator.  Still  these  far  surpassed 
those  of  the  Hebrew  priest,  and  even  those  of  the  high  priest,  in  the 
fact  that  the  person  of  our  I^ord  had  greater  inherent  dignity  and 
fitness,  that  his  appointment  was  more  conspicuously  divine  and 
glorious,  that  his  term  of  service  was  more  prolonged,  and  that 
his  offering  was  one  of  infinitely  greater  moment.  It  was  doubt- 
less for  this  reason  that  he  was  also  called  a  priest  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedek, — that  strange  antetypal  person,  whose  appearance 
and  mission  constitute  one  of  the  minor  mysteries  of  the  Penta- 
teuch. Yet  we  may  never  forget  that  neither  the  priest  in  his 
ordinary  dress  and  office,  nor  the  high  priest  in  his  impressive 
sacerdotal  robes,  nor  even  the  kingly  Melchizedek  whose  place  in 
Scripture  is  at  once  so  unique  and  so  honorable,  nor  all  together, 
can  equal  Him  who  for  our  salvation  condescended  as  a  priest  to 
offer  himself  as  a  sacrifice  on  Calvary. 

Similar  qualifications  are  seen  in  him  as  such  a  sacrifice — the 
L,amb  of  God  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  but  slain  his- 
torically on  what  was  at  once  a  cross  and  an  altar.  The  Hebrew 
victim  must  in  every  case  be  inherently  without  blemish,  must 
have  adequate  value  in  expression,  must  be  freely  offered,  and  be 
formally  accepted.  In  Christ  these  requisites  appear  in  their 
highest  form,  and  in  their  supreme  valuation.  He  was  intrinsic- 
ally sinless,  flawless,  perfect  as  a  sacrifice:  his  worth  as  such  is  set 
before  us  in  Scripture  as  infinite;  his  devotion  of  himself  was 
complete;  he  was  divinely  acceptable,  and  thus  at  every  point  was 
competent  to  secure  in  our  behalf  all  that  sacrifice  in  any  form 
could  secure  in  the  interest  of  reconciliation  between  us  and  God. 
Whatever  may  be  our  interpretation  of  the  method  in  which  such 
a  sacrifice  is  made  available  for  such  an  end,  the  transcendent  fact 
that  the  Mediator  was  thus  at  once  a  perfect  priest,  offering  himself 
as  a  perfect  sacrifice,  and  in  this  act  becoming  our  propitiation  be- 
fore God,  stands  out  before  us  everywhere  on  the  pages  of  the  Scrip- 
tures,— transcendent  and  in  certain  aspects  full  of  mystery,  but  on 
the  other  hand  replete  with  a  grace  and  a  glory  which  are  mani- 
festly divine.  It  is  of  vital  moment  to  emphasize  here,  as  the 
Symbols  do  not  always  seem  sufficiently  to  emphasize,  the  under- 


THE   PRIESTLY   OFFICE.  335 

lying  truth  that  both  the  priest  and  the  sacrifice  just  described,  are 
always  one  and  the  same  theanthropic  person.  Augustine  in  the 
Civitas  Dei,  (X)  points  out  this  double  aspect  of  the  priestly  medi- 
ation in  the  pregnant  sentence:  In  this  form  he  offered,  in  that  form 
he  was  offered;  because  he  is  our  Mediator  he  is  in  this  our  priest, 
he  is  also  in  that  our  sacrifice.  We  are  not  to  suppose,  as  some  of  the 
creeds  almost  appear  to  intimate,  that  the  priest  is  divine  and  the 
sacrifice  human:  still  less  may  we  assign  some  of  these  qualifica- 
tions to  the  Son  of  God,  offering  up  the  man  on  the  altar  of  media- 
tion, and  others  to  the  man,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as  if  there  were  two 
distinct  persons  engaged  in  the  great  transaction.  In  other  words, 
we  may  not  analyse  the  mediatorial  intervention,  in  this  priestly 
form  of  it,  in  any  such  measure  as  to  say  where  the  divine  and 
where  the  human  successively  appear,  or  where  either  disappears 
while  its  opposite  is  revealed  as  separate  and  alone.  It  is  indeed 
justly  said  in  this  chapter  that  Christ,  being  the  eternal  Son  of 
God,  became  man,  and  as  man  as  well  as  God  acted  and  suffered 
in  the  process  of  our  redemption.  But  while  we  adhere  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  two  natures  thus  conjoined  in  him,  we  must  inva- 
riably bear  in  mind  the  confessional  phrase,  two  distinct  natures 
and  one  person  forever.  It  is  that  one  Person  who  acts  as  priest,  and 
that  one  Person  who  suffers  as  our  sacrifice — one  and  the  same 
mediating  Person  throughout.  And  however  much  it  may  increase 
the  mystery  of  the  mediating  act,  we  must  always  reverently 
remember  that  he  who  both  offers  and  is  sacrificed,  is  throughout 
all  his  mediatorial  work  also  one  in  that  sacred  trinity  of  Persons 
who  together  constitute  the  one  eternal  Deity. 

The  nature  and  scope  of  the  satisfaction  rendered  hy  the  Medi- 
ator as  both  priest  and  sacrifice,  can  be  finally  considered  only  in 

the  two  subsequent    Lectures,   which 

M1  ,    .       ,    .  ,,,    .  -  12.    The   term,  Satisfac- 

will  bring  before  us  in  their  confes-     flon!  its  meaning  and  value. 

sional  and  theological  aspects,  first  the 

Plan,  then  the  Process  of  Salvation — that  sublime  scheme  and 
economy  of  grace,  in  which  the  mediatorship  of  Christ  in  its  three 
parts  or  functions  is  the  central  element,  and  of  whose  gracious 
ministries  salvation  is  the  blessed  result.  But  it  will  be  well  at 
this  point  to  consider  the  emphatic  statement  in  this  chapter,  that 
by  his  perfect  obedience  and  sacrifice  he  hath  fully  satisfied  the 
justice  of  his  father — or,  more  broadly,  the  divine  justice — and 
thus  has  purchased  for  all  who  believe  on  him  not  only  reconcili- 
ation, but  all  the  further  blessings  which  follow  thereupon.  In  the 
Larger  Catechism  (57)  we  are  taught  that  by  his  mediation  (which 
includes  his  priestly  sacrifice)  he  hath  procured  redemption,  with 


336  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

all  other  benefits  of  the  covenant  of  grace, — this  implying  that  his 
mediation  was  in  whole  and  in  all  its  parts  an  actual  and  a  perfect 
satisfaction.  And  in  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge  it  is  quaintly 
said,  that  God  before  the  world  began  gave  the  elect  unto  his  Son, 
our  Redeemer,  upon  condition  that  he  would  humble  himself  so 
far  as  to  assume  the  human  nature,  of  a  soul  and  a  body,  unto 
personal  union  with  his  divine  nature,  and  submit  himself  to  the 
law  as  surety  for  them,  and  satisfy  justice  for  them  by  giving  obedi- 
ence in  their  name,  even  unto  the  suffering  of  the  cursed  death  of 
the  cross.  In  like  manner  the  Catechism  of  Heidelberg  (37) 
affirms  that  all  the  time  he  lived  on  earth,  but  especially  at  the 
end  of  his  life,  Christ  bore  in  body  and  soul  the  wrath  of  God 
against  the  sin  of  the  whole  human  race,  in  order  that  by  his 
passion  as  the  only  atoning  sacrifice,  he  might  redeem  our  soul 
and  body  from  everlasting  condemnation.  The  Scotch  Confession, 
after  describing  in  painfully  graphic  terms  the  sufferings  of  the 
Mediator,  declares  that  he  endured  all  this  in  body  and  soul  to 
make  full  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  Such,  with  con- 
siderable variation  at  specific  points,  and  often  with  less  of  detail, 
are  the  declarations  of  the  Protestant  symbols  generally. 

The  term,  satisfaction,  appearing  first  as  a  technical  term  in 
the  Cur  Deus  Homo  of  Anselm,  and  adopted  throughout  the 
Symbols,  has  been  almost  universally  accepted  in  more  modern 
theology  as  expressing  in  a  general  way  the  mediating  work  of 
Christ,  but  more  specifically  his  priestly  sacrifice,  viewed  as  the 
special  propitiation  for  sin,  and  the  special  ground  of  our  recon- 
ciliation with  God.  It  has  its  nearest  equivalent  in  the  word, 
atonement,  which  appears  nowhere  in  the  Symbols  or  in  other 
kindred  formularies,  but  is  universal  in  Protestant  theology,  as 
descriptive  of  the  sacrificial  procedure  through  which  salvation 
is  secured,  and  the  sinner  becomes  henceforth  at  one  with  God. 
Another  kindred  term  is  expiation,  pointing  to  that  vicarious  sac- 
rifice wherein  Christ,  assuming  in  some  sense  the  place  of  sinners, 
supplies  as  a  substitute  an  adequate  reason  for  exempting  them 
from  the  penalty  due  to  their  transgressions.  The  term,  satisfac- 
tion, as  here  used,  designates  not  merely  the  complacent  feeling 
with  which  the  Father  regards  this  atoning  or  expiatory  work,  or 
merely  the  adequacy  or  sufficiency  of  that  work,  contemplated 
with  respect  to  the  end  in  view,  though  both  of  these  elements 
doubtless  enter  into  the  conception.  It  designates  more  centrallv 
the  mediatorial  act  in  itself,  and  especially  in  its  sacrificial  form, — 
that  salvatory  act  or  process  whereby  all  claims  against  the  sinner 
are  met,  and  an  adequate  basis  for  his   redemption  is  provided. 


SATISFACTION  :     NATURE    AND    VALUE.  337 

Viewed  as  to  its  contents,  the  term  is  employed  by  some  theo- 
logians comprehensively  as  including  the  active  as  well  as  passive 
obedience  of  Christ, — his  perfect  obedience  to  law  as  our  example, 
as  well  as  his  sufficient  sacrifice  under  law  :  others  limit  it  to  his 
passive  obedience  or  sacrifice  alone,  and  specially  to  his  submission 
unto  the  death  of  the  cross  in  our  behalf.  Edwards  (Work  of 
Redemption),  following  Aquinas,  runs  a  line  of  distinction  between 
the  satisfaction  and  the  merit  of  Christ,  in  the  statement  that  his 
satisfaction  was  designed  to  free  us  from  misery,  as  by  the  pay- 
ment of  the  debt  we  owe  as  sinners,  while  his  merit  purchased 
happiness  for  us  on  the  ground  of  what  he  has  suffered  expiato- 
rially  in  our  stead.  If  we  view  the  satisfaction  as  including  all 
that  is  implied  in  the  word,  merit,  we  may  with  the  Symbols 
regard  the  expiation  in  the  case  as  made  to  divine  justice,  strictty 
speaking,  or  simply  as  including  full  and  complete  compensation 
for  all  the  demands  of  the  divine  law  and  government,  against 
which  the  sinner  is  in  revolt.  As  to  its  nature,  this  satisfaction 
is  supposed  by  some  to  involve  an  actual  endurance  by  Christ  of 
the  penalty  itself  which  the  sinner  has  incurred,  such  that  the 
sinner  is  discharged  as  though  he  were  innocent;  by  others,  as 
being  simply  an  adequate  equivalent  for  that  penalty,  such  as 
secures  all  the  moral  results  which  would  have  been  obtainable 
through  the  punishment  of  the  sinner.  In  its  scope,  this  satis- 
faction is  in  the  Symbols  limited  in  extent  to  the  elect — to  those 
whom  the  Father  in  the  covenant  of  redemption  has  given  to  the 
Son  as  the  fruits  of  his  sacrifice.  Yet  there  were  members  of 
the  Assembly  (Minutes,  154-8)  who  regarded  it  rather  as,  in  the 
language  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XXXI),  an  oblation  ade- 
quate as  a  propitiation  and  redemption  from  all  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world. 

Many  of  the  intricate  problems  suggested  at  this  point,  and 
still  others  closely  related  to  them,  will  present  themselves  for 
more  thorough  consideration  in  our  future  inquiries  into  the  na- 
ture and  aim  of  the  Gospel  viewed  as  a  saving  scheme,  and  into 
the  true  character  of  justification,  regarded  as  that  act  of  free 
grace  wherein  God  pardoneth  all  our  sins  and  accepteth  us 
as  righteous,  in  virtue  of  the  satisfaction  rendered  to  him 
in  the  mediation  and  the  sacrifice  of  our  great  High  Priest 
who  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us.  In  the  presence 
of  such  problems  respecting  the  nature,  the  contents,  the 
scope  and  aim  of  this  gracious  procedure,  it  may  be  well  for  us  to 
bear  in  mind  the  profound  remark  of  Butler  that,  as  we  are  not 
judges  antecedently  to  revelation  whether  a  Mediator  was  or  was 


338  CHRIST    THE    MEDIATOR. 

not  necessary, so  the  Scripture  hath  left  the  matter  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  mysterious,  somewhat  in  it  unrevealed;  and  that  we  ought 
not  to  be  too  anxious  to  explain  the  efficacy  of  what  he  has  done 
and  suffered  for  us,  lest  we  fall  into  the  error  of  those  who,  be- 
cause they  could  not  explain  it,  have  been  for  taking  it  away, 
and  confining  his  office  as  Redeemer  of  the  world  to  his  instruc- 
tion, example,  and  government  of  the  church:  Whereas,  he  adds, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  is,  not  only  that  Christ  taught  the  effi- 
cacy of  repentance,  but  that  he  rendered  it  of  the  efficacy  of  which 
it  is  by  what  he  did  and  suffered  for  us,  obtaining  for  us  through 
such  action  and  suffering  the  benefit  of  having  our  repentance 
accepted  unto  eternal  life. 

,Nor  is  it  surprising  that  many  thoughtful  minds,  perplexed  by 
the  various  theories  and  explanations  current  respecting  the  medi- 
ation of  Christ,  are  disposed  to  rest  simpty  in  the  essential  fact,  as 
set  forth  in  Scripture,  however  great  may  be  the  mystery  involved. 
They  build  their  faith  on  the  revealed  truth  that  this  mediation, 
prophetic  and  priestly  and  kingly,  is  adequate  and  sufficient — in  a 
word,  is  satisfactory.  To  analyse  that  word,  (satis  facere)  enough 
has  been  done  by  our  great  Mediator  to  make  salvation  not  only 
possible  but  sure,  to  all  who  believe  in  him  and  his  grace.  Enough 
has  been  done  to  meet  every  demand  of  justice  either  in  God  the 
Father,  or  in  the  Godhead  generally,  or  in  the  incarnate  Son,  who 
could  neither  do  nor  suffer  anything  to  be  undertaken,  even  to 
save  the  world,  which  was  not  consistent  with  absolute  equity. 
Enough  has  been  done,  (it  may  not  be  unprofitable  to  suggest)  to 
appease  the  sentiment  of  justice  in  man  also,  since  the  sinner  could 
not  accept  a  salvation,  though  one  were  offered  him,  which  did  not 
conform  at  every  point  to  his  internal  sense  of  righteousness. 
Enough  has  been  done  to  sustain  the  dignity  and  sovereignty 
of  the  divine  law,  even  while  sinners  on  the  ground  of  this  medi- 
ation are  freely  forgiven  for  all  their  offenses; — enough  to  com- 
pensate for  all  the  injury  wrought  through  sin,  and  to  restore  and 
establish  forever  the  moral  order  and  harmony  which  sin  has  im- 
paired;— enough  also  to  protect  every  interest  of  moral  govern- 
ment, and  to  sustain  God  in  his  administration  over  the  moral 
universe,  even  though  a  world  of  rebels  against  that  goverment 
are  granted  amnesty  and  full  restoration  to  the  privileges  which 
their  sin  had  forfeited.  Enough  has  been  done  also  to  express  in 
fullest  form  and  glory  the  divine  compassion  for  our  fallen  race, 
and  to  exhibit  to  the  wondering  universe  the  amazing  grace,  that 
can  stoop  to  save  even  by  so  costly  a  process  a  creature  such  as 
sinful  and  corrupted  man.      Enough   has  been  done:    So  God  has 


CHRIST    AS   KING.  339 

declared  in  his  holy  Word  and  though  we  may  never  comprehend 

why  or  how  this  was  done  as  it  was,  we  may  with  the  learned 

and  profound  Bishop  of  Durham,  rest  with  absolute  peace  in  the 

blessed,  the  sublime,  the  saving  fact. 

Postponing  the  further  consideration  of  the  subject  until  we 

come  to  consider  in  detail  the  plan  and  the  process  of  salvation, 

we  may  now  turn  to  contemplate  briefly 

the    remaining    function,    the    kingly        13'    Christ  as  King::'  de- 
„-  -  . • ,     ~.    . '        .       £11  velopment  of  the  doctrine : 

office,   which   Christ  also  fills  as   our     biblical  warrant< 

Mediator.     In  the  Shorter  Catechism 

it  is  said,  (26)  that  he  executes  the  office  of  a  king,  in  subduing 
us  tinto  himself,  in  ruling  and  defending  its,  and  in  restraining  and 
conquering  all  his  and  our  enemies.  The  L,arger  Catechism  (45) 
adds,  that  as  king  he  calleth  out  of  the  world  a  people  unto  him- 
self, and  gives  them  offices,  laws  and  customs  by  which  he  visibly 
governs  them;  and  also  that  he  powerfully  orders  all  things  for  their 
good  and  his  own  glory,  and  takes  vengeance  on  all  who  reject  his 
authority  and  obey  not  his  Gospel.  Other  things  are  suggested 
in  the  definition,  such  as  the  bestowment  of  all  needful  grace, 
the  rewarding  of  obedience,  correction  in  case  of  sin,  and  royal 
support  under  all  temptation  and  suffering.  Additional  phrases, 
defining  this  kingship  at  various  points,  such  as  instruction  by  the 
authoritative  Word  and  Spirit,  and  intercession  at  the  throne  of 
justice,  and  the  final  judging  of  men,  are  added  in  the  chap- 
ter in  the  Confession :  and  in  the  chapters  that  follow,  we 
may  find  many  illustrative  statements  which  show  how  conclu- 
sively and  how  practically  the  doctrine  that  our  Mediator  is  also 
our  king  in  virtue  of  his  mediatorship,  was  held  and  affirmed 
by  the  Assembly. 

It  was  natural  that  this  sole  kingship  of  our  L,ord  should  have 
become  at  once  both  a  theoretical  and  an  intensefy  practical  truth , 
in  the  conviction  of  the  Reformers  generally.  Oppressed  as  they 
had  been  by  the  power  of  the  Roman  hierarchy,  and  restrained 
and  embarrassed  as  they  often  were  by  the  claims  of  civil  rulers 
within  the  sphere  not  merely  of  ecclesiastical  organization,  but  of 
spiritual  belief  and  worship  also,  they  were  spontaneously  inclined 
to  turn  away  to  Him  whom  holy  Scripture  describes  as  king  of 
kings  and  lord  of  lords,  as  their  supreme  and  ultimate  authority 
alike  in  faith  and  in  practice.  Zwingli  in  Switzerland  and  L,uther 
in  Germany,  and  the  divines  of  Holland  and  of  the  British 
Isles,  thus  became  alike  strenuous  in  insisting  upon  the  headship 
of  Christ  within  his  church  in  contrast  with  all  hierarchal 
authorities,  and  upon   his  absolute  sovereignty  in   the  religious 


340  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

sphere  above  all  the  asserted  rights  of  kings  or  princes,  even  in 
cases  when  these  potentates  were  at  heart  friendly  to  the  new 
faith.  In  his  Dedication  of  the  Institutes  to  his  Most  Christian 
Majesty,  Francis,  Calvin  speaks  with  great  emphasis  of  Christ 
whom  the  Father  hath  constituted  King  that  he  may  have  domin- 
ion from  sea  to  sea  .  .  .  and  that  he  may  rule  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  whole  earth,  with  its  strength  of  iron  and  with  its  splendor 
of  gold  and  silver,  smitten  by  the  rod  of  his  mouth,  may  be 
broken  to  pieces  before  him.  Romanism  had  affirmed  the  right  of 
the  church  to  rule  over  the  civil  state,  even  assuming  that  no 
monarch  or  emperor  could  properly  exercise  civil  sway  without 
churchly  benediction.  Protestantism  made  no  such  claim,  but 
rather  resisted  the  opposite  claim  of  the  state  to  interfere  in  church 
affairs.  It  was  agreed  in  holding  that,  although  the  state  is 
obligated  to  grant  secular  support  and  civil  protection  to  the 
church,  Christ  himself  is  the  sole  and  only  ruler  and  lord  within 
the  household  of  faith.  It  is  true  that,  when  the  Anabaptist  fac 
tion  in  Germany  undertook  to  carry  the  doctrine  of  the  headship  of 
Christ  so  far  as  to  refuse  to  pay  taxes  or  to  bear  arms  in  the  defense 
of  the  state,  Luther  and  his  successors  condemned  the  claim,  and 
denounced  Anabaptism  as  an  erroneous  departure  from  the  normal 
doctrine  of  Protestantism.  It  is  also  true  that  the  Reformation 
was  constantly  impeded  and  damaged  both  on  the  continent  and 
in  Britain  by  the  problem — unsolved  in  Europe  even  in  our  time 
— respecting  the  true  and  proper  relationship  between  the  Christian 
Church  and  the  Christian  State.  This  problem  will  come  up  for 
special  examination  at  a  later  stage  in  these  studies. 

But  we  have  only  to  examine  the  Scotch  Confession,  and  to  read 
the  illustrative  history  of  movements  civil  and  religious  in  Scot- 
land during  the  period  preceding  the  Assembly,  to  see  how  abso- 
lutely the  conception  of  the  kingship  of  Christ  had  embedded 
itself  in  the  Scottish  mind.  In  Art.  XI  of  that  Confession,  which 
treats  of  the  Ascension,  it  is  said  that  our  Lord  has  received  all 
power  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  and  sits  forever  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  inaugurate  in  his  kingdome.  In  Articles  XVI.  and 
XVIII.  which  treat  of  the  Kirk  and  of  the  notes  by  which  the 
Trew  Kirk  is  decernit,  this  royal  place  and  service  are  assigned 
to  Christ  alone,  as  the  only  mediator  and  the  only  head  of  the 
church.  And  if  in  Article  XXIV,  which  treats  of  the  Civil  Mag- 
istracy, more  than  this  is  granted  to  state  authorities  in  the  way  of 
jurisdiction  in  church  affairs,  the  subsequent  struggles  of  Scotch 
Presbyterianism  for  the  crown  rights  of  King  Jesus  have  made 
ample  amends  for  the  apparent  inconsistency  in  the  old  Confession.. 


CONFESSIONAL    AND    BIBLICAL   TESTIMONIES.  o4l 

The  Second  Confession  of  A.  D.  1580,  and  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  1581,  are  historic  illustrations  of  this  fact.  It  was 
natural  that  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  framed  as  they  were  by  the 
instruction  and  under  the  supervision  of  the  English  crown, 
should  say  nothing  specially  on  this  point,  beyond  the  recognition 
(XXXIV)  of  common  or  civil  authority  as  empowered  to  sus- 
tain the  traditions  and  ceremonies  of  the  church  against  open 
assailants.  But  the  Westminster  Assembly  was  convened  at  a 
period  when  the  headship  of  Christ  as  king  over  his  organized 
people  was  in  special  peril,  and  when  it  was  indispensable  to  assert 
in  its  Symbols  that  He  who  is  our  prophet  and  priest,  is  also  the 
divine  and  everlasting  king  of  saints.  The  intense  struggle  grad- 
ually developed  between  the  Assembly  and  the  Parliament,  as 
described  in  the  Minutes  (434-6),  and  in  English  history,  graph- 
ically illustrates  this  statement.  In  the  introduction  and  the 
earlier  portions  of  the  Form  of  Government  also,  as  they  appear 
not  in  the  amended  American  but  in  the  original  form,  this  doctrine 
is  presented  with  great  cogency,  and  in  language  drawn  directly 
from  the  Bible.  A  grander  declaration  of  the  supreme  kingship 
•of  our  Lord,  both  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  eternal  in  origin,  glori- 
ous in  administration  and  everlasting  in  results,  can  hardly  be 
found  elsewhere  in  religious  literature. 

All  this  is  fully  justified  by  the  plain  teaching  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. It  had  been  foretold  even  in  the  Pentateuch  that  he  who 
should  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent,  should  be  the  Shiloh,  Prince 
of  Peace,  unto  whom  the  gathering  of  the  nations  should  finally  be. 
Four  of  the  Psalms,  recognized  as  distinctively  Messianic,  combine 
to  set  forth  in  glowing  terms  the  glory  of  Christ  as  king  over 
humanity,  and  the  sweep  and  majesty  of  his  kingdom.  In  the 
prophetical  writings  we  discern  again  and  again  that  strange 
blending  of  imperial  worth  and  dignity  with  tragic  humiliation 
and  suffering,  which  was  such  an  enigma  to  the  devout  Hebrew, 
but  which  has  become  so  clear  to  us  in  the  light  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment story.  Our  Lord  himself  on  more  than  one  occasion,  and 
especially  in  his  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem  and  his  trial  before 
Pilate,  asserted  his  own  regal  authority,  and  demanded  human 
recognition  as  the  true  king  of  men.  In  the  apostolic  letters  it 
is  hard  to  say  whether  the  priestly  or  the  kingly  function  is  most 
prominent  in  the  delineations  of  his  mediatorial  work.  And  when 
we  turn  to  the  Apocalypse  and  there  behold  him  as  he  appeared 
to  John  on  Patmos,  and  appears  again  and  again  as  the  central 
figure  in  the  series  of  visions  which  make  up  the  substance  of  that 
remarkable  prophecy,  we  are  led  to  prostrate  ourselves  at  his  feet, 


342  CHRIST   THE   MEDIATOR. 

and  with  the  redeemed  and  the  angelic  host  to  recognize  and  revere 
him  as  indeed  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords  forevermore. 

This  kingship  of  Christ,  in  which  his  mediatorship  may  be  said 
to  culminate,  may  profitably  be  contemplated  in  two  antithetic 

aspects,  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly. 
14.    Nature  of  this  Kin?-     The  Symbols  direct  our  attention  chiefly 
ship:  its  earthly  and  heav-  ..     c  , .,.     c     it.    +  •  :     . 

to  the  former,  probably  tor  the  historic 
enly  aspects.  r  J     . 

reason  just  noted.     Turning  first  to  the 

earthly  aspect,  we  may  note  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  this 
world  is  primarily  and  mainly  a  kingdom  within  the  heart  of  his 
disciples, — a  kingdom  which,  in  apostolic  phrase,  is  righteousness 
and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  His  chief  rule  is  a  rule 
within  the  soul  and  life  of  the  believer:  there  he  is  absolute  law- 
giver, sovereign,  judge.  No  one  truly  embraces  him  and  his 
salvation  who  does  not  in  the  full  sense  accept  him  as  king,  no  less 
truly  than  as  priest  or  prophet.  In  every  genuine  disciple,  his  will 
becomes  the  supreme  rule  and  law, — as  supreme  as  the  will  of  God 
is  in  heaven  itself.  Thy  will  be  do  fie,  in  us  and  in  all  men,  on 
earth  as  in  heaven,  is  the  universal  prayer  and  purpose  of  his 
saints. 

Out  of  this  kingship  in  the  believing  soul,  emerges  his  kingship 
within  the  earthly  church.  Here  the  Confession  is  specially  em- 
phatic. In  chapter  XXV,  which  treats  of  the  Church,  it  is  said 
that  the  church  visible  is  the  ki?igdo?n  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  claim  of  the  papacy  to  assume  and  exercise  jurisdiction  in  his 
name  and  stead  is  declared  to  be  antichrist.  In  chapter  XXX,  on 
Church  Censures,  it  is  said  that,  being  thus  the  king  and  head  of 
the  church,  Christ  hath  appointed  a  government  therein,  distinct 
from  the  civil  magistrate;  and  in  the  next  chapter,  which  treats 
of  Synods  and  Councils,  it  is  said  that  such  official  bodies  may 
properly  exercise  the  power  which  Christ  hath  given  them  for  edifi- 
cation, and  none  other;  and  all  such  synods  and  councils  are 
warned  that  their  decisions  must  ever  be  consonant  with  the  Word 
of  God,  and  are  in  no  case  to  be  regarded  as  constituting  a  rule  of 
faith,  but  rather  simply  as  a  help  to  faith.  The  same  doctrine 
appears  in  the  Larger  Catechism  (53-4,  and  elsewhere),  and  in 
the  Form  of  Government,  Ch.  II,  where  the  headship  of  Christ 
in  his  church  is  made  the  sole  basis  of  its  authority,  and  of  its 
right  to  exercise  discipline.  This  headship  is  said  to  carry  with 
it  the  right  to  judge  of  doctrine,  to  define  duty,  to  prescribe  pro- 
cedure,— in  a  word  to  do  all  that  a  person  may  do  whose  sover- 
eignty is  just,  holy,  unquestionable,  continuous,  supreme. 

Nor  is  it  within  the  earthly  church  alone  that  Christ  exercises 


EARTHLY    AND    HEAVENLY    KINGSHIP.  343 

such  royal  prerogatives.  In  conjunction  with  the  Father  he  is 
unquestionably  the  Lord  of  providence  also,  ordering  all  things 
in  nature  and  in  human  life  in  the  interest  of  his  people  and  his 
kingdom.  As  his  earthly  miracles  show,  he  was  and  is  supreme 
ruler  over  the  physical  world,  subordinating  it  at  every  point  to 
his  own  dominating  will.  He  has  also  inherent  right  to  rule  in 
human  society  as  well  as  in  the  individual  soul,  and  to  regulate 
all  the  diversified  and  often  conflicting  affairs  of  society  according 
to  the  principles  of  his  holy  religion.  He  has  the  authority  intrin- 
sically to  dictate  laws  to  human  governments,  to  regulate  their 
policies  in  the  interest  of  justice  and  charity,  to  rebuke  all  wicked 
or  mischievous  schemes  within  the  state,  and  to  bring  all  states, 
nations,  empires,  as  well  as  individual  men  under  his  most  holy 
sway.  His  visible  church  may  not  indeed  attempt  to  enforce  his 
claims  at  any  of  these  points  by  physical  methods,  or  by  processes 
that  are  revolutionary  of  existing  conditions  in  society.  His 
sacred  empire  asks  for  no  armed  intervention,  no  partisan  move- 
ments, no  anarchistic  devices  to  sustain  it.  His  sway  in  human 
affairs  is  to  be  secured  by  spiritual  processes  only,  as  his  Gospel 
is  to  be  spread  abroad  in  the  earth  by  spiritual  agencies  alone. 
Yet  he  rules  supremely  among  men,  and  must  rule  more  and  more, 
because  he  is  what  he  is  by  both  nature  and  appointment,  King 
of  all  kings  and  Lord  of  all  lords  in  human  life. 

The  heavenly  side  of  this  divine  kingship  begins  to  appear  just 
at  the  point  where  the  estate  of  humiliation  and  the  estate  of 
exaltation,  hereafter  to  be  considered,  are  distinguished.  The  vic- 
tory over  death,  the  resurrection  from  the  tomb,  the  glorious 
ascension,  the  triumphal  entry  into  heaven,  the  enthronement  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  the  intercessory  function  there,  and 
the  regal  regulation  from  that  heavenly  throne  of  all  affairs  per- 
taining to  his  earthly  kingdom, — these  are  the  crowning  eviden- 
ces that  he  who  is  our  Mediator,  is  king  as  well  as  prophet  and 
priest  in  that  comprehensive  mediation.  Of  all  that  character- 
izes the  royal  experience  and  activity  of  Christ  in  heaven,  no 
sacred  writer  has  ever  been  inspired  to  speak:  what  Paul  saw  when 
he  was  caught  up  into  that  glorious  sphere,  only  sealed  his  lips  in 
silence.  What  the  redeemed  know  of  it  as  they  share  in  the  be- 
nignities of  his  blessed  sway,  we  may  learn  only  when  we  shall 
join  with  them  in  casting  our  crowns  before  him.  But  we  know 
and  are  assured  that  he  is  still  ruling  from  heaven  in  his  earthly 
church,  prescribing  for  it  laws  and  constitutions,  subduing  his  and 
its  enemies,  and  directing  all  human  affairs  with  reference  to  its 
millennial  triumphs. 


344  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

At  this  point  we  may  close  our  survey  of  the  three  functions  or 
offices  exercised  by  Christ  as  the  theanthropic  Mediator.     How 

vital  each  of  these  functions  is  in  its 

1 5.    The  Two  Estates :  Hu.     bearings  on  the  great  problem  of  recon- 
railiation  of  Christ ;  its  vari-       .......  •  ,- 

ous  features.  cihation,     we    may    in   part    discern, 

though  no  human  thought  can  possi- 
bly comprehend  their  indispensableness  or  their  worth.  How 
sublime  that  comprehensive  mediation  is  which  is  represented  sub- 
stantially in  them,  but  which  is  secondarily  described  in  the  Bible 
by  much  other  imagery  of  almost  equal  significance,  it  is  still  less 
possible  for  any  human  mind  to  appreciate,  in  all  its  transcendent 
elements  and  relations.  In  the  light  of  these  propitiatory  and  sal- 
vatory  functions,  the  one  and  only  Mediator  between  Deity  and 
our  sinful  race  rises  thus  before  us,  as  he  appeared  before  the 
inspired  apostle  on  Patmos,  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  Christianity, 
the  beginning  and  ending  of  all  spiritual  life  and  hope.  We  turn 
spontaneously  from  the  office  and  its  sacred  functions,  from  all  these 
delineations  of  what  he  did  and  suffered,  and  is  still  accomplish- 
ing for  our  reconciliation,  to  behold  the  Person  himself  as  disclosed 
in  the  inspired  Scriptures,  and  to  find  in  what  he  is  the  assurance 
of  our  real  and  everlasting  salvation  through  his  atoning  grace; 
we  bow  before  him  as  our  prophet,  our  priest  and  king,  our  one 
and  only  mediator,  advocate,  surety,  intercessor,  who  was  dead 
but  is  alive  forevermore. 

The  doctrine  of  the  two  antithetic  estates  of  Christ  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  mediatorial  office,  the  estates  of  humiliation  and 
exaltation  respectively,  does  not  appear  formally  in  the  Con- 
fession, but  is  elaborately  defined  in  the  two  Catechisms,  as  a 
kind  of  recapitulation  of  his  theanthropic  work  and  experience. 
The  terms,  humiliation  and  exaltation,  appear  in  many  of  the 
earlier  creeds,  and  the  facts  which  they  are  designed  to  describe,  are 
found  substantially  in  the  Confession,  as  indeed  they  are  discerni- 
ble everywhere  in  Protestant  symbolism.  But  the  grouping  of 
these  facts  under  the  head  of  estates — settled  and  prolonged  condi- 
tions or  modes  of  existence — is  peculiar  to  the  Catechisms,  and  is 
worthy  to  be  carefully  noted.  It  may  be  that  such  grouping  was 
suggested  by  the  marked  antithesis  in  the  conditions  of  the  Savior, 
as  described  in  the  earliest  Christian  creed,  or  possibly  by  that 
inspired  delineation,  the  most  formal  and  extended  confession  in 
the  New  Testament:  He  who  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified 
in  the  spirit,  seen  of  angels,  preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed 
on  in  the  world,  received  up  in  glory. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  humiliation  of  the  Mediator  began 


ESTATE   OF    HUMILIATION.  345 

with  the  kenosis — with  his  consenting  to  assume  and  wear  our 
human  nature,  and  his  actual  entrance  at  Bethlehem  on  a  real 
human  life.  This  was  not  a  beginning  of  existence,  but  was  a 
voluntary  passing  from  an  antecedent  estate  of  glory  and  blessed- 
ness which  he  had  with  the  Father  eternally,  to  an  inferior  mode 
of  existence,  involving  we  know  not  what  measures  of  limitation 
in  his  divine  prerogatives — what  degree  of  loving  abnegation. 
The  Shorter  Catechism  simply  says  of  it,  (27)  that  the  humilia- 
tion consisted  in  his  being  born,  and  that  in  a  humble  condition. 
The  Larger  Catechism  (47)  expands  the  statement  by  affirming 
that  in  his  conception  and  birth  he  consented  to  become  the  son 
of  man,  made  of  a  woman  of  low  estate,  and  born  of  her,  with  divers 
circumstances  of  more  than  ordinary  abasement.  We  have  already 
noted,  in  considering  the  significance  of  the  incarnation,  the  diffi- 
cult problems  involved  in  this  kenosis  or  emptying  or  abasement 
of  himself.  It  is  needful  here  only  to  note  again  the  serious 
error  involved  in  the  supposition  that  our  Lord  surrendered  his 
divine  mode  of  existence  for  a  human  mode,  or  that  he  aban- 
doned his  divine  attributes  in  becoming  a  man,  or  that  he  volun- 
tarily reduced  himself  to  a  state  of  dormanc3^,  in  wdiich  he  was 
unconscious  of  his  divine  nature  and  qualities.  Whatever  may 
have  tbeen  the  character  or  extent  of  his  depotentiation  or  his 
renunciation  of  the  right  to  exercise  deific  powers,  we  cannot  but 
adore  the  divine  condescension  involved  in  such  a  process,  and  the 
divine  love  that  prompted  it,  though  the  transaction  itself  tran- 
scends immeasurably  all  the  boundaries  of  human  thought, — ever 
recognizing  in  that  mysterious  process  in  all  its  phases  a  truly 
single,  truly  conscious,  truly  self -consistent  person,  God  as  well  as 
man  throughout. 

The  Larger  Catechism  (48)  describes  not  only  the  humiliation 
undergone  in  the  conception  and  birth,  but  also  that  prolonged 
humiliation  which  was  experienced  by  Christ  throughout  his  life, 
and  which  found  its  culmination  in  the  sacrifice  on  Calvary.  He 
submitted  to  the  authority  of  the  law  and  perfectly  fulfilled  its 
demands:  he  suffered  the  indignities  of  the  world;  he  endured 
the  infirmities  of  the  flesh  and  the  temptations  of  Satan,  and 
completed  all  in  the  death  on  the  cross.  The  humiliation  under- 
gone in  that  death  is  also  described,  (49)  as  including  the  betrayal 
by  Judas,  the  abandonment  by  the  disciples,  the  scornful  rejec- 
tion by  the  Jewish  people,  the  trial  before  Pilate,  the  torments 
inflicted  by  his  persecutors,  and  the  painful,  shameful  and  cursed 
death  of  the  cross.  There  are  some  expressions  in  the  description, 
such  as  conflict  with  the  terrors  of  death,  and  with  the  powers  of 


346  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

darkness  and  the  endurance  of  the  weight  of  divine  wrath,  which, 
like  some  corresponding  expressions  in  the  Confession  such  as, 
most  grievous  torments  immediately  i?i  his  soul,  must  be  interpreted 
with  great  care,  lest  in  our  use  of  them  we  dim  the  intrinsic  glory 
of  the  theanthropic  Person  who  for  our  sake  consented  thus  to 
suffer  and  even  to  die.  Lightfoot  in  his  Journal  reports  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  last  phrase,  and  the  Minutes  record  his  dissent  from 
it.  As  first  introduced  by  the  Assembly  in  its  revision  of  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles,  the  phrase  stood,  most  grievous  torments 
in  his  soul  from  God, — a  still  more  questionable,  if  not  erroneous 
proposition.  In  some  of  the  earlier  creeds  such  language  is  em- 
ployed to  such  an  extent,  and  with  such  intensity,  as  to  lead  us  to 
surmise  that  what  we  see  on  the  cross  is  not  our  Mediator  in  the 
totality  of  his  priestly  work  and  sacrifice,  but  a  man  and  a  man 
only.  The  Scotch  Conf.  (IX),  while  affirming  with  other  formu- 
laries that  Christ  suffered  the  wrath  of  his  Father,  protects  itself 
by  adding  that  he  remained  the  only  well-beloved  and  blessed  Son 
of  his  Father  even  in  the  midst  of  his  anguish  and  torment,  which 
he  suffered  in  body  and  soul  to  make  full  satisfaction  for  the  sins 
of  the  people. 

The  Larger  Catechism  (51)  proceeds  still  further  to  describe  the 
humiliation  of  our  Lord  after  death,  in  his  burial,  and  his  con- 
tinuing in  the  state  of  the  dead,  and  under  the  pozver  of  death 
for  a  time, — a  phrase  by  which  the  Westminster  divines  happily 
interpreted  the  ancient  and  perplexing  expression,  He  descended 
into  hell.  Where  the  spirit  of  our  Lord  was  during  that  period, 
or  how  he  was  occupied,  has  never  been  revealed.  Did  he  actually 
go  into  the  world  of  the  lost,  there  to  suffer  for  a  time,  as  some 
have  fancied,  the  tortures  of  the  condemned;  or,  as  others  have 
held,  to  show  himself  there  to  Satan  as  after  all  a  victor  over  his 
machinations;  or,  as  still  others  have  surmised,  to  preach  the 
Gospel  there,  and  thus  to  establish  an  economy  of  grace  and 
redemption  in  the  intermediate  life  for  those  who  perished  in  the 
flood,  or  for  other  specific  classes,  or  for  all  who  in  all  ages  may 
have  died  without  hearing  of  his  redemption  ?  Did  he  go  into 
heaven,  as  still  others  have  thought,  bearing  the  dying  thief  with 
him  into  paradise,  and  there  announcing  to  the  heavenly  host 
his  victory  over  death,  and  heralding  his  appointed  coming  to  his 
celestial  home  in  glory  ?  Did  that  divine  spirit  remain  in  stately 
silence  in  the  tomb,  in  holy  anticipation  waiting  for  the  hour  of 
its  reunion  with  the  lacerated  body  which  for  a  brief  season  it  was 
still  to  inhabit  on  earth  ?  All  that  we  truly  know  is  that  both 
body  and  spirit  remained  in  the  condition  into  which  the  tragic 


ESTATE   OP   EXALTATION.  347 

death  had  introduced  them,  and  in  that  sense  remained  under  the 
power  of  death,  until  the  glad  moment  of  the  resurrection  arrived. 
Neither  the  Catechisms  nor  the  Confession  attempt  to  determine 
the  speculative  controversies  respecting  the  Descensus  ad  Inferos, 
which  for  centuries  have  occupied  so  largely  the  attention  of 
Protestant  Christendom.  The  Formula  of  Concord  recognizes  the 
mystery  of  the  expression,  and  advises  caution,  as  Luther  himself 
had  done,  in  any  use  made  of  it.  The  Tridentine  Catechism 
expresses  the  faith  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  the  statement  that 
Christ  went  into  the  Ljmbus  Patrum  where  the  Hebrew  saints 
were  congregated,  in  order  to  give  them  deliverance.  The  ortho- 
dox Confession  of  the  Greek  Church  (XLJX)  impressively  says: 
Thou,  O  Christ,  as  to  thy  body  wert  in  the  sepulcher,  as  to  thy 
soul  wert  as  God  among  the  dead;  Thou  wert  in  Paradise  with  the 
thief,  and  likewise  on  the  throne  of  glory  with  the  Father  and  the 
Spirit,  since  thou  fillest  all  things,  but  art  circumscribed  by  none.* 
Happily  there  is  much  less  occasion  for  question  respecting  the 
antithetic  estate  of  exaltation;  which  according  to  the  Shorter 
Catechism  (28),  included  the  resurrec- 
tion, the  ascension,  the  enthronement  16*  Estate  of  Exaltation : 
4.  *.i       •  t.  -u      j    r  rx.    1-v  it.  j  .Li        Ascension,enthronement,in- 

at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  and  the     »__„,„        A  •  A      u. 
fe  tercession  and  judgeship. 

judgment  of  men,  particular  and  final. 

The  Larger  Catechism  (51-55)  introduces  in  addition  a  variety  of 
specific  features  or  elements,  in  some  cases  biblical,  in  others  specu- 
lative or  theological.  As  to  the  resurrection,  it  is  averred  that  the 
body  of  our  Lord  suffered  no  corruption  in  death,  inasmuch  as  it 
was  not  in  the  power  of  death  to  affect  that  sacred  organism.  It  is 
affirmed  that  he  rose  with  the  very  same  body  with  which  he  suffered, 
with  all  the  essential  properties  thereof,  but  without  mortality 

*In  the  occasional  quotations  introduced  from  the  representative  symbols 
of  Greek  Christianity,  such  as  the  Orthodox  Confession  of  the  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Oriental  Church  (Mogilas)  and  the  Longer  Catechism  of  the  Rus- 
sian church,  the  fact  has  not  been  forgotten  that  the  Eastern  church  in  its 
various  branches  is,  as  it  has  been  strikingly  characterized,  only  a  mummy  of 
Christianity  in  a  praying  posture.  But  these  largely  petrified  communions 
still  adhere  tenaciously  to  the  accepted  creeds  of  ancient  Christianity,'  spurn 
all  conceptions  of  development  or  progress  in  doctrine,  condemn  Romanism 
and  Protestantism  alike  as  heretical  and  sectarian,  and  declare  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  as  represented  in  oriental  Christianity  is  the  only  repository 
and  guardian  of  the  mysteries  of  grace  and  the  only  authoritative  interpreter 
of  the  truth  of  God.  The  Synod  of  Jerusalem,  1672,  which  closely  ap- 
proaches the  Council  of  Trent  in  confessional  importance,  affirms  (Art.  II) 
that  the  Holy  Scriptures  must  be  interpreted  not  by  private  judgment  but  in 
accordance  with  the  tradition  of  the  Catholic  Church,  which  cannot  err  or 
deceive  or  be  deceived,  and  is  of  equal  authority  with  the  Scriptures. 


348  CHRIST    THE    MEDIATOR. 

and  without  the  common  infirmities  belonging  to  sinful  man. 
It  is  alleged  that  this  body  was  truly  united  to  his  soul  again,  and 
that  Christ  rose  in  this  composite  form  by  his  own  power  on  the 
third  day, — thus  declaring  himself  to  be  the  Son  of  God  as  well  as 
Son  of  man,  and  hy  this  victory  over  death  manifesting  himself 
to  be  the  true  Lord  of  quick  and  dead.  And  it  is  comprehensively 
added,  that  all  this  he  did  as  a  public  person,  the  head  of  his 
church,  for  their  justification,  their  quickening  in  grace,  and  their 
support  against  enemies,  and  to  assure  them  of  their  resurrection 
from  the  dead  at  the  last  day. 

Similar  details  are  given  as  to  the  ascension  and  enthronement, 
and  to  the  two  heavenly  and  continuous  functions  of  intercession 
and  judgment.  It  is  said  that,  having  in  our  nature  and  as  our 
head  triumphed  over  all  our  enemies,  Christ  visibly  we?it  tip  into 
the  highest  heavens,  there  to  receive  gifts  for  men,  to  raise  up  our 
affections  hither,  and  to  prepare  a  place  for  us  where  himself  is 
and  shall  continue  till  his  second  coming  at  the  end  of  the  world. 
It  is  said  that  in  this  sublime  condition  he  is  not  only  endowed  with 
all  fullness  of  joy,  glory  and  power  over  all  things  so  that  he  can 
defend  his  church  and  subdue  its  enemies,  but  also  is  enabled  to 
furnish  gifts  and  graces  for  his  ministers  and  people,  and  to  make 
continual  inlercessio?i  in  their  behalf.  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
Catechism  sets  forth  this  intercession,  not  so  much  as  a  part  of  the 
priestly  function,  as  is  done  in  most  later  theology,  but  rather  as 
one  feature  or  function  of  his  royal  estate — the  intercession  of  a 
prince.  The  nature  and  efficacy  of  this  princely  intercession  are 
described  (55)  in  the  loftiest  terms.  The  ground  of  it  is  stated  to 
be  the  merit  of  his  obedience  and  sacrifice  upon  earth  as  applicable 
to  all  believers;  in  it  as  a  function  he  answers  all  accusations 
against  them  in  the  tribunal  of  justice,  and  procures  for  them 
peace  of  conscience  notwithstanding  their  daily  failings;  through 
it  they  are  said  to  have  access  with  boldness  to  the  throne  of  grace, 
and  to  find  acceptance  in  person  and  service  before  God. 

Christ  is  also  represented  in  various  places  in  the  Symbols  as 
the  proper  and  only  judge  of  men  according  to  their  individual 
characters  and  lives.  In  the  chapter  under  special  examination 
(VIII),  he  is  said  to  be  not  only  heir  of  all  things  but  judge  of  the 
-world, — of  both  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  ;  and  in  chapter 
XXXII,  it  is  declared  that  this  particular  judgment  occurs  at 
death,  and  is  therefore  a  continuous  function  consequent  upon  the 
work  of  mediation.  More  frequently  and  fully  he  is  represented 
as  the  final  Judge  of  quick  and  dead  at  his  second  coming,  which 
is  to  occur  at  the  end  of  time.     It  is  said  (87)  that  the  bodies  of 


HIS    ASCENSION    AND    TRIUMPH.  349 

the  wicked  are  then  to  be  raised  up  in  dishonor  by  him  as  an 
off e7ided  judge;  that  angels  as  well  as  men  (88)  shall  share  in  that 
final  adjudication;  and  (89)  that  upon  clear  evidence  and  full  con- 
viction of  their  own  consciences,  they  shall  receive  from  him  the  fear- 
ful but  just  sentence  of  condemnation.  He  is  (90)  appointed  judge 
of  the  righteous  as  well  as  the  wicked  ;  and  being  openly  acknowl- 
edged and  acquitted  by  him,  they  shall  share  with  him  in  the 
judging  of  reprobate  angels  and  men,  and  shall  by  his  grace  and 
authority  enjoy  an  eternity  of  holiness  and  of  bliss. 

This  vision  of  the  Mediator  thus  exalted  and  glorified  in  heaven, 
and  vested  with  such  transcendent  offices  there  in  the  interest  of 
his  Church,  is  one  in  which  the  creeds  are  essentially  agreed, 
though  with  variations  in  form  and  in  fullness  of  statement. 
Thus  the  Augsburg  Conf.  (Ill)  sets  forth  specifically  the  death 
and  burial,  the  rising  and  ascension,  the  enthronement  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father,  the  heavenly  dominion  over  all  creatures  for 
the  benefit  of  his  people,  and  the  final  judgment.  While  the 
Formula  of  Concord  comments  (IX)  on  the  Descensus  ad  Inferos 
as  representing  a  sublime  yet  mysterious  fact,  respecting  which 
we  are  not  to  inquire  too  curiously  in  this  life,  but  are  rather  to 
wait  for  the  revelations  of  the  life  to  come,  it  affirms  with  empha- 
sis the  triumphant  ascension  of  the  Mediator  into  heaven,  his  glory 
there,  and  his  final  judgment  at  the  end  of  the  world.  Zwingli 
in  his  Articles  declares  that  Christ  is  not  only  the  supreme  priest 
and  unique  mediator,  but  also  the  only  availing  intercessor  in 
heaven  for  the  saints.  The  first.  Helvetic  Conf.  (XI)  speaks  in 
eloquent  terms  of  him  as  victor  duxque  ac  pontifex  vere  sum?nus, 
our  mediator  and  intercessor  and  Lord,  living  forever  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father  as  the  source  of  all  blessing  to  his  people. 
Similar  statements,  more  or  less  complete,  may  be  found  in  other 
continental  symbols, — some  of  them,  as  the  Belgic,  specially  em- 
phasizing the  kingly  advocacy  and  intercession  of  Christ,  as  in 
contrast  with  the  Roman  dogma  of  priestly  intervention  and  pro- 
pitiation before  God.  The  Scotch  Conf.  devotes  three  Articles  to 
the  death  and  sepulture,  the  resurrection  and  the  ascension 
respectively,  emphasizing  in  the  last  the  celestial  advocacy  and 
the  final  judgment  and  eternal  triumph  of  the  Redeemer.  And 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  tersely  affirm  (III-IV),  not  only  that  he 
died  and  descended  into  the  place  of  departed  .spirits,  but  that  he 
rose  again  with  flesh,  bones  and  all  things  appertaining  to  the 
perfection  of  human  nature;  wherewith  he  ascended  into  heaven, 
and  there  sitteth,  until  he  return  to  judge  all  men  at  the  last  day. 

At  this  point  we  may  fitly  close  our  study  of  this  remarkable 


350  CHRIST   THE    MEDIATOR. 

chapter,  with  the  cognate  teachings  found  elsewhere  in  the  Sym- 
bols respecting  Christ  as  our  one  and 
17.  Final  summary:  mys.     onl      and    perfect    Mediator.      Much 
teries  involved :  faith  requi-  ,  .         ,  , 

.  more,  covering  his  redemptive  work, 

will  present  itself  for  earnest  "consider- 
ation as  we  turn  to  contemplate  the  great  plan  of  salvation  for 
which  his  mediation  provides  the  sufficient  and  sublime  basis,  the 
processes  of  grace  involved  in  that  plan,  and  the  precious  outcome 
of  this  mediation  in  spiritual  experience  and  life.  But  we  shall 
do  well  to  carry  with  us  throughout  all  our  further  studies  in  the 
Symbols  a  devout  sense  of  the  regulative  and  illumining  presence 
of  this  theanthropic  Person  on  whose  offices  and  functions  we 
have  been  meditating,  and  without  whose  gracious  and  vicarious 
intervention  there  could  be  no  salvation  for  our  fallen  race.  In 
all  such  studies,  we  shall  assuredly  fail  unless  we  walk  contin- 
uously in  the  light,  and  are  guided  by  the  tender  hand  of  Christ 
the  Mediator.  For  herein  lies  the  grandest  peculiarity  of  Chris- 
tianity as  distinguished  from  all  the  natural  faiths  of  the  world, — 
that  it  rests  fundamentally,  not  on  ceremonies  or  dogmas,  nor  on 
professions  or  organizations,  but  on  just  such  a  Person  as  Jesus 
Christ  is  seen  to  be  in  his  salvatory  mediatorship, — not  on  myths 
or  traditions  respecting  him,  but  on  the  historically  verified  facts 
concerning  his  incarnation,  mission,  teaching,  suffering, death  and 
resurrection,  as  at  once  the  anointed  prophet  and  priest  and  king 
of  mankind.  Whatever  of  value  there  may  be  or  may  not  be  in 
the  current  suggestions  of  a  Christocentric  theology,  as  distinct 
from  other  modes  of  constructing  theologic  systems,  there  can  be 
no  question  as  to  the  actual  concentration  in  Scripture  of  every- 
thing else  in  the  form  of  doctrine,  around  the  person  of  this  divine 
Mediator,  as  being  at  once  the  ordained  center,  the  illuminating 
principle,  the  organizing  life  of  the  entire  Revelation. 

In  concluding  this  survey,  we  may  well  bear  in  memory  the  fact 
that  there  is  ever  a  solemnizing  and  subduing  mystery  6f  godli- 
ness, as  Paul  describes  it,  enveloping  this  conception  of  Him 
who  was  thus  God  manifest  in  the  flesh  for  human  redemption. 
"We  cannot  measure  the  heights  and  depths  of  the  kenosis,  the 
grounds  and  reasons  of  the  incarnation,  the  combination  of  the 
divine  personality  with  the  human  nature,  the  strange  blending 
of  divine  energies  and  capabilities  with  the  limitations  common  to 
mankind,  and  the  other  insoluble  mysteries  which  at  least  in  this 
life  must  envelop  him  who  was  at  one  and  the  same  time  God  and 
man.  Nor  can  we  at  all  estimate  at  its  true  value  any  one  of  his 
sublime  offices,  or  know  with  any  adequate  degree  of  fullness  what 


SUMMARY    VIEW.  351 

he  was  and  is  and  will  continue  to  be  as  the  prophet,  priest,  king 
and  judge  of  mankind.  Least  of  all  can  we  follow  him  into  his 
transcendent  place  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  or  estimate 
adequately  the  multiplied  ways  in  which,  though  ascended  cor- 
poreally into  heaven,  he  is  still  enlightening,  empowering,  guiding 
and  ruling  his  church  and  people  on  the  earth,  and  ordering  all 
things  in  the  majestic  sweep  of  his  providence  for  good  to  them 
that  love  him.  These  enveloping  mysteries  no  finite  hand  can 
push  aside — no  mortal  eye  can  penetrate.  Yet  they  are  proper 
and  inevitable  concomitants  of  just  such  a  gracious  disclosure  as 
the  Mediator  came  to  make, — of  just  such  a  work  as  he  came  to 
do  in  and  for  our  lost  world;  and  the  heart  of  faith  can  only  bow 
down  in  their  presence  and  adore. 

It  is  a  memorable  fact  that  as  early  as  A.  D.  1555,  an  English 
congregation  or  church  was  organized  at  Geneva,  composed  chiefly 
of  persons  who  had  been  driven  out  from  Britain  by  the  persecu- 
tions under  Queen  Mary;  and  that  John  Knox  who  in  the  previ- 
ous year  had  been  prosecuting  his  studies  in  Geneva,  under  the 
personal  direction  of  Calvin,  was  one  of  its  associate  pastors.  He 
had  received  an  urgent  call  from  a  similar  congregation  of  exiles 
at  Frankfort,  and  at  the  commandment  of  Mr.  Calvin,  that  notable 
servant  of  God,  as  he  says,  he  had  entered  on  his  work  as  their 
minister.  But  he  soon  returned  to  Geneva,  and  remained  there 
from  A.  D.  1555  to  1559,  when  he  went  back  to  Scotland  and  be- 
gan his  grand  work  in  Britain  as  a  reformer.  One  among  the 
most  interesting  minor  creeds  of  the  period  is  the  short  and  simple 
Confession,  adopted  by  this  Genevan  congregation,  and  afterwards 
received  and  approved  by  the  Church  of  Scotland, doubtless  through 
the  influence  of  Knox.  We  may  well  appropriate  to  ourselves 
in  closing  this  Lecture,  the  substance  of  that  venerated  symbol. 
The  second  and  main  Article  in  it  is  a  declaration  of  belief  in  Jesus 
Christ,  the  only  Savior  and  Messias,  the  only  Son  of  God,  who 
took  on  him  the  shape  of  a  servant  and  became  man  in  all  things 
like  unto  us,  sin  excepted,  to  assure  us  of  mercy  and  forgiveness, 
.  .  .  who,  giving  us  by  grace  that  which  was  his  by  nature,  made 
us  through  faith  the  children  of  God,  .  .  .  who  of  his  free  mere}-, 
without  compulsion,  offered  up  himself  as  the  only  sacrifice  to 
purge  the  sins  of  all  the  world,  .  .  .  and  who,  because  he  would 
accomplish  all  things  and  take  possession  for  us  in  his  kingdom, 
ascended  into  heaven  to  enlarge  that  kingdom  by  the  abundant 
power  of  his  Spirit,  by  whom  we  are  most  assured  of  his  contin- 
ual intercession  toward  God  the  Father  for  us;  .  .  .  yet  is  he 
present  with  us  as  his  members  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 


LECTURE  SEVENTH— THE  PLAN  OF  SALVATION. 

Salvation  Defined  :  The  Divine  Plan  :  Covenant  of 
Redemption  :  Covenant  of  Grace  :  The  Gospel  :  Elec- 
tion :    Reprobation. 

C.  F.  Ch.  VII :  III,  v-vii :  L.  C.  12-13,  30-35 ;  S.  C.  16-20. 

While  the  supreme  purpose  of  the  creeds  of  the  Reformation 
was  to  set  forth  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ  the  Mediator,  in 
contrast  with  the  doctrinal  errors  and  sacerdotal  superstitions  oi 
Rome,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  commence,  as  they  generally 
did,  with  an  exposition  of  the  Mediator  himself  in  his  constitu- 
tion, his  qualities  inherent  and  official,  and  his  distinctive  functions 
or  offices  as  exercised  in  that  redemptive  work.  The  first  answer 
in  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  setting  forth  the  faithful  Savior, 
Jesus  Christ,  as  the  only  comfort  of  the  soul  in  life  and  in  death, 
illustrates  the  general  tendency  of  spiritual  Protestantism,  first  to 
describe  and  extol  Him  who  saves,  and  then  in  the  light  that 
shines  from  his  person  to  describe  and  magnify  his  great  salvation. 
So  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  the  most  technical  and  theo- 
logical among  the  continental  symbols,  brings  in  the  strong 
chapter  (XI),  De  Jesu  Christo  .  .  .  Unico  mundi  Salvatore, 
before  it  discusses  the  great  Evangel,  with  all  its  blessed  expe- 
riences and  results.  And  though  the  Westminster  Confession 
prefaces  its  remarkable  presentation  of  the  Mediator  divine  and 
human,  with  the  chapter  (VII)  on  God's  Covenant  with  Man,  it 
still  postpones  the  full  development  of  the  truths  which  that  title 
represents  until,  as  we  have  seen,  it  portrays  before  our  delighted 
eyes  the  Immanuel  himself,  who  represents  God  in  every  cove- 
nantal  relation,  and  through  whose  vicarious  intervention  God 
and  man  are  graciously  reconciled.  A  truly  spiritual  and  quick- 
ening theology  must  always  follow  this  order,  since  the  work  of 
the  Mediator  can  be  comprehended  only  in  the  illuminating 
instructiveness  of  his  Person,  and  since  it  is  the  Person  on  whom 
our  faith  must  really  be  fixed — the  Person  in  whose  hand  our 
hands  must  be  clasped,  before  we  can  comprehend  or  enjoy  exper- 
imentally the  salvatory  work  which  he  has  wrought  out  for  us  and 
for  mankind. 

Following   the  order  quite   generally   preferred   in   Protestant 


SALVATION    DEFINED.  35£ 

symbolism,  we  may  now  pass  from  the  contemplation  of  Christ  as 
the  one  and  only  Mediator  and  Savior  of  men,  to  examine  more 
specifically  the  glorious  scheme  of  salvation  which  he  came  into 
our  world  to  bring,— considering  it  with  respect  to  its  need  and 
nature,  its  formation  and  historic  development,  its  embodiment  in 
the  Gospel,  its  adaptation  and  efficacy  in  the  case  of  all  who  truly 
accept  its  gracious  provisions,  and  its  effect  on  those  who  willfully 
reject  them.  Much  that  is  included  in  this  broad  and  central 
section  of  Christian  doctrine,  has  already  come  before  us  more  or 
less  fully  in  the  consideration  of  man  especially  as  sinful  and 
fallen,  and  of  the  Savior  in  his  mission  and  his  offices  as  the 
anointed  Mediator  between  God  and  sinful  man.  But  in  contem- 
plating salvation  itself  as  a  divine  plan  for  the  deliverance  of 
mankind  from  the  corruption  and  guilt  of  sin,  it  will  be  needful 
to  study  with  reverent  care  every  essential  element  in  this  plan, 
and  to  comprehend  so  far  as  we  ma)r  the  principles  and  the  meth- 
ods and  provisions  incorporated  in  it.  In  a  word,  we  now  turn  to 
the  contemplation  of  the  Gospel — that  Gospel  of  deliverance  from 
both  the  guilt  and  the  power  of  sin,  which  Christ  came  among 
men  to  introduce  and  proclaim. 

It  is  incumbent  here  at  the  outset  to  note  with  utmost  thought- 
fulness  the  human  need  of  salvation,  and  of  just  such  a  plan  of 
salvation  as   that   which   Christianity 
sets  forth  as  the  only  hope  of  our  fal-        u    Salvation  defined:   its 

_,  ,        ,         ,      ,        need  and  nature. 

len  race.  Channmg  has  happily  de- 
fined salvation  on  its  subjective  side  as  a  rescue  from  moral  evil, 
from  error  and  sin,  from  the  diseases  of  the  mind,  and  a  res- 
toration to  inward  truth,  piety  and  virtue.  But  that  eminent 
representative  of  humanitarianism  sadly  failed  to  recognize  the 
objective  element  in  the  term,  as  including  not  only  such  spiritual 
restoration,  such  recovery  from  the  disease  of  sin,  but  also  deliv- 
erance from  the  guilt  and  the  condemnation  consequent  upon  sin, 
and  reconciliation  with  God  through  appropriate  mediation,  to- 
gether with  eternal  felicity  secured  through  the  divine  forgive- 
ness, and  based  on  personal  holiness  divinefy  wrought  within  the 
soul.  The  true  biblical  salvation  in  this  composite  form  has  its 
synonym  in  the  scriptural  term,  redemption,  which  is  also  a  com- 
posite term,  involving  not  only  inward  release  from  the  fetters  of 
sin,  but  legal  ransom  and  judicial  restoration  to  divine  favor 
through  the  vicarious  intervention  of  Christ.  Both  terms,  each 
in  its  subjective  and  its  objective  signification  combined,  are  essen- 
tial to  the  full  description  of  that  great  salvatory  procedure  pro- 
claimed in  Scripture,  of  which  the  propitiatory  mediation  is  the 


354  THE    PLAN    OF    SALVATION. 

ground,  and  whose  result  is  the  complete  and  eternal  reconciliation 
and  union  of  the  redeemed  soul  with  God. 

The  radical  contrast  between  this  redemptive  process  and  all 
other  modes  of  reconciliation  proposed  or  conceivable  by  man,  will 
be  more  readily  apprehended  after  the  essential  elements  in  this  pro- 
cess shall  have  been  considered.  It  is  important  here  simply  to 
emphasize  the  necessity  for  just  such  a  scheme  of  both  inward  puri- 
fication and  objective  justification  as  has  just  been  described.  That 
necessity  has  already  been  made  apparent  in  the  exposition  of  the 
biblical  doctrine  of  mediation.  That  significant  term  presup- 
poses, as  we  have  seen,  a  spiritual  alienation  induced  by  sin, 
whereby  man  has  become  separated  from  God,  and  is  living  in  a 
condition  of  both  orphanage  and  legal  condemnation.  It  presup- 
poses also  the  withdrawal  of  God  personally  and  judicially  from 
the  soul  that  has  thus  become  estranged  and  rebellious,  and  the 
providential  giving  over  of  that  soul  for  the  time  to  the  evils  which 
its  sinfulness  inevitably  induces.  Fellowship  and  communion, 
parental  regard  and  favor  on  one  side,  filial  love  and  obedience 
on  the  other,  become  impossible  under  such  moral  conditions. 
And  so  long  as  the  sinner  thus  persists  in  his  sinfulness,  so  long 
must  he  continue  to  wander  farther  and  farther  in  act  and  temper 
from  God,  and  so  long  must  God  continue  to  withdraw  himself, 
and  leave  the  sinner  more  and  more  to  the  misery  and  doom  con- 
sequent upon  his  rebellion.  These  fundamental  facts  are  indeed 
affirmed  with  utmost  solemnity  in  Scripture,  but  they  do  not  exist 
because  the  Scripture  affirms  them.  They  find  their  attestation 
immediately,  as  Butler  has  so  forcibly  shown,  in  the  consciousness 
of  every  soul  which  has  in  any  degree  discerned  the  character  and 
claims  of  God,  or  which  properly  apprehends  itself  in  its  relations 
to  God.  The  history  of  the  race,  the  experiences  of  men  in  all 
lands  and  times,  attest  them.  They  are  certified  by  the  testimonies 
of  the  profoundest  ethical  philosophy,  as  well  as  by  universal 
experience  and  observation.  The  Bible  describes  the  dark  reality 
in  all  its  palpable  and  awful  forms,  but  the  reality  could  not  justly 
be  questioned,  were  there  no  Divine  Word  to  certify  to  it.  Man 
knows  himself  a  sinner, perverse  and  alienated,  and  also  knows  that 
a  radical  disparity  in  character,  and  consequently  a  moral  and 
legal  chasm,  stretches  itself  out  between  him  and  God  because  he 
is  a  sinner. 

Nor  is  the  witness  of  Scripture  needful  to  convince  us  of  the 
peril,  the  hopelessness,  of  such  a  condition,  apart  from  divine 
grace.  Whenever  we  faithfully  study  ourselves,  taking  full  account 
alike  of    the  moral   forces   and    the    moral    disabilities   existing 


NEED    OF   SALVATION.  355 

within  us,  and  attempt  the  experiment  of  restoring  ourselves  by 
the  action  of  our  native  capacities  to  what  we  may  regard  as  an 
acceptable  spiritual  state  before  God,  we  are  at  once  convinced  of 
the  practical  impossibility  of  such  restoration.  The  difficulty  is 
spontaneously  seen  to  be  too  extensive  and  too  serious  to  be 
reached  through  personal  resolution  or  reform  or  any  kindred 
procedure,  originating  in  and  carried  forward  by  ourselves.  Some 
other  agency  than  our  own  evidently  must  be  brought  into  play 
for  our  complete  and  lasting  recovery.  And  on  the  side  of  God 
also  we  intuitively  perceive  that,  however  much  we  might  imag- 
ine ourselves  able  to  do  in  this  direction,  we  could  have  no  assur- 
ance whatever  that  God  would  regard  such  effort  as  satisfactory, 
or  would  be  reconciled  to  us  on  account  of  what  we  had  thus 
done  or  endeavored  to  do  in  the  way  of  restoring  ourselves  to  his 
favor.  And  back  of  all  this,  we  must  further  realize  the  demand 
of  offended  justice,  the  claims  of  violated  law,  and  the  guilt  and 
condemnation  consequent  on  such  violation;  and  confess  that  the 
probability  of  restoration  and  reconciliation  on  any  natural  basis 
is  wholly  unwarranted.  Nor  is  the  peril,  the  hopelessness,  of  the 
case  limited  to  the  present  life  only;  for  natural  theology  alone  is 
sufficient,  in  what  it  reveals  as  to  the  constitutional  development 
of  character  in  man  and  to  the  relation  of  character  to  destiny, 
to  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  this  sad  condition,  unless  divinely 
corrected,  will  be  everlasting.  Neither  here  nor  in  eternity  could 
the  sinful  and  estranged  soul  hope  by  any  personal  process  to 
secure  reconciliation  with  God. 

It  is  needful  here  to  affirm  this  profound  necessity  afresh,  be- 
cause it  furnishes  the  only  adequate  basis  for  the  conception  of  a 
divine  plan  of  salvation  from  the  pollution  and  the  condemnation 
of  sin.  That  necessity  is  indeed  included  in  what  has  been 
already  ascertained  concerning  the  moral  nature  and  condition 
and  needs  of  man,  and  also  in  what  has  been  said  respecting  the 
person  and  offices  of  Christ  the  Mediator.  Yet  this  spiritual  need 
cannot  be  too  often  or  earnestly  emphasized,  not  simply  as  a  truth 
affirmed  in  Scripture,  but  as  a  fundamental  fact  written  on  the  con- 
stitution and  verified  in  the  experience  of  the  race.  The  more  pro- 
found our  apprehension  of  this  need, — the  more  clear  and  strong  our 
convictions  respecting  the  desperate  condition  into  which  sin  has 
thus  reduced  mankind,  the  more  distinct  and  comprehensive  and 
effective  will  be  our  estimate  of  the  salvation  which  Christ  came  to 
our  earth  to  confer.  Hence  the  peculiar  stress  laid  upon  this  neces- 
sity, internal  and  external,  in  the  Protestant  creeds,  both  Lutheran 
and  Reformed.    Socinianism  with  its  Pelagian  conception  of  human 


356  THE   PLAN    OF   SALVATION. 

nature  might  assert  the  possibility,  or  even  the  actuality,  of  the 
restoration  of  the  human  soul  to  holiness,  and  therefore  to  renewed 
fellowship  with  God,  through  the  exercise  of  its  own  inherent 
energies  and  aspirations.  Roman  Catholicism  might  with  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  consistency  affirm  that  such  restoration  is  obtainable 
through  the  intervention  of  the  church — through  the  mediation 
of  the  priest  and  the  sacrifice.  But  Protestantism,  with  its  larger 
conception  of  what  spiritual  holiness  is,  and  its  deeper  view  of 
what  sin  is  as  both  a  corrupting  and  an  estranging  influence,  must 
maintain  that  the  case  of  humanity  is  hopeless,  unless  God  him- 
self shall,  as  the  Scriptures  declare,  bridge  the  chasm  through 
vicarious  mediation,  and  bring  the  sinner  back  to  an  estate  of 
reconciliation,  by  bringing  him  back  in  penitence  and  love  through 
Christ  to  himself.  On  this  fundamental  proposition  the  Protestant 
Symbols  earlier  and  later  are  alike  unequivocally  based;  without 
this  foundation  the  Protestant  theory  of  salvation  must  be  pro- 
nounced an  illusion. 

The  familiar  phrase,  Plan  of  Salvation,  current  in  nearly  alt 
evangelical  schools  of  thought,  is  employed  to  describe  somewhat 

more  specifically  the  divine  purpose  to 
2.    Plan  of  Salvation  de-     provide  a   redemptive  scheme   which 
fined:  This  Plan  eternal,sov-      ,      ,,     ,         .  ,  .     . 

.  should  adequately  meet  at  every  point 

ereign,  gracious.  >-■    -\  >i  A     I    i  ? 

this  universal  necessity,    and  should 

actually  save  all  who  would  accept  its  provisions,  not  only  from 
guilt  and  condemnation  but  also  from  the  inward  corruption  of 
their  sins,  and  bring  them  graciously  into  a  state  of  blessed  recon- 
ciliation with  God.  The  general  doctrine  respecting  the  decree  or 
decrees  of  God  already  considered  obviously  carried  with  it  as  one 
essential  part  the  conception  of  such  a  particular  decree  of  salva- 
tion,— an  eternal  purpose  which,  while  it  included  on  the  one  side 
the  permission  of  sin,  also  included  on  the  other  an  adequate  pro- 
vision for  human  deliverance  from  sin,  and  a  determination  to 
secure  such  deliverance.  We  have  seen  in  what  sense  and  meas- 
ure it  was  purposed  that  sin  should  exist  as  a  moral  experience. 
In  like  manner  was  it  designed  even  from  eternity,  that  man 
should  be  saved  from  the  sin  into  which  he  had  thus  been  per- 
mitted to  fall.  Such  a  purpose,  in  a  word,  was  as  truly  an  ele- 
ment in  the  universal  decree  as  the  creation  of  the  world,  or  the 
divine  administration  over  the  material  or  the  moral  universe. 

Nor  is  it  proper  to  regard  this  as  an  inferior  or  secondary  fea- 
ture of  that  generic  scheme  whereby,  in  the  language  of  the  chap- 
ter on  Decrees,  God  from  all  eternity,  according  to  the  counsel  of 
his  own  will,  freely  and  unchangeably  ordained  whatsoever  comes. 


THIS    PLAN   SOVEREIGN    AND    GRACIOUS.  357 

to  pass.  It  is  noticeable  that  in  that  strong  chapter  the  Westmin- 
ster divines  pass  on  almost  immediately  from  the  conception  of 
this  generic  purpose  controlling  all  things  alike,  to  the  specific  mat- 
ter of  salvation,  and  affirm  therein  not  only  that  God  from  all 
eternity  has  chosen  to  save  some  portion  of  the  human  race,  but  also 
that  eternally  he  has  foreordained  and  provided  all  the  means  there- 
unto. It  is  obvious  from  the  form  of  their  statement,  that  they 
contemplated  human  salvation  as  in  fact  the  greatest  work  of  God 
— greater  than  creation,  or  providential  or  moral  administration; 
and  therefore  placed  it  in  the  very  foreground  of  their  doctrinal 
system  as  the  grandest  illustration  of  that  comprehensive  scheme 
of  things,  which  they  sought  to  describe  under  the  title  of  the 
Eternal  Decree.  In  this  respect,  as  in  so  many  others,  they  sim- 
ply carried  out  in  more  elaborate  form  what  was  embedded  sub- 
stantially even  in  the  earlier  Lutheran,  and  still  more  fully  in  the 
main  Calvinistic  symbols.  Thus  the  Formula  of  Concord,  in 
describing  the  foreordination  of  those  who  are  saved,  says:  This 
predestination  or  election  extends  only  to  the  good  and  beloved 
children  of  God  and  is  the  cause  of  their  salvation,  for  it  procures 
their  salvation,  and  appoints  those  things  which  pertain  to  it. 
The  Catechism  of  Heidelberg,  the  Second  Helvetic,  and  some 
other  continental  creeds,  incorporate  the  truth  in  forms  still  more 
definite  and  complete.  In  the  Canons  of  Dort  the  divine  predes- 
tination, as  involved  in  the  conception  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  is 
put  into  the  front  as  Primum  Doctrinae  Caput,  and  this  gracious 
plan  or  purpose  is  elaborately  described,  in  accordance  with  the 
high  Calvinism  of  Holland,  as  the  supreme  act  of  Deity.  And 
in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XVII)  predestination  to  life  is  said 
to  be  the  result  of  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God  whereby  .  .  . 
he  has  constantly  decreed  by  his  counsel,  secret  to  us,  to  deliver 
from  curse  and  damnation  those  whom  he  hath  chosen  in  Christ 
out  of  mankind,  and  to  bring  them  by  Christ  to  everlasting 
salvation. 

It  is  important  further  to  note  that  this  divine  plan,  thus  formed 
from  eternity,  was  in  a  true  and  absolute  sense  sovereign.  We 
cannot  conceive  of  such  a  scheme  as  demanded  of  right  by  those 
whom  it  includes  in  its  holy  circle,  or  as  conditioned  in  any  way 
upon  their  consent  or  election.  Like  the  purpose  to  create,  it  was 
formed  antecedently  to  all  time, and  above  and  beyond  all  conditions 
which  any  creature  could  interpose.  The  formation  of  such  a  plan 
was  an  absolutely  free  procedure,  independent  of  all  extraneous 
claims  or  interpositions.  God,  in  other  words,  was  as  far  beyond 
and  above  all  coercing  causes  in  devising  this  gracious  scheme,  as 


358  THE   PLAN   OP  SALVATION. 

he  was  in  the  creation  of  the  world  or  of  man.  When  we  shall 
come  to  consider  the  application  of  this  scheme  in  the  actual 
deliverance  and  restoration  of  individual  sinners,  we  shall  be  ena- 
bled to  see  where  and  how  and  in  what  measure  the  will  of  man 
becomes  in  some  subordinate  sense  a  conditioning  factor.  But 
nothing  that  will  come  to  light  in  that  connection,  can  affect  the 
primal  fact  that  God  was  absolutely  free  in  planning,  as  he  is  also 
free  in  bestowing,  the  salvation  provided  in  the  Gospel.  Sover- 
eignty, wise,  holy,  gracious,  supreme,  sheds  its  own  golden 
radiance  on  both  the  purpose  and  the  execution. 

And  as  this  plan  was  eternal  in  its  origin  and  sovereign  in  its 
formation,  so  it  was  perfect  throughout,  not  only  as  an  expression 
of  all  the  inherent  attributes  of  Deity,  but  specifically  as  a  man- 
ifestation of  the  divine  love  for  our  race,  contemplated  as  fallen. 
It  was  no  arbitrary  scheme, springing  from  the  autonomy  of  an  abso- 
lute will  simply:  every  divine  perfection  shared  in  its  formation. 
But  most  of  all  is  it  comforting  to  regard  this  plan  as  the  supreme 
utterance  or  manifestation  of  pure,  holy,  inextinguishable  love. 
It  has  indeed  sometimes  been  represented  in  a  colder,  more  chilling 
light, — as  if  the  sovereignty  illustrated  in  it  was  the  edict  of  a 
monarch,  inscrutable  in  its  design,  inexplicable  in  its  disposition 
and  method.  The  language  of  the  Confession  is  regarded  as  in  some 
degree  open  to  such  an  imputation.  But  a  wise  and  just  theology 
will  rather  recognize  this  plan  as  at  the  beginning  conceived  in 
love,  and  as  executed  under  the  inspirations  of  a  love  which 
shrank  from  no  toil  or  sacrifice  requisite  to  secure  the  desired  recon- 
ciliation. We  shall  have  occasion  again  and  again,  as  we  progress 
in  our  studies,  to  recognize  this  fundamental  fact;  but  it  is  impor- 
tant at  the  very  outset  of  such  investigation  to  emphasize  as 
fundamental  the  truth,  that  this  plan  of  salvation,  while  eternal 
and  sovereign,  was  also  at  the  beginning,  as  it  is  in  all  its  gracious 
unfoldings,  a  plan  of  love. 

Another  phrase,  current  in  Calvinistic  theology,  though  not 
found  in  the  Symbols  or  indeed  in  any  conspicuous  Protestant 

formulary,  requires  brief  explanation  at 

3.  Covenantor  Redemption:  this  poiut_the  Covenant  of  Redemp- 
phrase  defined ;  errors  tebe     ,.  «.      „     f     .  ,        - 

avoided.  tion.     Hie  Confession  speaks  of  two 

covenants  only,  the  covenant  of  works 

under  which  Adam  was  placed,  and  through  whose  violation  he 

fell,  and  the  covenant  of  grace  established  between  God  in  Christ 

and  the  believer.     But  the  federal  theology  seemed  to  require,  in 

order  to  its  structural  completeness,  the  additional  conception  of 

a  covenant  between  the  persons  in  the  blessed  Trinity,  antecedent 


COVENANT    OF    REDEMPTION.  359 

to  both  of  the  preceding,  and  formed  even  from  eternity,  as  the 
primordial  basis  on  which  the  entire  dealing  of  God  with  man  in 
the  interest  of  salvation  might  rest.  This  conception  did  not 
indeed  make  its  way  into  the  Symbols,  yet  the  fact  which  the 
phrase  is  designed  to  describe,  is  clearly  suggested  in  the  confes- 
sional chapter  on  Christ  the  Mediator,  wherein  it  is  said  that  the 
Son  accepted  the  office  to  which  he  was  called  by  the  Father,  was 
appointed  and  endowed  for  this  office  by  the  Father,  and  by  dis- 
charging the  duties  involved  in  the  office  secured,  as  if  by  con- 
tract, salvation  for  sinful  man  and  heavenly  rewards  for  himself. 
A  half  century  later,  the  dogma  of  a  separate  covenant  of  redemp- 
tion, as  anteceding  in  time  the  covenants  of  works  and  of  grace, 
became  more  prominent  in  the  federal  theology,  especially  under 
the  influence  of  such  divines  as  the  younger  Turretin.  It  has 
since  then  retained  its  place  in  Calvinistic  theology,  and  appears, 
though  less  conspicuously,  in  our  own  time  as  an  illustrative  mode 
of  setting  forth  the  very  practical  truth,  that  not  the  Son  only, 
but  the  Father  also,  was  concerned  even  from  eternity  in  that  gra- 
cious plan  or  scheme  whereby  through  their  joint  activity  men 
are  saved.  There  is  also  some  warrant  in  Scripture  (Ps.  2;  110; 
and  Isa.  53)  for  the  presentation  of  this  vital  truth  under  the 
form  or  image  of  a  covenant,  in  which  these  divine  Persons  are 
contemplated  as  making  an  agreement  one  with  another,  giving 
mutual  promises,  prescribing  and  accepting  conditions,  specifying 
obligations,  as  is  done  in  human  contracts.  And  although  from 
the  nature  of  the  case  such  a  divine  contract  lies  entirely  beyond 
our  comprehension,  and  though  the  biblical  representations 
respecting  it  are  but  slight  and  largely  anthropomorphic,  it  may 
still  be  accepted  under  proper  limitations  as  helpful  in  the  effort  to 
apprehend  the  interest  and  the  gracious  purpose  of  the  entire  Deity 
in  the  scheme  and  process  of  salvation. 

Yet  there  are  two  errors  respecting  this  covenant  against  which 
we  are  to  be  guarded.  The  first  is  the  serious  error  of  attempt- 
ing to  analyse  this  divine  transaction  too  closely, — to  specify  too 
elaborately  what  each  of  the  parties  was  to  do  or  suffer  under  this 
contract,  and  especially  to  separate  these  parties  so  broadly  through 
such  analysis  and  specialization,  as  to  convey  the  impression  that 
they  are  two  divine  Beings,  rather  than  two  hypostases  or  subsis- 
tences within  the  one  holy  Godhead.  Detailed  descriptions  of 
what  the  Father  agrees  to  do,  and  what  the  Son  agrees  to  do, — of 
the  promises  and  pledges  made  on  either  side,  of  the  rewards 
guaranteed  by  the  Father  on  condition  that  the  Son  shall  faithfully 
perform  his  assigned  part  under  this  contract,  are  certainly  without 


360  THE   PLAN   OF   SALVATION. 

proper  measure  of  warrant  in  the  Bible,  and  are  liable  to  lead 
those  who  follow  such  analysis  too  closely  into  a  pernicious  form 
of  tritheism.  Such  attributing  to  this  celestial  transaction  the 
technicalties  of  a  human  compact,  is  not  only  unsustained  by 
Scripture,  but  is  fraught  with  spiritual  peril.  A  really  painful 
illustration  of  this  error  may  be  seen  in  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowl- 
edge (Head  II)  where  this  covenant  is  described  as  a  bargain 
between  God  the  Father  and  God  the  Son,  with  specialized  gifts, 
promises,  stipulations,  conditions,  pledges,  perquisites  on  the  one 
side  and  the  other, — the  whole  becoming  a  legal  or  commercial 
contract,  transacted  as  between  two  wholly  independent  parties. 
It  is  another  equally  serious  error  to  represent  the  Father  and 
the  Son  as  the  only  parties  contracting  in  this  divine  covenant. 
The  Spirit,  whose  relations  to  the  actual  salvation  of  men  are  cer- 
tainly not  to  be  regarded  as  inferior  to  those  of  the  first  and  the 
second  persons  in  the  Trinity,  is  rarely  if  ever  recognized  as  a 
distinct  party  in  this  divine  transaction.  Thus,  Hodge,  (Theol. 
11:359)  describes  the  covenant  of  redemption  as  a  compact  between 
the  Father  and  the  Son  only;  and  Shedd,  (11:360)  affirms  that  the 
contracting  parties  here  are  the  first  and  second  persons  of  the 
Trinity;  the  first  of  whom,  as  he  says,  promises  a  kingdom,  a 
glory  and  a  reward,  upon  condition  that  the  second  performs  a 
work  of  atonement  and  redemption.  Yet  surely  the  office  and 
work  of  the  Spirit  are  no  less  a  part  of  the  great  plan  of  salva- 
tion than  those  of  either  Father  or  Son,  and  there  appears  no 
adequate  reason  why  this  covenant  should  not  include  him  as  truly 
as  either  of  them.  If  there  were  terms,  promises,  conditions, 
pledges,  distribution  of  functions  and  offices,  specific  rewards 
in  the  case,  certainly  the  Spirit  must  have  been,  not  merely  a 
passive  spectator  of  such  agreement,  but  an  actual  sharer  in  it, 
covenanting  to  do  his  part  also,  his  equally  essential  part,  in  the 
sublime  work  in  whose  furtherance  the  whole  Deity  is  generally 
represented  in  Scripture  as  engaged.  Any  other  view  is  inconsis- 
tent with  the  universal  doctrine  of  Christendom  that  these  three 
persons,  being  alike  God,  are  equal  in  power  and  glory,  and  that 
notwithstanding  all  economic  division  of  personalities,  they  are 
and  forever  remain  one  Being.  Nor  does  the  procession  of  the 
Spirit  from  the  Father,  or  from  Father  and  Son,  imply  any  such 
inferiority  in  his  relation  to  this  sublime  work,  as  would  justify 
us  in  excluding  him  from  participation  in  this  primal  covenant. 
In  the  purpose  and  work  of  human  salvation,  as  in  their  nature 
these  Three  are  One, — one  Being  whom  no  theology  ought  ever  so 
to  separate  or  analyse  as  to  suggest  tritheism  in  whatever  form. 


COVENANT    OF    GRACE.  -">*>1 

Comprehensively  viewed,  the  two  phrases,  plan  of  salvation  and 
covenant  of  redemption,  represent  not  two  independent  transact- 
ions, but  antithetic  parts  of  one  and  the  same  transaction 
wherein  God,  Father  and  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  formed  the  pur- 
pose to  save  fallen  man,  devised  the  process  and  method  of  salva- 
tion, provided  on  every  side  the  divine  aids  requisite,  and  as  in  holy 
covenant  entered  each  upon  his  appointed  share  and  division  of  that 
supreme  work.  And  it  adds  immeasurably  to  our  sense  of  the  sig- 
nificance and  preciousness  of  these  phrases,  if  we  suffer  them  thus  to 
carry  us  back  of  our  personal  birth,  back  of  the  incarnation,  back 
of  the  first  Messianic  promise,  back  of  the  creation  of  the  earth  and 
man,  back  of  all  recorded  time,  to  that  august  eternity  in  which  the 
Godhead  dwelt  alone;  and  if  they  shall  enable  us  to  discern  even 
in  that  eternity  the  blessed  Trinity  meditating  upon  the  condition 
of  our  sinful  race  yet  to  be,  and  in  holy  union  and  infinite  grace 
devising  that  scheme  of  deliverance  whose  development  in  time, 
specifically  in  the  incarnation  and  mediatorship  of  Jesus  Christ, 
is  the  wonder  of  wonders  in  human  history,  as  it  will  be  the  song 
(if  the  redeemed  and  of  angels  in  glory  forever. 

It  is  important  to  recall  at  this  point  what  has  been  said  in  a 
previous  Lecture  respecting  the  covenant  of  life  or  of  works — 
styled  in  the  Irish  Articles,  the  cove- 
nant of  the  Law— which  stands  out  in        4-   Covenant  of  Grace :  the 
**.     a      u  1     /r»i     tm-s  •       •   -a  necessity  of  gracious  inter- 

the  Symbols  (Ch.  VII)  in  vivid  con-     D0Sjtj0n 

trast  with  the  covenant  of  grace  or  of 

the  Gospel,  now  to  be  considered  as  an  element  in  the  plan  of 
salvation.  Mitchell  has  conclusively  shown  (Hist.  West.  Assem- 
bly) that  the  theology  of  the  covenants,  though  it  received  its 
fullest  elaboration  in  Holland,  had  been  known  and  to  some  con- 
siderable extent  accepted  in  Britain,  prior  to  the  convening  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly.  Besides  other  evidences,  he  adduces  the 
remarkable  Treatise  of  the  Covenant  of  Grace  by  Ball,  published 
during  the  sessions  of  the  Assembly,  with  commendatory  notices 
from  several  of  its  members,  in  which  the  whole  subject  is  elabo- 
rately discussed.  It  is  an  additional  fact,  interesting  to  us,  that 
almost  simultaneously  with  this  there  appeared  from  the  pen  of 
John  Cotton  in  New  England  a  similar  volume,  entitled  a  Treatise 
of  the  Covenant  of  Grace  as  it  is  dispensed  to  the  Elect  Church 
effectually  unto  Salvation.  In  the  volume  of  Ball  the  covenant 
of  works  or  of  life  is  defined  as  a  mutual  contract  or  agreement 
betwixt  God  and  man,  wherein  God  promiseth  all  good  things, 
especially  .eternal  happiness,  unto  man  upon  just,  equal  and  favor- 
able conditions,  and  man  doth  promise  to  walk  before  God  in  all 


362  THE   PLAN   OF   SALVATION. 

acceptable,  free,  willing  obedience,  expecting  all  good  from  God 
and  all  happiness  in  God.  The  covenant  of  grace  is  defined  in 
like  manner  as  that  free  and  gracious  promise  which  God  of  his 
mere  mercy  made  in  Jesus  Christ  with  man,  a  miserable  and 
wretched  sinner,  promising  unto  him  pardon  of  sin  and  eternal 
happiness,  if  he  will  return  from  his  iniquities,  embrace  mercy 
reached  forth  by  faith  unfeigned,  and  walk  before  God  in  sincere, 
faithful  and  joyous  obedience.  Ball  proceeds  to  describe  minutely 
the  historic  evolution  of  the  latter  covenant,  from  its  first  revela- 
tion to  Adam  down  through  the  patriarchial  period  and  the  Mosaic 
and  Hebraic  eras,  until  it  attained  its  final  development  in  the 
new  covenant  or  testament,  made  with  sinners  through  Christ  as 
the  appointed  Mediator  in  the  economy  of  grace. 

This  historic  reference  helps  to  explain  the  distinct  place  which 
the  Covenant  Theolog3^  secured  for  itself  in  the  Symbols.  Both  of 
the  covenants,  as  defined  by  Ball,  are  incorporated  in  them.  As 
we  have  seen,  it  is  declared  in  the  Confession  (VII :  i)  that,  in 
order  to  bring  himself  more  fully  into  human  consciousness,  and 
to  grant  mankind  a  larger  fruit ion  of  himself  as  their  true  blessed- 
ness and  rezvard,  God  was  pleased  to  establish  between  our  first 
parents  and  himself  a  form  of  covenant — a  more  familiar  and 
winning  type  of  relationship,  which  should  induce  in  them  a  live- 
lier faith  and  hope,  and  should  stimulate  them  to  higher,  nobler 
obedience.  Having  already  considered  this  original  covenant  as  to 
its  purpose  and  nature,  in  connection  with  the  story  of  the  temp- 
tation and  the  fall,  it  is  needful  here  only  to  emphasize  the  fact 
of  the  divine  tenderness  and  care  for  man  manifested  in  such  con- 
descension as  is  here  described.  The  statement  was  introduced  at 
this  point  doubtless  to  guard  against  a  possible  impression  that  the 
command  to  refrain  from  eating  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  the  per- 
mission of  temptation  to  assail  man  even  in  Satanic  form,  exhibit 
God  in  cold  sovereignty  rather  than  in  paternal  love,  determining- 
that  man  should  be  seduced  and  should  fall  from  his  uprighteous- 
ness.  Hence  it  is  said  that  God  was  pleased  in  his  infinite  holiness 
to  express,  not  his  sovereignty,  but  his  tender  regard  for  man  in 
this  special  form  of  covenant, — a  covenant  of  works,  wherein  life 
was  promised  to  Adam  and  in  him  to  his  posterity,  upon  condition 
of  perfect  and  personal  obedience.  There  is  certainly  no  warrant 
in  the  Scriptures  for  any  other  view  than  that,  so  far  as  the  divine 
desire  was  concerned,  such  fruition  of  God  as  the  supreme  blessed- 
ness and  reward  of  our  first  parents,  was  the  end  sought  in  and 
through  this  covenant,  which  is  therefore  fitly  styled  in  the  Cate- 
chisms a  covenant  of  life  as  well  as  of  works. 


LAW    AND    GRACE    IN    CONTRAST.  363 

The  following  sections  of  the  same  chapter  (VII)  describe  the 
failure  of  man  to  avail  himself  of  the  privileges  offered  to  him  in 
that  covenant,  and  declare  that  after  this  failure  and  in  consequence 
of  it,  God  was  pleased  to  make  with  man  a  second  covenant — the 
covenant  of  grace.  The  suggestion  of  such  a  covenant  appears 
in  the  Irish  Articles  (21,  30),  in  contrast  with  the  covenant  of  the 
law,  and  in  the  Canons  of  Dort  (Second  Head,  Art.  VII),  where 
it  is  styled  the  new  covenant;  but  is  not  found  distinctively  in  the 
creeds  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  the  Symbols  it  is  definitely 
described  not  only  in  the  Confession,  but  in  both  Catechisms; 
tersely  in  the  Shorter  (20)  but  quite  elaborately  (30-36)  in  the 
Larger,  which  not  only  incorporates  but  expands  the  theological 
concept  of  the  Confession.  The  occasion  of  this  gracious  covenant 
appears  in  what  is  said  in  chapter  VI.  with  regard  to  the  condition 
into  which  the  fall  plunged  man,  the  loss  of  original  righteousness 
and  of  filial  communion  with  God,  the  defilement  of  all  the  facul- 
ties and  parts  of  soul  and  body,  the  death  in  sin,  and  the  forfeiture 
of  all  the  blessings  which  a  career  of  holy  obedience  would  have 
secured.  In  the  order  both  of  thought  and  of  time,  the  covenant 
of  grace  must  have  followed,  as  is  said,  upon  the  failure  of  the 
covenant  of  life.  Though  the  plan  of  salvation  by  this  process 
was  eternal  as  a  purpose  in  the  divine  thought,  its  chronologic 
manifestation  must  be  consequent  upon  the  historic  fact  of  the  fall, 
and  the  justifying  reason  for  it  must  appear  in  the  awful  destruc- 
tion which  the  sin  of  man  has  brought  upon  him.  This  necessity 
had  indeed  been  foreseen  even  from  the  remotest  eternity,  and  in 
eternity  the  scheme  of  deliverance  had  been  formed;  but  there 
must  have  been  first  a  covenant  of  works,  and  man  must  have 
failed  to  live  up  to  that  covenant,  and  consequently  have  been 
plunged  into  an  estate  of  sin,  before  this  covenant  of  grace  could 
be  introduced  and  manifested  in  time. 

The  statement  of  the  Larger  Catechism  (31)  that  the  covenant 
of  grace  was  made  with  Christ  as  the  second  Adam,  and  in  him  with 
all  the  elect  as  his  seed — a  transaction  occurring,  like  the  covenant 
of  redemption,  between  the  Father  as  representing  the  Deity,  and 
the  incarnate  Son  as  representing  mankind,  or  the  elect  among 
mankind — should  be  so  interpreted  as  to  harmonize  with  the 
teaching  of  the  Symbols  elsewhere.  As  the  parties  to  the  first 
covenant  were  God  and  man,  so  the  parties  to  the  second  must  be 
regarded  as  God  and  the  believer, — the  covenant  being  indeed 
mediated  and  secured  through  Christ  as  a  surety,  }ret  involving  in 
order  to  its  saving  operation  the  consent  and  acceptation  of  the 
individual  souls  for  whom  Christ  has  thus  mediated.     This  is  the 


3(i4  THE    PLAN    OF    SALVATION. 

view  suggested  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  and  also  in  the  Confession 
(VII),  where  the  covenant  of  grace  is  represented  simply  as  a 
divine  offer  of  life  and  salvation  through  Christ,  upon  condition 
of  faith  and  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  believer,  coupled  with 
a  direct  promise  of  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  believing  and 
accepting  willingly  this  gracious  offer.  In  the  subsequent  sections 
of  the  chapter  where  the  practical  administration  of  the  covenant 
is  described,  under  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  the  same 
representation  of  the  human  factor  in  the  case  is  clearly  given. 
Christ  is  indeed  the  procuring  and  meritorious  cause,  but  the 
trustful  and  obedient  assent  of  the  human  soul  is,  though  in  a 
different  sense  and  sphere,  a  condition  no  less  indispensable.  The 
covenant  is  made  with  believers  directly  rather  than  indirectly,  but 
not  with  them  as  independent  of  Christ,  their  Redeemer  and 
surety;  it  is  rather  made  with  them  in  him. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  plan  of  salvation  as  described  in  this  chapter 
and  elsewhere  in  the  Symbols:  a  plan  formed  in  eternity  yet  in 

full  view  of  the  condition  of  man  as 

5.    Plan  of  Salvation,  its     a   fallen  being;-formed  also  in  sov- 

histonc    unfolding:    Types  .  „.._.      ,  ,     .  , 

and    promises    realized  in     erelSnty  yet  m  infinite  love,  and  with 

Christ.  Just  recognition  of  every  requisite  in 

the  case  on  both  the  divine  and  the  hu- 
man side, — a  plan  in  every  feature  adequate,  including  all  that  is 
needful  either  to  the  inward  cleansing  or  to  the  judicial  deliver- 
ance of  all  who  will  accept  its  gracious  provisions.  The  remain- 
ing sections  of  the  chapter  bring  before  us  in  an  interesting  manner 
the  story  of  the  historic  unfolding  of  this  redemptive  scheme. 
The  fourth  simply  describes  the  biblical  representation  of  this 
covenant  as  a  testament  or  a  will,  and  explains  the  usage  by 
referring  to  the  death  of  Christ  as  the  testator,  and  to  that  ever- 
lasting inheritance  which  in  dying  he  bequeathed  to  those  who  by 
faith  in'him  and  justification  through  him  become  his  heirs.  As 
the  same  Greek  word  is  translated  by  both  terms,  and  as  the  latter 
had  some  special  significance  in  view  of  its  use  in  connection  with 
the  Supper  of  our  Lord,  and  also  of  its  general  use  as  descriptive 
of  the  older  and  the  newer  Scriptures  respectively,  it  seemed  to  the 
Assembly  important  to  associate  the  two  terms  together  as  represen- 
tations under  different  images  or  aspects  of  one  and  the  same  gra- 
cious transaction.  What  is  in  one  aspect  a  covenant  is  in  another 
aspect  a  testament,  and  both  covenant  and  testament  are  alike 
included  in  the  one  scheme  of  salvation  through  the  one  and  only 
Mediator.  In  the  Revision  it  was  proposed  that  this  section,  and 
also  two  phrases  occurring  elsewhere  in  the  chapter,  And  is  called 


ITS    HISTORIC    UNFOLDING.  365 

the  Old  Testament,  And  is  called  the  New  Testament,  be  stricken 
out  as  superfluous.  As  they  stand,  they  are  probably  misleading 
rather  than  helpful. 

The  fifth  section  describes  that  beautiful  evolution  of  this  scheme 
historically  in  the  Old  Testament,  which  begins  with  the  earliest 
Messianic  promise,  and  ends  with  the  latest  prediction  concerning 
the  coming  Messiah.  That  evolution  commences  with  the  disclosure 
of  a  deliverance  to  come,  made  first  to  Eve  in  immediate  conjunction 
with  the  curse  pronounced  on  her  sin,  then  to  Noah  and  to  Shem 
among  his  sons,  afterward  to  Abraham  (repeated  to  Isaac  and 
Jacob) ,  and  finally  to  Judah  among  the  sons  of  Jacob,  in  the  assur- 
ance that  from  him  the  predestined  Shiloh,  Prince  of  Peace,  should 
spring  forth — the  attracting  Savior  of  all  the  nations.  It  appears 
again  in  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  system,  its  priesthood  and  sacrifices 
and  ordinances,  fitted  indeed  primarily  to  be  a  religious  cultus, 
working  into  the  Jewish  mind  the  principle  of  obedience  and  faith 
and  devotion,  yet  intended  mainly  to  be  typical  of  a  higher  dispen- 
sation to  follow,  all  fore-signifying  Christ  to  come; — a  gracious  dis- 
cipline, in  every  part  sufficient  and  efficacious,  through  the 
operation  of  the  Spirit,  to  i?istruct  and  build  up  the  elect  in  faith 
in  the  promised  Messiah.  We  see  the  same  evolution  in  the  moral, 
even  more  conspicuously  than  in  the  ceremonial  law  of  Hebraism, 
as  it  advances  from  the  earlier  and  simpler  and  more  negative 
requisitions,  unfolds  its  sacred  claim  along  more  spiritual  lines, 
grows  in  the  sphere  of  its  jurisdiction  and  in  the  solemnity  of  its 
mandates,  until  at  length  it  becomes  a  holy,  supreme,  perfect 
mode  and  rule  of  life,  not  for  the  Hebrews  only,  but  for  all  man- 
kind. We  see  it  also  in  the  progressive  disclosures  of  inspired 
doctrine,  from  the  more  primary  and  fundamental  truths  respect- 
ing the  divine  existence  and  attributes  and  relations  to  men,  on- 
ward through  all  the  added  and  superadded  revelations  of  God  as 
the  Father  and  Sovereign  of  mankind,  and  the  consequent  reve- 
lation of  man  to  himself  as  disobedient,  corrupt,  perishing  in  sin 
without  a  Redeemer.  We  may  see  it  remarkably  manifested  in 
that  succession  of  prophecies  which,  starting  from  the  pentateuchal 
germ,  flowed  forth  in  steadily  increasing  beauty  and  fruitfulness 
in  the  psalms  and  in  the  prophetical  writings,  ever  approaching 
more  and  more  nearly  the  perfect  consummation  of  all  in  the  pre- 
dictions respecting  the  babe  of  Bethlehem,  the  Savior  of  man- 
kind. How  far  the  Westminster  divines  carried  out  this  conception 
of  a  fivefold  evolution  of  promise,  prophecy  .  .  .  and  other  types 
and  ordinances,  delivered  to  the  people  of  the  Jews  in  the  time  of 
the    law,    and  constituting — as  they  said — the  old  testament  or 


366  THE    PLAN    OF    SALVATION. 

covenant,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine  from  their  formularies.  It 
certainly  is  remarkable  that  in  that  age  they  should  have  dis- 
cerned so  much  of  that  divine  method  of  unfolding  truth  and 
grace  and  that  principle  of  evolution,  which  we  in  later  times 
have  found  to  be  the  coalescing  law  in  all  the  older  Scriptures, 
binding  them  into  an  indissoluble  unity  from  Genesis  to  Malachi 
around  the  central  truth  of  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus. 

From  this  conception  of  the  divine  economy  as  revealed  in  the 
Old  Testament,  they  passed  on  in  the  section  following  to  describe 
Christ  the  substance,  of  whose  person  and  mission  all  that  had  pre- 
ceded was  prophetic  and  typical.  Here  they  are  careful  to  say 
that  we  are  to  find  herein  not  two  covenants  differing  in  essence, 
but  one  and  the  same  under  various  dispensatio?is.  They  teach 
us  that,  although  in  the  higher  economy  of  the  Gospel  as  realized 
in  Christ  these  ceremonial  and  external  elements  in  religion  are 
fewer  in  number  and  have  more  simplicity  and  less  outward  glory, 
the  plan  of  salvation  is  therein  held  forth  in  more  fullness ,  evide?ice 
and  spiritual  efficacy,  and  that  it  is  presented  as  such  not  to  the 
Hebrews  only,  but  to  all  nations  doth  Jews  and  Gentiles.  They 
describe  the  ordinances,  fewer  and  simpler  yet  far  more  effectual, 
in  which  the  new  covenant  was  dispensed, — specifically,  the 
preaching  of  the  Word  and  the  administration  of  the  two  Sacra- 
ments instituted  by  our  Lord.  And  here  they  pronounce  the 
sacred  evolution  complete  and  perfect  for  all  time;  affirming  else- 
where that  the  whole  counsel  of  God  in  all  things  needful  for  his 
own  glory  or  for  the  faith,  life  and  salvation  of  men  are  therein 
set  forth;  and]  that  to  this  completed  revelation  nothing  is  at  any 
time  to  be  added,  whether  by  the  traditions  of  men  or  through  the 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

A  proper  apprehension  of  the  principles  and  methods  in  which 
this  beautiful  evolution,  not  simply  of  doctrine  and  law,  but  of 
every  other  essential  element  in  the  divine  scheme  of  grace  mani- 
fests itvSelf,  is  indispensable  to  a  right  interpretation  of  either  the 
earlier  or  the  later  Scriptures.  It  is  conceivable  that  God  might 
have  unfolded  at  once  to  the  Jewish  people  as  a  body,  or  simulta- 
neously to  all  nations,  his  benign  plan  for  the  salvation  of  the  race. 
But  there  are  even  to  our  narrow  perception  some  practical  rea- 
sons,— lying  partly  in  the  nature  of  the  truths  to  be  made  known, 
partly  in  the  degree  of  receptive  capacity  in  men,  and  partly  in 
the  quality  and  greatness  of  the  moral  ends  to  be  gained, — why 
such  an  unfolding  should  be  made  as  it  was  made  in  fact  by  a  more 
gradual  process,  continued  through  long  periods  of  time  and 
marked  by  a  wide  variety  as  well  as  an  extensive  series  of  specific 


THE   GOSPEE   DEFINED.  367 

disclosures,  until  the  mind  of  man,  darkened  and  corrupted 
through  sin,  should  be  elevated  to  the  point  where  it  could  per- 
ceive and  duly  appreciate  the  divine  display  of  grace — the  divine 
purpose  to  educate  and  persuade  and  save,  as  finally  made  known 
to  the  world  in  the  incarnation  and  mediatorship  of  the  Son  of 
God.  We  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  such  successive  disclosures 
as  a  series  of  dispensations,  the  Patriarchal,  the  Hebraic,  the 
Christian,  differing  somewhat  in  their  contents,  their  spirit,  their 
scope.  But  while  such  chronologic  distribution  has  for  our  minds 
a  certain  degree  of  helpfulness,  it  will  be  well  for  us  always  to 
remember  that  the  divine  process  was  continuous,  steadily  progres- 
sive, exhibiting  all  the  while  higher  and  higher  elements,  larger 
and  larger  manifestations  of  the  divine  purpose,  until  it  reached 
its  final  culmination  in  the  Messiah  and  the  Gospel.  The  proper 
key  to  the  Old  Testament  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  throughout  an 
historical  record,  preserving  by  inspiration  so  far  as  needful  for 
the  spiritual  enlightenment  of  the  race,  the  story  of  this  gradual 
unfolding  of  the  divine  plan  of  redemption;  and  the  proper  key 
to  the  New  Testament  lies  in  the  corresponding  fact  that  it  is  an 
historical  record,  similarly  preserved,  of  the  completion  and  con- 
summation of  that  prolonged  unfolding  in  the  Gospel  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus:  Oehler,  Theol.  of  the  Old  Testament;  Bernard, 
Progress  of  Doctrine  in  the  New  Testament. 

Passing  on  from  the  examination  of  these  introductory  phrases 

and  statements  as  they  are  brought  before  us  in  this  chapter,  we 

come  at  once  upon  the  central  and  sig- 

■  c                    s-    j.  /  •       i_-  -l  n.         1  6.    The  Gospel  defined  as 

mncant  term,  Gospel,  in  which  the  real     „ «„_    -  _    .. 

r    '  a  System  of  Truth. 

substance  of  the  chapter  is  chiefly  con- 
tained. The  term  appears  already  at  two  points  in  the  Confes- 
sion; the  first  referring  simply  to  the  four  narratives  of  the  life  of 
Christ  as  given  in  the  canonical  books  of  Scripture;  and  the  sec- 
ond, very  incidentally,  at  the  close  of  the  chapter  on  the  Eternal 
Decree.  But  here  the  word  stands  out  in  special  prominence  as 
representing  all  that  characterized  the  new  economy  or  testament 
as  distinguished  from  the  old.  It  appears  again  in  the  impressive 
chapter  (XIX)  on  the  L,aw  of  God,  where  we  are  taught  that 
Christ  in  the  Gospel  in  no  way  dissolves  but  rather  strengthens 
and  emphasizes  the  obligation  of  men  to  obey  the  law,  and  also 
that  true  obedience  to  the  law  is  not  contrary  to  the  Gospel,  but 
rather  sweetly  complies  with  it.  We  find  it  again  in  the  chapters 
on  Worship  and  on  the  Sacraments;  and  in  the  subsequent  chapter 
on  Baptism  it  is  said  that  none  but  a  minister  of  the  Gospel — one 


368  THE    PLAN   OF   SALVATION. 

duly  appointed  by  the  church  to  proclaim  what  is  recognized  as 
the  Gospel — should  administer  that  churchly  sacrament.  Several 
instances  of  like  use  may  be  seen  in  the  Larger  Catechism  (53,  61 , 
72,  191)  as  the  commission  to  preach  the  gospel  to  all  nations,  all 
that  hear  the  gospel  are  not  saved,  the  gospel  propagated  through- 
out the  world;  and  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  (31,  86) ,  freely  offered 
to  lis  in  the  gospel — a  phrase  appearing  in  the  definitions  of  both 
effectual  calling  and  saving  faith.  In  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowl- 
edge it  is  repeatedly  used  as  a  synonym  for  what  is  there  styled 
the  covenant  of  grace  and  reconciliation. 

In  the  absence  of  any  exact  definition  of  the  term,  we  are  left 
to  gather  up  from  the  general  teaching  of  the  Symbols  a  concrete 
view  of  its  meaning  in  the  two  obvious  aspects  in  which  it  is 
there  presented;  first,  as  a  revelation  of  saving  truth,  or  of  the 
plan  of  salvation  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures;  and  secondly,  as  a 
divine  proclamation  and  offer  of  salvation  based  on  that  reve- 
lation: 

Contemplated  first  as  a  revelation  of  religious  and  especially 
saving  truth,  the  term  in  its  most  primary  sense  .signifies  (god- 
spel)  the  story  of  God  in  his  being  and  his  relations  to  men  and 
claims  upon  them;  or  more  specifically,  (good-spell)  the  story  of 
the  person,  messiahship  and  mediation  of  God  in  Christ.  It  is 
the  great  Evangel,  as  the  Synod  of  Dort  styled  it, — the  glad  tid- 
ings told  in  the  four  evangelic  narratives  respecting  the  incarna- 
tion, activities,  teachings,  sufferings,  death  and  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  the  Immanuel,  the  mediating  Redeemer  of  men.  In 
other  words,  it  is  the  story  supernaturally  told  and  divinely 
authoritative  respecting  the  plan  of  salvation,  first  conceived  in 
eternity  but  fully  revealed  in  time  at  the  advent,  and  made  known 
to  men  through  the  personality  and  the  mediatorial  ministry  of 
Him  who  from  eternity  was  the  predestined  prophet  and  priest  and 
king  of  mankind.  The  frequent  use  of  the  term  in  the  New 
Testament  (nearly  ninety  instances)  may  be  noted  as  illustrative 
of  its  meaning:  in  the  majority  of  these  instances  it  refers  simply 
to  the  recorded  revelation  concerning  Christ  or  concerning  the 
way  of  salvation  through  him.  Of  the  vast  array  of  truth  embod- 
ied in  this  wonderful  term,  it  is  impracticable  here,  to  speak  in 
detail.  That  truth  rises  in  its  scope  far  above  all  ordinary  knowl- 
edge; it  transcends  all  human  sciences  or  philosophies;  it  relates 
directly  to  what  is  religious  in  human  thought  and  experience. 
Nor  is  it  religious  truth  in  any  general  or  secondary  aspect,  but 
such  religious  truth  as  bears  vitally  upon  the  spiritual  life  in  man, 
and   concerns   itself    immediately  with  his  immortal  nature  and 


THE   GOSPEL  :     ITS   CONTENTS.  369 

destinies.  It  is,  in  a  word,  such  truth  respecting  God  and  man, 
their  several  characters,  their  vital  relations,  their  fellowship 
secured  through  grace,  as  is  centered  in  the  correlated  term,  sal- 
vation. And  it  is  this  truth  not  as  revealed  in  nature  but  as  set 
forth  in  the  inspired  Scriptures,  and  especially  in  so  much  of  these 
Scriptures  as  brings  before  us  the  one  Mediator  between  God  and 
man,  in  all  that  he  did  and  suffered,  all  that  he  said  and  was  as 
our  Redeemer,  and  enables  us  to  see  in  and  through  him  how  we 
may  be  saved  alike  from  sin  and  from  condemnation.  Calvin 
tersely  defines  the  Gospel  as  comprehending  all  those  testimonies 
which  God  gave  to  the  fathers  concerning  his  mercy  and  paternal 
favor:  but  eminently,  the  proclamation  of  the  grace  exhibited  in 
Christ. 

The  language  of  the  Symbols  as  to  the  substance  and  doctrinal 
contents  of  this  Gospel  is  full  of  interest.  In  the  chapter  spec- 
ially under  notice,  it  is  said  that  God  offers  unto  sinners  life  and 
salvation  by  Jesus  Christ  on  condition  of  faith  in  him,  and  prom- 
ises to  give  his  Holy  Spirit  to  men  in  order  to  make  them  willing 
and  able  so  to  believe.  In  the  succeeding  chapter  it  is  said  that  by 
his  perfect  obedience  and  sacrifice  Christ  has  purchased  not  only 
reconciliation  for  sinners,  but  also  an  everlasting  inheritance  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven;  and  that  for  all  who  believe  on  him,  he  has 
obtained  complete  redemption,  and  has  provided  all  spiritual  help 
and  blessing  thereunto,  in  such  manner  and  ways  as  are  most  con- 
sonant with  his  -wonderful and  unsearchable  dispensation.  So  in  the 
subsequent  chapters  (X-XV)  on  Effectual  Calling,  Justification 
and  Sanctification,  Faith  and  Repentance,  the  glad  tidings  are 
described  in  various  aspects  as  the  manifestation  of  a  divine 
scheme  for  the  forgiveness  and  spiritual  restoration  of  sinners  in 
all  these  particulars,  in  and  through  what  Christ  has  done  and 
suffered  in  their  behalf.  In  the  Larger  Catechism  it  is  said  (59) 
that  this  redemption  is  certainly  applied  and  effectually  communi- 
catedto  all  those  for  whom  Christ  hath  purchased  it;  that  (69) 
in  virtue  of  his  mediation,  justification  and  adoption  and  sanctifi- 
cation are  guaranteed  to  all  believers;  that  by  this  process  (70)  all 
sins  are  pardoned,  and  the  person  of  the  sinner  is  accepted  and 
counted  as  righteous  in  the  sight  of  God;  and  (75)  that  all  sinners 
are  through  Christ  renewed  in  their  whole  man  after  the  image  of 
God,  having  the  seeds  of  repentance  unto  life  and  all  other  sav- 
ing graces  implanted  in  them,  and  nourished  and  strengthened 
within  them,  until  they  become  dead  unto  sin  and  are  raised  as 
from  the  dead  into  newness  and  freshness  of  spiritual  life. 

These  expressions  harmonize  well  with  the  descriptions  of  the 


370  THE    PLAN    OF   SALVATION. 

Gospel  scattered  through  the  earlier  creeds.  The  Catechism  of 
Luther  and  the  Augsburg  Conf.  (IV-V)  furnish  the  keynote  for 
the  whole,  and  the  responsive  note  may  be  heard,  clear  and  full, 
in  the  Articles  of  Ulrich  Zwingli  and  in  the  succeeding  Reformed 
symbols.  The  first  Helvetic  Conf.  (XI-XII),  speaks  of  the  great 
Evangel  of  Jesus  Christ,  offering  grace  and  benediction  to  men  in 
and  through  him  as  a  mediating  Savior.  In  the  Second  Helvetic 
Conf.  the  Gospel  is  defined  as  that  glad  and  happy  tidings  wherein, 
first  by  John  Baptist,  then  by  Christ  the  Lord  himself,  and  after- 
wards by  the  Apostles  and  their  successors  is  preached  unto  us  in 
the  world,  that  God  hath  now  performed  that  which  he  hath 
promised  from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  and  hath  sent,  yea, 
and  given  unto  us  his  only  Son  and  in  him  reconciliation  with  the 
Father,  remission  of  sins,  all  fullness  and  everlasting  life.  The 
Heidelberg  Catechism  (18)  describes  this  Mediator  as  freely 
given  to  us  for  our  complete  redemption  and  righteousness,  and 
affirms  that  this  supreme  fact  becomes  known  to  us  (19)  through 
the  holy  Gospel,  which  God  himself  first  revealed  in  Paradise, 
afterward  proclaimed  by  the  holy  patriarchs  and  prophets,  and 
foreshadowed  by  the  sacrifices  and  other  ceremonies  of  the  law, 
and  finally  fulfilled  through  his  well-beloved  Son.  In  the  French 
Confession  and  in  some  other  continental  formularies,  the  term 
is  used  chiefly  with  reference  to  the  Scriptures  as  containing  the 
announcement  or  the  promise  of  salvation  through  Christ;  while 
in  others  as  the  Belgic  and  the  Canons  of  Dort,  it  points  imme- 
diately— as  in  the  Symbols — to  the  truth  itself,  the  spiritual  and 
saving  truth  imparted  in  the  sacred  writings.  The  Second  Scotch 
Confession  speaks  of  the  blessed  Evangel  which  is  received, 
believed  and  defended  by  many  and  sundry  kirks  and  realms  as 
God's  eternal  Truth,  and  the  only  ground  of  our  salvation.  And 
the  Irish  Articles  in  like  manner  say  (83)  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  full  of  grace  and  truth,  bringing  joyful  tidings  unto  man- 
kind, that  whatsoever  formerly  was  promised  of  Christ  is  now 
fulfilled,  and  instead  of  the  ancient  types  and  ceremonies  exhib- 
iteth  the  things  themselves,  with  a  large  and  clear  declaration  of 
all  the  benefits  of  the  Gospel.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  in 
respect  to  the  essential  contents  of  the  Gospel,  Lutheran  and 
Calvinist,  the  continental  and  the  insular  branches  of  Protestant- 
ism, were  cordially  agreed. 

From  these  various  yet  concordant  statements  we  may  gain  the 
generic  proposition  that  the  Gospel  regarded  as  a  disclosure  or  mes- 
sage is  an  authoritative  revelation  of  spiritual  and  saving  truth 
concerning  the  eternal  plan  of  salvation  realized  and  made  known 


CONTRASTED    WITH    OTHER    CONCEPTIONS.  371 

to  men;  namely ,  that  in  view  of  the  sin  and  the  apostacy  of  the 
race  God  has  graciously  provided,  in  the  incarnation  and  media- 
tion of  Christ,  contemplated  in  its  various  aspects,  a  suitable 
scheme  for  the  deliverance  of  sinners  from  their  sin  and  from 
the  guilt  incurred  by  their  disobedience,  and  for  their  complete 
justification  and  reconciliation  through  faith  and  obedience  to 
himself.  The  end  of  the  gracious  scheme  is  human  salvation; 
the  agent  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  method  is  his  mediating 
work;  the  conditions  are  faith  in  him  and  submission  to  his  teach- 
ing and  example;  and  the  result  is  pardon,  peace,  holiness,  and 
an  eternal  union  with  God  through  him.  Whether  the  message 
be  true  or  false,  effectual  or  otherwise,  this  in  a  word  is  the  Gospel 
— the  central  doctrine  in  the  Bible,  and  the  supreme  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Deity  to  fallen  man. 

This  definition  or  description  of  the  Gospel  viewed  as  a  divine 
message,  may  be  more  fully  estimated  in  its  unique  worth  and 
beauty,  if  we  contrast  it  for  a  moment 

with  other  theories  respecting  salva-  7*  The  GosPel  contrasted 
j.  *  ,  with    other    conceptions   of 

tion,  such  as  are  more  or  less  current     salyation.     its     superiority 

among  men.     If  the  preliminary  ques-     an(j  efficacy, 
tion  be  raised  whether  there  is  really 

any  need  of  salvation  in  any  form,  the  answer  must  be  found  in 
what  we  have  already  learned  respecting  man  as  a  transgressor  of 
the  divine  law,  as  deficient  in  cordial  conformity  with  that  law, 
as  in  a  chronic  state  of  disobedience  and  rebellion  toward  God, 
and  as  animated  in  the  substance  of  his  life  by  a  deeply  seated 
and  inordinate  principle  of  selfishness — a  dominating  purpose  to 
make  self  rather  than  God  supreme  in  all  his  activities.  A 
further  answer  may  be  found  in  the  historic  fact  that  mankind 
generally,  of  all  countries  and  races,  have  seemed  to  be  more  or 
less  conscious  of  this  spiritual  condition,  and  of  the  necessity  for 
some  mode  of  deliverance  from  sin,  and  of  reconciliation  with 
their  offended  Creator  and  Sovereign.  Kvery  natural  religion 
that  has  appeared  in  history  or  that  now  exists  in  the  world,  by 
its  sacrifices  and  confessions,  by  its  prayers,  its  penances,  its 
altars  and  temples  and  priesthood,  acknowledges  that  the  present 
is  not  the  normal  or  appropriate  spiritual  state  of  such  a  being  as 
man  knows  himself  to  be,  and  that  some  way  of  escape  from  this 
sinful  and  criminal  state  ought  if  possible  to  be  secured.  Yet  in 
fact  these  natural  religions  do  not  meet  the  profound  spiritual  end 
for  which  they  were  instituted:  they  neither  provide  the  needed 
sense  of  deliverance  from  guilt,  nor  renovate  the  heart,  nor  sanc- 
tify character,  nor  give  the  worshiper  the  spiritual  peace  which 


372  THE    PLAN    OF   SALVATION. 

would  flow  from  an  assured  consciousness  of  holiness  attained  and 
of  reconciliation  with  an  offended  God.  In  a  word,  these  natural 
faiths,  scattered  throughout  the  world,  represented  by  millions 
of  bewildered  devotees,  and  often  splendid  in  their  material  dis- 
plays, have  never  3-et  given  to  a  single  soul  what  is  embodied 
in  the  Christian  concept  of  salvation,  or  is  actually  realized  and 
enjoyed  by  everj^  soul  that  truly  accepts  the  blessing  provided  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

Again:  it  may  be  claimed  that  if  man  be  indeed  .sinful  in  an}' 
such  sense  or  measure  as  demands  a  radical  change  in  his  state  of 
heait  and  his  relation  toward  God,  that  change  is  to  be  found, 
not  in  some  superhuman  mediation  such  as  Christianity  presents, 
but  in  the  restorative  energies  still  resident  within  the  human  soul 
itself,  and  in  the  natural  and  providential,  conditions  that  surround 
it  in  life.  Sin  is  affirmed  to  be  at  the  worst  only  a  slight  and  occa- 
sional incident  in  the  moral  experience  of  mankind,  and  one 
which  the  actor  may  and  will  correct  as  knowledge  increases  and 
sound  judgment  comes  into  play, — one  also  which  God  contem- 
plates with  parental  indulgence,  and  for  which  in  whatever  aspect 
no  salvation  such  as  the  Scriptures  propose,  is  needful.  But  is  it 
not  obvious  that  all  such  conceptions  rest  on  superficial,  defective, 
and  largely  erroneous  views  of  what  sin  is  as  a  nature  resident  in 
man,  and  especially  of  the  relations  of  sin  to  God,  and  his  esti- 
mate of  its  guilt  and  condemnation  ?  Is  it  not  obvious  also  that, 
if  the  soul  by  some  energy  remaining  within  it  should  thus  of 
itself  correct  its  evil  tendencies,  the  guilt  of  previous  transgres- 
sion would  remain,  and  would  require  in  order  to  divine  forgive- 
ness some  expiation  which  the  sinner  could  not  of  himself  supply  ? 
But  still  further,  is  it  not  obvious  as  a  matter  of  practical  experi- 
ment that  men  do  not  restore  themselves,  as  is  suggested,  to  a  state 
of  obedience  and  holiness, — that  while  we  see  here  and  there  happy 
reformations  along  special  lines  in  individuals,  we  do  not  discern 
any  such  renewal  in  the  heart  and  life  of  the  race  as  justifies  the 
belief  that  our  humanity  without  divine  intervention  will  ever 
bring  itself  back  to  an  estate  of  holiness,  or  to  any  proper  and 
blessed  relationship  with  Deity?  Tried  by  actual  experiment, 
tested  by  wide  observation  of  men,  is  it  not  obvious  beyond  all 
question  that  there  is  no  adequate  salvation  in  man  himself — no 
such  regeneration  of  thought,  of  conviction,  of  conduct, — no  such 
deliverance  from  a  condition  of  conscious  guilt  and  consequent 
condemnation,  as  will  secure  to  him  what  that  comprehensive  and 
profound  term  suggests  ? 

It  is  plainly  inadequate  either  to  deny   that  man  needs  any 


GOD    ALONE    CAN   SAVE.  37?> 

salvation,  or  to  affirm  that  he  can  secure  the  salvation  he  needs 
through  any  among  the  natural  religions,  or  by  spiritual  processes 
originating  with  and  completed  by  himself.  It  is  a  profound 
remark  of  Bishop  Butler,  which  is  corroborated  by  the  experience 
and  observation  of  all  thoughtful  minds,  that  there  seems  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  no  probability  that  anything  that  man  could  do 
would  alone  and  of  itself  prevent  the  evils  which  sin  has  brought 
upon  the  race.  In  fact  there  never  has  appeared  anywhere  in 
human  society,  even  in  the  highest  developments  of  civilization  in 
the  world,  any  clear  indication  that  mankind  in  the  aggregate, 
acting  simultaneously  and  together,  will  ever  be  able  to  sweep 
away  human  sin  and  to  restore  our  fallen  race  to  a  state  of  holiness. 
The  only  possible  alternative  lies,  therefore,  in  the  intervention  of 
some  divine  power, — a  divine  power  impelled  by  a  painful  sense 
of  the  actual  condition  of  humanity,  and  by  a  merciful  desire  to 
help  and  save  the  world.  To  this  alternative  all  men  alike  are 
driven,  as  individuals  like  Socrates  have  been  driven,  on  the 
ground  of  philosophy  alone,  wherever  this  moral  situation  is  appre- 
hended exactly  as  it  is.  The  case  is  seen  to  be  one  which  only 
God,  and  the  God  against  whom  the  evil  has  been  wrought,  can 
adequately  appreciate  or  make  suitable  provision  to  remedy.  He 
is  the  only  being  who  can  either  renovate  or  forgive, — who  can 
rectify  the  purpose,  give  peace  to  the  conscience,  quicken  and 
hallow  the  corrupted  nature  and  life,  and  establish  satisfying  rela- 
tions with  himself.  Waiving  just  here  the  vital  question  wdiether 
God  would  in  fact  do  this,  after  all  the  dishonor  which  human  sin 
has  brought  upon  him  and  his  government,  it  is  be}rond  all  ques- 
tion that,  if  salvation  be  possible,  it  must  come  from  this  divine 
source  as  originant  and  supreme,  rather  than  through  any  inde- 
pendent energy  or  effort  of  man.  And  it  is  also  clear  beyond 
question  that  in  such  a  gracious  undertaking  God  must  bring  into 
play,  not  the  native  powers  of  the  soul  alone,  but  also  his  own 
superadded  potency  and  grace,  his  own  thought  and  will  and 
quickening  touch,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  spiritual  restoration 
desired.  These  are  conclusions  to  which,  wholly  apart  from  what 
the  Scriptures  teach,  any  one  must  come  who  thoughtfully,  con- 
scientiously considers  what  man  is  spiritually,  and  what  man  needs 
to  be  in  order  to  become  truly  worthy  in  the  sight  of  God. 

It  is  just  here  that  the  Christian  scheme  presents  itself  to  the 
race  as  the  true  solution  of  this  great  and  solemn  problem.  What 
the  Christian  scheme  proposes  is  just  such  a  divine  intervention 
to  save  man, — an  intervention  in  the  form  of  gracious  mediation, 
adapted  to  meet  the  case  at  every  point,  and  actually  effective  in 


374  THE    PLAN   OF   SALVATION. 

securing,  not  only  release  from  the  guilt  and  the  condemnation 
incurred  by  human  sin ,  but  also  such  change  of  heart  and  purpose 
in  man  as  reconciles  God  to  him  and  him  to  God  peacefully, 
thoroughly,  forever.  It  offers  in  Christ,  the  prophet  and  priest 
and  king,  divine  and  yet  in  a  true  sense  human,  sinless  and  com- 
plete in  himself,  just  the  personality  needed  to  bring  about  such 
reconciliation.  It  offers  in  the  Holy  Spirit  all  the  strong  help 
needful  to  work  the  requisite  changes  in  the  spiritual  constitution 
of  man,  and  to  bring  him  into  a  right  state  of  affectionate  and  holy 
union  with  his  Maker  and  his  Sovereign  and  Father.  And  in  the 
Scriptures  it  offers  all  the  practical  directions,  the  truths  and  pre- 
cepts and  encouragements  needful  to  make  the  way  of  salvation 
plain,  and  to  enable  men  to  walk  herein.  In  all  these  respects, 
Christianity  presents  itself  to  the  mind  and  conscience  of  mankind 
as  both  a  thoroughly  reasonable  scheme,  and  one  which  has  in  it 
every  element  of  efficiency,  and  consequently  an  immeasurable 
wealth  of  blessing.  Instead  of  being,  as  the  natural  man  often 
fancies,  a  mysterious  and  incomprehensible  matter,  some  strange 
device  whose  justifying  basis  none  but  God  can  know,  this  scheme 
is  not  only  in  itself  in  harmony  with  sound  reason,  but  is  the  only 
scheme  which  a  faithful  philosophy  of  human  nature  can  regard 
as  at  all  likely  to  be  effective  in  such  a  case  as  that  which  by 
general  confession  is  actually  presented  to  view  in  the  character 
and  the  moral  condition  of  the  human  race.  If  that  race  is  ever 
to  be  saved,  in  the  full  sense  of  that  term,  reason  itself  after  com- 
plete examination  affirms  that  the  plan  revealed  in  the  Gospel  is 
the  only  plan  yet  devised  which  gives  any  promise  whatever  of 
meeting  the  case  just  as  it  stands.  It  is  the  Christ  who  saves : 
there  is,  there  can  be  no  other. 

We  may  now  turn  to  consider   the   wonderful   Gospel    thus 
described  and  justified,  with  respect  to  its  practical  aim  and  scope 

as  a  divine  offer.      We  have  already 
8.   The  Gospel  as  an  Offer :  .,       t,      .       ..         .  „    .  A 

seen  that  the  function  or   Christ  as  a 
its  aim  and  scope.  ,  . 

prophet  contemplates  nothing  less  than 

the  education  and  illumination  of  the  entire  race  through  his 
perfect  instructions, — that  as  king  he  is  the  predestinated  lord  and 
ruler  of  men,  bearing  in  his  hands  all  power  providential  and 
gracious,  and  having  supreme  authority  over  all, — and  that  in 
some  true  sense  his  priestly  function  also,  his  sacrificial  offering 
and  propitiation,  are  designed  for  the  whole  human  family.  What 
is  thus  true  of  him  as  the  Mediator,  must  by  necessary  consequence 
be  true  of  the  Gospel,  so  far  as  its  inherent  capabilities  and  adapta- 
tions are  concerned.     As  Christ  is  a  competent  Savior  for  the  race, 


SALVATION    OFFERED    TO    AIX.  375 

so  the  salvation  provided  in  the  Gospel  is  the  only  salvation  needful 
for  the  race — adequate  in  itself  to  restore  all  mankind  to  holiness, 
and  to  reconcile  all  mankind  to  God.  In  other  words,  the  heavenly 
plan  of  mercy  is  intrinsically  suited  to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
needs,  not  of  any  class  or  nation  or  age,  but  of  all  men,  all  nations, 
all  ages.  The  truths  embodied  in  it  are  such  as  all  may  under- 
stand ;  its  precepts  are  instinctively  felt  by  all  to  be  mandatory ; 
its  promises  and  its  warnings  find  an  instant  response  in  the  soul  of 
man  universally.  The  Gentile  as  well  as  the  Jew  may  hear  and 
believe  it:  the  pagan  as  truly  as  the  educated  mind,  the  child  as 
readily  as  the  sage,  may  apprehend  it.  Such  is  the  testimony  not 
merely  of  Scripture  itself,  but  also  of  nineteen  centuries  of  actual 
experiment;  and  there  appears  no  warrant  for  the  anticipation 
that  in  any  coming  century  or  era  the  race  will  outgrow  this  divine, 
this  trustworthy  and  triumphing  Gospel.  It  is  the  gracious  mes- 
sage of  God  to  our  humanity,  universal,  perpetual,  final.  Such 
universality  in  the  offer  is  a  necessary  corrolary  from  the  univer- 
sality of  the  mediation  on  which  the  offer  is  based. 

But  we  are  confronted  here  by  the  oppressing  fact,  that  at  the 
end  of  nineteen  centuries  the  large  majority  of  the  human  race 
is  as  yet  ignorant  of  this  salvatory  proposal.  And  this  fact  brings 
us  face  to  face  with  the  mysterious  truth  that,  as  in  the  preceding 
dispensations,  so  in  this  Christian  dispensation,  God  has  chosen  to 
proceed  in  the  task  of  human  restoration,  not  by  one  instantaneous 
act,  but  rather  by  a  prolonged  historical  process.  The  Synod  of 
Dort  reverently  recognized  this  truth  in  its  statement  that  God, 
after  having  devised  the  plan  of  salvation,  sends  the  messengers 
of  these  most  joyful  tidings  to  whom  he  will  and  at  what  time  he 
pleaseth.  The  slow  advance  of  this  saving  knowledge,  the  con- 
tinuous obscuration  under  which  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  race 
still  sits  as  a  very  shadow  of  death,  are  not  attributable  solely  to 
the  blindness  or  obduracy  of  human  nature,  or  to  the  sluggishness 
or  sinful  inefficiency  of  the  church,  whose  great  commission  it  has 
been  and  is  to  disciple  all  the  nations.  As  God  first  chose  individual 
men  such  as  the  patriarchs,  and  afterwards  the  elect  race  of  Israel, 
to  be  the  recipients  and  custodians  of  his  grace  and  truth  for  a 
time,  leaving  the  rest  of  humanity  under  the  shadow  of  sin  and 
guilt,  though  from  the  first  contemplating  the  whole  race  in  his 
loving  purpose,  so  he  has  chosen  that  his  announcement  of  a  sal- 
vation provided,  should  not  be  made  known  to  all  mankind  in  one 
cosmic  flash  of  revelation,  but  rather  should  be  diffused  through 
providential  and  human  agencies  from  one  section  of  the  globe  to 
other  sections,  from  the  continent  and  the  country  where  he  first 


376  THE    PLAN    OF    SALVATION. 

sounded  it  forth  to  other  countries  and  continents,  until  in  time  it 
should  become  known  throughout  the  whole  earth.  He  has  never 
suffered  the  gracious  message  to  be  lost,  even  amid  such  moral 
darkness  as  enveloped  the  Middle  Ages,  or  to  be  corrupted  or 
impaired  through  the  vain  philosophies  and  false  faiths  and  super- 
stitions of  men.  On  the  contrary,  without  hasting  and  without 
resting,  he  has  carried  on  the  process  of  progressive  disclosure, 
utilizing  the  languages  and  activities  and  civilizations  of  men  as 
the  vehicles  of  the  gracious  transmission,  until  already  a  large  pro- 
portion of  mankind  has  come  to  know,  at  least  in  outline,  what  his 
scheme  of  salvation  is.  Standing  as  we  do  somewhere  near  the 
center  rather  than  the  close  of  this  historic  evolution,  we  are 
unable  to  comprehend  this  divine  process  in  its  strange  complexity, 
or  to  explain  all  the  mysterious  and  painful  delays  in  that  evo- 
lution. Yet  we  know  enough  even  at  this  stage  in  its  unfolding, 
not  only  to  be  assured  that  the  Gospel  is  not  a  failure  as  a  saving 
scheme,  but  also  to  justify  the  belief  and  the  hope  that  it  shall 
yet  be  heard  and  appreciated  throughout  the  world. 

We  are  also  confronted  here  by  the  still  more  painful  fact,  that 
this  divine  announcement  is  misunderstood,  despised,  rejected  by 
multitudes  of  those  to  whom  the  gracious  message  has  in  fact 
come.  The  doctrine  of  the  Symbols  as  to  the  perversity  of  the 
natural  heart,  the  deadness  of  the  soul  in  sin,  the  .spiritual  inability 
to  receive  and  the  willful  disposition  to  reject  not  only  the  author- 
ity but  also  the  offered  grace  of  God,  has  already  been  sufficiently 
estimated.  Yet  we  are  startled  to  find  that  the  divine  plan  of 
salvation  is  apparently  so  largely  thwarted,  frustrated,  by  the 
perverse  will,  the  moral  blindness  and  obliquity,  of  those  whom  the 
Gospel  has  actually  reached.  And,  painfully  slow  as  the  move- 
ments of  providence  in  the  case  seem  to  be,  it  is  more  painful  still 
to  see  the  progress  of  this  saving  scheme  so  strangely  arrested  by 
the  wicked  choice  and  resistance  of  the  very  race  whom  it  was 
designed  to  reach  and  save.  While  the  bells  of  grace  sound  out 
the  free  and  willing  offer,  the  ears  of  the  people,  as  Esaias  is 
quoted  by  our  L,ord  himself  as  saying,  are  dull  of  hearing,  and 
hearing  they  hear  not,  neither  do  they  understand.  Nor  are  there 
wanting  inspired  declarations  which  would  almost  seem  to  imply 
that  God  is  willing  to  have  it  so, — consenting  for  the  time  to  a 
perverse  hardening  of  the  heart  which  his  Spirit  might  apparently 
correct  and  renew.  The  dark  fact  is  very  strongly  stated  in  the 
Confession,  in  the  affirmation  (V:vi)  that  God  not  only  with- 
holdcth  his  grace  whereby  sinners  might  have  been  enlightened  in 
their  understandings  and  wrought  upon  in  their  hearts,  but  even 


SUFFICIENT    AND    EFFICIENT.  37< 

withdraweth  the  gifts  that  they  had  .  .  .  and  gives  them  over  to 
their  own  lusts,  the  temptations  of  the  world,  and  the  power  of 
Satan;  whereby  it  comes  to  pass  that  they  harden  themselves,  even 
under  those  means  which  God  useth  for  the  softening  of  others. 

Still  nothing  either  in  the  slow  processes  of  providence  or  in 
the  unsuccessful  struggles  of  the  Gospel  with  individual  sin- 
ners, should  impair  our  faith  in  the  cosmic  adaptations  of  this 
divine  scheme,  or  in  its  ultimate  diffusion  everywhere  as  a  proc- 
lamation of  God  addressed  to  our  race  without  exception.  That 
proclamation  is  intrinsically  worthy  of  universal  credence  :  its 
truths,  its  spirit,  its  methods  alike  commend  themselves  to  the 
universal  reason,  even  while  the  heart  of  man  is  in  rebellion 
against  them.  The  message  of  grace  is  a  message  to  the  univer- 
sal conscience,  and  the  Messenger  who  stands  at  the  door  of  the 
soul  and  knocks,  is  seen  and  felt  to  be  worthy  even  by  those  who 
most  obdurately  resist  his  invitation.  The  inviting  voice  of  the 
evangelic  prophet  Isaiah  and  of  the  forerunner,  John  Baptist,  are 
but  fitting  preludes  to  the  comprehensive  invitation  of  the  Savior 
himself  to  the  poor,  the  heavy  laden  everywhere — to  every  one 
that  thirsteth  for  deliverance  from  sin  and  guilt,  in  whatever  land 
or  age.  And  the  Master,  himself  its  luminous  and  divine  center, 
commands  his  church  to  preach  this  everlasting  Gospel  to  every 
creature,  in  the  assured  belief  that,  rightly  presented,  it  will  prove 
its  divine  efficiency  in  disci pling  all  the  nations,  and  in  saving 
through  Him  all  men  who  hear  and  believe  the  tender  proclama- 
tion. It  is  important  to  emphasize  this  truth  just  at  this  stage, 
before  we  come  to  consider  the  practical  application  of  this  saving 
scheme,  especially  at  the  point  where  the  universality  of  design 
and  application  comes  into  contact  with  the  divine  method  of  elect- 
ive grace.  It  may  be  noted  here  that  as  Christ  is  said  to  be  a 
Mediator  sufficient  in  his  several  offices  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
entire  race,  }Tet  is  efficient  in  his  actual  mediation  only  in  the  case 
of  those  wdio  accept  him  in  that  relation,  so  his  Gospel,  while 
sufficient  as  a  divine  plan  to  meet  the  spiritual  necessities  of  the 
whole  world  of  mankind,  is  }Tet  efficient  in  the  actual  salvation 
only  of  those- who  cordially  comply  with  its  just  provisions. 

This  generic  conception  of  the  Gospel  as  a  disclosure  of  the 

divine  plan  of  salvation  and  as  a  gracious  announcement  and  offer 

of  salvation,   universal  in  nature  and 

wide    as   the   race     in   its   adaptation        9'    Later    conceptions   of 

.     ,  the    Gospel:    improvements 

and  purpose,  is  now  extensively  recog-     noted 

nized  as  in  substantial  harmony  with 

the  narrower,  stricter  doctrine  taught  in  the  Symbols,  and  indeed  in 


o7»  THE    PLAN    OF   SALVATION. 

the  Reformed  symbolism  generally.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
the  divines  of  Westminster  followed  Calvin  and  his  theologic  suc- 
cessors closely,  in  regarding  the  Gospel  as  a  scheme  which  from 
first  to  last  contemplated  the  elect  only.  They  thought  of  the 
race  as  divided  into  the  two  widely  distinct  classes,  the  elect  and 
the  condemned— those  on  whom  God  would  bestow  mercy ,  and  those 
on  whom  he  would  inflict  justice.  They  viewed  Christ  as  acting 
in  his  mediatorial  capacity  for  the  former  class  exclusively,  and 
as  sustaining  no  relationship  whatever,  except  as  final  judge,  to 
the  latter  class.  They  regarded  the  divine  plan  of  mercy  as 
devised  and  executed  in  the  interest  only  of  those  whom  God  had 
from  eternity  selected  to  enjoy  its  beneficent  provisions.  They 
therefore  contemplated  the  divine  proclamation  as  addressed  only 
to  the  elect,  and  interpreted  the  inspired  declaration  that  God  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  give  his  only  begotten  Son  for  its  redemp- 
tion, as  referring  restrictively  to  the  world  of  the  elect.  In  a 
word,  they  were  particularistic  rather  than  comprehensive  in  their 
apprehension,  not  only  of  the  application  of  the  plan  of  grace, 
but  also  of  the  plan  itself  as  to  its  aim  and  its  adaptation. 

Yet  it  is  manifest  from  the  recorded  debates  (Minutes,  152-158) 
that  there  were  those  in  the  Assembly  who  interpreted  the  inspired 
declaration  in  its  broader  sense  as  including  the  entire  world  of 
humanity.  Calamy  was  not  alone  in  holding  that  there  is  a  double 
revelation  of  divine  love,  special  and  general,  and  that  the  gen- 
eral love  of  God  includes  even  the  reprobate,  and  involves  as  the 
fruit  of  it  a  general  offer  and  general  grace  and  the  possibility  of 
general  reformation.  Others,  such  as  Arrowsmith  and  Marshall, 
held  that  the  gracious  offer  is  to  be  proclaimed  to  all  men  alike, 
not  merely  because  its  ministers  do  not  know  who  the  elect  are, 
but  on  the  broader  ground  that  this  offer  is  in  some  true  sense 
divinely  made  to  all  mankind,  so  far  at  least  as  the  Gospel  has 
become  known.  There  can  be,  said  Marshall,  no  falsum  subesse 
in  this  gracious  proposal.  It  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that  in  our 
own  day  there  has  been  in  Calvinistic  circles  a  gradual  broaden- 
ing of  view  at  this  point,  which  has  led  many  to  recognize  more 
distinctly  the  universal  as  well  as  the  particularistic  aspects  of  the 
plan  of  salvation, —  the  Gospel  being  regarded  not  only  as  a  mes- 
sage addressed  to  the  elect,  but  as  an  announcement  that  may 
properly  be  made  to  all  mankind  alike,  on  the  basis  of  a  divine 
provision  adequate  and  adapted  to  the  salvation  of  the  entire  race. 
Thus,  the  Declaratory  Act  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland,  (adopted  in  1879)  affirms  that  the  love  of  God  to  all 
mankind,  his  gift  of  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of 


RECENT  MODES  OF  STATEMENT.  379 

the  whole  world,  and  the  free  offer  of  salvation  to  men  without 
distinction  on  the  ground  of  the  perfect  sacrifice  (mediation)  of 
Christ,  are  matters  which  have  been  and  continue  to  be  regarded 
by  this  Church  as  vital  in  the  system  of  Gospel  truth.  The  Free 
Church  has  in  like  manner  declared  officially  (1892),  that  the  rev- 
elation of  grace,  springing  from  the  love  of  the  triune  Deity,  is 
made  to  all  mankind  as  sinful,  and  therefore  all  who  hear  it  are 
both  warranted  and  required  to  believe  to  the  saving  of  their 
souls.  The  recent  Articles  of  the  English  Presbyterian  Synod, 
(1890)  affirm  in  like  manner  that  God  was  moved  by  his  great 
love  to  man  to  hold  forth  a  promise  of  redemption, — that  he 
desires  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  freely  offers  to  all  men  forgive- 
ness and  eternal  life  in  Christ, — and  that  he  has  commissioned 
his  church  to  preach  unto  all  nations  this  Gospel  of  his  grace.  A 
still  more  marked  illustration  appears  in  the  chapter,  Of  the 
Gospel,  recently  proposed  in  our  own  communion  as  a  part  of  the 
revision  or  emendation  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  in  the  follow- 
ing terms: 

I.  God,  having  provided  in  the  covenant  of  grace,  through  the 
mediation  and  sacrifice  of  the  L,ord  Jesus  Christ,  a  way  of  life  and 
salvation  sufficient  for  and  adapted  to  the  whole  lost  race  of  man, 
doth  freely  offer  this  salvation  to  all  men  in  the  Gospel. 

II.  In  the  Gospel  God  declares  his  love  for  the  world,  and  his 
desire  that  all  men  should  be  saved;  reveals  fully  and  clearly  the 
only  way  of  salvation;  promises  eternal  life  to  all  who  truly 
repent  and  believe  in  Christ;  invites  and  commands  all  to  embrace 
the  offered  mercy;  and  by  his  Spirit  accompanying  the  Word 
pleads  with  men  to  accept  his  gracious  invitation. 

III.  It  is  the  duty  and  privilege  of  every  one  who  hears  the 
Gospel  immediately  to  accept  its  merciful  provisions;  and  they 
who  continue  in  impenitence  and  unbelief,  incur  aggravated  guilt 
and  perish  by  their  own  fault. 

IV.  Since  there  is  no  other  way  of  salvation  than  that  revealed 
in  the  Gospel,  and  since  in  the  divinely  established  and  ordinary 
method  of  grace,  faith  cometh  by  hearing  the  Word  of  God,  Christ 
hath  commissioned  his  Church  to  go  into  all  the  world  and  to 
make  disciples  of  all  nations.  All  believers  are,  therefore,  under 
obligation  to  sustain  the  ordinances  of  religion  where  they  are 
already  established,  and  to  contribute  by  their  prayers,  gifts  and 
personal  efforts  to  the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  through- 
out the  whole  earth. 

In  this  carefully  defined  statement,  the  ultimate  source  of  the 
Gospel  is  said  to  be  the  love  of  God  for  the  world  of  mankind,  and 


880  THE    PLAX    OF    SALVATION. 

his  gracious  desire  that  all  men  should  be  saved  from  their  sinful- 
ness and  their  guilt.  A  covenant  of  grace  to  this  end  is  said  to  be 
devised  through  the  mediation  and  sacrifice  of  Christ,  our  L,ord 
and  Redeemer.  Under  this  covenant  a  way  of  salvation,  suffi- 
cient for  and  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  the  entire  race,  is  not 
only  provided  for,  but  fully  and  clearly  revealed  and  offered  to 
all  men  alike.  And  this  divine  way  of  life  is  one  which  all  alike 
are  invited  and  commanded  to  embrace  as  offered, — the  offer 
being  seconded  by  abundant  promises  of  mercy  to  all  who  truly 
repent  of  sin  and  believe  in  this  salvatory  scheme,  and  also  most 
tenderly  enforced  by  the  Divine  Spirit  accompanying  and  illumi- 
nating the  gracious  message.  As  a  -whole,  the  statement  must 
be  regarded  as  a  careful,  just,  safe,  thoroughly  biblical  presenta- 
tion of  the  great  Evangel  in  which  our  Christianity  finds  both 
its  meaning  and  its  glory. 

The  third  and  fourth  sections  of  this  statement  are  important 
additions,  as  especially  setting  forth  the  duties  of  all  men  in  view 
of  such  an  offered  Gospel, — the  duty  of  every  hearer  on  one  hand, 
and  of  all  who  have  believed  the  message,  including  the  whole 
Church  of  Christ,  on  the  other.  It  is  declared  to  be  obligatory 
upon  all  who  are  made  acquainted  wuth  this  plan  of  salvation,  to 
accept  at  once  its  merciful  provisions.  In  the  presence  of  this 
divine  announcement  it  is  no  longer  permissible  for  any  sinner 
either  to  deny  his  need  of  salvation  or  to  look  for  salvation  else- 
where, whether  among  the  natural  faiths  of  the  world,  or  in  the 
nostrums  of  human  speculation.  He  is  placed  under  immediate 
and  imperative  obligation  to  embrace  the  opportunity  thus  divinely 
presented:  no  claim  of  personal  righteousness,  no  apology  for  sin. 
no  excuses  for  delay  are  admissible.  If  the  sinner  refuses  to 
accept  the  gracious  provision,  that  refusal  is  his  own  voluntary 
and  wicked  act,  in  defiance  of  all  divine  influence  and  persuasion, 
and  it  must  therefore  not  only  involve  him  in  grosser  impenitence, 
in  darker  unbelief  henceforth,  but  also  bring  upon  him  by  his  own 
fault  a  more  condign  and  dreadful  condemnation.  Such  is  the 
comprehensive  teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  and  on  the  basis 
of  that  teaching  it  may  safely  be  affirmed  that  this  Gospel  thus 
presented  becomes  to  all  those  who  reject  it  a  savor,  not  of  life, 
but  of  death  unto  death. 

The  consequent  duty  of  all  believers,  and  of  the  Church,  is  also 
emphasized  here.  It  is  said  that  there  is  no  other  way  of  salva- 
tion than  that  thus  set  forth,  and  that  the  race  must  know  and 
accept  this  gracious  scheme,  or  perish  in  its  sin.  It  is  declared 
that  this  Gospel,  viewed  as  a  message,  must  be  explained  and 


THE    GOSPEL:     ITS   SUPREME    CLAIM.  381 

commended  to  the  world  by  those  who  have  already  proved  the 
message  to  be  infinitely  worthy  of  belief;  and  that  it  is  the  divine 
purpose  that  this  plan  of  mercy  should  be  made  known,  not  by 
supernatural  agencies  only,  or  by  the  immediate  inspiration  of 
each  and  all  alike,  but  through  the  combined  labor  and  sacrifice  of 
believers,  divinely  commissioned  to  bear  the  glad  tidings  to  every 
land  and  to  all  people.  Hence  every  believer  is  bound  to  main- 
tain the  church  as  an  institution,  and  the  ordinances  estab- 
lished under  the  Gospel,  not  only  because  these  are  essential  to 
his  own  spiritual  life,  but  also  because  the  church  thus  divinely 
ordained,  and  thus  sustained  by  the  adherence  and  the  prayers 
and  gifts  of  all  believers,  is  the  appointed  agency  and  instrument 
for  the  enlightening  and  salvation  of  mankind.  And  this  duty 
will  remain,  these  practical  obligations  survive  in  full  force,  until 
the  kingdom  of  Christ  shall  actually  be  extended  throughout  the 
whole  earth, — until  the  great  scheme  of  grace  shall  have  wrought 
out  its  predestined  purpose  in  the  restoration  and  redemption  of 
the  race. 

As  has  already  been  intimated,  there  is  in  these  statements  a 
distinct  advance  beyond  the  conception  of  the  mission  of  Chris- 
tianity incorporated  in  the  Symbols,  and  in  the  other  creeds  of 
primitive  Protestantism.  This  advance  does  not  involve  the  denial 
or  rejection  of  the  more  limited  or  particularistic  doctrine  of  sal- 
vation found  in  these  creeds,  but  simply  affirms  a  broader,  wider 
application  of  the  great  principles  recognized  in  them.  It  is  not 
in  collision  at  any  essential  point  with  the  Calvinistic  doctrine 
of  particular  and  unconditional  election,  but  involves  only  a  freer 
and  wider  conception  of  such  election  as  the  experience  not  of  a 
small  proportion  but  of  vast  multitudes  of  mankind,  and  a  com- 
prehensive belief  that  in  the  elective  purpose  of  God  the  race  as 
salvable  may  be  viewed  as  in  some  deep  sense  included.  The 
churches  of  the  Reformation,  continental  and  insular  alike,  were 
not  prepared  to  grasp  so  cosmic  a  doctrine  of  grace,  nor  indeed 
were  their  successors  in  the  seventeenth  or  even  the  eighteenth 
century  lifted  up  to  such  a  level  of  thought  and  of  conviction 
respecting  the  vast  possibilities  of  the  divine  plan.  But  it  cer- 
tainly involves  no  departure  from  any  vital  tenet  of  Calvinism,  to 
hold  this  broader  and  clearer  view  of  the  Gospel  as,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  suggested  Revision,  presenting  a  way  of  life  and 
salvation  sufficient  for  and  adapted  to  the  whole  lost  race  of  man. 
Such  an  addition  to  the  Confession  would  not  only  have  given 
authoritative  expression  to  the  truth  as  widely  held  and  taught 
within  the  Presbyterian  communion,  but  would  have  furnished  a 


382  THE   PLAN   OF   SALVATION. 

decisive  answer  to  some  of  the  most  pungent  and  injurious  criti- 
cisms made  upon  its  teaching  and  its  spiritual  mission. 

Keeping  in  mind  the  Plan  of  Salvation  divinely  devised  and 
provided  for  our  sinful  race  through  the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ; 

and  also  this  general  conception  of  the 

10.  Plan  of  Salvation  ap-  Gospel)  viewed  as  a  revelation  of  spir- 
plied :  Election  defined:  Elec-     .,     <         ,          .  .,     -,,  j    .       .. 

f.      .  •*„„„„  , „„      ltual  and  saving  truth  fitted   to   the 

tion  in  providence,  in  grace.  & 

needs  of  such  a  race,  and  as  a  tender 
announcement  and  offer  of  salvation  addressed  to  all,  and  in  itself 
available  and  sufficient  for  all  mankind,  we  may  now  turn  to  con- 
sider the  specific  application  of  this  gracious  scheme  in  the  case  of 
those  who  are  savingly  reached  thereby.  Here  arises  again  the 
speculative  question  already  discussed  in  part,  whether  God  in  his 
sovereignty  first  chose  or  elected  the  persons  who  are  actually 
reached  and  saved  by  this  scheme,  and  then  devised  the  scheme, 
and  made  it  known  for  their  benefit;  or  whether  in  the  series  of 
wise,  free  and  holy  acts,  into  which  the  eternal  decree  is  according 
to  the  Larger  Catechism  resolved  in  time,  the  scheme  or  plan  was 
first,  and  the  election  of  the  individuals  to  be  benefited  thereby 
subsequent.  It  is  true  that  most  of  those  who  adhere  to  the 
teachings  of  Calvin,  place  the  personal  election  first,  and  regard 
the  devising  of  the  plan  for  the  saving  of  these  elect  persons  as 
a  subsequent  decree.  This  was  obviously  the  view  of  the  sub- 
lapsarian  as  well  as  the  supralapsarian  section  of  the  Assembly. 
Two  thoughts  are  urged  especially  in  justification  of  this  view; 
first,  that  it  seems  to  make  the  sovereignty  of  God  in  redemption 
appear  more  glorious,  since  such  an  election  or  predestination  of 
certain  persons  from  all  eternity  must  be  an  absolutely  uncondi- 
tioned act  on  his  part;  and  secondly,  because  it  seems  to  draw  a 
spiritual  line  more  broad  and  profound  between  the  persons  thus 
foreordained  unto  salvation  before  time  was,  and  the  remainder  of 
mankind.  It  is  also  urged  that  Peter  and,  especially,  Paul  lay 
peculiar  stress  on  such  predestination  unto  life  even  from  eternity, 
not  merely  as  a  ground  of  comfort  to  the  believer,  or  of  warning 
to  those  who  reject  the  Gospel,  but  also  as  the  key  which  opens 
to  our  view  more  clearly  the  entire  plan  of  providence  and  of  grace 
toward  mankind. 

Yet  it  has  justly  been  questioned  whether  any  essential  advan- 
tage is  secured  by  such  a  presentation  of  the  divine  purposes,  and 
also  whether  something  of  value  is  not  lost  or  forfeited  by  that 
mode  of  statement,  in  its  relations  especially  to  the  divine  offer  as 
universal.     It  is  indeed  in  some  deep  sense  forever  true,  that  the 


THE    PLAN    AND    THE    PERSONS.  383 

election  to  salvation  through  the  Gospel  is  an  event  not  only 
known  to  God  eternally,  but  also  eternally  determined  upon  in  his 
mind.  But  is  it  not  also  just  as  true,  that  God  must  have  had  in 
mind  from  the  beginning  the  plan  by  which  these  persons,  after 
their  lapse  into  sin,  were  to  be  restored  to  holiness  and  to  himself; 
and  that  when  he  chose  them  to  be  saved,  he  at  the  same  time 
chose  them  to  be  saved  in  that  way,  and  that  only,  which  he 
had  eternally  devised  and  provided  for  their  spiritual  restoration  ? 
As  he  must  have  determined  to  create,  before  he  could  determine 
to  permit  the  fall  with  its  consequent  sin  to  occur,  and  as  he  must 
have  provided  a  Mediator  before  there  could  be  any  actual  medi- 
ation exercised  or  enjoyed,  is  it  not  obvious  that  he  must  also 
have  devised  a  scheme  whereby  such  mediation  should  become 
effectual  in  time,  before  he  selected  the  individual  souls  that  should 
be  reached  and  saved  through  the  mediatorial  procedure  ?  There 
is  probably  as  much  ground  for  such  a  conception,  as  for  the  anti- 
thetic conception  which  is  more  commonly  cherished  in  stricter 
Calvinistic  circles.  The  sovereignty  of  God  is  certainly  as  mani- 
fest and  as  glorious  under  the  one  presentation  as  under  the  other: 
in  either  case  man  can  present  no  plea  in  character  which  shall 
constrain  God  to  confer  salvation,  or  in  any  way  condition  or  con- 
trol the  grace  that  provides  the  way  of  recovery  from  sin  and  its 
doom.  On  the  other  hand,  such  a  conception  of  the  divine  determ- 
inations as  is  here  suggested  seems  to  be  more  in  harmony  with 
the  doctrine  just  discussed  respecting  Christ  as  the  prophet  for 
humanity,  the  priest  and  sacrifice  for  humanity,  and  the  king  for 
humanity, — in  each  and  everjr  office  our  one  and  only,  our  adequate 
and  efficient  Savior,  toward  whom  God  in  the  Gospel  invites  the 
whole  lost  race  of  man  to  turn  and  look  and  live.  Whether  the 
Assembly,  in  the  presence  of  the  rising  and  somewhat  arrogant 
Arminianism  of  their  day,  would  as  a  body  have  admitted  such  a 
modification  of  their  general  position,  it  is  quite  sure  that  some 
members,  such  as  Calamy  and  Marshall,  would  have  found  no 
serious  difficulty  in  such  admission.  And  though  Calvinists  of 
the  stricter  school  may  regard  such  modification  as  inconsistent 
with  the  logical  completeness  of  the  doctrinal  system  enunciated 
by  their  great  leader,  yet  surely  one  may  prefer  such  an  arrange- 
ment of  the  divine  determinations  without  forfeiting  his  claim  to 
be  a  disciple  of  Calvin,  so  long  as  he  holds  to  an  election  which 
is  particular  as  well  as  generic,  and  which  is  unconditioned  by  any 
act  or  merit  in  man. 

The  fact  of  such  an  election  particular  and  unconditioned  is  to  be 
affirmed,  not  merely  on  the  ground  that  it  is  an  essential  element 


384  THE   PLAN   OP   SALVATION. 

in  a  properly  balanced  Calvinism,  but  far  more  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  a  fact  clearly  taught  and  justified  by  holy  Scripture, 
and  abundantly  verified  in  human  experience.  It  is  also  affirmed 
generally  in  Protestant  symbolism,  though  not  always  with  exact 
and  technical  meaning.  The  Augsburg  Confession  contains  no 
Article  on  the  subject:  but  the  Formula  of  Concord  introduces 
such  an  Article  on  the  ground  that  the  doctrine,  as  it  alleges, 
brings  great  consolation  to  pious  minds  if  it  be  rightly  expounded. 
It  specifically  describes  this  election  (XI),  as  extending  to  all  the 
good  and  beloved  children  of  God,  procuring  their  salvation  and 
appointing  those  things  that  pertain  to  it.  The  Second  Helv. 
Conf.  (X)  tersely  defines  election  in  the  statement  that  God  hath 
from  eternity  predestinated  or  chosen  freely  and  out  of  his  grace, 
and  with  no  regard  or  respect  for  men,  the  holy  whom  he  wishes 
to  save  in  Christ.  The  Belgic  Conf.  (XVI)  declares  that  God  in 
his  mercy  delivers  and  preserves  from  perdition  all  whom  he  in 
his  eternal  and  unchangeable  counsel,  out  of  simple  goodness, 
hath  elected  and  chosen  in  Christ  Jesus,  without  any  respect  to 
their  works.  A  definition  closely  resembling  this  in  both  sub- 
stance and  phraseology  appears  in  the  first  Canon  of  the  Synod 
of  Dort.  And  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  (XVII)  define  predesti- 
nation to  life  as  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God  whereby,  before 
the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid,  he  hath  constantly  decreed 
by  his  counsel,  secret  to  us,  to  deliver  from  curse  and  damnation 
those  whom  he  hath  chosen  in  Christ  out  of  mankind,  and  to 
bring  them  by  Christ  to  everlasting  salvation.  While  varying  in 
fullness  of  phraseology,  the  Protestant  formularies  are  essentially 
agreed  in  defining  election,  (with  its  synonyms  in  such  terms  as 
predestination  and  foreordination)  as  the  divine  purpose  to  save  a 
certain  proportion  of  mankind  through  the  provision  made  in  the 
Gospel,  and  an  actual  choice  or  selection  of  the  persons  on  whom 
the  blessing  of  salvation  should  in  this  way  be  conferred.  Ed- 
wards in  his  treatise  on  the  Decrees,  states  the  doctrine  in  its 
most  positive  and  even  startling  form,  in  the  noted  proposition  that 
God  decrees  all  the  good  that  ever  comes  to  pass;  that  there  cer- 
tainly will  come  to  pass  no  more  good  than  he  has  absolutely  decreed 
to  cause;  and  that  certainly  and  infallibly  no  more  will  believe,  no 
more  be  godly,  and  no  more  be  saved,  than  God  has  decreed 
that  he  will  cause  to  believe,  and  cause  to  be  godly,  and  will  save. 
Waiving  for  the  moment  all  questions,  speculative  or  practical, 
that  may  spring  up  in  the  contemplation  of  the  fact  thus  described, 
we  may  at  the  outset  recognize  the.  fact  itself  as  unquestionable. 
And  it  is  helpful  just  at  this  point  to  note,  that  election  in  the 


ELECTION  A  FACT  IN  PROVIDENCE.  385 

domain  of  grace  is  not  some  unique  or  singular  transaction  of 
Deity,  having  no  parallel  or  analogue  in  any  other  sphere  of  divine 
determination  or  activity.  A  certain  process  of  sovereign  elec- 
tion, of  the  same  nature  substantially,  as  Butler  has  conclusively 
shown,  is  an  obvious  fact  in  divine  providence  and  in  the  general 
history  of  mankind.  While  the  immeasurable  varieties  in  talent 
and  attainment,  in  condition  and  possessions,  in  geographic  loca- 
tion and  position  in  life,  seen  among  men,  are  referable  in  part 
to  their  personal  qualities  or  those  of  their  ancestry,  still  much 
the  larger  proportion  of  these  differences  has  obviously  been 
determined  by  the  hand  and  wisdom  of  God.  While  some  of 
them  may  be  explicable  through  the  agency  of  natural  and  moral 
qualities  acting  in  a  species  of  independence,  yet  over  and  above 
all  we  may  distinctly  see  a  divine  determination  which  is  supreme 
and  sovereign  in  such  bestowment.  To  deny  that  the  hand  of 
God  is  manifested  in  such  distribution  of  providential  blessing, — 
to  refer  the  vast  result  either  to  the  operation  of  merely  inanimate 
laws  or  forces  within  the  sphere  of  nature  alone,  or  to  the  will 
and  abilities  of  man  only,  would  be  simple  atheism.  No  really 
deep  philosophy  can  consent  thus  to  exclude  God  from  the  broad 
domain  of  what  we  fitly  term  Providence.  We  discern  this  type 
of  election  in  the  case  of  nations  and  races,  distributed  here  and 
there  through  the  earth,  with  multiplex  diversities  in  almost  every 
element  of  life;  each  receiving  the  largest  part  of  all  that  it  holds 
or  enjoys,  directly  through  the  medium  of  a  providential  purpose 
and  disposing.  We  discern  it  no  less  clearly  in  the  case  of  indi- 
vidual men,  who  are  what  they  are  and  have  what  they  have 
because  God  provided  for  them  even  before  their  birth,  and 
because  he  makes  them  specific  objects  of  his  sovereign  care  day 
by  day,  even  while  they  are  wholly  unconscious  of  such  depen- 
dence on  his  electing  providence.  Nor  is  the  fact  of  such  provi- 
dential election  ever  seriously  questioned  by  men,  excepting 
where  their  selfishness  leads  them  to  be  envious  of  those  who  pos- 
sess larger  talents  or  have  larger  possessions  or  privileges  than 
themselves,  or  wrhere  their  unfilial  unwillingness  to  surrender 
their  lives  to  the  divine  control,  incites  them  to  murmur  at  the  dis- 
ciplinary dealings  of  God  in  providence,  or  to  rebel  against  the 
thought  of  his  absolute  sovereignty  over  them. 

To  one  who  has  duly  weighed  this  fact  of  election,  as  manifested 
everywhere  in  the  general  scheme  of  providence,  it  cannot  seem 
strange  or  unreasonable  that  some  corresponding  election  should 
manifest  itself  in  the  .special  scheme  of  grace.  Viewed  generic- 
ally,  such  gracious  election  is  a  fact  equally  obvious  and  equally 


386  THE    PLAN    OF    SALVATION. 

commanding.  That  God  chose  the  Hebrew  race  among  the  many 
races  or  nations  of  men,  not  merely  to  inhabit  the  promised  land, 
but  to  be' the  recipients  of  his  revealed  truth,  the  privileged  possess- 
ors for  the  time  of  his  promised  salvation,  the  example  and  the 
leader  of  surrounding  tribes  and  peoples,  is  a  fact  which  even  sec- 
ular history  abundantly  illustrates,  and  without  which  the  Old 
Testament  narratives  become  an  inexplicable  mystery.  That  in 
like  manner  he  chose  individual  men  and  particular  families,  as  the 
patriarchs  and  their  households,  and  the  great  leaders  and  pro- 
phetic teachers  of  his  chosen  people,  and  endowed  them  severally 
with  .spiritual  gifts  as  well  as  with  adequate  opportunities,  in  con- 
nection with  his  unfolding  scheme  of  grace,  is  also  a  truth  which 
it  is  impossible  to  gainsay.  The  Old  Testament  is  in  fact  a  con- 
tinuous record  of  .such  divine  elections,  national,  tribal,  domestic, 
personal;  and  of  the  results,  temporal  and  spiritual,  consequent 
upon  such  elections. 

Still  more  signal  illustrations  of  this  divine  choice  and  deter- 
mination within  the  religious  sphere  may  be  found  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, as  in  the  calling  of  the  apostles  and  their  enduemeut  for 
their  holy  office,  and  in  the  planting  and  training  of  the  church, 
and  the  selection  of  those  who  were  to  be  its  teachers  inwardly, 
and  its  commissioned  messengers  outwardly,  proclaiming  in  its 
name  the  sublime  Evangel  to  the  world.  Nor  has  the  fact  of  such 
election  and  enduemeut,  such  supernatural  preparation  and  com- 
missioning, been  au}r  less  obvious  or  commanding  as  a  fact  in  the 
various  periods  of  church  history  from  the  apostolic  century  down 
to  our  own  times.  He  who  reads  that  history  in  all  its  remarka- 
ble developments,  or  who  studies  the  current  unfolding  of  events 
in  the  interest  of  the  Gospel,  without  discerning,  far  above  the 
purposes  of  men,  the  movements  of  parties  or  the  play  of  human 
agents  and  forces,  the  sovereign  choice  of  God,  supremely  ascen- 
dant over  all,  reads  to  very  little  purpose.  Nor  can  it  be  said 
that  this  divine  choice  is  at  any  point  generic  simply,  contemplat- 
ing men  in  mass  or  in  classes;  facts  abundantly  manifest  the  pres- 
ence of  such  superintending  choice  as  well  in  the  individual  life, 
just  as  the  divine  wisdom  and  skill  appear  as  distinctly  in  each 
particular  plant,  each  individual  insect,  as  in  the  creation  of 
worlds,  or  the  ordering  of  planetary  systems.  Neither  can  it  be 
said  that  such  divine  choice  is  controlled  or  conditioned  by  the 
desires  or  determinations  of  men,  even  where  these  appear  to  be 
working  in  holy  conjunction  with  the  divine  will,  since  such 
human  activities  are  in  the  nature  of  things  always  subordinate 
and  dependent  on  the  sovereignty  that  sways  alike  the  general 


ELECTION  A  PROCEDURE  IN  LOVE.  387 

and  the  particular — the  whole  race  of  man  and  the  humblest  mem- 
ber of  that  race,  in  their  common  relations  to  the  great  plan  of 
salvation. 

Had   evangelical    Protestantism   been   content  to  rest  in  the 
generic  fact  thus  defined  and  illustrated, — had  it  been  willing  to 

accept  as  sufficient  for  practical  use  the  ... 

. "       „    .  .         ,  „;:    ,        „         ,  11.    Divine  motive  in  eJec- 

simple  definition  of  Wesley,  that  elec-    ti(m .  loye  fQr  the  ekct> 

tion   means  a  divine   appointment  of 

some  men  to  eternal  happiness — a  statement  nearly  equivalent  to 
the  confessional  phrase,  appointed  the  elect  unto  glory, — or  the  medi- 
ate proposition  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  just  quoted,  not  only 
would  a  vast  amount  of  speculative,  sometimes  acrimonious,  dis- 
cussion have  been  avoided,  but  the  practical  value  of  the  doctrine 
as  a  highly  spiritualizing  if  not  saving  element  in  religious  expe- 
rience, would  have  been  vastly  enhanced.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  careful  observer,  that  theoretic  diversity 
on  the  secondary  points  involved,  and  dogmatic  discussion  around 
these  points,  have  wrought  incalculable  injury  to  the  doctrine  itself 
as  one  among  the  priceless  truths  of  spiritual  Christianity.  And 
one  of  the  most  vital  problems  for  the  thoughtful  student,  and  for 
the  earnest  preacher  also  in  our  time,  is  to  separate  the  secondary 
from  the  primary  and  essential  elements  of  the  doctrine,  and  to 
use  and  apply  the  doctrine  itself,  thus  generically  conceived,  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  doubtless  intended  it  to  be  used,  for  the  awakening 
of  sinners  and  the  edifying  of  those  who  believe. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  helps  to  such  appreciation  and  use  is 
discernible  in  the  declaration,  suggested  in  nearly  all  the  Protestant 
creeds,  that  election  on  the  part  of  God  is  always  an  act  of  love — 
a  manifestation  of  the  same  eternal  and  unconquerable  love  which 
made  Christ  a  Mediator  for  all  sinners,  and  which  gave  the  Gospel 
of  salvation  through  him  to  mankind.  If  election  is,  in  the  phrase 
of  Wesley,  a  divine  appointment,  a  determination  that  some  men 
should  attain  eternal  happiness,  such  an  appointment  cannot  be 
regarded  as  an  arbitrary  and  inscrutable  act  of  will,  or  as  the  edict 
of  an  impenetrable  sovereignty.  Still  less  is  this  divine  predes- 
tination to  be  confused  with  stony  fatalism  on  one  hand  or  with 
merely  naturalistic  determinism  on  the  other.  In  such  an  appoint- 
ment every  holy  attribute  in  God  is  engaged — every  perfection  of 
his  being  is  illustrated.  It  must  not  indeed  be  said  that  this 
determination  is  one  which  justice  to  those  who  are  thus  appointed 
to  spiritual  and  eternal  happiness,  constrains  God  to  form.  Were 
election  an  act  of  justice  simply,  something  which  was  clue  from 
God  to  his  creatures  and  which  they  might  in  equity  expect  or 


388  the;  plan  of  salvation. 

demand,  such  election  would  have  no  legitimate  place  in  a  scheme 
of  salvation  which  has  its  beginning  and  its  ending  in  free  and 
abounding  grace.  The  Symbols  therefore  simply  express  the 
universal  view  of  evangelical  Protestantism  in  declaring  that  God 
out  of  his  mere  love  and  mercy,  and  for  the  praise  of  his  glorious 
grace,  and  without  being  moved  thereto  by  anything  in  the  creature 
on  any  ground  of  equity  or  desert,  has  predestinated  or  appointed 
some  men  unto  everlasting  life.  Just  as  he  freely  provideth  and 
offereth  to  sinners  a  Mediator,  and  life  and  salvation  by  him 
(L,.  C.  32),  doing  this  out  of  his  mere  free  grace  and  love,  so  the 
application  of  this  salvatory  scheme  in  the  case  of  the  persons 
actually  saved  through  it,  is  to  be  recognized  as  in  all  its  elements 
an  expression  of  grace  and  mercy,  unconstrained  and  infinite  in 
both  quality  and  volume. 

Of  the  intrinsic  worthiness  and  perfection  of  such  elective  love, 
contemplated  as  the  impelling  motive  in  the  divine  mind,  it  is 
impossible  to  speak  in  sufficiently  exalted  praise.  I,ike  the  love 
disclosed  in  the  person  and  mission  of  the  Redeemer,  it  passeth 
knowledge:  its  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and  height  are 
simply  immeasurable.  But  we  may  fitly  emphasize  two  of  its. 
essential  qualities,  its  equity  and  its  sovereign ty.  First  of  all,  the 
grace  of  God  in  election  is  not  an  unregulated  outflow  of  feeling, 
without  adequate  regard  for  the  moral  principles  involved  in 
its  expression.  Not  only  the  innate  perfection  of  his  being,  but 
the  requirements  of  his  position  as  moral  governor,  demand  that 
his  love  for  sinners  and  his  purpose  to  save  them  shall  be  con- 
trolled by  a  righteousness  as  firm  and  moveless  as  his  eternal 
throne.  Much  of  the  current  criticism  of  the  doctrine  is  based, 
on  a  radical  misconception  at  this  point:  it  involves  the  unwar- 
ranted supposition  that,  since  God  is  intrinsically  loving  and 
gracious,  all  men  alike  ought  to  be  and  therefore  will  be  elect — 
appointed  to  eternal  happiness.  But  the  elective  grace,  like  the 
providential  mercy  of  God,  must  be  absolutely  equitable  in  itself 
and  in  all  its  manifestations.  Not  only  is  it  true  that  justice  does 
not  constrain  him  to  choose  and  appoint  any  to  be  saved  ;  that 
justice  doubtless  may  and  does  constrain  him  to  withhold  this 
privilege  from  others, — even  from  those  who  to  our  narrow  vision 
may  seem  equally  deserving. 

The  second  quality  of  this  elective  love  is  its  free  and  absolute 
sovereignty.  Such  sovereignty  is  resident  as  an  essential  quality 
in  all  love:  in  all  its  nobler  forms  love  flows  forth  as  a  stream  from 
its  fountain,  not  through  external  constraint  but  rather  under  the 
impulsion  of  an  interior  life.     There  is  indeed  a  sense  in  which,. 


■ELECTION    EQUITABLE   AND   SOVEREIGN.  389 

as  within  the  family,  affection  becomes  a  duty  as  well  as  an 
impulse;  yet  even  here  the  highest  excellence  and  beauty  of  such 
affection  lie  in  the  fact  that  it  is  spontaneous — the  outflow  not  of 
the  will  merely,  impelled  by  a  sense  of  outward  obligation,  but 
rather  of  a  deeply  seated  principle  in  the  moral  nature.  It  is  true 
that  God  in  giving  life  to  any  creature  places  himself  under  a  spe- 
cies of  obligation  to  sustain  that  life  during  its  appointed  term  of 
existence  and  within  its  own  ordained  sphere.  His  universal  prov- 
idence is  in  this  aspect  a  providence  exercised  under  the  cogency 
of  appropriate  law.  But  mercy  as  shown  toward  sinful  man  is 
love  flowing  out  freely  toward  those  who  have  forfeited  even  this 
providential  claim,  and  whom  equity  by  itself  can  only  condemn. 
Elective  grace  is  the  conferring  of  wholly  undeserved  favor  and 
blessing,  under  the  impulse  of  an  interior  principle  whose  mani- 
festations are  as  truly  and  as  absolutely  sovereign  as  was  the 
comprehensive  decree  wherein  God  in  unlimited  freedom  ordained 
what  soever  comes  to  pass.  Much  of  the  popular  criticism  upon 
such  election  rests  upon  the  failure  to  apprehend  suitably  this 
underlying  fact,  that  God  is  not  only  righteous  but  absolutely 
sovereign  in  his  grace, — at  liberty  to  bestow  or  withhold  such  grace 
at  his  own  pleasure,  and  at  liberty  to  bestow  just  such  measures  of 
his  grace  and  blessing  as  he  may  freely  choose  to  grant. 

It  is  obvious  consequently  that,  as  the  motive  in  election  is  to 
be  found  entirely  in  God  rather  than  in  man,  so  the  ultimate 
ground  and  reason  for  such  election  must  be  found,  not  in  what 
man  is  as  the  recipient,  but  in  the  mind  and  purpose  of  God  alone. 
This  is  the  chief  significance  of  the  phrases  so  frequently,  in  wide 
contrast  with  the  Roman  dogma  of  merit,  current  in  Protestant 
symbolism, — with  no  regard  or  respect  for  man,  without  consid- 
eration for  their  works,  without  any  virtue  or  merit  in  us,  and  the 
like.  The  Synod  of  Dort  elaborates  these  phrases  in  the  general 
declaration,  that  election  is  not  founded  upon  faith  foreseen,  or 
the  obedience  of  faith,  holiness  or  any  other  good  quality  or  dis- 
position in  man,  as  the  prerequisite  cause  or  condition  upon  which 
it  depends;  and  in  continuation  affirms  positively  that  the  good 
pleasure  of  God  is  the  sole  cause  of  this  gracious  procedure, — he 
not  choosing  the  elect  in  view  of  their  antecedent  virtue  or  the 
possible  qualities  of  their  action,  but  of  his  own  free  and  sovereign 
will,  in  order  that  being  elect  they  may  believe  and  obey  and  lead 
holy  lives.  The  Arminian  Remonstrance,  though  in  open  antag- 
onism with  the  theology  of  Dort,  still  held  (Art.  I)  that  God  by 
an  eternal,  unchangeable  purpose  determined  out  of  the  fallen  race 
of  man  to  save  in  Christ,  and  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  and  through 


390  THF,   PLAN   OF   SALVATION. 

Christ,  those  who  should  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost  believe 
in  Christ,  and  should  persevere  in  faith  and  the  obedience  of  faith. 
It  freely  admitted  that  man  has  no  such  saving  virtue  in  himself 
as  would  commend  him  to  God  as  worthy  of  salvation,  and  that 
all  good  deeds  or  movements  that  can  be  conceived  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  prevenient  grace  of  God  in  Christ. 

In  connection  with  this  view  of  the  motive  and  ground  of  elec- 
tion as  found  in  God  alone,  it  will  be  well  to  note  more  closely 

the  end  or  object   divinely  sought  in 
12.  End  of  Election:  noli-     such  election.       When   the  intent   of 
ness  and  usefulness.  „    ,  .     ,  t  .  .  ,        .         . , 

God  in  this  gracious  procedure  is  said, 

in  the  phrase  of  Wesley,  to  be  eternal  happiness,  or  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Symbols  and  of  other  Protestant  formularies,  to  be 
everlasting  life  or  eternal  glory ,  the  way  is  inadvertently  left  open 
for  some  serious  misconceptions  of  the  supreme  design  in  such 
election.  It  is  painfully  obvious  that  many  persons  contemplate 
Christianity  in  general  as  a  divine  scheme  for  securing  crowns  and 
honors  and  unending  felicities  in  eternity,  rather  than  as  a  gra- 
cious process  instituted  for  the  development  of  holy  character  in 
this  present  world.  Multitudes  there  are  who  fail  to  recognize  in 
any  profound  sense  the  fundamental  truth,  that  our  Holy  Faith 
aims  to  secure,  not  happiness  hereafter  alone,  but  holiness  and  use- 
fulness also  in  the  life  that  now  is, — that  it  is  not  designed  simply  to 
confer  external  privileges  or  advantages  upon  its  adherents  above 
others,  and  so  to  increase  the  sum  of  their  happiness  as  an  ulti- 
mate end,  but  rather  primarily  to  make  them  worthy  by  making 
them  Christlike,  and  thus  to  introduce  them  both  here  and  here- 
after to  a  felicity  whose  basis  is  complete  and  eternal  reconciliation 
with  God  through  Christ. 

For  the  correction  of  such  false  conceptions,  far  too  widely  influ- 
ential in  our  time,  it  is  indispensable  to  emphasize  constantly  the 
two  primal  ends  which  are  said  in  the  Scriptures  to  be  sought  of 
God  in  this  elective  process.  The  first  of  these  ends  is  personal 
holiness — the  renovation  of  heart  and  life  in  conformity  with  the 
teaching  of  Christ  and  through  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
There  are  indeed  illustrations  in  the  Bible  of  individuals  called 
and  set  apart  for  certain  tasks  of  grace,  or  perchance  of  judg- 
ment, in  whom  such  personal  regeneration  was  not  requisite  as  a 
qualification.  But  wherever  election  is  described  in  the  spiritual 
sense  of  the  term,  personal  holiness  is  invariably  brought  for- 
ward, both  as  the  purpose  divinely  sought,  and  as  the  infallible 
sign  that  this  purpose  is  being  graciously  accomplished.  Predes- 
tinated to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son,  is  the  strong 


END    OF    ELECTION  :    HOLINESS    AND    USEFULNESS.  391 

statement  of  Paul  in  that  sublime  chapter  which,  more  fully  than 
any  other  in  the  New  Testament,  discusses  the  tenet  of  election 
as  to  its  source,  its  motive,  its  method  and  its  end  in  the  complete 
moral  restoration  and  consequent  eternal  blessedness  of  the  elect. 
Whether  it  be  a  prophet  or  an  apostle,  or  even  a  simple  disciple, 
who  is  thus  chosen  of  God,  elect  according  to  the  divine  fore- 
knowledge, there  is  no  clear  exception  in  the  New  Testament  to 
the  rule  that  the  sanctification  of  the  elect  person,  the  renewal  of 
the  character  and  the  life  according  to  the  pattern  of  Christ,  is  one 
purpose  immediately  contemplated  in  the  divine  mind.  That  an 
elect  person  should  continue  in  a  state  of  sin  is  inconceivable; 
that  one  who  willingly  remains  in  such  a  state  is  an  elect  person, 
is  in  the  nature  of  things  impossible.  In  a  word,  the  elect  are 
saved  invariably  not  in  sin  but  from  sin. 

The  second  primal  end  is  usefulness — usefulness  in  conjunction 
with  the  spiritual  kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth.  We  may  read 
here  and  there  in  the  Bible  of  one  whose  personal  usefulness  in 
such  conjunction  we  may  not  be  able  to  distinguish:  some  even 
among  the  apostles  left  behind  them  no  distinct  traces  of  their 
personal  efficiency  or  value  as  representatives  of  Christ  and  his 
cause.  Yet  even  the  thief  on  the  cross,  in  whom  the  divine  elec- 
tion became  a  palpable  reality  only  in  his  dying  moments,  has  in 
his  tremulous  prayer  to  be  remembered,  rendered  a  service  to  the 
church  which  cannot  cease  down  to  the  end  of  time.  So  in  the 
life  of  the  elect  of  God  through  all  generations  this  principle  of 
usefulness,  though  sometimes  indistinguishable  to  human  eyes, 
has  had  and  will  ever  have  its  constant  and  sublime  verification. 
The  universal  and  comprehending  fact  is,  that  election  is  in  order 
to  usefulness  as  well  as  holiness;  that  God  has  always  ordained 
paths  of  service  for  his  elect  to  walk  in;  and  that  it  is  in  this  way 
that  he  has  planned  to  carry  forward,  through  his  elect  servants, 
the  vast  task  of  restoring  our  fallen  humanity  to  himself.  It  may 
safely  be  affirmed  that  God  never  chose  a  soul  to  be  his  spiritually, 
without  providing  a  suitable  sphere  and  work  for  it,  and  commis- 
sioning it  to  be  useful  in  his  name  and  cause.  In  every  case  the 
individual  election  corresponds  in  spirit  and  aim  with  that  sublime 
plan  of  salvation,  holy  and  beneficent,  in  which  it  becomes  a  con- 
stituent part:  to  suppose  otherwise  would  render  such  election  an 
inscrutable  and  unprofitable  mystery. 

These  glimpses  of  the  divine  design  in  election  enable  us  more 
clearly  on  one  side  to  see  the  incalculable  value  of  the  doc- 
trine in  the  case  of  all  who  intelligently  and  cordially  accept  it, 
and  on  the  other  side  to  detect  more  readily  the  uuworthiness  of 


392  THE    PLAN    OF    SALVATION. 

much  of  the  criticism  upon  it,  current  especially  in  irreligious  cir- 
cles. The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  justly  say  (XVII),  that  the  con- 
sideration of  our  election  in  Christ  is  full  of  sweet,  pleasant  and 
unspeakable  comfort  to  godly  persons,  ...  as  well  because  it  doth 
greatly  establish  and  confirm  their  faith  of  eternal  salvation  to  be 
enjoyed  through  Christ,  as  because  it  doth  fervently  kindle  their 
love  toward  God.  It  has  indeed  been  alleged  that  the  doctrine 
inclines  those  who  hold  it  to  an  unwarrantable  assurance  in  their 
own  salvation,  and  by  natural  consequence  to  the  neglect  of  those 
Christian  duties  and  services  which  alone  can  justify  such  assur- 
ance. But  the  obvious  fact  rather  is,  that  in  the  case  of  the 
true  saint  the  hope  and  the  assurance  of  being  thus  elect  of  God 
becomes  not  only  an  unspeakable  comfort,  as  the  Anglican  formu- 
lary affirms,  but  also  a  most  potent  stimulus  both  to  the  culture  of 
spiritual  holiness,  and  to  the  diligent  service  of  Christ  in  whatso- 
ever sphere  of  religious  usefulness.  A  truly  elect  person,  as  Paul 
repeatedly  teaches,  desires  that  all  other  persons  the  world  over 
should  enjoy  the  same  gracious  privilege:  any  selfish  satisfaction 
or  exultation  in  view  of  our  election,  as  distinguishing  us  from 
others,  would  justify  the  suspicion  that  we  had  never  attained  the 
elect  condition.  The  two-fold  end  of  God  being  thus  practically 
appreciated,  and  partially  realized  in  fact,  the  really  elect  soul 
becomes  at  once  animated  by  an  assurance,  fired  by  a  zeal,  elevated 
and  purified  by  a  holy  confidence  in  the  grace  that  not  only  pre- 
destinates and  calls  but  also  justifies  and  glorifies,  which  enable  it 
to  make  its  calling  and  election  sure  by  experimental  evidences 
that  permit  of  no  mistake.  And  the  stronger  the  conviction  as  to 
the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  the  more  inspiring  and  purifying  be- 
comes by  gracious  necessity  its  influence  on  both  mind  and  life. 

The  Thirty- Nine  Articles  speak  also  of  the  serious  errors  into 
which  multitudes  of  curious  and  carnal  persons,  as  they  are  there 
styled,  fall  through  their  failure  to  apprehend  the  divine  election 
in  its  true  spirit  and  intent.  Many  such  persons  desire  on  the  one 
hand,  often  with  intense  selfishness,  to  obtain  certain  privileges 
or  honors  or  pleasures,  especially  in  the  life  to  come,  which  the 
elect  are  supposed  to  receive.  On  the  other  hand,  many  are  will- 
ing even  to  impugn  the  divine  character  or  administration  under 
the  Gospel,  because  they  suppose  themselves  excluded  unjustly 
from  the  circle  of  the  elect.  On  one  side  they  profess  an  anxious 
wish  to  be  saved,  while  on  the  other  they  attribute  to  God  and 
his  elective  purpose,  rather  than  to  their  own  will,  the  fact  they 
are  not  among  the  saved.  The  plain  and  sad  reality  is  that  they 
have  no  desire  whatever  to  be  graciously  elected,  if  the  end  or  aim 


HUMAN    RELATIONS    TO    ELECTION.  393 

of  such  election  is  to  be  either  holiness  or  religions  usefulness. 
They  do  not  wish  to  be  made  holy;  they  refuse  to  serve  God  in 
his  kingdom  of  grace;  they  deliberately  choose  to  continue  in 
their  selfish  state;  they  standout  willfully  against  all  invitations 
to  repent  and  believe  in  Christ;  they  have  no  wish  or  intention 
to  become  Christians  in  heart  and  life,  as  all  the  elect  in  fact  are. 
In  a  word,  they  desire  to  obtain  the  blessings  of  religion  without  the 
experience  of  religion, — to  enter  heaven  and  share  in  its  blessed- 
ness and  its  rewards,  without  either  becoming  holy  in  heart,  or 
endeavoring  to  glorify  God  in  their  lives.  Curious  and  carnal 
persons  indeed  they  are,  as  that  venerable  S3'inbol  describes  them, 
— wholly  unworth}'  of  the  blessing  which  God  graciously  confers 
on  his  own  elect  children. 

It  has  often  been  questioned  whether  much  of  the  controversy 
within  evangelical  circles  respecting  this  important  tenet  in  Chris- 
tian theology,  might  not  be  reconciled 

through  a  more  distinct  recognition  on        13#    Human   relations  to 
„    .,        -  ^  .  ,.  r ,  Election:  Human    responsi- 

all  sides  of  the  true  relations  or  human     bjlitv 

agency  to  this  divine  procedure.     To 

exclude  such  agency  altogether,  as  if  man  had  neither  choice  nor 
responsibility  in  the  matter  of  his  personal  election,  is  one  extreme: 
to  exalt  such  agency  unduly,  as  if  the  will  or  worth  of  man  were 
in  some  decisive  way  conditioning  or  constraining  the  divine 
choice,  is  certainly  another  extreme.  Calvinism,  in  its  supreme 
desire  to  exalt  the  divine  sovereignty  and  magnify  the  divine  glory 
in  the  predestination  of  those  who  are  called  to  be  saints,  has 
fallen  too  largely  into  the  former  mistake.  It  is  no  less  apparent 
that  evangelical  Arminianism,  in  laying  special  stress  on  the 
human  faith  and  obedience  alwa)-s  associated  as  requisites  with 
the  divine  call  and  appointment,  has  fallen  into  the  latter.  And 
the  problem  of  reducing  this  antinomy  in  belief  to  the  smallest 
practical  dimensions, — the  problem  of  combining  in  one  balanced 
and  adequate  conception  those  cardinal  elements  of  the  doctrine 
in  which  Arminians  and  Calvinists  are  substantially  agreed,  is  one 
which  may  well  claim  the  consideration  of  thoughtful  minds  of 
whatever  school  of  faith. 

The  Auburn  Declaration  sought  to  solve  this  problem  by  a  dis- 
tinct affirmation  on  one  side,  that  election  is  a  sovereign  act  of  the 
divine  mercy  which  has  its  basis,  not  in  the  foreseen  faith  and  obe- 
dience of  the  elect,  but  rather  in  the  divine  will  as  a  producing 
cause;  and  on  the  other,  that  the  gracious  purpose  of  God  in  elec- 
tion never  really  takes  effect  (or  becomes  a  conscious  fact  in  the 
experience  of  any  elect  person),  independently  of  faith  and  a  holy 


394  THE   PLAN   OF  SALVATION. 

life.  The  elective  decree  is  indeed  determined  from  eternity,  but 
is  also  continually  coming  into  existence  as  a  fact,  and  being  real- 
ized and  perfected  in  time;  and  so  far  as  actual  salvation  is  con- 
cerned, while  the  result  is  evidently  determined  of  God,  it  is  also 
in  some  real  sense  determinable  by  and  through  human  choice.  It 
is  clearly  inadmissible  to  claim  that  the  elect  are  saved  without 
regard  to  what  they  are  or  what  they  may  do,  since  no  one  can 
have  any  assurance  whatever  that  he  is  one  of  the  elect  if  he  does 
not  discern  in  himself  the  signs  of  such  election  in  an  active  faith 
and  in  true  holiness  and  usefulness  of  life.  For  the  same  reason 
it  becomes  no  less  inadmissible  for  any  to  assume  that,  not  being 
among  the  elect,  they  will  not  and  cannot  be  saved,  whatever 
measure  of  faith  they  might  exercise,  or  however  obedient  or  holy 
or  useful  they  might  be  in  their  lives.  No  one  having  in  himself 
these  characteristic  signs  or  qualities,  can  have  any  just  ground 
for  supposing  that  he  is  not  an  elect  person; — as  certainly  he  could 
have  no  desire  or  disposition  to  take  such  a  view  of  himself  and 
his  spiritual  prospects.  On  the  other  hand,  the  obvious  fact  is 
that  those  who  take  refuge  in  the  hypothesis  that  they  are  not 
among  the  elect,  and  therefore  cannot  be  saved  whatever  they  do, 
never  in  fact  do  exercise  the  faith  or  manifest  the  obedience  requi- 
site as  evidences  of  election.  Their  objection  to  the  doctrine 
involves  the  groundless  assumption  that,  although  they  may  pos- 
sess the  qualities  which  are  characteristic  of  the  elect,  they  are 
by  the  divine  decree  excluded,  however  worthy,  from  the  circle 
of  the  saved.  But  is  it  not  clear  that,  so  long  as  they  fail  to  exhibit 
in  themselves  these  vital  products  of  electing  grace,  they  cannot 
claim  that  they  ought  to  be  counted  among  the  elect  ?  Ought 
they  not  rather  to  recognize  the  alarming  probability,  that  they 
are  among  those  whom  God  has  justly  determined  to  pass  by  in 
his  distributive  application  of  salvation  provided  in  the  Gospel  ? 
On  one  side  it  must  be  recognized  as  a  fundamental  truth,  that 
God  not  only  chooses  those  whom  he  would  save,  and  also  deter- 
mines wherein  salvation  shall  consist,  but  is  himself  the  procur- 
ing cause  of  all  saving  experience.  He  not  only  has  the  right  to 
require  faith  and  obedience  and  holiness  as  essential  elements  in 
such  salvation;  it  is  his  to  take  such  steps,  to  bring  to  bear  such 
influences,  as  shall  secure  these  indispensable  conditions  of  elec- 
tion. But  it  should  never  be  forgotten  on  the  other  side  that,  in 
the  weighty  phrase  of  John  Howe,  God  knows  how  to  govern  his 
creatures  according  to  their  nature,  and  changes  the  hearts  of  men 
according  to  that  natural  way  wherein  the  human  faculties  are 
wont  to  work.     By  such  processes  he  not  only  elects,  but  renders 


HUMAN   ACTIVITY    IN    ELECTION.  395 

his  election  effectual  in  the  individual  soul, — of  ten  in  ways  inscru- 
table to  us,  yet  always  in  such  a  manner  that,  while  our  faith  and 
obedience  are  in  a  sense  his  products,  they  are  also  as  truly  ours  as 
any  other  acts  or  experiences  of  our  lives.  Our  native  inability 
as  sinful  to  exercise  such  saving  qualities  is  supplemented  by  the 
gracious  ability  he  bestows,  and  we  thus  become  elect  individually 
in  and  through  him,  while  at  the  same  time  we  never  can  become 
elect  in  fact  without  our  own  conscious  purpose  and  concurrence. 
There  is  thus  a  primal  sense  in  which  election,  with  all  that  is 
involved  in  it,  is  a  sovereign  and  unconditioned  act  of  God:  there 
is  also  a  vital  sense  in  which  such  election  is  realized  and  made 
effectual  only  in  and  through  the  free  choice  of  man — a  choice 
induced  and  energized  through  divine  grace  alone. 

Such  is  universally  the  practical  conviction  of  those  who  are 
saved,  whatever  name  they  bear.  They  agree  in  referring  the 
precious  result  wholly  to  God  as  its  proper  source  and  author; 
they  extol  his  relation  to  that  result  as  primal,  sovereign,  effica- 
cious. Yet  they  agree  in  believing  that  the  purpose  to  save  is 
never  carried  out  into  fact,  except  where  faith  and  holy  living  are 
manifested  as  the  responsive  acts  of  man.  They  indeed  realize 
that  these  acts  are  never  found  in  man  excepting  through  the 
gracious  ministries  of  the  Spirit:  they  also  affirm  that  such  acts, 
though  thus  produced,  are  never  in  themselves  the  meritorious 
ground  of  salvation.  They  hold  with  Augustine,  as  quoted  with 
approval  by  Calvin,  that  the  grace  of  God  does  not  find  men  fit 
to  be  elected  but  makes  them  so.  Yet  they  also  hold  that  vital 
faith  and  loving  obedience  and  holiness  of  heart  and  life  alone 
indicate  a  renewed  and  saved  nature, — that  in  fact  they  are  salva- 
tion, in  its  most  inward  essence.  Emphasizing  on  the  one  hand 
the  primary  and  sovereign  efficiency  of  God  in  the  whole  matter, 
they  appreciate  also  the  part  which  under  his  requisition  they  are 
to  take  in  working  out  their  own  salvation,  and  with  joy  and  con- 
fidence devote  themselves  to  this  task  as  the  supreme  business  of 
their  lives.  All  of  grace,  is  the  glad  testimony  of  Calvinist  and 
Arminian  alike:  grace  verified  in  belief  and  life,  is  the  practical 
test  which  Arminians  and  Calvinists  alike  cordially  accept. 

The  doctrine  of  election  as  presented  in  the  Symbols  finds  its 
dark  antithesis  in  the  dogma  of  reprobation,  as  set  forth  chief! y 
in  the  chapter   (III)   on  the  Eternal 

Decree.     The  term  is  used  comprehen-        14-    Reprobation-Preter- 
,        .,      ^  ,_.        ,  ,     ition:  Election  unto  condem- 

sively  to  describe  the  entire  plan  and     nation 

dealing  of  God  with  that  portion  of 

the  human  race  who  are  not  elected  unto  everlasting  life.     In 


396  THE    PLAN    OK    SALVATION. 

earlier  usage  it  referred  especially,  as  in  the  third  section  of  this 
chapter,  to  the  eternal  counsel  and  purpose,  as  predestinating  or 
foreordaining  a  certain  portion  of  mankind  to  everlasting  death, 
in  illustration  of  the  divine  justice.     In  a  modified  and  limited 
sense,  it  refers  to  the  final  or  ultimate  act  of  judgment  in  con- 
demning sinners — not  as  the  carrying  out  of  an  eternal  purpose 
formed  irrespectve  of  character,  but  simply  on  account  of  their 
sin  as  actually  committed.     A  further  modification  appears  in  the 
milder  term,  pretention,  which  signifies  either  the  negative  pass- 
ing by  in  fact,  or  the  sovereign  determination  to  pass  by,  those 
who  refuse  to  receive  the  grace  of  election.     Such  preterition  as 
an  act  presupposes  a  condition  of  sin  already  existing,  but  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  in  any  sense  a  cause  of  such  sin.     As  a  determi- 
nation in  the  divine  mind,  it  is  an  immanent  purpose  to  leave  men 
in  their  sin,  contemplated  as  an  event  hereafter  to  occur, — such 
determination  in  no  wise  causing  the  sin  which  is  condemned  and 
punished.     Reprobation  in  the  modified  sense  also  presupposes 
the  existence  of  sin  deserving  condemnaton,but  is  not  to  be  viewed 
as  a  cause  or  occasion  of  the  sin  so  condemned.     Preterition  thus 
stands  at  the  beginning  and  reprobation,  in  this  sense,  at  the  final 
closing  of  the  divine  dealing  with  this  portion  of  mankind, — 
God  in  the  first  instance  choosing  in  sovereignty  not  to  save  from 
the  commission  of  sin,  and  in  the  second  determining  as  judge  to 
condemn  for  or  on  account  of  sin  committed. 

It  is  noticeable  that  some  of  the  Protestant  Creeds  (the  Augs- 
burg Conf. ;  the  Heidelberg  Cat.;  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles)  say 
nothing  except  by  implication  in  regard  to  such  predestination 
unto  death.  Others  among  them,  especially  the  French  and 
Belgic,  affirm  simply  the  negative  preterition,  without  introduc- 
ing the  positive  reprobation.  We  believe,  says  the  former,  (XII) 
that  from  the  corruption  and  general  condemnation  in  which  all 
men  are  plunged,  God  .  .  .  called  those  whom  he  hath  chosen  .  .  . 
to  display  in  them  the  riches  of  his  mercy,  but  leaves  the  rest  in  this 
same  corruption  and  condemnation,  to  show  forth  in  them  his  jus- 
tice. The  Belgic  declares,  (XVI)  that  in  the  matter  of  eternal 
predestination  God  is  both  merciful  and  just;  merciful,  since  he 
delivers  from  the  universal  perdition  and  ruin  wrought  by  sin  all 
whom  .  .  .  he  hath  elected  in  Christ  Jesus;  just,  in  leaving  others 
in  the  fall  and  perdition  wherein  they  have  involved  themselves. 
The  Synod  of  Dort  presents  the  fact  of  preterition  more  elabor- 
ately, (1:15)  in  the  statement  that,  while  some  are  elected,  others 
not  elect  are  passed  by,  according  to  the  eternal  purpose, — God  out 
of  his  most  just,  irreprehensible  and  unchangeable  good  pleasure. 


REPROBATION,    PRETERITION,    DEFINED.  397 

determining  to  leave  them  in  the  common  misery  in  which  they 
have  willfully  plunged  themselves,  .  .  .  permitting  them  in  his 
just  judgment  to  follow  on  in  their  own  ways,  yet  purposing 
to  condemn  and  punish  them  finally  for  their  sin.  The  Synod, 
however,  pronounced  it  a  calumny  to  say  that  the  Reformed 
Churches  taught  that  God  out  of  his  own  absolute  or  arbitrary 
will,  and  without  any  respect  of  sin,  hath  foreordained  the  greater 
part  or  any  part  of  mankind  to  be  damned. 

Other  continental  formularies  employ  the  more  positive  term, 
reprobation,  as  including  both  the  primal  passing  by  and  the  ulti- 
mate retributive  condemnation, — though  chiefly,  as  in  the  Second 
Helv.  Conf.  in  an  incidental  rather  than  elaborate  form.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  in  that  Confession  the  alleviating  declaration 
that,  although  God  well  knows  who  are  his,  and  though  the  num- 
ber of  the  elect  is  said  to  be  but  small,  yet  we  ought  to  hope  kindly 
concerning  all,  nor  rashly  to  count  any  one  among  the  reprobate. 
A  similar  informal  reference  to  the  reprobate  as  a  class  appears  in 
the  Scotch  Confession.  In  the  Irish  Articles,  under  the  general 
head  of  Predestination,  we  find  the  first  formal  declaration  that 
God  in  his  eternal  and  unchangeable  counsel  hath  reprobated  unto 
death  a  certain  number  of  mankind,  known  only  to  him,  which 
number  can  neither  be  increased  nor  diminished, — a  phrase 
derived  immediately  from  Augustine,  who  like  Calvin  with  an 
unswerving  fidelity  to  logical  coherence,  affirmed  the  existence  of 
a  two-fold  predestination,  gemina  predestinatio,  involving  all 
mankind  even  from  eternity.  It  was  doubtless  from  this  formu- 
lary that  the  still  more  positive  statements  of  the  Symbols  sprang. 
We  may  trace  in  both  the  influence  of  the  startling  propositions  of 
Calvin,  (Inst.  111:21)  that  God  from  eternity  determined  in  him- 
self what  he  would  have  to  become  of  every  individual  of  the 
race;  that  all  mankind  were  not  created  by  him  for  a  similar  des- 
tiny, but  eternal  life  was  foreordained  for  some  and  eternal  dam- 
nation for  others;  and  that  every  human  being  was  created  for 
the  one  or  the  other  of  these  ends.  It  is  noticeable,  however, 
that  the  Symbols  nowhere  follow  Calvin  in  affirming  that  the  por- 
tion of  mankind  who  are  not  elect  unto  salvation  were  created  to 
be  damned,  but  invariably  affirm  that  they  are  in  fact  condemned 
to  punishment /br  their  sins,  and  for  their  sins  only.  The  judicial 
reprobation  is  not  viewed  merely  as  a  purpose  formed  in  eternity, 
but  also  as  an  event  in  time,  following  chronologically  as  the 
sequel  of  a  career  of  sin.  The  Symbols  endorse  the  earlier  creeds 
in  declaring  that  God  passes  by  those  who  are  not  elect,  leaves 
them    in    their    estate    of    sinfulness,    inasmuch    as   he   has   the 


398  THE    PLAN    OF    SALVATION. 

sovereign  right  to  extend  or  withhold  mercy  as  he  pleaseth.  They 
also  declare  (V:vi)  that  God  sometimes  as  a  righteous  judge  with- 
holds grace,  withdraws  gifts,  exposes  to  temptation,  gives  wicked 
and  ungoldly  men  over  to  their  own  sinfulness,  permits  a  process 
of  induration  and  excecation  to  establish  itself  in  their  nature,  and 
even  in  his  justice  ordains  them  to  dishonor  a?id  wrath.  But  they 
never  affirm  that  the  final  condemnation  of  the  wicked  is  based  on 
any  other  ground  or  has  any  other  cause  than  their  own  willful  sin 
against  him;  they  nowhere  teach,  as  has  sometimes  been  alleged, 
that  God  created  any  portion  of  mankind  in  order  to  exhibit  his 
justice  in  their  final  condemnation. 

We  may  turn  from  these  confessional  statements  to  consider 
the  essential  truth  in  the  case.  It  is  certainly  obvious  that, 
while  the  plan  of  salvation  is  ample  enough  in  its  scope  and  pro- 
visions to  secure  the  pardon  and  restoration  of  all  mankind,  the 
entire  race  has  not  even  yet  heard  of  it,  or  been  providentially 
brought  within  the  range  of  its  benefits.  It  is  obvious  also,  that 
among  those  who  have  heard  the  glad  tidings,  multitudes  almost 
innumerable  turn  away  from  the  gracious  offer,  and  consequently 
fail  utterly  to  be  saved  thereby.  And  while  this  sad  conclusion 
is  immediately  the  result  of  their  personal  desire  and  purpose  to 
continue  in  sin,  their  deliberate  choice  of  evil  rather  than  good, 
it  is  likewise  obvious  that  the  will  of  God  sustains  some  distinct 
relation  to  that  result, — even  to  the  extent  of  acquiescence  in  their 
sinful  determination,  and  of  a  sovereign  purpose  to  surrender 
them,  without  further  provision  than  that  exhibited  in  the  Gospel, 
to  the  legitimate  issue  of  their  wicked  resistance  to  his  just  and 
holy  claims.  Nor  is  it  less  obvious  that  it  belongs  to  God  rather 
than  man,  to  decide  upon  the  amount  of  gracious  influence  which  by 
his  Word  and  Spirit  and  through  his  providence,  he  shall  bring 
to  bear  upon  men  in  order  to  induce  them  to  turn  from  their  evil 
ways  and  live;  and  that,  for  aught  we  can  discover,  he  may  in 
his  sovereignty  justly  leave  them,  in  the  phrase  of  the  Canon  of 
Dort,  in  the  misery  in  which  they  have  willfully  plunged  them- 
selves. Certainly  it  is  obvious  that,  so  long  as  they  are  deliber- 
ately resisting  all  the  influences  which  in  his  wondrous  scheme 
of  grace  he  has  determined  to  bring  to  bear  upon  them  in  order  to 
their  reconciliation  with  him,  they  can  have  no  just  ground  of 
complaint  if,  in  the  language  of  the  Confession,  he  passes  them 
by,  or  gives  them  over,  to  their  own  lusts,  the  temptations  of  the 
world,  and  the  power  of  Satan.  There  must  somewhere  be  a 
point  where  equity  itself  forbids  the  further  exercise  of  mercy — 
where  God  is  constrained  to  withhold  his  grace,  to  withdraw  his 


PRETERITION    A    JUST    ACT.  399 

proper  gifts,  and  to  abandon  such  willful  and  obdurate  subjects 
to  their  chosen  career  of  sinfulness.  And  is  it  not  clear  also 
that,  as  the  final  outcome  of  such  persistent  rejection  of  his 
offered  reconciliation,  God  may  at  last  not  only  leave  them  hence- 
forth to  the  induration  and  the  corruption  and  the  ruin  which  sin 
by  its  own  nature  involves,  but  in  the  solemn  phrase  of  the  Con- 
fession, may  rightly  ordain  them  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for  their 
sin,  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice  ? 

It  is  certainly  a  truth  of  Scripture,  and  one  which  cannot  be 
too  earnestly  emphasized,  that  God  may  equitably  leave,  and  in 
fact  does  in  many  instances  leave,  sinners  to  the  sinfulness  to  which 
they  cling  in  spite  of  his  gracious  efforts  to  deliver  them.  In 
other  words,  preterition,  or  the  passing  by  of  some  among  those 
who  thus  resist  divine  grace,  is  a  fact  whose  occurrence  cannot 
be  questioned,  and  whose  rightfulness  no  one  is  at  liberty  to  chal- 
lenge. It  cannot  reasonably  be  claimed  that  God  is  bound  in 
justice  to  do  more  than  he  is  actually  doing,  or  even  that  it  is 
possible  for  him  through  his  appointed  scheme  of  mercy  to  do  more, 
for  the  salvation  of  those  who  are  willfully  transmuting  his  blessed 
Gospel  into  a  savor  of  death  unto  death.  Nor  is  it  any  less  a 
truth  of  Scripture,  any  less  a  fact  of  experience,  that  God  may 
and  does  in  equity  pronounce  judicial  condemnation,  at  last  on 
those  who  thus  trifle  with  and  resist  his  grace, — not  only  giving 
them  over  finally  to  the  sinful  corruption  in  which  they  have  chosen 
to  abide,  but  arraigning  them  at  his  righteous  bar  for  their  persis- 
tence in  evil,  and  especially  for  the  crowning  sin  of  trifling  with 
and  openly  rejecting  his  gracious  offers  in  the  Gospel.  In  these 
practical  conclusions  evangelical  Christians  of  all  types  are  essen- 
tially agreed.  Even  the  Arminian  Remonstrance  admits  that  by 
an  eternal  and  unchangeable  purpose,  God  determined  ...  to 
leave  the  incorrigible  and  unbelieving  in  sin  and  under  wrath,  and 
to  condemn  them  as  alienate  from  Christ — relinquere  et  con- 
demnare. 

It  surely  is  clear  that  the  solemn  and  practical  truths  here  indi- 
cated can  never  be  ignored  in  Christian  theology,  or  treated  as 
trivial  in  their  bearings  upon  human  salvation,  without  incurring 
the  charge  of  unfaithfulness  to  the  Gospel,  and  exposing  the  souls 
of  men  to  dreadful  peril.  Preterition  is  a  spiritual  fact  of  immeas- 
urable import,  and  reprobation,  at  least  in  the  sense  of  judicial 
condemnation,  is  a  fact  of  even  vaster  significance.  How  far  and 
in  what  forms  the  doctrine  may  profitably  be  introduced  or  empha- 
sized in  an  evangelical  creed,  is  a  question  of  serious  moment. 
We  have  seen  that  in  some  of  the  Protestant  formularies  there  is 


400  THE    PLAN    OK    SALVATION. 

hardly  a  trace  of  it  in  either  aspect,  while  in  others  pretention 
only  is  affirmed,  often  incidentally  rather  than  in  technical  form. 
It  is  apparent  also,  that  the  doctrine  is  less  prominent  in  the  earlier 
than  in  the  later,  and  less  prominent  also  in  the  continental, 
excepting  the  noted  Canon  of  Dort,  than  in  British  symbolism, — 
especially  if  we  include  in  the  latter  group  the  Lambeth  Articles, 
which  openly  declare  that  those  who  are  not  predestinated  unto 
salvation,  shall  be  necessarily  damned  for  their  sins.  We  have 
seen  that  the  Confession  and  Catechisms  of  Westminster  go  beyond 
all  preceding  creeds,  except  the  Irish  Articles,  in  asserting  and 
defining  not  only  preterition  but  judicial  reprobation, — thus  giv- 
ing to  the  doctrine  of  Calvin  its  completest  confessional  expression, 
though  they  do  not  assert,  as  Calvin  did,  a  positive  foreordination 
unto  damnation,  even  from  eternity.  That  their  emphatic  state- 
ments have  been  subject  to  very  grave  misapprehensions,  and  have 
been  strenuously  urged  as  objections  to  the  entire  Calvinistic 
scheme,  as  incorporated  in  the  Symbols,  will  be  readily  admitted. 
It  is  also  apparent  that,  with  the  advance  of  larger  conceptions  of 
the  nature  and  scope  of  the  Gospel  as  a  divine  offer  of  mercy  made 
to  the  entire  race,  such  misapprehensions  have  become  more  and 
more  injurious — more  and  more  difficult  to  meet.  And  it  may 
be  questioned  whether  many  who  adhere  in  good  faith  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Symbols  concerning  the  divine  sovereignty  in 
general,  have  not  been  influenced  by  such  adverse  criticism  even 
to  the  practical  ignoring  of  the  solemn  truths  which  these  state- 
ments do  after  all  embody. 

The  desire  to  obtain  some  confessional  relief  from  the  severity 
of  the  confessional  teaching  is  natural  in  itself  and  has  recently 
become  quite  general  in  Presbyterian  circles.  The  United  Church 
of  Scotland  has  indicated  this  desire  in  its  Declaration,  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  divine  decree,  including  the  doctrine  of  election 
unto  eternal  life,  should  be  held  in  connection  and  in  harmony  with 
the  truth  that  God  is  not  willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  has 
provided,  and  in  the  Gospel  has  offered,  a  salvation  sufficient  for 
all  men ;  and  also  with  the  truth  that  every  one  is  responsible  to 
God  for  his  dealing  with  this  free  and  unrestricted  offer.  The 
Declaration  of  the  Free  Church  affirms  that  the  church  does  not 
teach,  or  regard  the  Confession  as  teaching,  the  foreordination  of 
men  to  death  irrespective  of  their  sin.  The  Cumberland  Church 
in  the  same  spirit,  after  declaring  in  general  that  God  has  determ- 
ined to  bring  to  pass  whatever  should  be  for  his  own  glory, 
condenses  the  whole  subject  of  the  divine  decrees  in  the  statement 
that  God  has  not  decreed  anything  respecting  his  creature,  man, 


PROPOSED    EMENDATIONS.  401 

contrary  to  his  revealed  will  or  written  Word,  which  Word  declares 
his  sovereignty  over  all  his  creatures,  the  ample  provision  he  has 
made  for  their  salvation,  and  his  determination  to  punish  the  finally 
impenitent  with  everlasting  destruction,  and  to  save  the  true 
believer  with  an  everlasting  salvation.  One  of  the  most  valuable 
amendments  proposed  in  the  recent  Revision  in  our  own  com- 
munion, indicates  this  desire  in  still  more  significant  form.  In 
that  amendment  it  was  proposed  to  omit  the  two  sections  (iii  and 
iv),  in  the  chapter  on  the  Eternal  Decree,  which  seem  to  inculcate 
the  dogma  of  an  original  purpose  in  the  mind  of  God  to  consign 
some  men  and  angels  to  eternal  death,  not  simply  propter  peccatum , 
but  from  all  eternity  as  an  exhibition  of  penal  justice.  It  was  also 
proposed  to  substitute  for  two  other  sections  (v  and  vii)  in  the 
chapter,  the  following  statements  as  embodying  all  that  can  use- 
fully be  incorporated  in  a  churchly  creed  on  a  matter  so  abstruse 
and  so  perplexing  to  faith:  —« 

God,  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  was  laid,  according  to 
his  eternal  and  immutable  purpose,  and  the  secret  counsel  and 
good  pleasure  of  his  will,  hath  predestinated  an  innumerable  mul- 
titude of  mankind  unto  life,  and  hath  particularly  and  unchange- 
ably chosen  them  in  Christ  unto  everlasting  glory,  out  of  his  mere 
free  grace  and  love,  not  on  account  of  any  foresight  of  faith,  or 
good  works,  or  perseverance  in  either  of  them,  or  any  other  thing 
in  the  creature,  as  conditions  or  causes  moving  him  thereunto; 
and  all  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  grace. 

The  rest  of  mankind  God  saw  fit,  according  to  the  unsearchable 
counsel  of  his  will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or  withholdeth  mercy 
as  he  pleaseth,  not  to  elect  unto  everlasting  life;  and  them  hath 
he  ordained  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for  their  sin,  to  the  praise  of 
his  glorious  justice;  yet  hath  he  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked,  nor  is  it  his  decree,  but  the  wickedness  of  their  own  hearts, 
which  restraineth  and  hindereth  them  from  accepting  the  free  offer 
of  his  grace  made  in  the  Gospel. 

Postponing  the  consideration  of  Salvation  as  a  gracious  Process, 
with  the  agencies  engaged  in  it  and  the  spiritual  results  secured 
thereby,   we  may  here   conclude   our 
study  of  the  divine  Plan  of  Salvation        15«    Concluding    survey: 

.^  r.     ,    ,  ,.  .   j     characteristics  of  the  Plan 

with  some  final  observations,  suggested      f  salvation 

by  the  preceding  survey: 

First:  It  is  throughout  a  supernatural  plan;  originating  in  God, 

revealed  by  God,  and  proclaimed  by  God  as  his  chosen  scheme 

for  the  reconciliation  and  spiritual  restoration  of  our  sinful  race. 

Contrasted  with  other  salvatorv  devices  such  as  the  brain  and 


402  THE    PLAN    OF   SALVATION. 

heart  of  man  have  devised,  and  regarded  as  a  human  construc- 
tion merely,  we  should  still  be  constrained  on  fair  comparison  to 
pronounce  it  immeasurably  superior  to  all  other  human  proposals. 
But  the  careful  study  of  its  elements  and  provisions  compels  us  to 
judge  that  no  human  mind  or  combination  of  minds  could  ever 
have  devised  such  a  plan:  had  we  no  warrant  of  inspiration  to 
rest  upon,  we  should  still  on  the  most  faithful  inspection  declare 
it  to  be  superhuman.  But  God  has  given  us  ample  certification 
in  inspired  Scripture  that  it  is  his  own  scheme,  formed  even  before 
the  fall  of  our  race,  wisely  adjusted  by  him  to  all  the  exigencies 
which  that  fall  has  introduced,  stamped  in  each  of  its  provisions 
with  his  own  signature,  and  in  its  spirit  and  all  its  unfoldings 
divine.  He  who  does  not  reverently  recognize  this  fundamental 
element  of  supernaturalness  in  this  redemptive  scheme, — who 
does  not  rest  in  the  conviction  that  God  is  its  personal  author 
throughout,  and  discern  in  it  not  only  the  divine  grace  but  also 
the  divine  authority,  rightfully  requiring  him  and  all  men  to 
accept  it,  as  the  only  adequate  method  of  deliverance  from  sin  and 
guilt, has  attained  no  suitable  conception  of  it,  and  can  in  no  wise  be 
personally  saved  by  it.  If  this  Gospel  of  grace  and  holiness  be 
not  thus  truly  and  absolutely  divine  in  origin  and  spirit  and 
method,  it  must  be  pronounced  an  impenetrable  and  intolerable 
mystery — the  greatest  and  darkest  of  all  religious  delusions. 

Second:  It  is  a  comprehensive  and  complete  plan;  containing  in 
itself  everything  that  is  requisite  to  the  spiritual  restoration  of 
mankind,  and  perfect  in  every  adjustment  to  their  spiritual  con- 
dition and  needs.  Prostrate  as  the  race  is  in  its  conscious  corrup- 
tion and  guilt,  it  has  never  ceased  to  devise  schemes  for  its  moral 
recovery  and  its  reconciliation  with  God.  It  has  sought  by  pen- 
ance and  sacrifices  to  obtain  forgiveness  from  heaven:  it  has  pro- 
posed to  secure  salvation  through  culture  and  discipline:  it  has 
traversed  the  entire  range  of  possibilities  in  the  struggle  to  shake 
off  its  load  of  guilt,  and  to  secure  spiritual  purity  and  peace. 
Human  philosophy  has  sought  to  solve  the  universal  problem; — 
sometimes  by  doubts  or  negations,  sometimes  by  dreamy  ideals 
which  prove  in  the  experiment  to  be  painfully  void  of  saving 
power.  As  Plato  dreamed  of  redemption  as  a  release  from  the 
bondage  of  sense,  to  be  secured  through  the  culture  of  the  true, 
the  beautiful  and  the  good  within  the  soul,  so  philosophy  in  all 
ages  has  endeavored  to  teach  men  how  to  be  saved  by  processes 
originating  in  human  methods  rather  than  in  God.  But  Christianity 
is  the  only  system  that  has  taken  scientific  account  of  the  great 
disease  of  humanity  in  all  its  manifold  phases,  or  has  proposed  a 


CONCLUDING    SURVEY.  403 

remedy  adjusted  at  every  point  to  the  nature  of  the  universal  dis- 
order, and  potent  enough  to  work  out  in  all  who  submit  them- 
selves to  its  treatment  a  perfect  cure.  Chalmers  in  his  Institutes 
has  described  the  disorder  with  scientific  precision  and  with  unhes- 
itating fidelity,  and  on  the  other  hand  has  set  forth  the  divine 
remedy  in  all  its  fullness  and  glory,  as  containing  the  assurance  of 
a  complete  and  an  eternal  recovery  for  all  who  in  faith  will  receive 
its  gracious  mediation.  And  what  he  has  eloquently  said,  is 
abundantly  verified  alike  by  the  scientific  investigations  and  by  the 
experimental  tests  of  myriads  who  have  found  in  Christianity  the 
only  comprehensive,  the  only  efficacious  remedy  for  sin  which 
the  race  has  ever  known. 

Third:  This  divine  plan  is  by  its  own  nature  unchangeable; — 
time  neither  alters  its  provisions,  nor  exhausts  its  effectiveness, 
nor  impairs  its  claim  on  human  acceptation.  Men  have  sought 
to  eliminate  some  of  these  provisions  as  needless,  to  add  other  ele- 
ments as  if  essential,  to  introduce  new  conceptions  of  it,  to  present 
the  divine  scheme  in  novel  aspects  or  reduce  it  to  the  terms  of 
human  philosophy.  It  is  indeed  a  fact  of  history  that  with  the 
ages  new  forms  of  stating,  new  modes  of  explaining,  new  varie- 
ties of  reason  and  argument,  have  from  time  to  time  arisen;  and 
it  may  properly  be  anticipated  that  further  variations  in  such  pre- 
sentation will  arise  in  future  ages,  as  men  shall  seek  to  describe 
this  divine  plan  in  more  effective  language  and  measure.  But  that 
plan  is  now  in  substance  and  spirit  precisely  what  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  such  it  will  remain  so  long  as 
time  lasts.  Errorists  may  pervert  it;  speculative  minds  may  cor- 
rupt and  distort  it;  an  unsanctified  ministry  or  priesthood  may  fail 
to  apprehend,  and  therefore  fail  to  set  it  forth;  churches  may 
lose  their  confidence  in  its  efficacy,  and  seek  after  salvation  by  other 
processes,  more  congenial  to  the  natural  man.  But  the  divine 
plan  stands  now  as  of  old,  sufficiently  described  in  holy  Scripture, 
as  plain  and  as  commanding  as  when  the  Immanuel  first  pro- 
claimed it, — the  eternal  offer  of  Heaven,  clear  as  the  sun  and  as 
unfading,  on  whose  acceptance  or  rejection  the  salvation  of  the 
world  in  all  ages  alike  must  turn.  God  has  devised  the  plan, 
clearly  and  authoritatively  proposed  it,  made  all  the  provisions 
needful  to  its  complete  efficacy;  and  while  He  remains  as  he  is, 
his  gracious  scheme  will  also  remain,  fixed  and  unchangeable. 

Fourth:  It  is  an  effectual  plan;  not  merely  perfect  in  theory, 
but  practically  successful  in  all  lands  and  times  alike,  and  in 
every  soul  of  man  that  yields  to  its  saving  power.  The  final 
proof    of    the  value  of   any  remedy  must  lie  in  the  testimony 


404  THE    PLAN    OF   SALVATION. 

of  those  who  have  been  cured  by  it:  the  remedy  that  heals,  that 
heals  in  all  varieties  of  circumstance,  that  heals  in  every  case 
where  it  is  faithfully  applied,  needs  no  further  commendation. 
And  God  is  willing  to  submit  his  saving  scheme  to  this  supreme 
test:  the  Bible  appeals  habitually  to  the  witness  of  extended, 
established,  incontrovertible  experience.  If  it  were  found  that 
any  who  sought  salvation  by  this  process  failed  to  attain  it, — if  it 
were  shown  that  there  were  countries  or  races  where  this  remedy 
was  found  experimentally  to  be  impracticable  or  ineffective, — even 
if  there  were  individual  men  who,  after  submitting  to  this  divine 
process  of  redemption,  declared  themselves  unaided  and  unblest 
through  it,  ominous  shadows  of  doubt  would  be  cast  at  once  upon 
the  entire  scheme.  Nay  more:  such  testimony  would  prove  beyond 
question  that  the  Gospel  was  after  all  a  delusive  device  of  man — in 
no  sense  a  veritable  revelation  from  God.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
the  unanimous  testimony  of  innumerable  millions,  from  the  various 
races  and  countries  of  earth,  uttered  century  after  century,  in  the 
face  of  opposition  and  unbelief  of  every  conceivable  type,  is  for 
all  practical  purposes  a  sufficient,  an  abounding  proof  that  this 
saving  scheme  has  come  into  the  world  from  God,  and  is  therefore 
infinitely  worthy  of  all  human  credence  and  acceptation. 

Fifth:  This  divine  plan  is  in  reality  unassailable;  it  has  stood, 
still  stands,  will  continue  through  the  ages  to  stand,  as  the  one  and 
only  method  of  deliverance  and  regeneration.  At  this  late  date 
in  the  history  of  religious  thought,  this  proposition  seems  almost 
incapable  of  challenge.  In  view  of  the  vast  array  of  argument 
brought  to  bear  against  this  Gospel  by  the  speculations,  the 
doubts,  the  unbelief  of  men  in  former  times, — an  array  which  has 
been  vanquished  in  successive  conflicts  lasting  through  centuries — 
it  seems  well-nigh  impossible  that  any  really  new  assault  should 
ever  be  undertaken,  or  at  least  should  ever  be  in  any  large  degree 
successful.  It  is  freely  admitted  that  if  Christianity  could  be 
effectively  assailed  at  this  central  point,  its  essential  supernatural- 
ness  would  be  questioned  at  every  other  point;  its  claim  to  be  a 
divine  faith  would  be  not  only  impaired,  but  fundamentally  over- 
thrown. Here  is  the  central  citadel  of  Christian  belief  and 
Christian  trust;  if  this  were  captured,  all  would  be  lost  forever. 
But  is  not  this  citadel  impregnable  ?  Is  not  this  saving  Plan  a 
glorious,  an  assured,  an  unassailable  reality  ?  And  will  not  the 
world,  in  its  conscious  sin  and  guilt  and  corruption,  finally  turn 
away  from  all  human  schemes  and  devices,  to  accept  this  divine 
Plan  just  as  it  stands  in  its  proportion  and  beauty  and  its  indisso- 
luble strength  as  the  one  and  only  Hope  for  man  ? 


LECTURE  EIGHTH— THE  PROCESS  OF  SALVATION. 

Salvation  a  Process  :  The  Holy  Spirit  as  Agent  :  Man 
as  salvable  :  effectual  calling  —  regeneration:  justi- 
FICATION :    Sanctification. 

C.  F.  :  Ch.  IX-XIII.     L.  C.  57-9:  65-75.     S.  C.  29-35. 

The  genetic  formation  and  progress  of  doctrine  in  the  Symbols 
deserve  most  careful  consideration.     Both  the  Confession  and  the 
Catechisms  start  out,  as  we  have  seen,  with  a  series  of  credenda 
which  are  both  primal  in  order  and  fundamental  in  importance. 
Revelation  in  its  nature  and  aim  and  contents;  God  in  his  charac- 
ter, purposes  and  relations;  creation  and  providence  as  divine  acts; 
Man  in  his  original  constitution  and  relationship  to  God,   and 
especially  in  his  sinful  condition  and  need, — these  are  presented 
at  the  outset  as  the  primordial  bases  of  proper  Christian  belief. 
Then  follows  in  generic  form  the  doctrine  of  salvation  from  sin, 
revealed  in  the  aspect  of  a  gracious  purpose  and  covenant — a  sal- 
vation rendered  possible  through  the  incarnation  and  messiahship 
of  the  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  and  made  available  to 
sinners  in  and  through  his  several  offices  as  prophet,  priest  and 
king.     The  first  eight  chapters  of  the  Confession,  constituting  one 
fourth  of  the  entire  Symbol,  and  a  nearly  equal  proportion  of  the 
two  Catechisms,  are  concerned  with  these  fundamental  doctrines. 
The  obvious  reason  is  that  all  that  was  to  be  affirmed  later  on 
respecting  salvation  as  an  actual  experience,  and  respecting  the 
Christian  life  established  through  gracious  union  with  God  in 
Christ,  must  of  necessity  rest  on  these  fundamental  propositions. 
He  who  does  not  accept  these  primary  truths — who  does  not  hold 
in  substance  what  the  Symbols  thus  affirm  concerning  the  Scrip- 
tures, concerning  God,  concerning  man  in  his  sin  and  need,  con- 
cerning the  divine  purpose  to  rescue  and  save  our  sinful  race,  and 
concerning  the  incarnate  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man  as  the  true 
and  only  Savior  of  the  world,  will  of  course  fail  to  discern  or 
appreciate  the  teaching  of  the  ten  succeeding  chapters  in  the  Con- 
fession which  set  forth  the  actual  process  of  salvation  in  its  various 
stages  and  in  its  sublime  results  in  human  experience.     If  on  the 
other  hand  these  preliminary  truths  are  accepted  in  their,  full 
breadth  and  significance  as  stated  in  the  Symbols,  both  the  mind 


406  THE   PROCESS   OF  SALVATION. 

and  the  heart  are  prepared  thereby  to  accept  in  its  fullness  that 
splendid  conception  of  a  salvation  attained  through  the  mediation 
and  ministries  of  Christ  alone,  which  is  at  once  the  center  and  the 
culmination  of  the  Westminster  scheme  of  doctrine,  as  indeed  of 
all  evangelical  theology. 

In  this  stately  progression,  this  philosophic  unfolding  of  sacred 
doctrine,  the  Symbols  are  equaled  by  none  of  the  antecedent 
Protestant  creeds.  All  sections  of  Protestantism  were  indeed 
substantially  agreed  respecting  these  primary  verities,  and  all 
were  more  or  less  conscious,  as  several  of  the  creeds  make  quite 
apparent,  of  the  importance  of  incorporating  them  in  some  meas- 
ure in  their  confessional  structures.  The  Augsburg  Confession, 
the  Second  Helvetic,  and  especially  the  earlier  British  symbols, 
are  special  illustrations  of  this  fact.  Yet  the  Westminster  divines, 
standing  as  they  did  at  a  much  later  point  in  the  theologic  evo- 
lution, and  appreciating  more  fully  the  value  of  more  thorough 
system  and  greater  completeness  in  an  authoritative  declaration 
of  faith,  went  quite  beyond  their  predecessors — as  we  have  already 
had  occasion  to  note — in  setting  forth  in  order  these  principia 
of  doctrine  as  the  foundations  on  which  an  adequate  conception 
of  salvation  must  ever  rest.  The  earlier  reformers  from  I^uther 
and  Calvin  even  down  to  the  Synod  of  Dort,  were  more  singly 
and  anxiously  concerned  with  the  specific  inquiry  respecting  sal- 
vation as  a  process  and  an  experience,  than  with  these  preliminary 
truths.  Nor  is  it  strange  that,  confronted  as  they  directly  were 
with  the  false  theories  and  falser  practice  of  Rome,  and  battling 
with  intense  energy  for  the  central  principle  of  justification  by 
faith  in  Christ  alone,  they  should  have  failed  somewhat  in  the 
formal  recognition  and  expression  of  such  fundamental  articles 
of  belief. 

In  the  ten  chapters  of  the  Confession,  now  to  be  studied  as 
containing  the  formulated  doctrine  of  salvation,  it  is  important 
to  note  at  the  outset  the  two  main  divisions  of  the  general  sub- 
ject: the  first,  in  chapters  IX-XIII,  presenting  especially  the 
saving  process,  while  the  five  remaining  chapters  (XIV-XVIII), 
describe  rather  the  resulting  appropriation  and  experience  on  the 
part  of  man.  As  everywhere  else,  the  Symbols  place  God  in  the 
foreground,  as  the  source  and  author,  and  also  the  finisher  of  sal- 
vation,— bringing  in  as  consequent  what  man  is  enabled  through 
grace  to  do,  and  is  therefore  required  to  do,  in  order  to  be  saved 
according  to  the  divine  plan.  The  sovereign  ministries  of  the 
Spirit,  the  bestowment  of  needful  grace  as  a  gift,  the  effec- 
tual calling  of  the  sinner  by  the  divine  voices  incorporated  in 


SALVATION    A    PROCESS.  407 

the  Gospel,  his  justification  and  adoption  through  the  mediation 
of  Christ,  his  sanctifieation  through  the  active  energies  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  these  all  antecede  the  actual  realization  of  the  sal- 
vation offered,  and  in  the  order  of  both  time  and  thought  go  before 
what  man  does,  or  is  led  to  do,  in  the  actual  attainment  of  salva- 
tion. It  is  important,  therefore,  in  the  interest  of  clearness,  that 
our  thought  should  for  the  present  be  fixed  simply  on  the  salva- 
tory  process  itself — reserving  for  further  study  what  we  are  taught 
respecting  the  full  experience  and  fruition  of  the  saving  scheme. 
Some  preliminary  suggestions  may  profitably  be  noted  here.  And 
first:  Salvation  may  justly  be  described  as  a  process — a  gracious 
operation  of  God  both  upon  and  within 
the  soul  of  man,  in  order  to  its  deliver-         *•    Preliminary  suggts- 

r         4.-U         'u      jti  r    •  tions:   the  term,  process, 

ance  from  the  guilt  and  the  power  of  sin,  .  „     .     ... 

&  r  '  defined :  this  process  per- 

and  its  complete  restoration  to  himself  sonal. 

and  to  eternal  life  in  Him.     This  divine 

operation  is  said  in  the  Symbols  to  be  in  some  aspects  an  act,  and  in 
others  a  work; — in  one  sense  an  instantaneous  procedure  of  grace, 
and  in  another  a  procedure  having  successive  stages,  and  requiring 
time  for  its  full  evolution.  It  may  be  helpfully  considered  in  its 
totality  as  a  gracious  process,  whose  various  features  and  move- 
ments can  be  noted  by  the  thoughtful  observer,  and  whose  results 
are  recognizable  in  the  new  life — in  the  regenerated  character.  It 
was  clearly  the  purpose  of  the  Westminster  divines  to  represent 
salvation  in  some  such  aspect,  though  they  nowhere  use  the  term. 
It  is  probably  true  that  they  followed  closely,  perhaps  too  closely, 
the  analytic  method  of  presenting  the  doctrine,  which  was  charac- 
teristic of  the  century  following  the  Reformation, — so  widely  sepa- 
rating and  dividing  the  elements  in  this  gracious  process  as  almost 
to  induce  forgetfulness  of  that  organic  unity  which  is  its  funda- 
mental excellence.  Yet  their  presentation  of  these  elements,  and 
of  salvation  itself  as  indicated  in  them,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  so  well 
organized,  and  so  clear  and  strong  and  complete,  as  to  deserve 
the  attentive  interest  of  all  who  desire  to  know  and  comprehend 
the  gracious  plan  and  method  of  God  in  salvation. 

Second:  We  should  observe  the  continuous  blending  of  the  objec- 
tive and  the  subjective  elements, — the  work  of  Christ  for  us,  and 
work  of  the  Spirit  within  us, — which  characterizes  the  entire  pre- 
sentation. It  had  been  alleged  by  the  advocates  of  Rome  that  the 
Protestants  had  presented  salvation  as  wholly  an  objective  matter, 
and  had  failed  correspondingly  to  appreciate  the  vital  truth  that 
salvation  is  also,  and  indeed  chiefly,  a  subjective  experience — a 
change  of  character,  as  they  affirmed,  rather  than  a  change  of 


408  THE    PROCESS    OF    SALVATION. 

condition  or  estate.  Whatever  of  truth  may  have  been  recogniz- 
able in  such  an  allegation  during  the  earlier  stages  of  Protestantism, 
no  such  charge  could  properly  be  urged  against  the  divines  of 
Westminster.  For,  strongly  as  they  held  and  affirmed  the  cardinal 
doctrine  of  salvation  wrought  out  by  Christ  alone — a  salva- 
tion divinely  bestowed  in  our  justification  and  adoption  through 
the  merits  of  his  mediatorial  work  as  distinguished  from  all 
human  efforts  or  acts,  they  yet  emphasized  with  equal  fullness 
the  subjective  side  of  such  salvation,  and  in  the  most  positive 
and  commanding  form  set  forth  a  genuine  religious  experience, 
such  as  appears  in  repentance,  in  faith,  in  good  works,  and  in 
personal  perseverance  and  assurance,  as  being  of  the  very  essence 
and  in  some  aspects  the  supreme  substance  of  salvation.  Multi- 
plied illustrations  of  this  fact  will  appear  at  various  points  in 
the  proposed  investigation. 

Third:  the  language  of  the  Symbols  in  setting  forth  the  whole 
doctrine  in  both  sections  of  it  is  mainly,  almost  entirely,  scriptural. 
While  the  current  theological  distribution  of  the  subject  matter 
is  adopted,  the  words  used  in  the  presentation  are  drawn  for  the 
most  part  immediately  from  the  very  Word  of  God.  A  compar- 
ison of  the  language  of  the  Confession  with  that  of  the  texts 
which  were  profusely  adduced  to  support  the  doctrines  affirmed, 
will  show  how  anxious  the  compilers  of  that  document  were  to 
carry  with  them  a  divine  authoritativeness  for  each  and  every 
statement.  Admirable  illustrations  of  this  fact  may  be  seen  in 
the  confessional  and  catechetic  definitions  of  justification  and 
sanctification,  and  in  the  entire  chapter  on  adoption.  It  is  of 
course  possible  to  frame  even  an  essentially  false  dogma  in  biblical 
phraseology, — by  some  careful  selection  of  terms,  clauses,  sen- 
tences, and  by  some  adroit  grouping  of  these  into  a  series  of  propo- 
sitions, to  fabricate  a  doctrinal  statement  which  in  reality  is  quite 
unwarranted  by  the  essential  and  duly  harmonized  teachings  of 
the  Bible.  How  much  of  this  has  been  done,  if  not  to  buttress 
positive  and  dangerous  heresy,  still  to  support  defective  creeds  or 
bolster  up  weak  or  partizan  theologies,  every  student  of  the  his- 
tory of  Christian  doctrine  too  painfully  knows.  While  it  would 
be  too  much  to  say  that  the  Westminster  divines  were  altogether 
exempt  from  such  liabilities,  yet  in  the  main  they  were  remarkably 
free  from  exposure  to  any  such  charge.  It  is  indeed  to  be 
observed  that  Protestant  symbolism  in  nearly  all  its  earlier  varieties 
was  singularly  saturated  with  scripturalness  in  the  best  sense.  This 
was  natural,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  its  cardinal  teachings  could 
l>e  maintained  only  on  the  authority  of  Holy  Scripture,  as  distinct 


THIS    PROCESS    PERSONAL.  •  409 

from  tradition  and  the  dicta  of  the  church.  But  it  may  justly 
be  claimed  that  no  finer  strain  of  scripturaluess  appears  anywhere 
among  the  Protestant  creeds  than  is  exhibited  in  the  Westminster 
formularies,  and  that  much  of  their  convincing  quality  and  of 
their  power  to  hold  those  who  have  once  embraced  them,  lies  in 
this  reverential  recognition  of  the  doctrinal  supremacy  of  the 
Divine  Word  itself. 

Fourth:  It  should  be  carefully  borne  in  mind  that  this  salvatory 
process  as  here  described  is  throughout  a  process  wrought,  not  by 
physical  or  natural  forces,  but  by  persons  and  upon  persons. 
The  Westminster  divines  were  not  indeed  exempt  from  that 
temptation  to  carry  natural  law  into  the  spiritual  sphere,  and  to 
describe  the  phenomena  and  workings  of  grace  through  images 
and  illustrations  drawn  from  the  field  of  nature,  which  has  so 
often  wrought  mischief,  not  merely  to  theology,  but  as  well  to 
practical  religion  in  later  times.  Illustrations  of  this  mischievous 
tendency  will  appear  occasionally  as  we  progress  in  our  investiga- 
tions. But  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  on  the  divine  side 
all  is  strictly  and  purely  personal: — the  Father  as  a  person  plan- 
ning and  instituting  the  entire  scheme  of  salvation;  the  Son  as  a 
person  teaching,  acting,  suffering  and  dying  in  the  interest  of 
mediation:  the  Spirit  as  a  person  working  in  love  upon  the  human 
heart,  effectually  calling  the  sinner  by  his  grace,  inducing  repent- 
ance and  faith,  teaching  the  duty  of  loving  obedience,  sanctifying 
the  soul  and  the  life  together,  and  giving  to  the  human  recip- 
ient full  assurance  of  faith  and  the  spirit  of  perseverance  unto 
the  end.     All  on  the  divine  side  is  strictly,  purely  personal. 

It  is  just  as  true  that  the  entire  process  on  the  side  of  man 
is  equally  a  personal  process.  The  gracious  work  of  God  in  all  its 
varied  aspects  is  a  work,  not  on  the  physical  constitution,  but  on 
the  moral  nature — on  the  intellect,  the  spiritual  sensibilities,  and 
eminently  on  the  will  as  the  center  of  responsibility  and  the  real 
seat  of  character.  Granting  for  the  moment  all  that  can  be 
affirmed  as  to  the  efficiency  of  external  motives  in  determining 
human  action,  or  as  to  the  infirmity  or  deadness  of  the  will  itself 
as  induced  by  depravity  and  sin,  still  the  sinner  must  ever  be  rec- 
ognized as  a  person,  and  his  salvation  must  be  regarded  through- 
out as  the  experience  of  a  living,  active,  responsible  person — a 
real  soul.  Whether  such  a  conception  was  legitimately  carried 
out  by  the  divines  of  Westminster  at  every  point  in  the  develop- 
ment of  their  doctrinal  system,  may  justly  be  questioned.  It  is 
certain  that  considerable  difference  of  view  prevailed  among  them, 
Calvinists  though  they  were,  as  to  the  effect  of  depravity  on  the 


410  THE   PROCESS  OF   SALVATION. 

moral  constitution  and  other  kindred  matters:  there  were  disci- 
ples of  Zwingli  and  Melanchthon  as  well  as  disciples  of  Luther  and 
Calvin  among  them,  as  is  indicated  more  than  once  in  the  published 
debates.  But  whether  they  were  consistent  or  otherwise,  or  were 
able  entirely  to  agree  as  to  the  philosophy  of  the  facts,  there  is 
abundant  evidence  that  all  alike  regarded  salvation  as  a  process 
wrought,  not  upon  deadbut  on  living  souls — in  other  words,  that 
it  was  a  process  in  which  persons,  the  human  as  well  as  the 
divine,  were  concerned  throughout. 

Holding  steadily  in  view  this  fundamental  conception  of  the 
process  of  salvation  as  personal  at  every  stage,  we  may  first  turn 

to  consider  more  specifically,  the  ac- 
2.    The  Spirit,  as  a  per-     tors   or    agents  jn    tfcs  process:    and 
sonal   agent  in   Salvation:  .,      .-     TT  -    ~  .  .*  ,.   . 

his  full  personality.  primarily,  the  Holy  Spirit  as  a  divine 

Person,  having  all  the  essential  attri- 
butes and  vested  with  all  the  potencies  of  Deity,  and  engaged 
no  less  truly  than  the  Father  or  the  Son  in  the  sublime  task  of 
saving  mankind  from  sin  and  spiritual  destruction.  Here  it  be- 
comes at  once  noticeable  that  the  Symbols,  while  setting  forth 
with  wonderful  fullness  the  various  offices  and  works  of  the  Spirit, 
say  much  less  directly  about  his  personality  than  about  that  of 
either  the  Son  or  the  Father.  We  note  indeed  the  fundamental 
proposition  (Ch.  II:iii)  that  in  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  there  be 
three  persons  of  one  substance,  power  and  eternity:  that  one  of  these 
persons  is  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  this  person  eternally  pro- 
ceeds from  the  Father  and  the  Son — as  had  been  affirmed  in  the 
Apostolic  and  the  Nicene  creeds,  and  declared  in  several  of  the 
antecedent  formulas  of  Protestantism.  We  also  find  the  general 
declaration  (Chap.  IV:  i)  that  it  pleased  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  well 
as  the  Father  and  the  Son,  in  the  beginning  to  create,  or  make  of 
nothing  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  whether  visible  or  invisi- 
ble,— a  declaration  which  certainly  implies  his  full  divinity  as 
truly  as  that  of  the  first  or  the  second  person  in  the  Godhead. 
The  attributes,  qualities,  perfections  of  this  divine  person  also  are 
continually  suggested  in  what  is  said  of  his  operations  in  the  field 
of  grace,  and  his  vital  relations  to  human  salvation.  As  in  the 
Scriptures,  so  in  the  Symbols,  he  is  repeatedly  referred  to  as  the 
Spirit  of  truth,  taking  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  showing  them 
unto  men; — as  the  Spirit  of  love  and  of  grace,  tenderly  ministering 
to  all  the  needs  alike  of  sinner  and  saint  in  the  interest  of  redemp- 
tion;— as  the  holy  Spirit,  not  only  infinitely  holy  in  and  of  himself, 
but  the  only  and  the  adequate  source  of  all  holiness  and  sanctifica- 
tion  in  man.     In  a  word,  the  entire  argument  for  the  Trinity  in 


THE    HOLY   SPIRIT    A    PERSON.  411 

God,  is  available  to  establish  the  full  personality  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  one  of  the  three  essential  hypostases  or  personal  modes 
of  existence  in  the  divine  Being,  interior  and  absolute  as  well  as 
external  and  economic. 

Yet  his  proper  and  separate  personality  seems  to  be  left  compara- 
tively in  the  shadow,  while  our  attention  is  fixed  rather  on  his  won- 
derful work,  from  the  initial  impacts  of  his  grace  onward  through 
all  the  stages  of  saving  experience,  until  it  is  consummated  in  the 
exaltation  of  the  believing  and  trusting  soul  into  glory  everlasting. 
This  was  in  fact  the  natural  movement  of  evangelical  thought 
during  the  vital  crisis  of  the  Reformation,  as  the  earlier  creeds 
abundantly  indicate.  The  great  issue  between  the  Reformers  and 
Rome  related,  not  to  the  abstract  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  or  even  to 
the  personality  of  the  Mediator  or  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  rather 
to  what  the  second  and  third  persons  in  the  Godhead  were  actually 
doing  in  the  interest  of  human  salvation.  Hence  it  seemed  enough 
to  affirm  their  personality  indirectly  by  condemning,  as  is  done  in 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  (Art.  I)  the  error  that  the  Word  sig- 
nifieth  a  vocal  word,  and  the  Spirit  a  motion  created  in  things;  and 
by  pointing  to  the  ancient  creeds,  in  which  the  essential  truth  had 
been  already  stated.  The  second  Helvetic  Confession,  however, 
goes  farther  than  the  rest,  even  farther  than  the  Westminster 
divines  deemed  it  needful  to  go,  in  the  remarkable  article  (III) 
wherein  it  formally  condemns  as  blasphemers  of  the  blessed 
Trinity  all  those  who  affirm  that  the  Son  and  the  Spirit  are  God 
by  appointment  or  declaration  only,  nuncupatione,  or  that  they  are 
merely  attributes  or  qualities,  affectiones  et  proprietates,  of  the  one 
God,  the  Father.  How  far  such  errors  existed  in  Protestant  cir- 
cles, outside  of  the  scant  Socinian  party,  it  is  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine; certainly  no  leading  Reformer  would  have  hesitated  to 
affirm  with  the  creed  of  Nicaea,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  divine 
person  is  the  L,ord  and  Giver  of  spiritual  life,  who  together  with 
the  Father  and  the  Son  is  therefore  to  be  worshiped  and  glorified, 
as  being  equally  with  them  God  over  all,  blessed  forever.* 


*It  is  both  interesting  and  instructive  to  trace  the  development  of  the 
church  doctrine  respecting  the  Holy  Spirit  during  the  period  before  the 
Nicene  statement.  Tertullian,  A.  D.  200:  the  Holy  Ghost  the  Paraclete,  the 
Sanctifier  of  the  faith  of  those  who  believe — the  Leader  into  all  truth.  Another 
form :  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  guide  believers.  Origen,  A.  D.  250:  We 
believe  also  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  promised  of  old  to  the  church,  but  granted 
in  the  appointed  and  fitting  time.  Novatian,  A.  D.  230:  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
associated  in  honor  and  dignity  with  the  Father  and  the  Son.  Gregory  of 
Neo-Ctesarea,  A.  D.   270:   There  is  one  Holy   Ghost,  having   his  existence 


412  THE    PROCESS    OF    SALVATION. 

As  to  the  offices  and  work  of  the  divine  Spirit,  the  Symbols  are 
— as  might  be  anticipated — much  more  full  and  elaborate  than  any 
of  the  antecedent  Confessions.  The  compilers  had  the  immense 
advantage  derived  not  merely  from  these  more  primitive  formula- 
ries which  were  in  their  hands,  but  from  the  discussions  and  contro- 
versies respecting  this  work  which  prevailed  during  the  latter  half 
of  the  sixteenth  and  the  earlier  decades  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. The  Socinian  aberration,  the  Syncretistic  controversy  in 
Germany,  the  Arminianism  of  Holland,  and  other  kindred  varie- 
ties in  dogma,  more  or  less  variant  from  the  essential  truth,  "were 
all  before  them  as  they  wrote.  The  theologies  of  the  period,  from 
high  Turretinianism  downward  to  the  developing  Moderatism  of 
their  age,  were  in  their  hands.  Hence,  the  elaborateness,  almost 
excessive,  which  marks  their  distribution  of  the  general  theme, — 
the  measured  order  of  thought,  and  the  stately  progress  in  state- 
ment, the  careful  grouping  of  elements,  and  the  diligent  conserva- 
tion of  everything  essential  to  the  complete  exposition  of  the 
doctrine.  It  has  indeed  been  questioned  whether  in  their  earnest  de- 
sire to  set  salvation  forth  as  a  work  of  God  rather  than  of  man — to 
give  all  honor  and  glory  to  the  Spirit  as  at  once  the  author  and  fin- 
isher of  human  faith  regarded  as  an  experience,  they  did  not  retire 
the  human  factor  in  the  case  too  much  from  view.  In  this  day  of 
larger  light  and  broadening  vision  respecting  the  scope  of  grace, 
we  may  justly  query  whether  they  were  not  at  some  points  too 
narrow  in  their  conceptions,  and  possibly  too  rigid  and  severe  in 
the  manner  in  which  they  enforced  the  doctrine.  Yet  for  their 
definition  of  common  grace  and  effectual  calling,  for  their  account 
of  the  relations  of  the  Spirit  to  all  true  repentance  and  all  saving 
faith,   for  their  broad  and   sweet    doctrine  of  sanctification  and 

from  God  .  .  .  the  sacred  fount  or  cause  of  sanctity  and  the  leader  of  sanc- 
tification :  in  whom  is  revealed  God  the  Father  .  .  .  and  God  the  Son. 
Lucian,  A.  D.  300;  We  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  given  for  consolation  and 
sanctification  and  perfection  to  those  who  believe.  After  the  Nicene  Coun- 
cil, Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  A.  D.  350:  I  believe  in  one  Holy  Ghost,  the  Advocate, 
who  spake  in  the  prophets.  Epiphauius,  A.  D.  374:  We  believe  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life,  who  proceedeth  from  the  Father,  who 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son  together  is  worshiped  and  glorified:  who  spake 
by  the  prophets.  A  more  extended  formula  is  ascribed  to  Epiphauius:  We 
believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  spake  in  the  Law,  and  preached  in  the 
Prophets,  and  came  down  at  Jordan:  who  speaks  in  apostles,  and  dwells  in 
saints:  and  thus  we  believe  in  Him, — that  there  is  a  Spirit  of  God,  a  perfect 
Spirit,  a  Paraclete  Spirit,  uncreated,  proceeding  from  the  Father,  and  re- 
ceived from  the  Son,  and  believed.  For  other  similar  formularies,  earlier  and 
later,  consult  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  Appendix:  also,  Smeaton,  Doct.  of  the 
Holy  Spirit:  Div.  Third. 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    SPIRIT  .DEVELOPED.  413 

Christian  perfection  so  far  as  attainable  in  this  life,  and  for  their 
sturdy  niaintenance  of  the  challenged  truth  of  Christian  assur- 
ance and  perseverance  unto  the  end,  and  their  strong  and  lofty 
strains  of  hope  for  all  believers  in  the  life  to  come,  to  be  realized 
at  last  through  the  ministries  of  the  Spirit  as  truly  as  through  the 
atoning  mediation  of  the  Son  of  God, — for  all  this  they  deserve, 
as  indeed  they  have  received,  the  grateful  recognition  of  evangel- 
ical Christendom  for  these  two  centuries,  and  will  doubtless  con- 
tinue more  and  more  to  receive  it  as  the  centuries  increase. 

It  will  involve  no  subtraction  from  this  just  estimate,  if  at  this 
point  we  note  the  remarkable  increase  of  interest  in  the  general 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the 

broader  and  still  more  inspiring  concep-        3*    Doctrine  of  tne  Spirit 
ri.  ,,.  ,        ,.,      developed :  proposed  addition 

tions  of  his  person  and  his  work,  which     to  the  Confession> 

already  are  among  the  most  impressive 

theological  and  practical  developments  of  the  present  age.  It  has 
been  said  that  this  cardinal  doctrine  like  the  doctrine  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  is  one  among  the  undeveloped  tenets  of  our  holy 
faith.  It  is  certainly  a  fact  that,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
the  brief  articles  (XII)  in  the  Scotch  and  Genevan  Confessions, 
and  the  briefer  statements  in  the  Belgic  Confession  (XI)  and  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  (V),  no  creed  of  Christendom,  Roman  or 
Protestant,  contains  what  may  be  regarded  as  a  formal  or  ade- 
quate embodiment  of  this  doctrine.  We  search  in  vain  for  any 
such  statement  in  the  formularies  of  Lutheranism,  or  in  the 
Canons  of  Trent,  or  the  Decrees  of  the  Vatican.  It  is  remarka- 
ble that  the  Confession  of  the  Greek  Church  (Quest.  IX-X:  also, 
LXXII-LXXXI)  contains  what  is  perhaps  the  most  extensive, 
if  not  wholly  orthodox,  account  in  Christian  symbolism  of  the 
person  of  the  Spirit,  the  seven  gifts  bestowed  by  him  on  believers, 
and  the  nine  special  fruits  that  spring  up  within  the  soul  under  his 
nurture.  But  evangelical  Protestantism  is  coming  more  and  more 
to  realize  that  some  more  formal,  adequate,  inspiring  statement 
than  has  thus  far  been  framed,  is  becoming  essential  to  that 
enlarged  spiritual  life,  and  that  wider  and  more  fruitful  religious 
activity,  which  evangelical  minds  are  everywhere  recognizing  as 
the  chief  desideratum  of  the  church  in  our  time. 

It  is  this  developing  conviction  which  has  given  such  signifi- 
cance to  the  recent  movement  to  incorporate  in  the  Confession  a 
separate  Chapter,  which  should  bring  together  in  one  comprehen- 
sive statement  the  essential  elements  of  current  Christian  belief  in 
regard  to  the  person  of  the  Spirit, his  several  spheres  and  the  general 
range  of  his  agency,  and  his  vital  relations  to  the  life  of  believers 


414  THE   PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

and  of  the  Church.  Although  this  Chapter  as  proposed  failed  to 
receive  that  extensive  measure  of  endorsement  required  under  our 
Constitution,  in  order  to  effect  any  change  in  our  ecclesiastical 
formulas,  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  expresses,  more  fully  than 
has  been  done  heretofore  in  confessional  form,  what  is  the  deep  and 
growing  conviction  of  a  large  majority  of  intelligent  and  earnest 
minds  within  our  branch  of  the  Presbyterian  family,  if  not  indeed 
in  much  broader  circles.  This  Chapter  may  therefore  fitly  be 
incorporated  in  the  present  discussion,  and  is  as  follows: 

I.  The  Holy  Spirit,  the  third  person  in  the  Trinity,  being  very 
and  eternal  God,  the  same  in  substance  with  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  and  equal  in  power  and  glory,  is,  together  with  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  to  be  believed  in,  loved,  obeyed,  and  worshiped 
throughout  all  ages. 

II.  The  Holy  Spirit  who  of  old  revealed  to  men  in  various 
ways  the  mind  and  will  of  God,  hath  fully  and  authoritatively 
made  known  this  mind  and  will,  in  all  things  pertaining  to  life  and 
salvation,  in  the  sacred  Scriptures, — holy  men  of  God  speaking 
therein  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  these  Scrip- 
tures,being  so  inspired, are  the  infallible  Word  of  God, the  supreme 
rule  of  faith  and  duty. 

III.  The  Holy  Spirit,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life,  is  every- 
where present  among  men,  confirming  the  teachings  of  nature  and 
the  law  of  God  written  on  the  heart,  restraining  from  evil,  inciting 
to  good,  and  preparing  the  way  for  the  Gospel.  He  likewise 
accompanies  the  Gospel  with  his  persuasive  energy,  and  urges  its 
message  upon  the  reason  and  conscience  of  unregenerate  men,  so 
that  they  who  reject  its  merciful  offer  are  not  only  without  excuse, 
but  are  also  guilty  of  resisting  the  Holy  Spirit. 

IV.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  only  efficient  agent  in  applying  and 
communicating  redemption.  He  effectually  calls  sinners  to  new 
life  in  Christ  Jesus,  regenerating  them  by  his  almighty  grace  and 
persuading  and  enabling  them  to  embrace  Jesus  Christ  by  faith. 
He  dwells  in  all  believers  as  their  Comforter  and  Sanctifier,  and 
as  the  Spirit  of  adoption  and  of  supplication,  performing  all  those 
gracious  offices  by  which  they  are  sanctified  and  sealed  unto  the 
day  of  redemption. 

V.  By  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  all  believers  are 
vitally  united  to  Christ,  who  is  the  head,  and  are  thus  united  to 
one  another  in  the  Church,  which  is  his  body.  He  calls  and 
anoints  ministers  for  their  holy  office,  qualifies  all  other  officers  in 
the  Church  for  their  special  work,  and  imparts  various  gifts  and 
graces  to  its  members.     He  gives  efficacy  to  the  Word  and  to  the 


RECENT    EMENDATIONS.  415 

ordinances  of  the  Gospel.  By  him  the  Church  will  be  preserved, 
increased  and  purified,  until  it  shall  cover  the  earth,  and  at  last  be 
made  a  glorious  Church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such 
thing. 

The  scope  and  significance  of  this  historic  declaration  will 
appear  more  fully  in  our  more  specific  investigations,  but  we  may 
here  pause  to  note  some  characteristic  features  of  the  statement. 
And  first:  its  full  recognition,  not  only  of  the  true  and  proper 
divinity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  also  of  his  sovereign  right  to 
be  believed,  loved,  obeyed  and  worshiped,  together  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  by  believers  and  by  the  Church  catholic  and 
universal. — Second:  its  closer  and  clearer  analysis  of  the  four 
spheres  within  which  the  particular  work  of  the  Spirit  is  carried 
forward, — the  sphere  of  inspiration,  as  concerned  with  Holy  Scrip- 
ture in  its  supreme  relationship  to  life  and  salvation, — the  sphere 
of  illumination,  as  related  to  the  spiritual  education  of  the  race, — 
the  sphere  of  regeneration,  with  its  precious  consequences  and 
fruitage  in  the  life  of  saints, — and  the  sphere  of  administration,  as 
seen  in  the  organization,  guidance,  development  and  efficiency  of 
the  Church. — Third:  the  broadened  conception  especially  of  his 
energy  in  influencing  the  moral  life  of  mankind,  and  the  moral 
order  of  the  world,  even  beyond  the  geographic  bounds  of  Chris- 
tendom. What  is  described  as  common  grace,  or  common  opera- 
tions of  the  Spirit  (X:iv),  is  here  presented  as  cosmic  or  universal 
among  men,  working  everywhere  in  conjunction  with  the  natural 
reason  and  conscience  of  the  race. — And  fourth:  the  more  full  and 
detailed  account  of  the  several  ministries  of  the  Spirit  to  the  indi- 
vidual soul,  ranging  from  the  first  effectual  call  of  grace  onward 
to  final  and  complete  sanctification,  and  also  of  his  varied  activities 
within  the  Church,  selecting  and  endowing  its  officers,  giving  effi- 
cacy to  its  plans  and  endeavors,  vitalizing  its  ordinances  by  his 
presence,  empowering  its  missionary  enterprises,  and  meanwhile 
perfecting  the  Church  inwardly,  so  that  it  is  graciously  qualified 
more  and  more  to  become,  according  to  the  divine  purpose,  the 
dominating  Kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth. 

Similar  references,  especially  to  the  illuminating  and  regener- 
ative operations  of  the  Spirit  in  the  world,  appear  in  the  recent 
Declaratory  Acts  of  both  the  Free  and  the  United  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  Scotland.  The  English  Presbyterian  Synod  has 
incorporated  in  its  recent  statement  of  belief  a  brief  Article  on 
the  Holy  Spirit,  as  follows:  We  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Lord,  the  Giver  of  life,  who  worketh  freely  as  he  will,  with- 
out whose  quickening   grace  there  is  no    salvation,   whom    the 


416  THE   PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

Father  never  withholds  from  any  who  ask  for  Him,  and  we  give 
thanks  that  He  has  in  every  age  moved  on  the  hearts  of  men; 
that  He  spake  by  the  prophets;  that  through  our  exalted  Savior 
He  was  sent  forth  in  power  to  convict  the  world  of  sin,  to  enlighten 
the  minds  of  men  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  to  persuade 
and  enable  them  to  obey  the  call  of  the  Gospel;  and  that  He 
abides  with  the  Church,  dwelling  in  every  believer  as  the  Spirit 
of  truth,  of  holiness,  and  of  comfort. 

Such  is  the  Divine  Person  whose  blessed  office  it  is  to  take  up 
and  complete  within  the  individual  soul,  within  the  church,  and 

in  human  society,  that  mighty  task  of 
4.    Special  Agency  in  sal-    saivation  devised  and  instituted  as  a 
vation:  his  activity  central  .  ,       ,      ^         .    .  ,  , 

and  dominant  here.  gracious  plan  by  the  wisdom  and  love 

of  God  the  Father,  and  revealed  and 
rendered  possible  through  the  mediation,  the  teaching  and  acts 
and  atoning  sacrifice  of  God  the  Son.  And  this  is  the  sublime 
sphere  within  which  the  Symbols  generally  represent  him  as  work- 
ing. We  are  not  warranted  by  them  in  describing  the  Spirit  as 
the  executive  of  the  Godhead  in  any  generic  sense,  ruling  in  cre- 
ation and  providence  as  in  the  superior  domain  of  grace: — the 
source  of  all  intellectual  life  and  ordinary  knowledge  in  man,  and 
revealing  himself  in  animal  and  vegetable  structures  and  growth. 
Such  misconceptions  rest  apparently  on  the  hypothesis  that  wher- 
ever the  word,  Spirit,  occurs  in  the  Bible  as  applied  to  God,  it  is 
the  third  person  in  the  Trinity  rather  than  the  first  or  second,  or 
the  composite  Deity  as  spiritual,  that  is  indicated.  We  may  cer- 
tainly find  a  sufficient  corrective  to  this  misconception  in  the  words 
of  our  Lord  to  the  woman  of  Samaria,  God  is  a  Spirit:  and  in 
the  many  instances  in  the  Old  Testament  in  which  the  phrase, 
Spirit  of  God,  must  be  interpreted  as  the  spiritual  God — the  com- 
plete Deity  who  is  pure  Spirit,  as  distinguished  from  matter  in 
whatever  form.  There  is  little  warrant  if  any  for  regarding  the 
Holy  Ghost  as  the  executive  of  the  Godhead  in  all  spheres, 
according  to  the  pantheistic  phrase  of  Cyprian,  omnium  viventium 
anima:  and  there  is  also  great  danger  in  such  a  representation,  if 
in  any  degree  it  turns  our  thoughts  away  from  that  grand  and 
distinctive  work  of  applying  salvation  to  men,  and  actually  saving 
them  according  to  the  divine  plan,  in  which  his  holy  personality 
makes  itself  so  gloriously  manifest. 

But  within  this,  which  must  ever  be  recognized  as  the  supreme 
sphere  of  divine  activity,  so  far  at  least  as  the  human  race  are  con- 
cerned, the  Spirit  and  his  work  are  always  to  be  regarded  as  the 
culminating  features.     It  was  to  the  specific  task  of  saving  men 


AGENCY    OF    THE   SPIRIT    IN    SALVATION.  417 

by  the  process  devised  by  the  Father  and  provided  for  in  the  incar- 
nate Christ,  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man,  that  the  Spirit  was  in 
biblical  phrase  sent  forth  from  the  Father,  or — as  the  Symbols 
affirm — from  the  Father  and  the  Son.  They  do  not  indeed  enter 
at  all  into  the  mystery  suggested  by  the  term,  procession:  they 
sa}^  nothing  of  an  interior  and  ineffable  spiration,  as  it  has  been 
termed  (Shedd,  Dogm.  Theol.),  by  which  the  Spirit  flows  forth 
eternally  as  a  living  effluence  from  the  Father — a  speculation 
analogous  to  that  which  is  represented  in  the  kindred  dogma  of  an 
eternal  begetting  of  the  Son.  Nor  do  they  discuss  the  question 
whether  this  procession,  or  sending  forth,  was  single  or  double — 
from  the  Father  only,  or  from  Father  and  Son  as  conjoined  in 
commissioning  the  Spirit  for  his  sacred  task.  But  they  are  careful 
to  guard  against  the  inference  that  such  commissioning,  whether 
b}'  one  or  two  divine  persons,  involves  any  subordination  or  infe- 
riority on  the  part  of  the  third  person  who  is  thus  sent  and  com- 
missioned :  they  affirm  rather  full  identity  of  substance,  and 
entire  equality  in  power  and  glory  and  in  every  attribute,  such 
that  the  Spirit  is  absolutely  and  throughout  as  truly  God  as  either 
the  Son  or  the  Father.  Nor  do  they  permit  us  to  regard  this  work 
of  human  salvation  as  inferior,  because  it  is  consequent  upon 
the  preceding  works  of  creation  or  providence,  or  redemption 
through  the  mediation  of  Christ.  Rather  is  it  true,  if  it  may 
reverently  be  said,  that  they  exhibit  the  work  of  the  Spirit  within 
this  sphere  as  highest  and  grandest  as  well  as  last; — the  most 
glorious  and  precious  revelation  which  the  triune  Deity  has  ever 
made,  or  possibly  may  ever  be  able  to  make,  of  his  nature  or  his 
w7ill  and  love  toward  our  fallen  race. 

But  while  in  a  sense  limiting  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
within  this  single  sphere  or  department  of  divine  activity,  wre 
should  on  the  other  hand  recognize,  as  indeed  the  Confession  does 
in  large  measure,  how  extensive  and  varied  and  sublime  these 
operations  are.  We  are  there  taught  that  the  promises,  prophecies, 
sacrifices  and  other  types  and  ordinances,  given  to  the  chosen 
people  of  God,  as  foretokenings  of  a  Savior  to  come,  were  deliv- 
ered unto  them  (VII :5)  through  the  operations  of  the  Spirit. 
Scripture  also  tells  us  that  he  inspired  artizans  like  Bezaleel  in 
the  preparation  of  the  tabernacle  and  the  robes  of  the  anointed 
priesthood; — that  he  strengthened  and  endowed  warriors  and 
judges  like  Samson  and  Samuel  for  their  specific  tasks  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  slowly  developing  economy  of  grace; — that  he  qualified 
great  kings  like  David  and  Solomon,  and  quickened  holy  prophets 
like  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  and  the  rest,  for  their  special  commissions 


418  THE   PROCESS   OF  SALVATION. 

as  the  messengers  of  God  to  the  elect  people,  and  as  foretellers  of 
that  future  that  was  to  be  realized  in  the  advent  and  mission  of 
Jesus  Christ.  We  may  recognize  him  also  as  the  source  of  all  holy 
living  in  individual  men  such  as  Elijah  and  David  and  Daniel, 
and  as  the  active  agent  in  those  precious  revivals  of  religion  which 
— as  in  the  age  of  Nehemiah — shed  such  peculiar  luster  on  the 
spiritual  experience  and  life  of  the  Hebrew  nation.  And,  if  we 
turn  to  the  New  Testament,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  mys- 
tical phrase  in  the  most  ancient  creed,  Conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  the  Spirit  descended  like  the  sem- 
blance of  a  dove  upon  the  incarnate  Immanuel;  that  he  wrought 
graciously  upon  men  in  conjunction  with  the  ministries  of  Jesus; 
that  he  came  down  in  mighty  power  upon  the  assembled  saints 
at  the  Pentecost;  and  that  he  anointed,  taught,  guided,  empow- 
ered the  church  in  and  throughout  the  unique  experiences  of  the 
apostolic  century.  The  attempt  to  interpret  that  century — the 
century  of  wonders — in  a  naturalistic  way,  as  a  mere  conjunction 
of  human  forces  and  influences,  the  Holy  Spirit  not  recognized  as 
the  dominating  and  formative  agency,  is  wholly  subversive  of 
Scripture,  as  it  must  also  prove  destructive  to  true  faith.  We  rec- 
ognize him  also  as  in  a  true  sense  the  author  of  the  Scriptures, 
both  older  and  newer,  as  the  safe  guide  of  the  Evangelists  in  their 
records  of  the  life  of  Christ,  as  the  inspirer  of  Paul  and  Peter 
and  James  and  John,  and  any  others  who  may  have  been  associ- 
ated with  them  under  his  direction  in  the  preparation  of  the  Book 
of  books.  And  proceeding  from  this  sure  historic  basis,  we  are 
warranted  in  believing  further  in  a  true  and  proper  dispensation 
of  the  Spirit  which,  beginning  with  the  Ascension  and  the  Pente- 
cost, has  broadened  in  scope  and  increased  in  potency  with  the 
succeeding  centuries,  until  now  it  may  truly  be  said  that  the  Spirit 
is  wide  as  the  world  in  his  presence  and  working,  and  as  efficient 
as  he  is  gracious  in  his  holy  activities — in  this  high  sense  and 
sphere  the  glorious  executive  of  the  Godhead  among  men. 

That  such  a  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  as  fundamental  in 
Christianity  as  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  or  the  atonement, 

is  fully  implied,  if  not  formally  stated 

5.    Objections  stated:  the     in    the    Symbols.      To    the    Socinian 

answer  of  Christianity,  ,.       .,    .  .,     0   ...  .  , 

notion  that  the  Spirit  is  merely  an  im- 
personal effluence  from  God  or — in  the  language  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession — a  motion  created  in  things,  within  the  domain  of 
religion;  and  indeed  to  all  naturalistic  conceptions  concerning  him 
or  his  working,  they  present  a  plain,  positive  and  conclusive 
answer.     Later  times  have  indeed  brought  into  view  certain  forms 


ERRONEOUS   THEORIES  :     THE   SPIRIT    SUPREME.  419 

of  objection,  to  which  the  Symbols  furnish  no  reply  except  by 
implication.  It  is  said,  for  example,  that  the  doctrine  of  such  a 
superhuman  personality,  descending  into  the  human  spirit,  and 
effecting-  such  moral  changes  in  thought  and  feeling  and  purpose 
as  render  him  who  experiences  them  essentially  a  new  man — a 
saved  man,  both  inwardly  and  in  his  relations  to  God  and  to  eter- 
nity, has  no  philosophic  basis,  and  is  in  fact  an  illusion  of  the 
Christian  imagination.  It  is  alleged  that  all  such  transforma- 
tions as  actually  occur  in  life,  however  extensive  or  thorough,  can 
be  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  the  action  of  the  human  judgment 
and  conscience,  and  of  the  will  inherent  in  man  himself, — that 
in  a  word,  the  idea  of  regeneration  and  conversion,  and  of  pro- 
gressive sanctification  wrought  out  by  the  power  of  God  working 
immediately  and  decisively  within  the  human  soul,  is  entirely 
unwarranted,  and  in  fact  is  pernicious  as  well  as  illusive,  so  far  as 
it  turns  the  thoughts  of  men  away  from  that  task  of  self-reno- 
vation, of  moral  development  and  perfection,  which  from  the 
nature  of  the  case  must  be  wrought  out  through  personal  effort 
and  culture  alone. 

It  is  further  urged  by  way  of  objection  that,  since  God  has 
chosen  to  reveal  himself  and  his  will  in  nature  and  in  the  human 
mind  and  conscience,  acting  upon  the  human  soul  ab  extra,  it 
is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the  divine  Spirit  will  thus  enter 
into  the  inmost  recesses  of  the  human  spirit,  and  there  by  such 
interior  energy  work  out  such  changes  as  Christianity  alleges.  It  is 
said  that  God  cannot  do  such  a  work  within  as  well  as  upon  man, — 
at  least,  that  he  could  not  exert  such  sweeping  and  revolutionary 
energy  as  this,  without  limiting  or  even  destroying  that  human 
freedom,  that  power  of  choice,  which  is  not  only  the  supreme  pre- 
rogative of  man,  but  also  constitutes  an  indispensable  element  in 
salvation  itself.  It  is  also  said  that  all  the  presumptions  derived 
from  human  experience  stand  out  in  opposition  to  such  a  theory 
of  salvation, — that  we  have  no  evidence  of  any  analogous  action 
of  Deity  in  other  spheres  of  human  experience, — that  the  pres- 
ence of  such  a  supernatural  power  within  the  soul  has  not 
been,  cannot  be,  recognized  in  consciousness, — and  that  Chris- 
tianity by  its  affirmations  at  this  point,  its  claim  of  supernatu- 
ralness  here  and  elsewhere,  shows  conclusively  that  it  is  not  a 
reasonable  faith,  but  is  rather  an  unwarrantable  and  mischievous 
delusion. 

In  reply  to  all  such  objections  it  is  at  once  admitted  that  our  holy 
religion  stands  or  falls  on  this  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  the 
initial  and  the  supreme  agent  in  the  process  of  human  salvation: 


420  THE   PROCESS  OF   SALVATION. 

everything  in  Christianity  as  an  experience  and  a  life  hangs  in  fact 
on  this  cardinal  tenet.  In  support  of  this  claim  we  may  at  the  out- 
set as  a  matter  of  simple  observation  adduce  the  fact  that  the  human 
race,  left  to  the  action  of  its  own  impaired  moral  powers,  does 
not  spontaneously  turn  away  from  sin,  or  seek  successfully  that 
life  of  holiness  and  virtue  which  still  is  ever  hanging  out  before 
it  as  a  bright  and  attractive  ideal.  There  is  certainly  no  greater 
delusion — no  hypothesis  more  overwhelmingly  controverted  by 
fact,  than  that  in  and  of  himself  man  will  ever  work  out  such 
a  spiritual  renovation  as  he  is  conscious  of  needing.  It  is 
also  obvious  that  no  disclosures  made  by  God  in  nature  or  in  the 
mind  and  conscience  of  man,  no  ministries  of  providence  or  com- 
mands or  persuasives  embodied  in  his  moral  government,  do  in  fact 
produce,  or  seem  competent  in  themselves  to  produce,  that  spirit- 
ual renewal,  which  man  knows  that  he  requires  in  order  to  be 
truly  saved.  It  is  even  obvious  that  the  revelation  of  God  in  the 
incarnate  Christ,  the  words  and  acts  and  holy  example  of  the 
Immanuel,  with  all  the  powerful  persuasives  embodied  in  them, 
are  not  saving  men,  and  seem  even  powerless  without  some  further 
interposition,  to  save  them  from  their  sin.  Before  the  Gospel  and 
the  Cross  humanity  still  lies  corrupt,  helpless,  unsaved;  and  this 
in  spite  of  all  that  human  philosophy  or  human  culture  or  even 
divine  providence  has  ever  been  able  to  say  or  to  do  toward  its 
spiritual  restoration. 

Just  here  it  is,  in  the  consummating  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
as  now  defined,  that  Christianity  proves  alike  its  divine  origin  and 
its  transcendent  mission  to  our  fallen  race.  It  claims  that  there 
is  no  philosophic  basis  for  the  affirmation  that  God  cannot  work 
within  the  soul  as  well  as  upon  it  from  without,  or  for  the  assump- 
tion that  he  cannot  do  this  without  destroying  or  seriously  im- 
pairing human  freedom.  It  further  claims  that  the  fact  that  God 
ordinarily  influences  men  by  one  class  of  agencies  or  one  type  of 
method, does  not  in  the  least  preclude  him  from  choosing  other  vari- 
eties of  method  or  agency,  whenever  he  finds  them  essential  to  the 
securing  of  his  elect  purposes.  It  claims  still  further  that  the  fact 
of  human  sinfulness,  and  moral  helplessness  instead  of  forbidding 
such  change  of  divine  activity,  furnishes  the  strongest  reason  why 
God  by  his  Spirit  should  enter  into  the  very  soul  of  man,  and 
should  there  in  the  centers  of  our  being  work  out  such  a  spiritual 
transformation  as  he  demands  in  order  to  our  restoration  to  har- 
mony and  fellowship  with  himself.  That  these  claims,  with  all  that 
they  imply,  are  reasonable  and  worthy  of  human  credence,  no 
sound  or  deep  philosophy  will  ever  deny.     Yet  the  ultimate  appe;il 


MAN   AS   SALVAB^E.  421 

of  Christianity  is  not  to  philosophic  speculation  but  to  palpable 
and  abundant  and  unquestionable  fact.  The  evidence  of  con- 
sciousness, the  witness  of  millions  of  believers,  the  sincere  and 
tamest  confession  of  the  Church  verified  by  incidents  innumera- 
ble, all  combine  to  show  that  what  cannot  be  accomplished 
in  an}'  other  way  is  actually  accomplished  through  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  tiot  only  revealed  in  Scripture,  but  verified  in  the  lives 
of  sanctified  men.  What  Socrates  dreamed  of  in  his  attendant 
and  guiding  daimon,  the  Christian  may  and  does  realize  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  as  such  an  indwelling,  guiding,  purifying  energy 
descending  upon  him  directly  from  the  skies.  He  may  indeed  be 
unable  to  discern  the  presence  of  that  divine  agent  in  his  conscious- 
ness as  a  distinguishable  power  :  but  he  may  by  indubitable  signs 
discover  the  presence  and  efficiency  of  that  supernatural  visi- 
tant, in  those  radical  changes  of  thought  and  feeling  and  purpose, 
in  those  upspringing  graces  and  virtues,  in  those  victories  over 
sin,  in  that  blessed  sense  of  oneness  with  God  in  Christ,  and  of 
pardon  and  peace  and  life  everlasting,  which  consciousness  and 
experience  tell  him  could  never  have  come  to  him  in  and  of  him- 
self. And  what  the  individual  soul  thus  comes  to  see  and  to  know, 
our  degenerate  humanity  is  beginning  to  apprehend,  and  in  some 
vague  measure  to  appreciate, — the  Holy  Ghost  as,  in  the  words 
of  Nicaea,  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life  to  our  fallen  race.  Nor  can 
any  form  of  human  speculation  ever  prove  this  culminating  truth 
of  our  Holy  Faith  a  falsehood  or  an  illusion:  on  this  supernatural 
foundation  our  Christianity  may  securely  stand. 

What  has  already  been  said  respecting  the  moral  state  and  moral 
capabilities  of  the  human  person  concerned  in  this  process  of  sal- 
vation, need  not  be  repeated  here.     It 

is  admitted    that   the    language    em-        6*    The  human  Person  ln 
,    .     ,,      _      .    ,  ,   .  this  process :  Man  as  salva- 

ployed   m  the  Symbols,  and  in  some     bl 

other  Protestant  formularies,  to  de- 
scribe the  moral  disability  of  the  sinner,  his  practical  deadness  to 
spiritual  truth  and  spiritual  appeals,  has  sometimes  been  carried 
so  far  as  well-nigh  to  obliterate  in  theory  the  human  factor  in  that 
remarkable  process.  This  liability  is  also  increased  by  the  very 
strong  terms  used  to  set  forth  the  sovereignty  and  absolute 
supremacy  of  the  Spirit  at  every  stage  in  that  process.  That  the 
sinful  person  is  in  a  state  properly  described  as  one  of  corruption 
or  of  death, — utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made  opposite  to 
all  that  is  spiritually  good, — wholly  inclined  to  evil,  defiled  in 
all  the  faculties  and  parts  of  soul  and  body;  and  that  this  pravity, 
both  original  and  cultivated  through   transgression,   is  total  in 


422  THE   PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

the  sense  that  the  man  left  to  himself  will  never  throw  off  this 
spiritual  deadness,  and  is  universal  in  the  sense  that  it  is  an 
indwelling  characteristic  of  our  humanity — a  pravity  which  noth- 
ing but  an  initial  and  sovereign  impact  of  the  Spirit  of  God  can 
ever  remove; — all  this  may  and  must  be  affirmed  in  substance  by 
those  who  would  effectually  proclaim  the  Gospel  to  our  fallen 
race.  Yet  it  is  to  be  thoughtfully  remembered  that  the  corrup- 
tion so  impressively  described  in  our  Symbols  in  language  that 
startles  us  by  its  intensity,  is  expressly  limited  by  them  to  the 
things  that  accompany  salvation — to  spiritual  good,  in  this  special 
and  supreme  significance.  These  phrases  do  not  imply  that  the 
sinner  does  not  possess  reason  and  conscience  and  free  will  in  a  true 
sense,  or  that  the  process  of  salvation  is  one  in  which  he  is  to  be 
absolutely  passive — as  passive  as  the  clay  whirled  into  form  by  the 
wheel  and  hand  of  the  potter.  Man  though  sinful  still  remains 
a  salvable  person;  conscious,  moral,  accountable  before  God  not 
merely  for  his  natural  estate,  but  far  more  for  his  disposition  and 
choice  under  the  offers  of  the  Gospel  and  the  ministries  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  As  it  is  a  person  who  atones,  and  a  person  who 
regenerates,  it  is  also  a  person — a  living  person,  not  a  dead  thing 
— for  whom  atonement  is  provided,  and  on  whom  the  Spirit  regen- 
eratively  works. 

We  find  ourselves  involved  here  in  the  old  and  sad  controversy 
which,  ever  since  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Reformation,  has  been 
waged  within  the  general  domain  of  Protestantism,  often  with 
most  disastrous  results  to  religion  as  well  as  to  theology.  The 
sweeping  affirmations  of  Luther  respecting  the  corruption  and 
deadness  of  the  sinner  brought  out  by  natural  antithesis  the 
synergistic  dogma  of  Melanchthon  respecting  the  three  con- 
current causes  of  good  action,  the  Word  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
and  the  will  of  man.  In  like  manner  the  strenuous  argumenta- 
tion of  Calvin  brought  out  its  vigorous  antithesis  in  the  dogma  of 
Arminius  and  his  associates  as  to  the  ability  and  consequent  res- 
ponsibility of  the  sinner  in  view  of  the  offers  made  to  him  in 
the  inspired  Word,  and  pressed  upon  him  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Yet  Melanchthon  was  never  willing  to  affirm  that,  while  the  will 
of  man  is  a  concurrent  cause  in  some  degree,  it  is  also  in  any  sense 
a  primary  or  a  coequal  cause  in  securing  our  salvation.  And  in 
like  manner  the  Remonstrantia  could  not  refrain  from  admitting 
(Art.  IV)  that  the  grace  of  God  is  the  beginning,  continuance 
and  accomplishment  of  all  good,  even  to  this  extent  that  the 
regenerate  man  himself,  without  prevenient  or  assisting,  awaken- 
ing, following  and  cooperative  grace,  can  neither  think,  will  nor  do 


HUMAN    ACTIVITY    REQUISITE.  423 

good,  ...  so  that  all  good  deeds  or  movements  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ.  In  other  words,  the  original 
Remonstrants  confessed  the  indispensable  necessity  for  such  a 
work  as  that  of  the  Spirit  in  human  regeneration  and  the  prima- 
riness  of  his  action,  and  so  far  forth  stood  substantially  on  common 
ground  with  the  divines  of  Dort,  while  they  felt  themselves  con- 
strained to  resist  that  exaggerated  view  of  his  work  which  the  high 
Calvinism  of  their  day  had  embodied  in  the  old  Augustinian  phrase, 
gratia  irresistibilis.  And  it  is  noticeable  that  the  Articles  of  Reli- 
gion, drawn  up  originally  by  Wesley  himself  for  American  Meth- 
odism, while  standing  out  in  contrast  with  the  current  Calvinism 
of  his  day  at  certain  points,  expressly  affirm,  (VII)  that  man  is 
very  far  gone  from  original  righteousness,  and  is  of  his  own 
nature  inclined  to  evil,  and  that  continually:  and  further  (VIII) 
that  while  in  this  condition,  he  cannot  turn  and  prepare  himself  by 
his  own  natural  strength  and  works  to  faith  and  calling  upon  God, 
and  needs  the  grace  of  God  by  Christ  preventing  or  going  before 
him,  in  order  that  he  may  have  a  good  will,  and  working  within 
him  when  he  has  gained  that  good  will  through  divine  grace. 

These  historic  illustrations  may  at  least  suffice  to  show  us  that 
evangelical  Protestantism  is  substantially  agreed  in  recognizing 
the  grand  underlying  fact,  that  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
process  of  salvation  is  throughout  a  work  in  and  upon  a  person — 
a  person  indeed  corrupted  and  even  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins, 
yet  invested  with  moral  faculties,  reason  and  conscience  and  a  free 
and  responsible  power  of  choice,  and  by  virtue  of  such  invest- 
ment salvable.  It  is  practically  agreed  by  all  divisions  of  Prot- 
estantism that  the  possession  of  such  endowments  does  not  render 
the  human  person  worthy  of  salvation,  or  that  if  left  to  their 
natural  action  he  will  ever  bring  himself  into  a  .saved  state,  or  so 
prepare  or  qualify  himself  that  the  Spirit  may  recognize  in  him 
a  meritorious  subject  of  salvation.  It  is  practically  agreed 
also  that  salvation  comes  by  and  with  the  Word,  brought  home 
through  the  energies  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that  together  with 
the  Word  he  works  within  the  soul  as  really  as  upon  it,  so  quick- 
ening the  intellect  and  vitalizing  the  conscience  and  moving  upon 
the  will  itself  that  the  man  is,  in  the  phrase  of  the  Catechism, 
(31)  persuaded  and  enabled  to  accept  Jesus  Christ,  freely  offered 
to  him  in  the  Gospel.  In  a  word,  evangelical  Protestantism  is 
substantially  agreed  that  the  sinner  is  a  living  person, and  that  as  sin 
is  always  personal,  however  embedded  in  the  nature,  so  salvation 
is  a. personal  process  throughout, — the  Holy  Ghost  enlightening, 
convincing,  renewing,  enabling,  with  initial  love  and  power,  and  the 


424  THE    PROCESS    OF   SALVATION. 

man  under  his  influence  answering  the  gracious  call,  and  respon- 
sively  accepting  and  embracing  the  divine  offer  made  to  him  in 
and  through  the  mediation  of  the  Immanuel.  And  while  our 
Symbols  are  among  the  foremost  in  their  strenuous  emphasizing  of 
the  sovereignty  as  well  as  the  tenderness  of  the  Spirit,  his  primal 
choice  and  energy  everywhere  so  going  before  any  thought  or 
purpose  of  man  that  salvation  is  properly  ascribed  to  him  as  his 
work  more  than  that  of  man, — they  cannot  justly  be  charged, 
notwithstanding  all  their  strong  language  respecting  the  desper- 
ate state  of  the  sinner,  with  the  denial  or  even  the  ignoring  of 
this  great  antithetic  truth.  There  may  be  adherents  and  defend- 
ers of  the  Symbols  who  go  to  such  lengths  as  almost  to  inculcate 
a  species  of  Christian  fatalism,  or  at  least  to  minimize  disas- 
trously the  fundamental  doctrine  of  freedom  and  responsibility  for 
the  neglect  or  misuse  of  the  salvation  offered  to  all  in  the  Gospel. 
But  the  formularies  themselves,  though  written  under  the  inspi- 
ration of  an  ardent  and  strenuous  Calvinism,  cannot"  in  fairness 
be  held  accountable  for  such  misconception  or  exaggeration  of 
their  real  teaching. 

Holding  therefore  before  our  minds  this  generic  conception  of 
salvation  as  a  process  wrought  by  a  divine  person  within  and 

upon  human  persons,  we  find  ourselves 
7   Common  operations  of    confronted  further  with  the  interesting 
the  Spirit :  common  grace.  t.  J..        ^ 

question    respecting   the    extent    and 

scope  of  this  divine  operation.  It  is  clear  that  the  churches  of  the 
Reformation  were  accustomed  to  contemplate  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  as  wrought  entirely  within  the  geographic  domain  of  Chris- 
tendom, and  for  the  most  part  within  the  narrower  domain  of  Prot- 
estantism exclusively. — The  creeds  furnish  hardly  a  hint  of  any 
gracious  activity  exerting  itself  more  extensively,  as  if  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Spirit,  like  that  of  Christ,  was  a  mission  to  the  race. 
We  have  indeed  the  wide  declaration  (X:iii-iv)  that  he  worketh 
when  and  where  and  how  he  pleaseth,  as  in  the  case  of  elect  infants, 
and  of  other  elect  persons  who  ma)'  be  incapable  of  being,  as  the 
phrase  is,  outwardly  called  by  the  ministry  of  the  Word.  A  sim- 
ilar expression  appears  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  (Art.  V):  By 
the  Word  and  Sacraments,  as  by  instruments,  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
given  who  worketh  faith  where  and  how  (ubi  et  quando),  it  pleas- 
eth God.  But  the  subjects  of  such  special  and  mystical  operations 
clearly  were  to  be  found  within  the  circles  of  Protestant  belief 
and  organization,  and  there  only:  this  is  indicated  by  the  phrases, 
cutward  call,  and  ministry  of  the   Word,  which  could  have  signifi- 


COMMON   OR    PREVENIENT    GRACE.  125 

cance  only  within  the  domain  of  Christendom,  if  not  of  Protest- 
antism alone.  Concerning  the  heathen  world,  or  the .  adherents 
of  false  religions,  such  as  Mohammedanism,  or  of  corrupted  Chris- 
tianity such  as  appeared  in  the  Greek  church  or  the  Romanism  of 
that  era,  nothing  distinctively  was  affirmed,  either  in  the  Symbols 
or  any  in  other  Protestant  creed.  The  outward  call  was  the  call 
of  the  revealed  and  published  Word:  and  the  only  recognized  min- 
istry of  that  Word  was  the  Protestant  ministry,  as  ordained  in  the 
several  communions.  The  church,  according  to  the  definition  of 
Augsburg  (Art.  VII)  was  the  congregation  of  saints,  the  assem- 
bly of  believers,  in  which  the  Gospel  is  rightly  taught,  and  the 
sacraments  are  rightly  administered:  and  outside  of  that  church, 
with  its  holy  teaching  and  ordinances  there  was,  as  the  Reformers 
generally  believed,  little  more  than  a  possibility  of  salvation. 

Yet,  as  we  have  already  noted,  there  were  Protestant  theolo- 
gians who  cherished  the  conviction  that  the  educational  and  puri- 
fying ministries  of  the  Spirit  extended  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
Christendom,  and  that  there  might  be  what  has  been  termed  an 
unconscious  Christianity  among  worthier  members  of  the  pagan 
portion  of  the  race.  Augustine  had  affirmed  (Civ.  Dei.  XVIII) 
that  before  Christian  times  there  were,  outside  of  the  Israelite  race, 
men  who  lived  according  to  God  and  pleased  him,  and  therefore 
belonged,  as  he  said,  to  the  fellowship  of  the  heavenly  city.  Zwingli 
held  that  as  the  saints  of  the  Hebraic  dispensation  had  been  saved 
through  the  efficacious  work  and  sacrifice  of  a  Messiah  whom  they 
had  known  only  in  promises  and  in  shadowy  outline,  so  there 
were  good  and  pure  men  among  the  heathen,  (some  of  whom  he 
designated),  who  were  more  likely — as  he  said — to  be  saved  than 
many  a  pope.  Some  Protestant  divines,  such  as  Zanchins  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  Wittsins  in  the  century 
following,  maintained  that  there  was  a  revealing  L,ogos  among 
men  even  prior  to  the  incarnation, — that  all  spiritual  truth  in 
whatever  form  proceeds  from  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  is  made 
known  by  him  to  the  world, — and  that  under  his  nurture  one 
might  become  a  true  believer  and  be  graciously  saved,  who  had 
never  known  the  story  of  the  life  and  teaching  and  death  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  possible,  though  not  certain,  that  the  Second  Hel- 
vetic Confession  contemplated  the  case  of  the  heathen  in  its 
affirmation  that  God  may  enlighten  some  men  in  any  way  (quos 
et  quando),  he  pleases  without  the  outward  ministry  of  the  Word, 
though  his  usual  method  of  instruction  be  through  the  Word. 
Luther,  indeed  and  most  of  the  Reformers,  Calvin  included, 
regarded  such  a  hope  as  inadmissible  and  held  that  it  made  void  the 


426  THE   PROCESS   OP   SALVATION. 

entire  Gospel.  It  is  only  as  we  come  down  to  our  own  century, 
that  the  broader  view  is  found  to  have  any  large  degree  of  cur- 
rency, and  by  many  in  Protestant  circles  that  view  is  still  regarded 
as  a  pleasant  or  a  dangerous  hypothesis  rather  than  an  established 
truth.  That  many  a  pope,  especially  such  as  sat  in  the  seat  of 
Peter  in  the  days  when  Zwingli  lived  and  preached  and  suffered, 
will  not  be  found  in  heaven,  may  reasonably  be  anticipated:  that 
Socrates  and  Plato,  Cato  and  Seneca,  and  others  whom  Zwingli 
named,  are  among  the  residents  of  that  blessed  abode,  we  cannot 
affirm,  neither  can  we  with  authority  deny. 

Still  it  has  come  to  be  a  widely  cherished  belief  that  whether 
there  are,  in  the  language  of  the  Swiss  divine,  elect  among  the 
Gentiles,  there  assuredly  are  cosmic  energies  of  the  Spirit  at 
work  which  reach  far  beyond  the  limits  of  present  Christen- 
dom, restraining  mankind  from  the  evil  to  which  by  nature  they 
are  prone,  working  upon  the  natural  reason  and  conscience  in  the 
interest  of  truth  and  virtue,  preserving  society  from  moral  decay, 
sustaining  good  laws  and  governments,  and  everywhere  prepar- 
ing the  race,  often  by  prolonged  and  impressive  disciplines,  for 
the  recognition  and  acceptance  of  Christ  as  its  Redeemer.  The 
chapter  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  proposed  as  an  addition  to  the  Confes- 
sion, affirms  that  the  Spirit  as  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  spiritual 
life  is  thus  everywhere  present  among  men,  confirming  the  teach- 
ings of  nature  and  the  law  of  God  written  on  the  heart,  and 
maintaining,  in  conjunction  with  the  providential  administration 
of  God  the  Father,  the  moral  order  of  the  world  in  the  interest  ulti- 
mately of  the  salvation  which  the  world  is  to  receive  through  the 
Gospel.  The  Free  Church  Declaration  conveys  the  same  doctrine 
in  the  statement  that  God  may  by  his  Spirit  extend  his  mercy,  as 
may  seem  good  to  him,  to  those  who  are  beyond  the  ordinary 
means  of  grace.  A  similar  view  is  at  least  suggested  by  the  state- 
ment of  English  Presbyterianism  in  the  Article  on  the  Spirit 
already  quoted. 

This  generic  or  cosmic  ministry  of  the  Spirit  must  be  viewed, 
not  simply  as  another  form  of  divine  providence,  but  rather  as  a 
superadded  bestowment — as  truly  such  as  the  incarnation  and 
mediation  of  God  the  Son,  and  for  the  same  gracious  purpose.  It 
is  indeed  hardly  scriptural,  as  we  have  seen,  to  set  the  Spirit  forth 
as  the  teacher  of  men  in  the  ordinary  departments  of  human 
knowledge  or  science,  and  still  more  questionable  to  speak  of  him 
as  the  intelligent  principle  in  animal  life  or  the  vitalizing  force  in 
the  vegetable  kingdom.  Such  conceptions  inevitably  degrade  or 
impair  that  sublime  view  of  him  as  Lord  and  Giver  of  spiritual 


COSMIC    WORK    OF   THE    SPIRIT.  427 

life  distinctively,  which  the  Scriptures  do  clearly  suggest,  and 
which  constitutes  him  for  all  time  the  glorious  Teacher,  Com- 
forter, Paraclete  of  the  race.  It  is  within  the  spiritual  sphere 
alone  that  he  thus  manifests  his  gracious  energies, — as  the  ancient 
creed  obviously  implied. 

In  conformity  with  this  belief  an  interesting  statement,  once 
approved  by  the  Assembly  (Minutes,  369)  but  not  incorporated 
in  the  Symbols,  declares  that,  besides  much  forbearance  and  many 
supplies  which  all  mankind  receive  from  Christ  as  L,ord  of  all,  they 
are  by  him  made  capable  of  receiving  salvation  tendered  to  them 
by  the  Gospel,  and  are  under  such  dispensations  of  providence 
and  operations  of  the  Spirit  as  lead  to  repentance.  Common 
grace,  gratia  communis,  is  thus  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the 
grand  underlying  facts  in  the  scheme  of  salvation.  These  com- 
mon or  generic  operations  of  the  Spirit,  as  described  in  the  Con- 
fession, constitute  an  important,  even  indispensable  element  in  the 
Gospel.  Augustine  styled  this  the  gratia  praeveniens,  a  potency  of 
the  Spirit  going  before  conversion,  and  experienced  even  by  multi- 
tudes who,  though  they  have  heard  the  outward  call  of  the  Word, 
do  not  yield  to  that  grace,  and  therefore  are  not  saved.  He  indeed 
limited  that  prevenient  grace  under  the  Gospel  only  to  those  who 
had  personally  heard  this  external  call,  but  we  with  wider  vision, 
may  justly  regard  it  as  going  before  the  Gospel  in  a  much  larger 
sense,  preparing  the  world  to  receive  Christ  in  his  redemptive  effici- 
ency just  as  the  Father  in  his  providence  prepared  the  world  for  the 
advent  of  its  Redeemer.  We  may  believe  that  there  is  in  fact  no 
continent  where  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  thus  working, — no  tribe  or 
nation  to  which  he  is  not  now  ministering  in  the  interest  of  its 
illumination  and  ultimate  restoration.  Nor  is  there  any  time,  we 
are  assured,  when  he  ceases  in  his  gracious  operations:  he  is  as 
tireless  in  the  broad  field  of  grace  as  the  Father  is  in  the  field  of 
nature  and  providence.  His  ministry  began  even  before  there  was  a 
written  Word,  and  now  reaches  far  beyond  the  regions  where  the 
printed  Word  has  been  carried.  Wherever  Christ  is  in  all  the  earth, 
there  the  Spirit  is:  whatever  Christ  is  doing  for  our  humanity,  the 
Spirit  is  also  doing;  not  only  reproving  or  convincing  the  world — 
as  our  Lord  said — of  sin  and  righteousness  and  judgment,  but  also 
tenderly  drawing  convicted  souls  unto  Christ  as  their  true  and  only 
Savior.  And  when  we  thus  discern  him  in  all  the  glorious  com- 
prehensiveness of  his  educational  and  convicting  work,  we  may 
well  say  with  L,uther,  though  with  a  far  broader  and  loftier  view 
than  he  had  attained:  The  grace  of  God  is  a  kind  of  thing  very 
great  and  strong,  powerful  and  active:  it  does  not  lie  down  sleeping 


428  THE    PROCESS    OF    SALVATION. 

in  the  soul,  as  some  of  these  fanatic  preachers  dream,  nor  is  it 
carried  about  as  a  painted  board  carries  its  colors.  No,  by  no 
means:  it  is  that  grace  which  carries,  and  drives,  and  operates 
and  works  everything  in  man. 

Without  dwelling  upon  the  operation  and  effects  of  such  com- 
mon and  prevenieut   grace   in   the   case   of    the   multitudes   in 

Christian  lands  who  hear  the  outward 

8.    Effectual  Calling :  re-     call  and      t  willfuny  reject  it.  (Hodge, 
generation    by   the   Spirit:     -,      ,   TT  P«m  .        „.    Zu 

Conversion  Theol.  11:670)  we  may  now  turn  to  the 

contemplation  of  the  converting  or  re- 
generating work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  described  in  Chapter  X, 
under  the  title  of  Effectual  Calling.  A  dark  problem  already 
adverted  to  here  again  presents  itself  in  the  fact  that  this  wide 
preparatory  ministry  of  the  Spirit  is  so  often  ineffectual  and  fruit- 
less— ineffectual  and  fruitless  at  least  so  far  as  those  whom  it 
reaches  are  not  all,  or  at  present  even  a  majority,  actually  saved 
by  it.  There  is  indeed  a  providential  mystery  here,  like  that 
which  comes  to  view  in  the  wondrous  contrast  between  the  profuse 
blossoming  of  springtime  and  the  actual  fruitage  of  autumn — like 
that  which  appears  at  a  thousand  other  points  between  what  seem 
to  be  the  purposes  of  God  in  nature  or  within  the  sphere  of 
humanity,  and  the  practical  outcome  in  the  world  or  in  human 
life.  We  are  confronted  with  substantially  the  same  mystery 
when  we  contemplate  the  cosmic  capabilities  of  the  mediation  of 
Christ,  the  free  provisions  of  the  Gospel,  the  universal  offers  and 
invitations  on  one  hand,  and  the  relatively  small  number  of  those 
whom  God  actually  justifies  and  redeems — a  number  pitifully 
small  when  contrasted  with  the  vast  multitude  who  continue  to 
walk  in  the  broad  roadways  of  sin  and  destruction.  Nor  is  the 
mystery  wholly  removed  when  we  turn  for  an  explanation  to  that 
strange  blindness  and  wickedness  of  the  human  heart,  which  lead 
it  so  often  to  resist  alike  the  atoning  love  of  Christ  and  the  gentle 
persuasions  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  which  sometimes  seem  to 
endow  the  sinner  with  a  baleful  energy  more  potential  even  than 
the  will  and  purpose  of  God.  The  culpability  of  those  who  will- 
fully neglect  and  reject  these  common  operations  of  the  Spirit, 
and  who  for  this  cause  are  justly  left  in  their  unbelief,  was  strongly 
maintained  in  the  Assembly:  Minutes,  370.  But  beyond  this, 
which  is  the  human  side  of  the  mystery  only,  we  must  recognize 
a  divine  sovereignty  such  as  our  Lord  himself  suggested  in  the 
metaphor  of  the  wind  blowing  where  it  listeth,  so  that  while  we 
may  hear  the  sound  thereof,  we  cannot  lell  whence  it  cometh  or 
whither  it  goeth.     Doubtless  there  are  great  and  solemn  ends 


EFFECTUAL   CALLING-  429 

subserved  by  such  generic  operations  of  the  Spirit,  viewed  as  one 
part  or  feature  in  the  sublime  scheme  of  redemption,  which  amply 
justify  them  to  the  divine  Mind,  however  inexplicable  they  maybe 
to  ours.  The  reverent  recognition  of  such  sovereignty,  exalting 
the  work  of  the  Spirit  like  that  of  the  Son  or  of  the  Father  infi- 
nitely above  our  control  or  even  our  cognition,  and  an  humble 
joy  in  that  work  and  acceptance  of  it  just  as  we  find  it,  in  the 
assurance  of  its  perfect  wisdom  and  righteousness  and  love,  are  our 
final  duty,  as  well  as  our  blessed  privilege  in  the  case. 

The  phrase,  effectual  call,  set  in  contrast  with  the  preceding 
phrase,  common  operations,  is  hardly  to  be  taken  as  implying  that 
there  are  two  distinct  kinds  of  grace,  since  the  only  distinction  of 
which  we  can  know  anything  is  that  which  appears  in  the  result. 
The  effectual  call  is  simply  that  operation  of  the  Spirit  which 
results  in  conversion  and  is  the  beginning  of  salvation  viewed  as 
an  interior  process.  It  is  admirably  defined  in  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism (31)  as  that  work  of  the  Spirit  whereby,  convincing  us  of 
our  sin  and  misery,  enlightening  our  minds  in  the  knowledge  of 
Christ,  and  renewing  our  wills,  he  doth  persuade  and  e?iable  us  to 
embrace  Jesus  Christ  freely  offered  to  us  in  the  Gospel.  The 
Larger  Catechism  further  describes  this  work  (67)  as  a  manifest- 
ation of  almighty  power  and  grace ;  declares  that  it  springs  from 
the  special  love  of  God  to  his  elect,  nothing  in  them  moving  him 
thereunto;  points  to  an  accepted  time  which  is  divinely  determined, 
and  by  various  phrases  sets  forth  somewhat  more  specifically  the 
process  of  enlightenment  and  renewal  and  persuasion  by  which 
men  are  made  both  willing  and  able  to  answer  the  divine  call,  and 
to  embrace  the  grace  thus  offered.  The  Confession  goes  still 
farther  into  details,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  emphasizing  the 
sovereign  primacy  of  the  Spirit  on  one  hand  and  the  passivity 
and  deadness  of  man  on  the  other — carrying  the  contrast  out  so 
far  as  almost  to  create  the  impression  that  the  sinner  is  in  a  sense 
coerced  and  made  willing  even  against  his  will,  through  the 
almighty  energies  of  grace.  Of  the  clearness  and  comprehen- 
siveness, the  philosophic  accuracy  and  the  biblical  quality  of  the 
definition,  taken  in  the  aggregate,  too  much  can  hardly  be  said. 

Here  again  we  may  recognize  the  high  vantage  on  which  the 
Westminster  divines  stood,  in  comparison  with  the  compilers  of 
antecedent  symbolism.  This  effectual  call  is  indeed  set  forth  as  a 
fundamental  article  of  belief  in  nearly  all  the  Protestant  creeds, 
from  the  Confession  of  Augsburg  and  the  Catechism  of  L,uther 
down  to  the  Canons  of  Dort,  though  in  general  it  is  comparatively 
less  prominent  than  the  associated  doctrine  of  an  external  or  legal 


430  THE   PROCESS   OF  SALVATION. 

justification  procured  for  man  through  the  mediation  of  Christ. 
Under  the  image  of  regeneration,  being  born  again  through  the 
Spirit,  it  appears  continually  in  these  formularies  as  one  essential 
feature  in  true  salvation.  It  appears  also  in  the  exposition  of 
good  works,  good  works  in  the  scriptural  rather  than  the  ecclesi- 
astical sense,  as  produced  in  us  by  the  Spirit,  and  as  signs  of  our 
regeneration  and  acceptance  with  God.  Zwingli,  notwithstanding 
his  divergent  tendenc}',  agrees  in  his  Articles  with  Luther  in 
emphasizing  the  cardinal  truth  taught  them  by  Christ  and  the 
Spirit:  Ye  must  be  born  again.  For  later  illustrations  we  may 
note  the  Second  Helv.  Conf.  Cap,  IX-XIV:  the  Belgic  Conf. 
XXIV:  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (X)  on  free  will  and  the  prevent- 
ing grace  of  God;  the  Canons  of  Dort,  First  Head.  Art.  VII:  and 
specially  the  Scotch  Conf.  Art.  XII,  Of  Faith  in  the  Holy  Goste. 
In  a  word,  the  doctrine  of  regeneration,  or  of  the  effectual  call  and 
movement  of  the  Spirit  upon  and  within  the  soul,  antecedent 
to  all  spiritual  life  or  experience  on  the  part  of  man  runs, 
like  the  kindred  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  only, 
through  Protestant  symbolism  everywhere  as  a  cardinal  feature  in 
that  Gospel  of  grace  which  it  was  the  mission  of  the  Reformation 
to  bring  anew  into  the  comprehension  and  acceptance  of  men. 

But  it  was  the  high  privilege  of  the  Westminster  Assembly 
to  analyze  the  doctrine,  to  indicate  and  adjust  its  various  elements, 
to  exhibit  it  in  its  biblical  comprehensiveness  and  preciousness, 
more  completely  than  had  been  done  by  their  predecessors,  either 
Continental  or  British.  The  Irish  Articles  came  nearest,  and 
doubtless  furnished  here  as  elsewhere  the  germs  of  the  complete 
statement  as  given  in  the  Symbols.  In  this  statement  we  may 
note  the  following  steps  or  stages  in  the  saving  process;  first,  the 
conviction  of  both  sin  and  misery,  produced  in  the  mind  and  en- 
forced upon  the  conscience,  prostrating  the  soul,  and  impelling  it 
to  seek  deliverance  and  purification;  second,  the  disclosure  to  the 
convicted  soul  of  Christ  in  his  mediatorial  offices,  and  of  redemp- 
tion made  possible  through  his  grace  even  to  the  chief  of  sin- 
ners; third,  the  quickening  of  the  moral  nature,  the  reason  and 
conscience,  so  that  the  soul  is  enabled  to  discern  and  to  appreciate 
and  desire  the  redemption  thus  made  known;  fourth,  the  vitaliz- 
ing and  energizing  of  the  will,  impaired  and  deadened  through 
the  influence  of  sin,  until  its  desires  are  changed  into  aspirations, 
and  the  man  thus  vitalized  is  empowered  to  choose  for  himself  this 
offered  salvation  :  and  fifth,  the  personal  persuasion  to  such  a 
choice  by  all  those  subtle  and  tender  influences  which  such  a 
person  as  the  Spirit  of  God  can  bring  to  bear — such  advising, 


REGENERATION   AND   CONVERSION.  •     431 

counselling,  entreating,  moving,  drawing,  prevailing  upon,  as  he 
may  fitly  use  in  his  immediate  contact  and  communion  with  the 
convicted,  enlightened,  quickened  and  empowered  soul,  in  order 
to  its  spiritual  restoration. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  act  of  the  Spirit  in  human  regeneration.  It 
is  a  complex,  a  radical  and  profound,  a  revolutionary  and  recon- 
structive process,  whereby  not  the  will  or  the  purposes  alone,  but 
the  whole  man  in  his  intellect  and  moral  sensibilities  and  conscience 
as  truly  as  in  his  power  of  choice,  is  transformed  and  renewed 
throughout — is,  as  to  all  the  elements  of  character,  made  a  new 
man.  It  is  not  strange  that  Scripture  should  describe  such  a  pro- 
cess as  a  second  birth,  a  passage  from  darkness  into  light,  another 
life  expelling  the  natural  life  forever  from  the  breast,  a  putting 
off  the  old  man  and  putting  on  the  new  man  or  the  new  man- 
hood, with  consequent  changes  at  every  point  in  life  and  action. 
The  abundance  and  strength  of  such  imagery  show  how  radical 
and  comprehensive  this  renewal  is,  in  the  estimate  of  the  Spirit 
who  produces  it,  and  how  essential  to  human  salvation  such  a 
change  in  the  moral  constitution  must  be.  Such  regeneration 
penetrates  every  part  and  element  in  our  spiritual  nature,  leaving 
nothing  in  the  soul  unreached  or  unchanged  by  its  efficiency:  it  is 
a  renovation  of  the  whole  man  in  every  feature  of  character,  in 
every  impulse,  desire,  choice  and  act  of  the  life. 

Perhaps  the  most  impressive  description  of  regeneration  to  be 
found  in  Protestant  symbolism  appears  in  the  Third  Canon  of  Dort, 
Art.  XI-XII:  When  God  accomplishes  his  pleasure  in  the  elect, 
or  works  in  them  true  conversion,  he  not  only  causes  the  Gospel 
to  be  externally  preached  to  them,  and  powerfully  illuminates 
their  minds  by  his  Holy  Spirit  .  .  .  but  also  by  the  efficacy  of  the 
same  regenerating  Spirit  pervades  the  inmost  recesses  of  man, 
opens  the  closed  and  softens  the  hardened  heart:  .  .  .  infuses 
new  qualities  into  the  will  which,  though  heretofore  dead,  he 
quickens;  and  from  being  evil,  disobedient  and  refractory,  ren- 
ders it  good,  obedient  and  pliable;  and  so  actuates  and  strength- 
ens it  that,  like  a  good  tree,  it  is  enabled  to  bring  forth  the  fruits 
of  good  action.  This — it  is  added — is  the  regeneration  so  highly 
celebrated  in  Scripture,  and  denominated  a  new  creation,  a  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,  which  God  without  our  aid  produces  in  us; 
evidently  a  supernatural  work,  most  powerful  and  at  the  same  time 
most  delightful,  astonishing,  mysterious  and  ineffable;  not  less  or 
inferior  in  efficacy  to  creation  or  the  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

The  human  response  to  this  regenerative  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  fitly  expressed  in  the  term,  Conversion,  as  employed  in 


432  THE   PROCESS  OF   SALVATION. 

this  Canon.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Spirit  converts,  or  that 
one  person  converts  another;  but  more  strictly  speaking,  conver- 
sion is  the  first  responsive  act  of  the  soul  itself,  when  thus  con- 
vinced, enlightened,  energized  and  persuaded  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
It  is  not  to  be  said  that  the  sinner  converts  himself,  by  virtue  of 
any  independent  energies  resident  in  his  spiritual  nature:  nor  are 
we  to  suppose  that  after  the  Spirit  has  done  his  regenerative  work, 
the  man  of  his  own  motion  deliberately  and  without  divine  help 
accepts  or  embraces  Jesus  Christ  offered  to  him  in  the  Gospel.  It 
is  nearer  the  truth  to  say,  with  the  Larger  Catechism,  that  this 
divine  agent  makes  the  sinner  willing,  enables  him  to  take  the 
decisive  step,  so  that  the  man  acts  most  freely  because  he  is  thus  gra- 
ciously wrought  upon  in  the  very  instant  and  act  of  conversion, 
as  in  the  experience  that  may  precede  his  conversion.  While  it 
is  not  true  that  the  Spirit  makes  the  decisive  choice,  elects  salva- 
tion in  the  stead  of  the  sinner,  in  any  such  sense  that  the  conver- 
sion becomes  his  act,  and  the  sinner  is  saved  as  by  some  gracious 
constraint  and  without  any  concurrent  will  or  election  on  his  own 
part,  still  the  Spirit  is  in  and  with  the  soul  in  utmost  graciousness 
and  power  as  it  is  making  such  election — just  as  hemaketh  inter- 
cession within  as  well  as  for  the  believer,  prays  in  him  while  he  is 
bowed  and  suppliant  in  the  sacred  mystery  of  prayer.  Regener- 
ation and  conversion  are  thus  not  two  independent  acts,  one 
human,  the  other  divine;  the  divine  preceding  and  the  human 
following  in  a  certain  chronologic  order,  and  with  possible  inter- 
vals of  time  between  them.  It  is  nearer  the  truth  to  conceive  of 
them  as  one  act  in  which  both  agents  are  conjoined;  the  divine 
always  primal,  competent,  efficient,  and  supreme  in  sover- 
eignty as  in  love  and  power;  the  human  ever  consequent,  per- 
suaded, drawn,  enabled,  yet  ever  free  in  its  acceptation  of  the 
offered  grace. 

It  has  been  charged  with  some  justice  that  the  Symbols  in  their 
supreme  purpose  to  extol  the  sovereignty  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
this  salvatory  process,  have  too  much  ignored  the  responsibility 
and  activity  of  man  in  the  matter  of  his  own  conversion.  Similar 
charges  have  been  made,  with  even  greater  force,  against  some 
others  among  the  Protestant  creeds,  because  they  assert,  in  lan- 
guage transmitted  from  one  to  another,  that  man  is  altogether 
passive  in  the  matter  of  his  effectual  calling  and  his  consequent  sal- 
vation. The  Scotch  Confession  (XII)  for  example,  declares  that 
we  are  so  dead,  so  blind  and  so  perverse,  that  neither  can  we  feel 
when  we  are  pricked,  see  the  light  when  it  shines,  nor  assent  to 
the  will  of  God  when  it  is  revealed,  until  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 


TRUTH    AS    AN    INSTRUMENT.  433 

Jesus  quicken  that  which  is  dead,  remove  the  darkness  from  our 
minds,  and  bow  our  hearts  to  the  obedience  of  his  blessed  will. 
The  Second  Helvetic,  the  French  and  the  Belgic  Confessions,  and 
the  Canons  of  Dort,  (first  and  third  general  Heads)  might  be 
quoted  in  further  illustration  of  the  tendency  to  emphasize,  in 
opposition  to  all  Pelagian  conceptions,  the  utter  passivity  of  man 
in  the  reception  of  saving  grace.  But  it  should  be  said  in  expla- 
nation that  it  is  regeneration  chiefly,  rather  than  conversion,  of 
which  these  formularies  are  speaking  in  such  strong  terms,  though 
they  do  not  in  general  make  sufficient  distinction  between  what 
is  divine  and  what  is  human  in  the  saving  process.  It  is  true 
forevermore  that  what  the  Spirit  does,  he  does  in  initial  and 
independent  sovereignty,  and  that  so  far  forth  man  is  altogether 
passive, — simply  wrought  upon  by  regenerative  energy:  nothing 
that  he  ever  will  do  or  can  do,  left  to  himself,  will  regenerate  him 
or  make  of  him  a  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus.  Yet  if,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  this  profound  and  thoroughly  biblical  affirmation,  the 
creeds  and  those  who  framed  them  had  recognized  the  antithetic 
truth  which  Melancthon  sought  to  express  in  his  unfortunate 
phrase,  the  concurrent  will  of  man,  it  is  unquestionable  that  the 
doctrine  of  sovereign  as  well  as  gracious  regeneration  would  have 
been  more  readily  received,  and  that  the  call  of  the  church  to  all 
men  to  be  converted  and  saved  through  the  Gospel  would  have 
had  larger  currency  and  much  more  precious  effect.  The  state- 
ment of  Dickson  (Truth's  Victory  over  Error)  is  worthy  of  con- 
sideration here:  When  I  say  a  man  is  passive  in  his  conversion,  I  do 
not  think  that  he  is  physically  passive,  as  a  stock  or  a  stone  when 
an  artist  is  about  to  make  a  statue  of  them;  but  morally,  or  rather 
spiritually: — language  which  locates  the  deadness  where  it  really 
belongs,  in  the  moral  disposition. 

One  further  question  remains  to  be  considered  in  this  connection 
— the  interesting  question  respecting  the  relations  of  the  truth, 
the    sacraments,   and   other   ordained 

means   of  grace   to   regeneration   and        9*  The  Truth  as  an  instru~ 
.         ,  •    .     1  •      ment:   other  instrumentali- 

conversion  viewed  as  spiritual  experi-     „ 

ences.     It  has  already  been  seen  that 

in  the  case  of  infants  and  youth  who  have  not  come  into  intelli- 
gent consciousness,  and  of  adults  born  into  imbecility  of  mind, 
the  regenerative  work  must  go  on  independently  of  truth  con- 
sciously apprehended,  and  by  methods  known  to  the  Holy  Spirit 
only.  So  in  the  case  of  heathen  to  whom  the  Gospel  has  not 
been  proclaimed,  the  truth  used  by  the  Spirit  in  regeneration,  so 
far  as  regeneration  may  occur  in  such  cases,  must  be  what  the 


434  THE    PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

law  of  nature  and  the  divine  law  stamped  on  the  heart  and  con- 
science have  supplied.  But  beyond  these  exceptional  cases,  regen- 
eration may  be  regarded  as  always  occurring  in  conjunction  with 
what  may  be  termed  evangelical  or  saving  truth.  In  the  exigen- 
cies of  theologic  controversy  it  has  been  affirmed  that  the  Spirit 
may  and  does  regenerate  adult  minds  in  gospel  lands  without 
using  such  truth  as  his  instrument, — that  such  persons  may  be 
born  anew  while  asleep  or  while  engaged  in  their  ordinary  avoca- 
tions, they  being  at  the  time  wholly  unconscious  of  the  saving 
process  going  on  within  them.  But  such  affirmations  are  from  the 
nature  of  the  case  incapable  of  verification,  if  in  fact  they  ever 
occur:  it  might  further  be  shown  that  they  are  quite  at  variance 
with  the  teachings  both  of  Scripture  and  of  nearly  all  evan- 
gelical symbolism.  By  the  Word  and  by  the  Spirit,  is  the  universal 
formula  of  the  Protestant  creeds.  By  the  Spirit  taking  the  truth 
concerning  God  and  man  and  salvation,  and  pressing  it  home 
upon  the  reason  and  conscience, — by  the  Spirit  enlightening,  con- 
victing, persuading,  using  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  as  his  instru- 
ment and  through  them  working  upon  the  soul  from  without, 
while  he  is  also  pouring  his  own  vitalizing  energies  into  it  at  the 
very  centers  of  its  moral  being, — by  the  Spirit  thus  operating  in 
and  with  the  Word,  is  the  unvarying  formula  of  the  Scriptures. 
It  is  not  needful  to  suppose  that  in  every  instance  the  saving  truth 
thus  used  is  recognizable  by  the  intellect  at  the  moment:  cases  are 
not  wanting  in  which  such  truth  has  been  flowing  into  conscious- 
ness for  long  periods,  or  is  recalled  to  the  conscience  long  after  it 
had  once  been  seen  by  the  reason,  but  in  some  blessed  hour  is 
brought  again  into  the  range  of  the  moral  vision,  convincing  and 
convicting  the  sinner,  and  through  the  endowing  persuasives  and 
influence  of  the  Spirit  as  an  agent,  turning  him  away  from  sin  to 
duty  and  to  God. 

There  is  indeed  an  intrinsic  potency  in  the  cardinal  truths  of 
our  holy  religion,  which  enables  them  of  themselves  to  interest, 
to  convince,  to  command  and  subdue  those  who  candidly  hear  and 
appreciate  them,  and  on  which  those  who  proclaim  these  truths 
may  always  rely  in  happy  assurance.  While  they  sometimes 
appear  to  the  wise  and  noble  as  foolishness,  and  are  sometimes 
despised  by  the  wisdom  of  this  world  and  its  representatives,  they 
are  still  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the  power  of  God, — intrinsically 
mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds,  and  to  the  awakening 
and  salvation  of  men.  The  blessed  doctrines  of  our  faith  are  not 
trivialities,  void  of  power  to  educate  or  to  persuade.  They  are, 
rather,  potential  verities  which  have  stood  the  tests  of  ages  and 


OTHER    INSTRUMENTALITIES.  435 

the  severest  storms  of  criticism  and  unbelief,  and  are  steadily 
growing  in  the  acceptation  of  mankind  because  of  their  demon- 
strated truthfulness  and  value.  As  all  men  know,  it  was  this 
intrinsic  potency  of  evangelical  truth  on  which  Luther  and  his 
compeers  and  disciples  relied,  as  really  as  on  the  aid  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  in  their  fierce  battles  with  papal  error.  The  Bible  as  a 
true  book,  a  book  full  of  clear,  strong,  commanding  and  saving 
truth,  infinitely  above  the  testimonies  of  tradition  and  the  teachings 
of  the  church  and  her  priesthood, — this  was  the  foundation  alike 
of  their  individual  belief,  and  of  their  assurance  of  success  in  their 
severe  conflict.  A  kindred  conviction  that  the  truth  revealed  by 
the  Spirit  in  the  Scriptures  has  inherent,  if  not  irresistible,  efficacy 
in  the  moral  renovation  of  the  race,  stood  at  the  basis  of  all  the 
teachings  of  Calvin,  and  of  those  who  followed  him  in  the  Reformed 
churches.  Our  doctrine,  he  said  in  the  Dedication  of  his  Insti- 
tutes to  his  most  Christian  Majesty,  Francis,  the  French  king, 
must  stand  exalted  above  all  the  glory  and  invincible  by  all  the 
powers  of  the  world,  because  it  is  not  ours,  but  the  doctrine  of 
the  living  God,  and  of  his  Christ.  The  Westminster  divines  were 
possessed  by  this  conviction:  they  believed  past  all  questioning  in 
the  magnitude,  the  value,  the  spiritual  potency  of  the  system  of 
truth  which  they  had  derived  from  the  Bible  and  which  they  con- 
fidently presented  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  Isles,  and  indeed 
to  all  Christendom,  as  the  mighty  and  precious  instrument  whereby 
the  regenerating  Spirit  illuminates  and  saves. 

But  when  to  such  intrinsic  potency  there  is  added  the  personality 
of  that  Spirit,  and  the  inward  impact  and  influence  of  his  inflow- 
ing and  indwelling  grace  within  the  soul  of  the  hearer,  how  much 
more  mighty  and  more  difficult  to  resist  does  that  truth  become  ! 
It  is  then  indeed  the  strongest  of  all  conceivable  spiritual  forces, 
more  effective  in  its  call  than  all  the  deductions  of  reason  or  of 
human  philosophy,  and  infinitely  more  competent  not  only  to 
convince  and  persuade,  but  also  to  save  a  blinded,  skeptical, 
perishing  world.  Such  is  the  continuous  witness  of  the  New 
Testament  as  well  as  of  Protestant  symbolism  to  the  power  of 
Gospel  truth  when  wielded  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  they  are  indeed 
incompetent  and  unworthy  representatives  of  the  Gospel  or  of 
Protestantism  who  fail  to  appreciate  this  witness,  or  to  live  and 
act  under  its  inspirations.  But  we  should  add  to  this  the  kindred 
instrumentality  of  the  sacraments  and  ordinances  of  our  holy 
religion,  the  agencies  of  the  church  and  its  membership,  the  power 
of  prayer  and  praise  and  godly  living,  and  also  the  providential 
dealings  of  God  with  men  in  prosperity  and  in  their  adversity, — 


436  THE   PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

all  which  the  Hoi}7  Ghost  in  boundlessly  diversified  forms  utilizes 
in  regenerating  and  converting  men.  The  Symbols  are  indeed 
careful  to  avoid,  for  illustration,  the  dogma  of  baptismal  regen- 
eration, in  the  case  either  of  adults  or  of  infants.  The  Confession 
affirms  (Chap.  XXVIII :  v-vi)  that  grace  and  salvation  are  not 
inseparably  annexed  to  the  sacrament  of  baptism, — that  though  in 
the  case  of  infants  regeneration  may  occur  in  conjunction  with 
that  ordinance,  yet  the  two  are  not  tied  together, — that  the  child 
may  have  been  regenerate  as  Samuel  was  even  from  birth,  or  that 
regenerative  grace  may  be  bestowed  upon  it  long  afterward,  as  a 
final  reward  of  parental  faith  and  consecration.  It  denies  that  the 
reception  of  the  sacrament  is  essential  to  salvatio?i,  and  forbids  us 
to  think  that  all  baptized  persons  are  also  regenerate.  In  a  similar 
manner  the  Confession  guards,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  against 
false  views  of  the  relation  between  the  sacrament  of  the  Supper 
and  the  regeneration  of  those  partaking  of  that  solemn  feast  of 
commemoration,  and  also  against  all  notion  that  the  mere  hearing 
of  the  word  preached,  or  the  public  profession  of  faith,  or  partici- 
pation in  the  activities  of  the  church,  or  other  like  external  acts, 
are  any  substitute  for  regeneration,  or  are  decisive  signs  that  those 
who  thus  adhere  to  Christianity  in  an  outward  and  formal  sense 
are  really  born  again. 

Yet  it  is  a  precious  truth  often  verified  in  experience,  that  the 
Spirit  uses  all  these  Christian  institutions  and  ordinances,  and  also> 
in  many  cases  the  providences  of  God  both  favorable  and  afflictive, 
as  his  instruments  and  helps  in  bringing  sinners  to  conversion  and 
the  renewed  life  in  Christ.  The  manner  in  which  he  uses  and 
applies  them  may  vary  widely,  as  the  instrumentalities  are  widely 
varied.  Nor  are  we  to  suppose  that  the  process  of  salvation  is 
always  the  same  in  its  incidents  and  conditions,  though  the  result 
be  always  one  and  the  same.  There  is  as  large  a  variety  of  aspect 
in  converted  souls  as  we  see  in  the  natural  countenances  of  men. 
The  specific  products  of  grace  are  as  various  as  the  instruments 
and  agencies  employed; — these  instruments  and  agencies  being  in 
each  case  so  adjusted  and  conjoined  as  to  bring  about  most  effect- 
ually the  end  sought  in  the  gracious  call.  But  over  and  above  all 
we  are  to  discern  always  the  transcendent  truth  of  truths  that, 
amid  this  immeasurable  diversity  of  gifts  and  operations  and 
result,  there  is  but  the  one  gracious  Spirit,  dividing  to  every  man 
severally  as  he  will. 

The  chapter  in  the  Confession  (XI),  following  that  which  has 
just  been  considered,   treats  of  the  great  truth  which  was  the 


JUSTIFICATION    DEFINED.  I .'57 

watchword  on  the  banners  of  the  Reformation,  and  which  must 

ever  be  esteemed  as  central  in  any  creed  or  system  that  merits  the 

name  of  Christian — the  truth  of  Justifi- 

..      ■,    c       ^j       j  -.•    i        .-.  ,  10.   Justification  defined : 

cation  before  God  and  his  law  through     ^  ^^  ^  ^^  ^ 

faith  in  Christ  only.      This  was  the 

keynote  in  Protestant  symbolism  from  the  beginning ;  it  has 
been  the  supreme  doctrine  in  all  Protestant  theology  from  the  Loci 
Commu?ies  of  Melancthon  down  to  our  own  time.  The  years  of 
labor  spent  by  the  Roman  ecclesiastics  at  Trent  in  the  fabrication 
of  their  astute  exposition  of  the  doctrine,  show  how  fully  they 
were  agreed  with  Luther  as  to  the  vital  significance  of  the  ques- 
tion, How  can  man  be  just  or  justified  before  God  ?  The  answer 
of  Luther  to  that  question  was  the  point  of  final  rupture  between 
him  and  the  corrupted  church  whose  false  and  delusive  answers 
were  alike  destructive  to  faith  and  ruinous  to  the  souls  of  men. 
Here  the  Reformers,  notwithstanding  all  their  differences  as  to  the 
sacraments  and  ecclesiastical  organization  and  the  like,  stood 
together  as  one  man,  as  Luther  had  stood  even  alone  at  the  famous 
Diet  at  Worms.  Justification,  not  in  the  estimation  of  the  priest- 
hood or  before  the  church,  but  before  God  and  in  the  presence  of 
his  holy  law — justification  by  faith,  not  through  works  or  sacrifices 
ecclesiastically  imposed, — justification  by  faith  in  Christ  directly, 
not  through  the  church  or  the  hierarchy  as  media, — justification  by 
faith  in  Christ  as  the  divinely  appointed  Mediator,  the  only  prophet 
and  priest  and  king  of  his  believing  people,  and  in  what  he  had 
done  and  suffered  from  Bethlehem  to  Calvary  and  the  Mount  of 
Olives; — this  was  the  truth  which  all  alike  held  to  be  fundamental 
in  the  Christian  scheme,  and  to  which  they  committed  themselves 
for  time  and  for  eternity.  And  it  was  the  happy  privilege  of  the 
divines  of  Westminster  to  gather  up  reverently  all  that  Luther  and 
Calvin  and  others  had  formulated  and  affirmed  touching  this  vital 
doctrine,  and  both  to  give  to  that  doctrine  the  completest  practi- 
cable expression,  and  to  set  it  as  they  did  when  thus  expressed  in 
the  very  center  of  their  noble  system. 

It  seems  at  first  glance  like  an  unmethodical  return  from  the 
subject  of  effectual  calling  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  with  its  con- 
sequent regeneration  and  conversion,  to  the  objective  work  of 
Christ  the  Son,  as  already  described  in  the  comprehensive  chapter 
(VIII)  on  his  mediation.  But  it  should  be  remembered  that  we 
are  contemplating  still,  on  the  divine  side  of  it,  what  has  been 
described  as  the  one  and  single  process  of  salvation,  and  that  in 
that  one  process  both  Spirit  and  Son  are  ever  conjoined  ;  the  Son 
furnishing:  the  broad  and  solid  foundation  on  which  alone  salvation 


438  THE   PROCESS  OF  SALVATION. 

and  reconciliation  with  God  become  possible;  the  Spirit  moving 
upon  the  heart  of  the  world,  and  effectually  calling  sinners  to 
accept  and  enjoy  the  salvation  thus  divinely  provided.  While 
in  our  analysis,  and  for  the  purpose  of  logical  exposition,  we 
may  contemplate  regeneration  by  the  Spirit  and  justification 
through  the  Son  as  separate,  yet  a  deeper  unity  is  apparent 
which  makes  both  of  these  aspects  of  salvation  correlated  parts  of 
the  one  grand  process.  For  in  reality  none  but  regenerate  per- 
sons are  justified  before  God  and  none  but  justified  persons  are 
regenerated.  Nor  can  we  say  that  in  fact  the  one  perceptibly 
precedes  the  other  in  time,  though  in  the  order  of  thought  we  nat- 
urally follow  the  method  of  the  Westminster  divines  in  placing  the 
inward  experience  of  grace  before  the  outward  reception  of  the 
blessings  which  grace  bestows.  An  illustration  may  be  found  in 
Calvin,  (Inst.  B.  111:1-10)  where  not  only  regeneration  but  faith 
and  repentance,  and  the  Christian  life  are  considered,  before  the 
doctrine  of  justification  is  introduced.  In  other  words,  it  is 
easier  to  think  of  the  soul  as  first  regenerated  and  converted,  and 
then  pardoned  and  accepted  before  God  as  righteous  in  virtue  of 
the  redemption  from  guilt  and  condemnation  which  the  atoning 
work  of  Christ  has  provided.  But  whatever  the  order,  the  pro- 
cess is  but  one:  regeneration  and  justification  are  the  two  foci  in 
the  ellipse:  salvation  fills  all  the  space  with  its  supernal  glory. 

The  Shorter  Catechism  (33)  furnishes  an  adequate  and  admirable 
definition  of  justification  as  an  act  of  God's  free  grace  wherein  he 
pardoiieth  all  our  sins  and  accepteth  us  as  righteous  in  his  sight, 
only  for  the  righteousness  of  Christ  imputed  to  us  and  received  by 
faith  alo?ie.  In  the  Larger  Catechism  (70-73)  the  definition  is 
considerably  expanded;  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  emphasizing  the 
freeness  of  the  grace  that  justifies,  and  the  nature  and  operation 
of  the  faith  which  is  required  of  man  as  a  condition.  The  Con- 
fession (XI:iii-iv)  repeats  much  that  had  been  already  stated  in 
the  chapter  on  Mediation  respecting  the  proper,  real  a?idfull  salisr 
faction  provided  in  Christ,  and  the  relation  of  the  whole  process 
to  the  eternal  decree  and  purpose  to  justify  all  the  elect,  together 
with  a  statement  respecting  the  relations  between  justification 
and  forgiveness.  We  may  profitably  distribute  these  correlated 
definitions  into  the  following  particulars: 

First:  justification  is  as  much  a  divine  procedure  as  regenera- 
tion: it  is  God  the  Father  who  justifies  in  virtue  of  the  mediation 
of  God  the  Son,  as  it  is  God  the  Spirit  who  effectually  calls  the 
sinner  to  the  acceptance  of  such  justification,  and  thus  induces 
conversion  and  the  new  life  in  Christ. 


ELEMENTS    OF    JUSTIFICATION.  439 

Secondly:  justification  is  an  act,  single  and  immediate,  while 
effectual  calling  and  sanctification  are  described  as  works — works 
requiring  time.  In  a  word,  the  soul  repentant  and  believing  is 
justified  instantly,  and  once  for  all, — remains  in  the  justified  state 
henceforth.  The  justifying  act  is  not  conditional, — postponed, 
as  the  Council  of  Trent  affirmed,  until  sanctification  is  completed 
at  the  end  of  life,  but  as  a  judicial  procedure  transpires  at  the  very 
beginning  of  that  life,  and  needs  no  repetition. 

Thirdly:  justification  is  an  act  of  free  grace,  not  an  act  which 
man  by  virtue  of  inherent  righteousness  or  goodness  can  justly 
claim,  or  one  which  man  can  deserve  as  a  reward  of  conversion 
or  of  evangelical  obedience,  but  simply  an  expression  of  free  or 
unconstrained  and  unmerited  love  on  the  part  of  God. 

Fourthly:  the  sole  basis  of  this  justifying  act  is  found  in  what 
is  termed  the  righteousness,  or  as  in  the  Larger  Catechism,  the  per- 
fect obedience  and  fill  satisfaction  oi  Christ;  a  satisfaction  proper 
and  real  and  complete,  rendered  according  to  the  Confession  to 
the  divine  justice — in  other  words,  in  the  gracious  mediation  of 
the  Immanuel,  and  in  this  only. 

Fifthly:  this  satisfying  act  on  the  part  of  Christ,  which  is  the 
sole  ground  of  justification,  is  set  forth  in  the  Symbols,  as  in  the 
Protestant  symbolism  generally,  as  a  judicial  procedure,  a  trans- 
action at  the  bar  of  divine  government,  as  the  word,  imputation, 
implies — an  objective  and  formal  act,  as  distinct  from  the  subjec- 
tive act  or  work  of  regeneration. 

Sixthly:  the  satisfaction  to  divine  justice  thus  provided  by  the 
mediation  of  Christ  does  not  of  itself  justify,  but  must  be  appro- 
priated by  the  human  person  under  the  persuasives  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  be  received  by  faith  only — through  the  trustful  and 
unreserved  commitment  of  the  soul  to  this  as  the  only  and  the 
perfect  ground  of  its  acceptance  with  God. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  human  side  of  the  process  of 
salvation,  it  will  become  needful  to  define  more  exactly  the  nature 
and  operation  of  justifying  faith,  as  one  of  these  elements  in  the 
general  doctrine  of  justification.  What  has  been  said  already 
respecting  the  imputation  of  the  sin  of  our  first  parents  to  the 
whole  race  as  being  inseparably  conjoined  with  them  under  a 
divine  constitution  of  things;  and  also  respecting  the  imputation 
of  the  sin  of  the  race,  or  of  the  elect,  to  Christ  as  their  appointed 
representative  under  divine  law,  sufficiently  explains  the  use  of  the 
term  here — the  righteousness  of  Christ  imputed  to  us — as  descrip- 
tive simply  of  the  fact  that  believers  are  treated  at  the  bar  of 
divine  justice  as  they  could  not  be  treated  in  and  of  themselves, 


44)  THE   PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

in  virtue  of  the  relationship  and  union  established  through 
faith  with  Christ  as  their  only  and  sufficient  Redeemer.  In  this 
instance  it  should  be  noted  that  the  conception  of  a  forensic  pro- 
cedure which  the  term  suggests,  is  Pauline  only,  and  that  in  the 
Revised  Version  the  less  rigid  term,  reckon,  evidently  commercial 
or  social  rather  than  judicial,  is  used  as  a  more  exact  translation 
of  the  original  word.  In  the  Confession  (XI)  and  in  the  Larger 
Catechism  (70)  the  cognate  terms,  accounting,  accounteth,  are  used 
as  nearly  synonymous  with  the  word,  impute.  At  the  same  time 
the  more  positively  legal  term  has  figured  so  largely  in  the  Prot- 
estant and  especially  in  Calvinistic  theologies,  and  is  so  promi- 
nently used  in  the  Symbols,  that  we  may  properly  avail  ourselves 
of  it  as  at  least  a  helpful  image  or  illustration  in  setting  forth 
that  divine  act  of  grace  exhibited  in  the  formal  justification  of  all 
believers  with  God  through  Christ.  It  should  also  be  noted  at 
this  point,  that  while  there  is  substantial  unanimity  of  belief 
among  all  schools  of  Protestantism  as  to  the  six  points  or  elements 
of  the  doctrine  just  named,  considerable  variety  of  opinion  has 
been  apparent,  especially  among  the  later  expounders  of  the  doc- 
trine, as  to  certain  specific  problems  involved  in  them; — as  for 
example,  whether  the  satisfaction  rendered  by  Christ  to  law  and 
justice  was  provided  by  his  passive  obedience,  his  vicarious  suf- 
ferings and  death  only,  or  by  his  comprehensive  obedience,  active 
as  well  as  passive,  exhibited  throughout  his  mediatorial  career. 

Recognizing  thus  the  general  doctrine  of  justification,  as  to  its 
nature,  its  source  in  divine  grace,  its  ground  in  the  mediatorial 

satisfaction  of  Christ,  and  the  condi- 
11.    Elements  of  justiflca-    tion  of  its  acceptance    we  may  now 

tion :  pardon  and  acceptance.  •■»...  -r-       , 

pass  to  consider  its  two  specific  ele- 
ments, as  given  in  the  catechetic  definitions,  pardon  of  all  our  sins, 
and  accepting  us,  or  our  persons,  as  righteous  in  the  sight  of  God. 
The  Sec.  Helv.  Conf .  says  that  according  to  the  apostolic  definition, 
justification  signifies,  to  remit  or  pardon  sin,  to  absolve  from  guilt 
and  penalty,  to  receive  into  favor,  and  to  pronounce  just  or  right- 
eous. All  these  elements  are  properly  included  in  the  two  terms, 
pardon  and  acceptance.  These  may  now  be  considered  in  the 
order  given: 

Pardon  and  forgiveness  are  correlated,  though  not  exactly 
synonymous  terms:  forgiveness  pointing  rather  to  the  inward  dis- 
position or  willingness  to  overlook,  the  temper  of  reconciliation,  as 
we  contrast  it  with  the  temper  of  alienation  or  the  desire  or  pur- 
pose to  inflict  penalty  due:  pardon  relating  rather  to  the  act  of 
forgiving  or  overlooking  an  offense  or    transgression.      With 


PARDON  :  GROUND  AND  EXTENT.  441 

reference  to  this  inward  disposition,  the  Confession,  even  amid  its 
solemn  recognition  of  the  justice,  the  sovereignty,  the  holy  wrath 
of  Deity  against  all  transgression,  describes  God,  in  language 
often  unnoticed  (II  :i),  as  most  loving,  gracious,  merciful ;  long- 
suffering,  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth  ;  forgiving  iniquity, 
transgression  and  sin.  It  is  said  (VII  :  iii)  that  in  view  of  the  fall 
of  man,  God  was  pleased  to  make  a  second  covenant,  in  which  he 
freely  offers  life  and  salvation  to  men — the  offer  springing  directl3r 
from  his  fatherly  desire  that  sinners  should  be  reconciled  with  him 
on  the  ground  that  he  is  already  reconciled  toward  them.  It 
should  be  borne  in  mind  here  as  in  some  other  connections  that 
the  word,  pleasure,  and  its  derivatives,  is  not  used  in  the  Symbols 
in  the  current  sense  of  our  time,  but  in  the  regal  and  majestic 
sense,  as  descriptive  of  the  purpose  and  mandate  of  a  sovereign. 
So  our  Lord  in  many  a  parable,  and  in  aphorisms  and  direct  affirm- 
ations, continually  represents  God  as  cherishing  this  inward  tem- 
per of  forgiveness,  this  parental  longing  to  draw  sinful  men  back 
to  his  embrace,  and  to  grant  them  a  free  and  abundant  salvation. 
Surely  they  greatly  misapprehend  alike  the  nature  of  God  and 
the  character  of  the  Gospel,  who  fail  to  recognize  this  temper  of 
forgiveness,  this  holy  mood  of  reconciliation,  as  underlying  the 
entire  scheme  of  grace.  It  is  of  course  a  mistake  of  equal  serious- 
ness to  fancy  that  this  scheme  is  a  product  of  love  only,  apart 
from  what  justice  demands  in  such  a  transaction:  God  must  be 
just  as  well  as  merciful  in  the  forgiving  of  sin. 

The  act  of  pardon,  which  is  the  outward  expression  of  this 
divine  feeling  and  purpose,  is  the  first  step  in  actual  justification. 
He  pardoncth  all  otir  sins :  in  other  words,  he  obliterates  the 
record  and  memory  of  them,  and  no  longer  counts  them  as  offenses 
committed  against  him.  It  is  not  the  overlooking  of  some  notable 
sins,  or  of  this  or  that  overt  act,  or  of  minor  transgressions  only, 
or  wicked  impulses  which  fail  to  eventuate  in  action,  but  of  all 
sins  that  have  been  or  are  or  ever  may  be  committed:  for  we  are 
taught  (XI  :  v)  that  God  doth  continue  to  forgive  the  sins  of  those 
that  are  justified.  In  the  analysis  of  the  fifth  petition  in  the 
prayer  taught  us  by  Christ  (L.  C.  194:  S.  C.  105)  such  complete 
and  free  forgiveness  on  the  part  of  God  is  recognized  as  the  fun- 
damental gift  of  grace.  In  a  word,  the  Gospel  is  throughout  a 
scheme  of  pardon,  instantly  granted  in  and  with  regeneration,  and 
freely  bestowed  in  all  its  fullness  on  every  one  for  whom  Christ 
in  his  gracious  mediation  intercedes. 

The  Symbols  are  careful  to  guard  against  the  impression  that 
*yood  works,  even  the  good  works  of  justified  men,  are  in  any 


442  THE    PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

way  the  ground  of  such  abundant  pardon:  since  (XVI:iii)  their 
ability  to  do  good  works  is  not  at  all  of  themselves,  but  wholly  from 
the  Spirit  of  Christ.  They  tell  us  (XV:iii)  that  even  repentance 
is  not  to  be  rested  in  as  any  satisfaction  for  sin,  or  a?iy  cause  of 
the  pardon  thereof  The  cause  and  ground  of  forgiveness  are  the 
cause  and  ground  of  justification:  only  for  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  imputed  or  reckoned  unto  us,  and  received  by  faith  alone. 
Such  propositions  forever  preclude  the  delusive  notion  that,  since 
God  is  merciful  and  gracious,  ever  ready  to  forgive,  men  may  sim- 
ply cast  themselves  upon  his  grace,  without  the  introducing  me- 
diation of  Christ.  Pardon,  with  implied  permission  to  continue  in 
sin,  or  pardon  on  any  other  ground  than  that  which  he  had  himself 
provided  and  offered  to  men  in  the  Gospel,  would  be  an  act  un- 
worthy of  God.  If  he  could  thus  overlook  human  transgression, 
and  consent  to  see  sinners  going  on  without  reformation  or 
restraint  or  in  the  rejection  of  his  published  offer,  his  mercifulness 
would  be  a  blemish  rather  than  a  perfection;  and  his  administra- 
tion, having  in  it  no  reference  to  the  conversion  as  well  as  pardon 
of  sinners,  would  become  an  awful  mystery,  such  as  would  leave 
the  sinful  race  of  man  without  hope. 

It  has  been  held  by  some  Protestant  theologians  that  the  par- 
don here  contemplated  is  not  the  initial  part  merely,  but  the  whole 
of  justification.  The  pardoned  sinner,  it  is  said,  is  a  justified 
and  therefore  a  saved  man.  But  a  much  broader  and  deeper  con- 
ception is  conveyed  to  us  in  the  added  phrase  of  the  definition — 
accepteth  us  (or  our  persons)  as  righteous  i?i  his  sight:  accepteth 
and  accounteth,  as  it  is  in  the  Larger  Catechism  and  Confession. 
Back  of  the  question,  what  shall  be  done  concerning  the  sins,  lies 
the  far  greater  question,  what  shall  be  done  with  the  sinner? 
Back  of  his  particular  acts  overt  and  his  secret  impulses  toward 
evil,  stands  the  man  himself,  with  the  deep  roots  of  evil  pene- 
trating his  moral  nature  throughout,  and  making  him  offensive  in 
the  sight  even  of  a  forgiving  God.  The  person  is  behind  the 
transgression — the  sinful  man  behind  his  acts:  and  the  certainty  is 
that,  even  if  he  were  once  pardoned,  his  proneness  to  sin  would 
only  lead  him  on  to  further  evil,  and  so  continually.  It  is  there- 
fore incumbent  upon  God,  in  the  application  of  the  scheme  of 
grace,  to  provide  for  the  treatment  of  such  a  person, — to  do  what  is 
needful  to  save  the  sinner,  as  well  as  to  blot  out  the  record  of  his 
offenses.  In  other  words,  it  becomes  necessary  to  accept  the  sin- 
ner personally,  corrupt  as  he  still  may  be,  and  to  regard  and  treat 
him  as  if  he  were  a  righteous  person — as  if  he  had  never  trans- 
gressed.    Without  this  further  step,  there  could  be  no  adequate 


ACCEPTANCE :  NATURE  AND  GROUND.  443 

justification,  and  therefore  no  sufficient  salvation.  Pardon  must 
draw  such  acceptance  after  it,  in  order  to  be  true  and  effectual 
pardon:  regeneration  must  include  this,  else  regeneration  would 
not  save:  the  converted  man  must  be  accepted  just  as  he  is,  if  the 
reconciliation  is  to  be  complete  and  sufficient:  his  salvation  must 
carry  with  it  the  treatment  of  him  henceforth  as  righteous,  all 
unworthy  though  he  is;  and  nothing  but  his  union  with  Christ 
through  faith  can  render  him  worthy  of  such  cordial  acceptation 
before  the  throne  of  the  Father. 

This  in  a  word  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Symbols;  that  God  by  his 
Spirit  does  not  infuse  righteousness  into  regenerate  souls  in  such  a 
way  and  measure  as  to  make  them  instantly  and  forever  holy;  — 
that  he  does  not  treat  them  as  holy  by  imputing  faith  to  them,  or 
the  act  of  believing,  or  evangelical  obedience  in  any  form:  but  that 
he  accounts  and  treats  them  as  if  holy,  in  virtue  of  their  union  with 
Christ  established  through  faith.  It  is  indeed  a  large  and  strange 
conception  that  the  persons  of  sinful  men,  while  still  animated  in 
a  measure  by  the  impulsions  of  sin,  should  be  regarded  by  God  as 
angels  are,  and  even  as  Christ  himself  is — as  though  they  were  as 
holy,  harmless,  undefiled  as  their  Redeemer.  Yet  such  is  the 
doctrine  of  acceptance,  as  elaborated  by  the  divines  of  Westmin- 
ster, and  as  held  in  substance  by  the  Reformers  generally.  We 
turn  to  the  creeds  for  abundant  evidence  of  this  fact.  Freely 
received  with  favor,  and  their  sins  forgiven,  is  the  terse  statement 
of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  For  the  sake  of  the  righteousness 
and  obedience  of  Christ  we  are  received  by  God,  and  accounted 
righteous,  testifies  the  Formula  of  Concord.  For  his  sake,  God 
is  reconciled,  and  imputes  to  us  not  our  sins,  but  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  as  our  own,  affirms  the  Second  Helvetic  Confes- 
sion; and  the  First  agrees  with  it  in  substance.  It  behooves  us, 
says  the  old  Scotch  Confession,  to  apprehend  Jesus  Christ  with  his 
justice  and  satisfaction,  which  is  the  end  and  accomplishment  of 
the  law,  by  whom  we  are  set  at  this  liberty  that  the  curse 
and  malediction  of  God  fall  not  upon  us.  And  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles,  in  language  repeated  in  the  Irish  Articles,  respond 
heartily  in  the  declaration :  We  are  accounted  righteous  before  God 
only  for  the  merits  of  our  L,ord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ  by  faith, 
and  not  for  our  own  works  or  deservings.*     Thus  throughout 

*In  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge,  the  doctrine  is  quaintly  presented  in 
its  most  objective  type  not  without  some  doubtful  features,  in  the  statement 
that  it  is  agreed  betwixt  God  and  the  Mediator,  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  surety  for  the  redeemed,  as  parties  contractors,  that  the  sins  of  the 


444  THE    PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

the  Protestant  formularies  we  find  that,  while  few  of  them  draw 
any  broad  line  of  distinction  between  the  acts  and  the  person 
acting,  such  as  the  Symbols  show,  they  are  agreed  in  emphasiz- 
ing that  high  and  cardinal  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in 
Christ  only  through  both  pardon  and  acceptance,  which  Luther 
declared  to  be  the  articula  vel  stantis  vcl  cadentis  ecclesiae. 

Summing  up  at  this  point  all  that  has  been  said,  we  may  discern 
in  justification,  as  including  both  pardon  and  acceptance  as  now 
defined,  a  change  of  estate,  of  condition  and  relationship,  cor- 
responding to  that  interior  change  wrought  in  regeneration  as  the 
inducing  cause  of  conversion  and  of  spiritual  life  within  the  soul. 
The  justified  man  passes  decisively  from  his  old  estate  by  nature 
into  the  new  estate  of  grace.  His  former  sins  are  now  as  com- 
pletely blotted  out  from  the  divine  records  as  if  they  had  never 
occurred,  and  he  is  assured  that  for  every  future  sin  into  which  he 
may  fall,  like  forgiveness  is  assured.  He  is  no  longer  a  convicted 
criminal  before  the  divine  law,  but  goes  forth  from  the  tribunal 
of  God,  not  indeed  an  innocent,  but  a  forgiven  and  restored  man. 
He  is  not  now  a  rebel,  but  an  accepted  and  loyal  subject  of  the 
divine  government.  Justice  no  longer  arraigns  him,  but  freely 
absolves  him  for  every  offense  against  its  holy  majesty.  In  a 
word,  God  is  reconciled  with  him,  and  he  is  reconciled  to  God  : 
he  is  persona  grata  in  the  court  of  heaven,  and  is  not  only  treated 
now  as  a  righteous  person,  but  will  be  so  regarded  and  treated 
henceforth  forever.  Formally  received  into  the  divine  favor, 
restored  to  the  place  which  through  sin  he  had  forfeited,  he  is 
invested  anew  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  appertaining  to 
his  new  relationship.  He  is  now  set  in  an  estate  of  grace  as  posi- 
tive and  comprehensive  as  was  his  original  estate  of  nature,  and 
in  that  blessed  estate,  provided  for  him  through  the  mediation  of 
the  Son  of  God,  he  will  abide  eternally. 

Such  briefly  outlined  is  that  doctrine  of  justification  on  which 
Luther  and  Calvin  and  the  Reformers  universally  laid  such  stress 

as  the  most  central  and  vital  tenet  of 
12.    Theories  of  Justiflca-  ,  A        ,  .  ,    A1      „. 

tlon:  Historic  sketch.  Srace>  and  to  whlch  the  Westminster 

divines  gave  such  marked  prominence 
in  their  theological  system.  It  might  be  expected  that  such  a 
doctrine  would  for  many  reasons  meet  with  intense  opposition, 

redeemed  should  be  imputed  to  innocent  Christ,  and  he  both  condemned  and 
put  to  death  for  them,  upon  this  very  condition  that  whosoever  heartily  con- 
sents unto  the  covenant  of  reconciliation  offered  through  Christ,  should  by 
the  imputation  of  his  obedience  unto  them,  be  justified  and  holden  righteous 
before  God. 


THEORIES    OF   JUSTIFICATION.  445 

not  from  Rome  only,  but  from  unbelief  in  its  various  forms;  and 
that  in  process  of  time  antagonistic  theories  would  arise  within  the 
boundaries  of  nominal  Christendom,  proposing  to  answer  in  some 
other  way  the  momentous  question,  How  shall  man  be  justified 
before  God.  A  brief  glance  at  these  theories  may  serve  to  deepen 
our  conviction  that  the  answer  of  evangelical  Protestantism  is  the 
only  answer  which  either  Scripture  or  sound  ethical  philosophy 
can  approve.  Such  a  survey  is  of  special  moment  just  at  present, 
when  in  various  forms  the  evangelical  statement  is  not  only  called 
in  question,  but  openly  pronounced  a  theologic  fiction  unworthy 
of  intelligent  credence. 

The  most  frequent  type  of  such  antagonism  is  that  which  rests 
on  the  assumption  that  mankind  are  not  sinful,  or  that  sin  is  only 
an  incidental  and  trivial  element  in  human  experience;  and  which 
consequently  affirms  that  no  formal  justification  before  God  and 
his  law  is  necessary  to  the  removal  of  sinfulness  or  guilt.  Close 
to  this  lies  the  hypothesis  that,  although  mankind  may  be  in  a 
deeper  sense  sinful,  this  sinfulness  is  more  than  offset  by  the 
righteousness  still  inherent  in  human  nature  and  manifested  in 
human  life;  and  that  God  may  therefore  equitably  overlook  or 
condone  the  former  fact  in  view  of  the  latter  as  compensatory.  It 
is  further  alleged  that,  although  mankind  are  thus  positively  sin- 
ful, God  is  too  merciful  to  punish  such  sinfulness  or  to  require  any 
expiation  for  it;  and  that,  if  inherent  righteousness  be  not  suf- 
ficient, confession  and  repentance,  and  obedience  in  the  future, 
will  surely  satisfy  his  claim  and  secure  complete  pardon.  It  is  also 
objected  that  the  entire  conception  of  law  and  government,  admin- 
istered on  the  principles  of  strict  justice,  and  enforced  by  retrib- 
utive sovereignty,  is  really  unwarranted  ;  and  that  God  deals 
with  mankind  rather  on  the  basis  of  fatherhood,  and  as  a  Father 
is  carrying  forward  among  men  a  system  of  training  and  culture, 
in  which  even  the  agency  of  sin  is  included,  and  by  which  the  race 
will  be  developed  finally  into  such  a  state  of  intrinsic  justification 
and  of  true  holiness  as  will  be  acceptable  with  him.  It  is  still 
further  alleged  that,  if  any  more  formal  process  of  justification  is 
in  fact  needed,  the  method  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures  and  embodied 
in  evangelical  symbolism,  is  open  at  many  points  to  irresistible 
objection,  and  must  be  set  aside  as  a  theologic  abstraction; — the 
solution  of  the  problem  being  either  sought  elsewhere  or  pro- 
nounced unattainable. 

Another  type  of  objection  may  be  seen  in  the  affirmation  that 
atonement  or  expiation  for  sin,  or  the  removal  by  any  method  of 
the  penalty  due  to  sin,  is  in  the  nature  of  things  impracticable; — 


446  THE   PROCESS    OF    SALVATION. 

that  nature  itself  teaches  that  he  who  sins  must  by  an  inevitable 
law  of  existence  suffer  the  punitive  consequences  of  his  act,— 
that  the  human  conscience  and  sense  of  right  forbid  the  waiving 
of  such  an  issue,  whether  b)^  laying  the  guilt  of  personal  wrong- 
doing upon  another,  or  by  any  other  conceivable  process, — and 
that  God  himself  cannot  equitably  attempt  to  prevent  the  rightful 
application  of  his  own  penal  law,  or  in  justice  to  himself  or  to  the 
moral  universe  let  the  sinner  go  unpunished.  A  still  darker  form 
of  objection  casts  the  full  responsibility  for  the  existence  and  effect 
of  sin  upon  God  who,  it  is  said,  has  set  up  a  system  of  things  in 
which,  man  being  such  as  God  has  made  him,  sin  is  not  only 
natural  but  inevitable,  and  for  which  therefore  man  is  not  account- 
able, and  ought  neither  to  be  punished  nor  required  to  provide  or 
acquiesce  in  any  method  of  expiation: — God  being  in  fact  the 
author  and  in  some,  sense  the  approver  of  sin,  and  therefore  being 
obligated  to  justify  himself  to  himself,  rather  than  to  require  any 
justification  for  or  from  man  as  his  creature.  Kindred  to  this  is 
the  thoroughly  agnostic  position,  which  not  only  sets  aside  both 
the  plan  of  justification  proposed  in  the  Scriptures,  and  all  other 
schemes  whether  incorporated  in  the  natural  faiths  of  the  world, 
or  proposed  as  deductions  of  the  natural  reason,  but  also  pro- 
nounces the  great  question,  How  shall  man  be  just  with  God, 
wholly  unanswerable  in  the  present  life,  and  therefore  an  unfit 
matter  for  human  speculation  or  research. 

The  story  of  the  answer  of  Christianity  to  these  and  all  kindred 
varieties  of  doubt  or  unbelief  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  chap- 
ters in  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine.  It  begins  with  the 
witness  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  truth  that  God,  even  from 
the  event  of  the  Fall,  was  gradually  unfolding  to  the  patriarchal 
world  his  method  of  expiating  human  sin,  and  of  restoring  the 
fallen  race  to  a  state  of  pardon  and  acceptance  with  him.  Pro- 
vision for  the  justification  of  sinners  through  faith  in  a  promised 
Savior — as  another  (Buchanan)  has  said — runs  through  the  whole 
course  of  the  Jewish  dispensation;  and  the  songs  of  faith  fall  on 
our  ears  like  a  chorus  of  sweet  music,  as  the  Jewish  Church  was 
ready  to  vanish  away.  The  precious  truth  retained  its  place  even 
among  the  superstitions  and  ceremonialisms  of  Hebraism  at  the 
time  of  the  Advent:  neither  the  fancied  effect  of  personal  recti- 
tude, nor  the  supposed  efficacy  of  repentance,  nor  the  belief  in 
the  divine  mercy  as  sufficient,  was  able  wholly  to  obliterate  it. 
How  carefully  both  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  labored  to  correct 
these  tendencies,  and  to  bring  out  by  contrast  the  conception  of  a 
justification  secured  vicariously  through  the  expiation  of  the  Cross 
and  appropriated  by  faith  alone,   is  familiar  to  all  students, 


ANSWER   OF    CHRISTIANITY    TO    OBJECTIONS.  147 

especially  of  the  Pauline  writings.  The  epistle  to  the  Roman 
church,  clear  as  it  is  profound,  positive  in  its  dogmatic  utterance 
and  irresistible  in  its  logic,  is  the  key  to  the  entire  New  Testament 
position.  The  natural  tendency  to  ceremonialism  within  the 
developing  church,  the  emphasizing  of  circumcision  and  other 
Mosaic  rites,  the  exaltation  of  moral  law  in  contrast  with  grace 
as  the  foundation  of  hope,  the  proneness  to  regard  evangelical 
obedience  as  the  acceptable  condition  of  divine  favor, — all  these 
were  carefully  corrected  in  the  apostolic  writings;  and  by  con- 
trast the  revealed  conception  of  justification  through  faith  in  Christ 
as  an  atoning  Savior,  was  everywhere  set  forth  as  the  corner-stone 
of  saving  belief.  So  true  and  so  obvious  is  this,  that  one  is  con- 
strained either  to  accept  the  doctrine  on  the  authority  of  the 
inspired  Word,  or  to  cast  aside  that  Word,  or  at  least  those  sections 
of  it  which  contain  this  doctrine,  as  of  human  origin  and  unworthy 
of  rational  credence. 

The  formulation  of  the  doctrine  in  opposition  to  unbelief  began, 
though  in  crude  and  imperfect  ways,  in  the  earliest  periods  of  the 
Christian  Church.  The  patristic  writings  down  to  the  age  of 
Augustine,  not  indeed  in  all  cases,  nor  with  adequate  fullness  and 
proper  freedom  from  speculative  opinion  in  any,  still  indicate  the 
growing  faith  and  acceptation  of  the  great  truth,  as  one  of  the 
vital  elements  in  the  Gospel.  The  ancient  Church  believed,  not 
only  in  the  forgiveness  of  sin — as  the  earliest  creed  affirms — but 
in  the  forgiveness  of  sin  through  the  mediation  of  that  Son  of 
God  whom  the  Nicene  creed  described  as  not  only  born  and  living 
among  men,  but  also  crucified  and  buried,  for  us  men  and  for  our 
salvation.  In  the  writings  of  Augustine  himself,  as  Ritschl  justly 
says,  the  elements  of  diverse  notions  of  justification  adhere,  too 
much  entangled,  too  little  marked  off  from  each  other,  to  furnish 
a  complete  conception.  It  is  rather  the  deliverance  of  man  from 
the  miseries  of  sin,  and  his  restoration  to  a  condition  of  blessed- 
ness (Civ.  Dei.  B.  IX:15),  than  a  forensic  change  of  status  before 
God,  on  which  Augustine  chiefly  dwells.  It  is  painful  to  trace 
the  slow  subsequent  development  of  the  great  truth  in  the  pres- 
ence of  diversified  errors, — including  even  the  grotesque  notion 
that  the  expiation  of  the  Cross  was  made  not  to  God  but  to  Satan, 
— down  to  the  Scholastic  era.  There  are  times  when  it  seems  as 
if  the  doctrine  would  be  altogether  stripped  of  its  biblical  quality, 
and  either  dried  into  an  unmeaning  formula,  or  wholly  lost  out 
from  the  belief  and  heart  of  the  church.  In  the  writings  of  Anselm\ 
and  Abelard  and  other  scholastics,  down  to  the  period  of  Aquinas 
and  the  positive  formulation  of  the  papal  theory,  we  note  another 


448  THE  PROCESS  OF  SALVATION. 

important  stage  in  the  theologic  evolution, — a  stage  far  from  com- 
plete in  itself,  but  marking  an  important  advance  on  all  that  had 
preceded  it.  In  that  theory  at  least  three  radical  defects  appear, 
— the  confusion  of  justification  and  sanctification,  by  which  the 
former  becomes  dependent  on  the  later;  the  infusion  of  the  mis- 
chievous notion  of  human  merit  as  a  ground  of  justification;  and 
the  introduction  of  the  priesthood  and  the  church  as  instrumental 
agents  in  the  justifying  procedure. 

That  the  Reformers  were,  as  papal  writers  allege,  introducing 
a  novelty  into  the  category  of  Christian  beliefs  when,  in  contrast 
with  the  error  of  Rome,  they  proclaimed  the  full  and  true  doc- 
trine of  justification  through  Christ,  obtained  by  faith  in  his 
gracious  mediation,  is  not  to  be  credited.  They  in  fact  simply 
gathered  up  and  stated  in  completer  form  all  that  had  been  cher- 
ished by  devout  minds  in  forms  less  complete,  from  the  beginning 
of  Christianity,  and  even  from  the  better  ages  of  Hebraism.  They 
saw  the  imperfection  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  papal  definition, 
largely  founded  as  it  was  on  patristic  and  scholastic  tradition,  and 
in  its  stead  framed  a  broader,  loftier,  clearer  definition,  based  on 
the  biblical  teachings  only.  They  saw  the  fatal  error  in  the 
Roman  notion  of  pardon  as  indicated  in  the  sale  of  indulgences, 
and  declared  by  contrast  that  Christ  alone  can  forgive  sin. 
They  saw  the  error  equally  fatal  lying  in  the  Roman  notion  of 
merit  gained  through  conformity  with  churchly  prescripts  and 
observances,  and  declared  that  the  only  merit  which  could  secure 
acceptance  with  God — the  only  righteousness  available  at  the  tri- 
bunal of  his  justice,  is  the  merit,  the  righteousness,  found  in 
Christ.  As  to  both  the  nature  and  the  ground  of  justification, 
and  to  spiritual  faith  as  the  means  whereby  the  soul  may 
avail  itself  of  the  divine  offer,  and  secure  pardon  and  acceptance 
with  all  consequent  gifts  and  graces,  they  planted  themselves 
firmly  on  the  teaching  of  the  Bible,  and  on  that  teaching  alone. 
And  they  crowned  their  doctrine  and  glorified  it,  as  had  never 
been  done  before  in  Christian  history,  by  insisting  that  justifica- 
tion is  a  single  act, — an  act  transpiring  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  renewed  life,  and  needing  no  repetition  either  on  earth  or  in 
heaven, — the  soul  once  justified  by  Christ  through  faith,  being 
justified  instantly,  completely  and  forever. 

All  this  becomes  manifest  abundantly  in  the  Confessions  of 
Protestantism,  and  in  the  writings  of  its  leading  divines,  both 
Lutheran  and  Reformed.  Differing  and  even  antagonistic  views 
on  specific  points  made  their  appearance  in  Protestant  circles  as 
the  doctrine  came  to  be  more  thoroughly  analyzed,  and  one  feature 


CONFESSIONAL  STATEMENTS.  449 

or  another  in  it  received  peculiar  emphasis  through  the  advocacy 
of  individual  minds.  What  have  been  called  declensions  and 
revivals,  relapses  from  the  essential  truth  in  some  particular, 
followed  by  fresh  and  more  strenuous  advocacy,  reveal  them- 
selves, sometimes  painfully,  in  the  history  of  Protestant  thought  in 
the  sixteenth  and  the  seventeenth  century.  Illustrations  of  such 
lateral  divergency,  such  minor  variation,  are  quite  apparent:  it 
is  needless  to  refer  to  them  in  detail.  Still  the  general  fact 
remains  in  all  its  impressiveness, — that,  as  in  contrast  with  both 
Romanism  and  all  Socinian,  Pelagian,  Antinomian  heresy  wear- 
ing the  Protestant  name,  the  evangelical  communions,  both  Con- 
tinental and  British,  were  essentially  one  in  holding  the  grand 
truth  expressed  by  I,uther  in  the  phrase,  Justification  by  faith  in 
Christ  and  Christ  only.  Subsequent  Protestantism  of  all  evan- 
gelical types  has  held  to  that  central  truth  in  its  fullness  and  pre- 
ciousness,  and  is  likely  to  remain  steadfast  therein,  so  long  as  the 
Scriptures  retain  their  place  in  the  confidence  of  men.  And  here, 
in  a  word,  is  the  enduring  answer  of  Christianity  to  all  the  vari- 
eties of  unbelief  just  described:  Justification  before  God  is  both 
indispensable  and  possible,  and  such  justification  is  secured,  not 
through  the  righteousness  or  the  sacrifices  of  men,  but  through 
the  mediation  of  Christ  as  an  atoning  Savior,  accepted  and  appro- 
priated through  personal  faith,  and  through  such  faith  only:  See 
Owen,  Buchanan,  Ritschl. 

The  addition  of  the  short  chapter  (XII)  on  Adoption,  following 
immediately  the  statement  of  Effectual  Calling  and  Justifica- 
tion and  preceding  that  on  Sanctifica- 

tion,  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  13«  Ad°Ption :  "s  nature 
.,      j  r  ,,      ,IT  ,.   .  and  value;   its  relations  to 

the  desire  of  the  Westminster  divines     .    .,„    t. 

justification. 

to   incorporate  in  every  possible  way 

spiritual  as  well  as  theological  truth  in  their  Symbols.  No 
chapter  or  even  formal  article  or  affirmation  on  this  subject 
appears  in  any  of  the  earlier  creeds.  The  doctrine  of  the  father- 
hood of  God,  and  especially  of  such  fatherhood  as  manifested 
toward  believers  in  the  field  of  providence  and  grace,  indeed 
appears  incidentally  in  several  of  them — especially  in  those  which, 
like  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  were  designed  for  spiritual  cul- 
ture and  profit  primarily.  Corresponding  expressions,  describ- 
ing believers  as  the  children  of  God,  his  elect  children,  his  good 
and  beloved  children,  may  also  be  found  here  and  there.  The 
Heidelberg  Catechism  declares  (33)  that  while  Christ  alone  is 
the  eternal  natural  Son  of  God,  we  also  are  children  of  God 
by  adoption  through  grace  for  his  sake.     In  the  Thirty-Nine 


450  THE   PROCESS  OF   SALVATION. 

Articles  (XVII)  it  said  that  the  elect  in  addition  to  their  being 
called  and  freely  justified,  are  also  made  the  sons  of  God  by 
adoption,  and  are  thus  enabled  under  the  nurture  of  the  Spirit  to 
attain  to  everlasting  felicity.  But  in  the  Confession  we  have  what  is 
termed  the  grace  of  adoption  formally  set  forth  as  a  gift  of  God 
superadded  upon  the  grace  of  justification,  and  the  particular 
privileges  flowing  from  this  gracious  bestowment  are  elaborately 
described,  chiefly  in  the  very  words  of  Scripture.  In  the  two 
Catechisms  the  doctrine  is  also  introduced  as  following  justifica- 
tion and  preceding  sanctification  in  the  series  of  benefits  which 
believers  partake  of  in  this  life;  and  in  the  Shorter  it  is  condensed 
(34)  into  the  simple  statement  that  the  elect  being  justified  are 
received  into  the  number  and  have  the  right  to  all  the  privileges  of 
the  sons  of  God. 

This  formal  arrangement  would  lead  the  student  to  suppose 
that  while  in  all  cases  those  who  are  justified,  and  they  only,  are 
thus  adopted  into  the  divine  family,  this  privilege  of  sonship  is 
an  added  and  a  special  bestowment— a  gracious  benefit  in  which 
the  divine  purpose  of  salvation,  complete  and  enduring,  further 
expresses  itself.  Calvinistic  theologians  generally  have  thus 
taught  that  adoption  is  a  new  and  particular  grace  in  advance 
of  justification.  It  has  also  been  held  by  many  that  man  by  na- 
ture is  not  a  child  of  God  but  only  a  creature  and  subject,  and 
that  the  exaltation  of  the  regenerate  man  into  the  relation  of  son- 
ship  is  one  of  the  most  distinguishing  and  illustrious  exhibitions 
of  saving  grace.  Some  Calvinists,  however,  have  maintained 
that  the  legal  transaction  which  the  term  suggests — the  selection 
of  one  who  by  birth  is  an  alien,  his  introduction  into  a  family , 
and  his  investiture  with  the  rights  and  privileges  belonging  nat- 
urally to -one  born  into  the  home — is  only  a  special  and  graphic 
illustration,  drawn  from  Roman  law,  to  set  forth  what  is  presented 
in  more  general  form  in  justification  itself.  Ussher  (Method) 
uses  the  generic  term,  reconciliation,  and  treats  justification  and 
adoption  as  its  two  branches  or  parts.  Certainly  the  pardon  and 
acceptance  of  a  regenerate  person  as  righteous,  involving  full 
reconciliation  and  restoration  to  the  divine  favor  in  the  permanent 
estate  of  grace,  imply  if  they  do  not  directly  express  all  that  is 
contained  in  the  more  specific  term,  adoption. 

Recognizing  adoption  therefore  as  being  not  so  much  a  separ- 
ate or  added  benefit  as  an  integral  part  or  feature  of  justification 
itself — a  presentation,  in  the  language  of  Owen,  of  the  blessings 
of  justification  in  new  phases  and  relations;  or  in  the  phrase  of 
Watson,  a  concomitant  of  justification — we  may  still  note  two 


ADOPTION  :  NATURE  AND  VALUE.  451 

points  of  particular  interest,  in  the  confessional  exposition  of  the 
doctrine: 

First;  the  thoroughly  scriptural  quality  of  the  statements  made, 
and  the  fullness  and  beauty  of  their  presentation.  The  concep- 
tion belongs  to  the  New  Testament  rather  than  the  Old:  in  the 
Old  the  believer  is  more  commonly  described  as  a  servant — in  the 
New  he  becomes  distinctively  a  son.  The  adopted  soul  accord- 
ing to  the  Symbols  enjoys  at  once  all  the  liberties  and  privileges 
of  the  spiritual  children  of  God  under  the  Gospel:  it  bears  the 
name  of  God,  as  the  adopted  child  under  human  law  bears  the 
name  of  those  who  have  assumed  toward  it  the  relation  of  parent; 
it  may  call  God  its  Father,  and  may  have  freest  access  to  his  pres- 
ence as  in  prayer;  it  is  tenderly  protected  and  provided  for  in  his 
infinite  love  and  pity;  it  may  be  chastened  by  him  when  needful, 
but  will  never  be  cast  off,  and  is  the  rather  sealed  and  guaranteed 
in  its  established  relationship;  it  is  made  heir  of  all  the  promises 
of  the  Gospel,  and  a  fellow-heir  with  Christ  in  glory  everlast- 
ing. With  such  inspired  language  and  illustration  is  the  theo- 
logic  conception  enriched  and  beautified;  and  surely  it  is  not 
strange  that  the  devout  minds  of  Westminster  should  have  desired 
to  incorporate  such  a  concept  in  the  formularies  which  they  were 
framing,  not  merely  as  a  system  of  doctrine,  but  also  a  body  of 
practical  truth  brought  together  for  the  supreme  purpose  of 
instructing,  animating,  saving  men. 

Secondly:  we  may  note  the  peculiar  blending  of  what  is  sub- 
jective with  what  is  objective  in  this  conception ;■ — the  Spirit  of 
God  working  within  the  soul,  stirring  up  its  responsive  feeling, 
and  teaching  it  to  cry,  Abba  Father,  while  the  external  and  legal 
process  is  going  on,  and  the  outward  relationship  is  being  for- 
mally instituted.  In  justification  proper  we  simply  see  what  is 
outward,  the  pardon  bestowed,  the  person  accepted,  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  investing  the  soul  as  a  garment — a  forensic  procedure 
throughout,  though  resting  on  a  regenerative  work  wrought 
within.  But  in  adoption  the  inward  experience — the  parental 
love  with  all  its  gracious  yearnings  on  the  divine  side,  and  the 
filial  sensibility  flowing  forth  in  responsive  devotion  on  the  side 
of  man — seems  to  stand  behind  the  formal  act,  and  give  it  what  we 
recognize  as  a  supernatural  attractiveness  and  power.  It  is  the 
holy  sentiment  of  fatherhood  dwelling  and  throbbing  in  the  breast 
of  Deity,  and  the  glad  uplifting  of  the  regenerate  soul  to  God  in  a 
love  which  the  Holy  Ghost  induces, — it  is  these  subjective  features 
which  give  to  the  formal  act  its  most  precious  significance.  In  a 
word,  it  is  the  spirit  of  adoption  in  us  as  believers,  and  the  paternal 


452  THE   PROCESS   OF  SALVATION. 

spirit  in  him  whom  by  faith  we  call  our  Father,  which  makes  the 
legal  ceremony  all  that  Paul  iu  his  enthusiasm  declared  it  to  be. 

It  has  been  objected  to  the  chapter  on  Adoption,  on 
one  hand  that  its  exposition  of  the  doctrine  is  too  meager 
and  inexact  theologically,  and  on  the  other  hand  that  its  descrip- 
tion of  the  privileges  and  benefits  of  adoption  is  too  general  and 
diffuse.  The  matter  seems  to  have  excited  no  debate  in  the 
Assembly,  and  may  have  been  passed  over  without  critical  exam- 
ination. Yet  in  that  description  we  may  find  all,  or  nearly  all, 
that  is  taught  on  the  subject  in  the  Bible.  And  whatever  of  inex- 
actness or  theological  incompleteness  appears  in  the  exposition, 
may  be  easily  explained  by  reference  to  the  special  prominence 
given  by  the  earlier  Protestantism  to  justification  distinctively , 
and  by  the  further  fact  that  an  adequate  definition  of  justification 
seems  to  include  substantially  most  that  is  implied  in  the  term, 
adoption.  As  it  stands,  the  chapter  has  at  least  the  merit  of  draw- 
ing our  thoughts  away  from  the  technical  and  formal  aspects  of 
justification  as  a  forensic  act,  and  fixing  them  more  fully  on 
that  blessed  relationship  which  in  and  through  justification  is  for- 
ever established  between  the  justified  soul  and  God  in  Christ.  The 
English  Presbyterian  Articles  define  the  doctrine  tersely  in  the 
declaration:  We  believe  that  those  who  receive  Christ  by  faith 
are  united  to  him,  so  that  they  are  partakers  in  his  life,  and  receive 
of  his  fullness;  and  they  are  adopted  into  the  family  of  God,  are 
made  heirs  of  Christ,  and  have  his  Spirit  abiding  in  them,  the 
witness  to  their  sonship,  and  the  earnest  of  their  inheritance. 

With  these  suggestions  respecting  the  grace  of  adoption  we 
may  now  proceed  to  consider  what  has  been  recognized  as  the 

final  and  consummating  stage,  on  the 
14.  Sanctification  defined,     divine  side>  of  the  process  0f  salvation 

its   nature:  human   agency         ..  .       c     0       -•/-,•         ^     c 

.,„    ..  — the   work   ot    c>a?irtification:    Com. 

in  sanctification.  .  J 

Ch.  XIII.  The  term  is  employed  here, 
not  in  the  outward  sense  of  consecrating  or  setting  apart  to  some 
religious  use,  as  in  the  consecration  to  the  priestly  office,  but  in 
the  interior  sense  of  cleansing,  purifying,  making  holy.  In  the 
two  Catechisms,  sanctification  and  effectual  calling  are  described 
as  works,  while  justification  and  adoption  are  said  to  be  divine 
acts.  The  distinction  in  terms  is  designed — as  has  been  already 
noted — to  suggest  that  while  the  two  latter  are  immediate  and 
instantaneous,  occurring  once  for  all  and  never  repeated  except  in 
a  secondary  sense,  the  two  former  are  processes  which  more  strictly 
speaking  require  time,  and  iu  the  case  of  sanctification  are  ended 


SANCTIFICATION    DEFINED.  453 

only  when  the  saved  soul  has  passed  beyond  time  into  glory.  Re- 
generation is  indeed  an  instant  act  in  such  a  sense  that  we  cannot 
properly  regard  any  person  as  neither  regenerate  nor  unregenerate, 
or  as  gradually  emerging  from  one  condition  into  the  other, 
though  the  enlightening,  convincing,  persuading  and  enabling 
ministries  of  the  Spirit  may  be  carried  on  for  considerable  periods 
before  the  process  is  ended  in  actual  and  conscious  conversion. 
But  in  sanctification  the  term,  work,  has  still  larger  significance, 
since  the  Spirit  having  begun  the  renewal  of  the  soul  never  pauses 
or  rests  in  his  holy  activities  until  his  gracious  task  is  consum- 
mated in  the  entire  eradication  of  sin  and  the  complete  establish- 
ment of  holiness  as  the  law  and  habit  of  the  renewed  nature. 

The  Shorter  Catechism  (35)  describes  this  work  in  general, 
First,  as  a  renewal  not  of  the  will  or  the  intellect  or  moral  sensi- 
bilities merely,  but  of  the  whole  man.  We  have  here  the  proper 
correlative  to  the  pravitas  totalis,  the  pervasive  corruption  of  the 
entire  man  through  sin,  emphasized  elsewhere  in  the  Symbols.  We 
are  thus  guarded  at  the  outset  against  all  narrow  or  partial  concep- 
tions of  this  spiritual  process:  the  mind,  the  conscience,  the  will, 
the  entire  moral  man,  are  wrought  upon  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
How  far  such  a  conception  rises  above  all  notions  of  reformation 
produced  in  opinion  or  in  particular  varieties  of  action  by  the 
agency  of  human  judgment  or  human  choice  or  influence  merely, 
it  is  easy  to  discern.  This  work  of  grace  is  as  comprehensive  as 
the  whole  moral  life;  it  reaches  the  character  at  every  point;  the 
entire  nature  is  penetrated,  suffused,  transmuted  by  it. 

Secondly:  the  instrumentalities  used  are  as  special  as  the  work. 
By  the  Word  and  the  Spirit  dwelling  in  them,  is  the  language  of 
the  Confession:  Through  the  powerful  operation  of  the  Spirit,  ap- 
plying the  death  and  resjirrection  of  Christ  unto  them,  is  the  some- 
what mystical  declaration  (75)  of  the  Larger  Catechism.  This 
powerful  operation  of  the  Spirit  is  graphically  set  forth  in  the 
Confession.  It  is  said  that  through  him  the  dominion  of  the  body 
of  sin  is  destroyed:  it  is  he  who  warreth  effectually  against  the 
flesh  and  its  lusts;  it  is  he  who  supplies  the  strength  through 
which  the  saints  are  enabled  to  continue  the  combat  with  evil,  and 
it  is  he  who  trains  and  quickens  them  in  the  practice  of  holiness. 
This  strong  language  is  not  intended  to  suggest  that  the  regen- 
erate soul  has  no  concurrent  power  or  responsibility  in  the  matter 
of  its  spiritual  perfection;  but  simply  to  teach  that  the  supreme 
forces  in  the  case  are  the  same  that  reveal  themselves  in  the  initial 
experience  of  regeneration.  Thirdly  :  we  may  note  the  ideal 
toward  which  this  process  is  ever  steadily  tending — the  image  of 


454  THE   PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

God  within  the  soul,  the  image  of  God  revealed  in  the  life  of  the 
believer.  We  have  already  had  occasion  to  note  this  remarkable 
phrase  as  descriptive  of  the  first  creation  of  man  :  After  his  own 
image.  Here  it  is  applied  to  the  new  creation — the  creation  not 
into  natural  life,  but  unto  spiritual  life.  Nothing  less  than  the 
reproduction  of  God,  and  especially  of  God  in  Christ,  within 
the  breast  and  in  and  through  the  entire  man,  is  implied  in  the 
expression.  How  immeasurably  this  also  rises  above  all  notions 
of  improvement  in  the  material  environment,  or  in  the  social  rela- 
tions, or  in  the  general  demeanor  or  culture  of  man,  or  in  his  out- 
ward character,  may  be  easily  discerned. 

Entering  more  specifically  into  the  analysis  of  this  gracious 
work,  we  find  it  described  (35)  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  in  the 
pregnant  phrase:  more  and more  to  die  u?ito  sin,  and  live  unto  right- 
eousness. Two  coordinate  processes  are  thus  brought  into  view, 
which  should  be  carefully  distinguished  and  described.  First :  to 
die  more  and  more  unto  sin  is  paralleled  in  the  Confession  by  the 
expanded  phrase,  the  dominion  of  the  whole  body  of  sin  des- 
troyed, and  the  several  lusts  thereof  more  and  more  weakened  and 
mortified.  The  Larger  Catechism  (75)  adds  the  explanatory 
phrase,  having  the  seeds  of  repe?itance  unto  life  put  into  their 
hearts.  To  die  unto  anything  in  the  biblical  sense,  is  to  lose 
interest  in  it,  to  cease  to  feel  its  attractions,  to  rise  above  it  into  a 
sphere  where  it  no  longer  holds  or  affects  either  the  sensibilities 
or  the  will, — in  a  word,  to  give  it  up  and  abandon  it  as  no  longer 
an  end  to  which  the  life  and  powers  are  to  be  devoted.  A  sanc- 
tified life  is  thus  a  life  in  which  the  sway  and  dominion  of  sin  are 
forever  broken.  The  specific  lusts,  appetites,  passions,  desires, 
which  the  native  sinfulness  induced,  are  no  longer  dominant  in 
the  breast.  They  may  in  some  measure  remain,  and  in  their  bale- 
ful influence  may  be  felt  in  impulse  and  in  action,  but  the  soul  no 
longer  lives  in  them  or  lives  for  them.  As  forces  affecting  char- 
acter they  are  more  and  more  weakened  and  mortified.  Such 
expulsion  of  sin  as  a  dominating  principle  has  become  the  supreme 
purpose  of  the  regenerate  man  :  he  can  no  longer  consent  to  evil, 
even  if  he  is  constrained  to  feel  himself  affected  by  its  bad  domi- 
nation :  it  is  his  desire  and  prayer,  under  the  influence  of  the 
Spirit,  to  be  as  free  from  it  as  He  was  who  did  no  sin,  and  in  whose 
mouth  or  life  no  guile,  no  corrupting  taint,  was  ever  found. 

Secondly  :  sanctification  implies  also  living  more  and  more  unto 
righteousness.  The  righteousness  here  contemplated  is  not  the 
morality  of  man,  the  justitia  externa  of  the  older  creeds,  but 
what  has  just  been  suggested,   the  image  of  God,  the  image  of 


SANCTIFICATION  :     TWO   ELEMENTS.  455 

Christ,  produced  in  the  soul  and  exhibited  in  the  character.  It 
is  realized  in  the  possession  of  all  saving  graces,  and  in  having 
these  graces  stirred  up,  increased  and  strengthened  more  and  more. 
It  is  the  attainment  of  genuine  Christian  experience  through  the 
daily  nurture  of  the  Spirit  and  through  what  is  described  (XIII:i) 
as  the  practice  of  true  holiness.  The  regenerate  and  justified  man 
grows  inwardly  not  toward  evil,  but  toward  all  moral  good:  he  is 
not  affiliated  with  worldly  things  or  worldly  minds,  but  with  the 
saints  on  earth,  with  the  sanctified  and  with  angels  in  glory.  The 
life  of  Christ  is  in  him  as  a  gracious  and  dominating  power,  and 
all  his  being  consents  to  its  purifying  sway. 

Thirdly:  it  should  be  noted  that  these  two  processes,  dying 
unto  sin  and  living  unto  righteousness,  radically  unlike  as  in 
some  aspects  they  seem,  are  really  two  parts  of  the  one  compo- 
site process,  and  that  they  are  to  be  carried  on  together,  and  as 
correlative  experiences.  The  history  of  monasticism,  and  of  all 
religious  asceticisms,  reveals  the  immeasurable  folly  of  attempting 
to  expel  sin  from  body  or  soul,  without  introducing  into  the  na- 
ture the  cleansing  and  invigorating  forces  that  are  included  in  the 
supreme  aspiration  after  holiness.  In  like  manner,  the  history 
of  many  a  true  Christian  has  revealed  the  almost  equal  folly  of 
attempting  the  practice  of  holiness,  of  striving  after  the  image 
of  God  in  the  soul,  while  the  correlative  task  of  strenuous,  con- 
stant dying  unto  sin  is  neglected.  It  is  only  as  both  are  con- 
joined, that  we  gain  real  success  in  either.  By  dying  more  and 
more  unto  sin,  we  are  enabled  to  live  unto  righteousness,  and  by 
living  unto  righteousness  more  and  more  earnestly,  we  are  enabled 
to  overcome  sin  and  destroy  its  dark  dominion  over  us. 

The  beautiful  harmony  of  the  Protestant  symbols  in  respect  to 

this  doctrine  as  thus  described,  deserves  to  be  carefully  noted. 

While  speculative  theologians  are  dis-  _     „ 

,  .  ,     °  , ,  15.    Specific  questions  re- 

cussing  the  vanous  abstract  problems     specting.  sanctification. 

which  come  into  view  in  the  contempla- 
tion of  this  gracious  work,  Lutheran  and  Calvinist  and  Arminian 
are  agreed  in  accepting  the  essential  fact,  that  under  the  empower- 
ing and  nurturing  agency  of  the  Spirit  of  God  the  converted  soul  is 
enabled  to  die  more  and  more  unto  sin  and  to  live  more  and  more 
unto  righteousness — in  a  word,  to  rise  more  and  more  according 
to  the  strong  phrase  of  Paul  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ.  But  while  there  is  such 
generic  agreement,  certain  specific  questions  rise  into  notice  here, 
which  deserve  brief  consideration.  And  first:  the  query  whether 
the  human  person  has  anything  to  do  responsively  with  his  own 


456  THE   PROCESS   OF   SALVATION. 

sanctification,  must  be  answered  emphatically  in  the  affirmative, 
whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  relation  of  such  person  to  his 
own  regeneration,  Augustine  recognized  the  truth  that  at  this 
point  there  is  a  divine  gratia  coOperans,  and  a  regenerated  human 
will  cooperating  with  that  divine  gratia,  in  the  carrying  forward  of 
this  spiritual  transformation;  and  Protestantism  has  almost  uni- 
versally accepted  his  doctrine  in  essence  if  not  in  form.  There  is 
much  for  every  saint  to  do  here,  by  the  study  of  the  Word,  by 
prayer  and  holy  culture,  by  faithful  struggle  with  all  besetting  sin, 
by  steadfast  aspiration  after  the  graces  and  virtues  that  appear  in 
Christ  and  are  found  in  other  saints,  in  order  adequately  to  work 
out  his  own  sanctification,  while  the  Spirit  works  within  him  to  the 
same  blessed  end.  The  Symbols  lay  constant  and  consistent  stress 
upon  this  element  of  personal  responsibility  as  being,  not  indeed 
of  coordinate  merit,  but  equally  essential  and  indispensable. 

Secondly:  the  question  whether  this  process  of  sanctification, 
being  thus  in  a  measure  under  the  control  of  the  human  will,  can 
be  arrested,  impaired,  frustrated  for  a  time,  notwithstanding  the 
purpose  and  effort  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  must  also  be  answered 
affirmatively.  The  life  of  even  the  holiest  saint  reveals  at  many 
a  point  the  malevolent  influence  which  his  remaining  sinfulness, 
weakness,  earthliness  of  soul,  has  upon  this  beautiful  develop- 
ment of  grace.  The  query  whether  the  true  Christian  not- 
withstanding such  malevolent  influence  will  continue  to  seek 
sanctification,  or  may  finally  fall  off  from  the  stalk  of  grace  like 
a  blasted  flower,  and  so  perish  utterly,  will  be  fully  considered 
later,  in  connection  with  the  chapter  (XVII)  on  Perseverance. 
But  here  we  are  constrained  to  note  how  weak,  how  earthly,  how 
treacherous  even  the  best  human  will  is,  though  renewed  and 
already  partly  sanctified, — its  possessor  too  often  living  in  sin, 
and  dying  unto  righteousness,  in  apparent  defiance  of  the  working 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  within  him. 

Thirdly  :  while  we  may  not  now  anticipate  certain  inquiries 
which  will  present  themselves  more  distinctly  when  the  human 
side  of  this  process  of  salvation  comes  specially  into  view,  yet  we 
may  note  in  passing  the  further  question  whether  this  sanctifica- 
tion continues  through  life,  and  is  completed  before  or  only  in  the 
hour  and  article  of  death.  Surely  there  is  a  strong  presumption 
that  the  divine  Agent  who  has  effectually  called  the  soul  into 
holiness  by  his  enlightening  and  convicting  and  enabling  energy, 
and  in  and  through  whom  the  grace  of  pardon  has  been  granted, 
and  the  person  of  the  believer  accepted  once  as  righteous  and 
once  adopted  into  the  divine  household  of  grace, — there  is  surely 


QUESTIONS    RESPECTING    SANCTIFICATION.  457 

a  strong  presumption  that  such  a  wonderful  procedure  will  not  be 
suffered  to  come  wholly  to  naught — the  sway  of  righteousness 
arrested,  sin  again  becoming  dominant,  and  all  the  grace  of  God 
frustrated.  Further  presumption  may  be  drawn  from  the  nature 
of  sanctification  itself  as  a  process  in  character,  affecting  all  the 
powers  of  the  soul,  and  everywhere  contemplating  not  a  transitory 
but  an  enduring  result. — Turning  to  the  other  aspect  of  the 
problem,  there  appears  a  presumption  almost  equally  strong  that 
a  work  such  as  this  will  not  be  finished  in  a  day  or  a  year,  or 
indeed  at  an)^  stage  in  this  mortal  life.  As  it  stands  before  us,  in 
the  experience  of  even  the  holiest  saint,  it  has  the  aspect  of  an 
unfinished  work — a  work  which  cannot  be  entirely  completed 
under  the  constraints  and  severe  oppositions  of  such  a  world  as 
this.  The  Shorter  Catechism  expresses  (37)  the  general  convic- 
tion of  the  Protestant  churches,  and  the  teaching  of  their  formu- 
laries also,  in  the  terse  statement  that  the  souls  of  believers  are  at 
their  death — not  before  death — made  perfect  and  do  immediately , 
as  the  outcome  of  such  perfection  attained,  pass  into  glory. 

Such  is  the  common  doctrine  of  evangelical  Protestantism,  and 
specifically  the  doctrine  of  the  Westminster  Symbols,  in  regard 
to  what  has  been  described  as  the  divine  side  of  the  process  of 
salvation.  We  have  seen  that  in  this  process,  the  Father  and  the 
Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit  are  alike  concerned  and  conjoined.  We 
have  especially  contemplated  the  personality  of  the  Spirit  and  his 
assigned  work  within  this  sphere,  as  it  appears  in  the  common 
operations  of  grace  and  the  effectual  call,  and  in  all  the  experiences 
that  follow  upon  regeneration,  until  the  soul  is  completely  sanc- 
tified. We  have  contemplated  also  the  work  of  the  Son,  the  one 
Mediator  between  God  and  man,  as  exhibited  in  the  pardon  and 
acceptance — the  complete  justification  of  the  penitent,  believing 
soul.  And  while  we  have  had  occasion  to  note  some  varieties  of 
opinion  among  Protestants,  growing  largely  out  of  different  points 
of  vision,  or  of  the  tendency  to  emphasize  this  or  that  section  or 
aspect  of  the  composite  truth,  we  have  with  pleasure  discovered 
how  largely  in  respect  to  the  really  fundamental  matters — to  regen- 
eration and  conversion,  justification  and  sanctification,  the  various 
Protestant  communions  are  substantially  one  in  belief  and  one  in 
experience.  And  it  may  well  be  noted  here  that  the  Symbols  of 
Westminster  represent,  in  respect  to  all  these  vital  doctrines,  not 
the  discords  of  Protestant  Christendom  so  much  as  its  essential, 
its  grand  spiritual  agreements. 

In  closing  this  survey  of  the  composite  work  of  God  in  human 
salvation,  we  may  profitably  compare  at  several  points  the  Protest- 


458  THE   PROCESS   OF  SALVATION. 

ant  doctrine  as  now  stated — especially  the  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith — with  the  teaching  of    that  Church  of  Rome  against 

which  the  Reformation  was  through- 
16.    Concluding  Survey:     out  a        itiye  and  organized  protest 
Roman  and  Protestant  doc-    «,     „  ,     „  .        7.      .r      . 

trine  compared  Roman  doctrine  of  justification,  as 

formulated  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  in 
the  sixteen  chapters  and  thirty-three  canons  of  its  famous  Decree, 
has  already  been  referred  to  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  theo- 
logical constructions  ever  produced  by  the  thought  and  skill  of 
man.  As  a  keen,  studied,  strategic  attempt  to  protect  those  cher- 
ished errors  of  Roman  Catholicism  against  which  Luther  had 
thundered  so  loudly,  it  has  no  parallel  in  the  whole  field  of  sym- 
bolism. With  much  that  it  contains  respecting  Christ  as  the 
ultimate  ground  and  faith  as  the  immediate  condition  of  justifica- 
tion, and  respecting  good  works,  keeping  the  commandments  and 
perseverance  in  holy  living  as  conditions,  evangelical  Protest- 
antism is  in  substantial  accord.  In  like  manner  there  is  much  in 
the  accompanying  canons  as  to  the  errors,  speculative  and  practical, 
to  be  avoided,  and  to  certain  defective  conceptions  of  the  truth, 
which  Protestants  must  recognize  as  just  and  valuable,  though 
they  repudiate  the  priestly  anathema  with  which  each  canon 
solemnly  closes.  But  the  true  and  the  false,  the  verity  of  God 
and  the  speculation  of  man  are  so  blended  in  this  remarkable 
Decree — scriptural  warrant,  spiritual  power,  practical  effective- 
ness, are  so  lacking  in  it — that  while  we  may  admire  the  astuteness 
of  it,  the  subtle  distinctions  and  the  fine  balancings  of  antithetic 
propositions  and  the  like,  we  are  constrained,  as  we  apply  to  it  the 
simple  tests  of  Scripture,  to  set  it  all  aside  as  after  all  a  fabrication 
of  man  more  than  the  saving  truth  of  God. 

It  was  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  primitive  Protestantism 
that,  in  contrast  with  all  this  formal  elaboration,  it  could  plant 
itself  with  absolute  unanimity  on  the  simple  and  intelligent  propo- 
sition of  Luther:  Justification  by  faith  in  Christ  only.  Subse- 
quent thought  and  research  amplified  and  improved  the  proposition 
in  various  particulars:  and  one  of  the  most  interesting  studies  in 
symbolism  may  be  found  in  comparing  the  creed  statements  of  the 
doctrine,  with  their  varieties  in  language  and  presentation,  with 
the  tributary  flowing  of  the  earlier  into  the  later,  and  the  contin- 
uous expansion  and  elaboration  of  the  essential  truth,  until  at 
length  we  reach  the  final  form  which  the  doctrine  assumed  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  which  it  still  substantially  retains.  The 
Protestant  statement  had  the  enormous  advantage  on  one  hand 
that  it  was  seen  to  be  palpably  biblical  rather  than  ecclesiastical 


ROMAN    AND    PROTESTANT    DOCTRINE)    COMPARED.  459 

or  scholastic,  and  therefore  infinitely  more  authoritative  than 
any  dogma,  even  of  an  imperial  church:  and  on  the  other,  that  it 
could  be  comprehended  by  the  common  mind,  appealed  directly  to 
the  common  heart,  touched  with  an  electric  throb  the  common 
conscience,  and  so  became  at  once  a  mighty  spiritual  force  work- 
ing efficaciously  in  common  lives.  In  the  earliest  forms  of  it,  as 
in  the  Articles  of  Zwingli  and  the  Apologia  of  Melancthon,  it 
commanded  at  once  the  conviction  and  acceptation  of  awak- 
ened intelligence  wherever  it  was  made  known;  and  the  more  it 
was  expanded,  as  in  the  Helvetic  and  the  French  and  Belgic  Con- 
fessions, the  greater  became  its  power  to  convince  and  to  conquer. 
Neither  German  Syncretism  nor  Dutch  Arminianism,  though  chal- 
lenging certain  elements, — made  possibly  too  prominent  in  some 
of  the  more  elaborate  formularies — ever  swerved  from  the  cardinal 
truth  that  Christ  alone  saves,  and  that  faith  in  him  and  his  com- 
plete mediation  is  the  sole  condition,  though  in  no  sense  the  merit- 
ing ground,  of  salvation.  And  what  was  thus  substantially  believed 
by  all,  the  divines  of  Wesminster  had  the  rare  privilege  of 
embodying  in  its  most  considerate  and  comprehensive  form;  and 
from  the  substance  and  essence  of  their  formulated  tenet,  there 
is  as  yet  substantially  no  variation  or  shadow  of  turning  among 
the  diversified  representatives  of  evangelical  Protestantism. 

Moehler  (Symbolism)  sets  up  the  claim  first  affirmed  by 
Bellarmine,  that  the  Roman  statement  is  far  superior  to  the 
Protestant  because — as  he  says — according  to  the  latter,  Christ 
simply  casts  his  shadow  upon  the  believer  and  so  shelters  him  that 
God  does  not  see  his  sinfulness,  while  according  to  the  former, 
Christ  is  embodied  in  the  believer  and  becomes  a  part  of  his 
inward  self,  changing  thereby  his  spiritual  condition  as  well  as  his 
outward  estate  before  God.  His  proposition  painfully  illustrates 
the  confusion  and  the  error  into  which  Romanism  fell  by  failing  to 
draw  the  proper  line  of  distinction  between  justification  and  sanc- 
tification.  That  learned  and  acute  critic  seems  to  have  lost  sight 
of  the  fact  that  the  Christus  in  Nobis,  or  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  implanted  within  us  and  made  the  germ  of  an  inward  life, 
is  abundantly  recognized  in  the  Protestant  Confessions  under  the 
head  of  sanctification.  It  may  be  true  that  some  Protestant, 
especially  Calvinistic,  theologians  have  dwelt  too  exclusively  on 
the  Christus  pro  Nobis  and  his  objective  work,  and  have  lost 
sight  comparatively  of  that  correlated  work  which  is  wrought 
within  the  regenerated  soul  by  the  Spirit  and  by  the  Word, 
eventuating  in  true  and  blessed  newness  of  life.  But  such  a 
charge  cannot  justly  be  made   against  the   Protestant  symbols. 


4<>0  THE    PROCKSS    OF    SALVATION. 

While  they  do  affirm  that  the  believing  soul  is  justified  at  once 
and  once  for  all,  and  condemn  the  papal  dogma  that  justification 
depends  on  what  the  believer  becomes  through  the  progressive 
nurture  of  grace,  and  is  therefore  never  complete  until  he  is  com- 
pletely sanctified  at  death,  or  at  the  end  of  his  purgatorial  state, 
they  also  affirm  with  a  strength  of  conviction  which  the  divines 
of  Trent  never  exhibited,  that  the  new  life  experienced  through 
grace  is  in  reality  the  only  available  evidence  of  our  justification 
before  God.  It  is  not  true  that  even  the  earliest  creeds  were  in- 
different to  this  truth,  as  the  Augsburg  Confession  (Art.  IV,  VI, 
XII,  XX)  the  Formula  of  Concord  (Art.  III-IV)  the  First  and 
vSecond  Helvetic  Confessions,  and  the  more  primitive  Catechisms, 
clearly  show.  Indeed  the  Belgic  Confession  contains  an  Article 
(  24)  apparently  intended  specially  to  meet  the  papal  criticism 
just  noticed,  and  similar  Articles  (21,  22)  appear  in  that  French 
or  Gallic  Confession  which  has  such  special  interest  to  us  at  this 
point  from  the  fact  that  it  was  so  largely  framed  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Calvin.  The  Articles  on  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
sanctification  in  the  British  symbols  are  if  possible  still  more  deci- 
sive: they  teach  beyond  all  question  that  wherever  Christ  justifies 
by  his  mediation,  the  Spirit  not  only  regenerates  but  also  sancti- 
fies, and  that  this  subjective  work  is  in  every  case  coordinate  and 
of  equal  moment  with  the  objective  act. 

Careful  comparison  of  the  Roman  view  with  the  generally 
accepted  belief  of  Protestantism  as  to  both  justification  and  sanctifi- 
cation will  show  the  superior  scripturalness,  the  deeper  spirituality, 
and  the  greater  practical  effectiveness  and  worth  of  the  latter.  The 
real  test  is  the  test  of  Scripture  and  of  spiritual  experience:  the  doc- 
trine that  most  fully  conforms  to  the  Word,  and  most  enlightens, 
elevates,  spiritualizes,  renews  the  whole  man  savingly,  must  be  the 
true  doctrine — the  doctrine  of  God.  We  are  not  dealing  here  with 
ecclesiastical  dogma  or  authority,  with  priests  and  sacraments  as 
media,  with  penances  or  indulgences  imposed  or  granted  by  man. 
We  are  not  resting  in  the  ordinances  of  the  church  or  relying  on 
her  mediation  as  the  foundation  of  our  hope,  according  to  the 
Ron^n  apothegm,  Through  the  church  to  Christ.  Nor  are  we 
confusing  things  that  differ,  or  exalting  the  human  factor  or  human 
agency  in  salvation  at  the  expense  of  the  divine,  or  making  either 
the  individual  or  the  church  the  final  arbiter  of  spiritual  destinies. 
We  are  simply  taking  Holy  Scripture  as  it  stands,  trusting  the 
Savior  who  is  there  revealed,  accepting  him  directly  in  every 
blessed  office,  and  by  faith  in  him  living  such  a  life  as  he  requires. 


LECTURE  NINTH— THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 

Christianity  a  Life  :  Product  of  the  Spirit  :  Saving 
Faith  :  Repentance  :  Good  Works  :  Perseverance  :  Per- 
fection. 

C.  F.  Ch.   XIV-XVIII  :    L.  C.  72-81  :    S.  C.  36,  86-7. 

Guizot  justly  characterizes  the  Reformation  as  an  intellectual 
awakening  and  revolution,  a  great  insurrection  of  human  intelli- 
gence, a  renascence  of  the  mind  of  Europe  after  ages  of  relative 
mental  slumber.  That  great  event  has  also  been  characterized  as 
an  emancipation  of  Christianity  from  the  bondage  of  ecclesiastical 
tradition  and  the  assumptions  and  domination  of  the  Papacy.  But 
it  was  all  this,  because  it  was  also  something  immeasurably 
grander, — the  restoration  of  the  true  conception  of  religion,  which 
had  been  almost  lost  to  view  amid  the  errors  and  corruptions  of 
the  age,  and  the  exaltation  of  the  real  life  in  Christ  to  its  proper 
eminence  both  in  apprehension  and  in  experience.  Here  was  the 
true  and  final  end  of  this  great  providential  and  gracious  move- 
ment, and  to  this  end  its  intellectual,  ecclesiastical,  social  and 
political  features  were  altogether  tributary.  Guizot  himself  says 
that  the  Reformation  introduced  religion,  which  had  been  the 
exclusive  domain  of  the  clergy,  into  the  midst  of  the  laity — into 
the  world  of  believers.  Even  its  emphasizing  of  ancient  creeds, 
its  solemn  confessions,  and  its  expositions  of  specific  doctrines 
concerning  God  and  man,  Christ  and  the  plan  of  salvation  through 
him,  and  concerning  the  Holy  Spirit  and  his  regenerative  efficien- 
cies, were  all  subsidiary  to  this  superior  object — the  restoration  of 
the  Christian  Life  to  its  proper  ascendency  alike  in  faith  and  in 
practical  consciousness.  While  here  and  there  other  features  of 
the  historic  movement  seem  to  emerge  into  special  prominence, 
and  while  sometimes,  amid  the  disputations  and  strifes  and  differ- 
ences of  opinion  and  policy  springing  up  among  the  Protestants 
themselves,  this  one  central  purpose  seems  to  disappear  from  view, 
yet  closer  examination  always  brings  us  back  to  what  was  supreme 
and  ultimate  in  the  great  movement,  genuine  and  holy  living  in 
Christ  and  through  his  grace.  The  diligent  student  of  the  Prot- 
estant   Confessions    will    find   them   habitually   recurring   from 


462  THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

whatever  digression  to  this  fundamental  problem, — the  problem 
of  the  Christian  Life. 

This  fact  finds  special  illustration  in  the  Symbols  of  Westmin- 
ster. Five  chapters  in  the  Confession,  and  corresponding  portions 
in  the  two  Catechisms — as  we  have  already  seen — are  devoted  to 
the  fundamental  doctrines  respecting  the  sufficiency  of  Scripture, 
the  existence  and  character  of  God,  and  the  works  of  creation  and 
providence  :  three  others  present  the  fall  and  sinfulness  of  man, 
the  person  and  mediation  of  Christ,  and  the  scheme  of  salvation 
through  him  :  five  more  set  forth  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  bring- 
ing the  sinner  into  a  state  of  grace,  and  describe  the  specific  phases 
of  that  regenerative  work  in  the  justifying  and  sanctifying  of  the 
believer.  Now  we  come  upon  five  other  chapters,  exhibiting  the 
human  side  in  this  sublime  process  of  salvation,  and  enabling  us 
to  see  in  the  mirror  of  the  regenerated  consciousness  what  a  grand 
and  blessed  thing  it  is  to  be  saved  through  these  divine  instru- 
mentalities and  in  this  appointed  way.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say 
that  these  five  chapters  constitute  the  very  center  and  substance 
of  the  entire  system  of  truth  enunciated  in  the  Symbols  ;  all  that 
precedes  them  being  in  a  sense  introductory  and  preparatory,  all 
that  follows — as  there  will  be  occasion  to  note — being  but  a  further 
expansion  and  application  of  this  central  and  supreme  constituent. 
The  Christian  life  is  after  all  the  central  element  in  all  evangelical 
theology;  all  that  either  precedes  or  follows  in  the  exposition  of 
divine  doctrine  must  be  centered  first  in  Christ  as  the  divine 
source,  and  then  in  the  Christian  life  itself  as  the  grand  outcome 
of  his  redemptive  scheme.  To  set  forth  this  life  in  its  proper 
fullness  and  in  its  essential  qualities,  even  more  than  to  provide 
an  intellectual  formulary  on  whose  abstract  propositions  the  relig- 
ious mind  of  the  British  Isles  could  agree,  was  the  noble  purpose 
of  the  Westminster  divines:  and  it  may  well  be  judged  that  it  is 
to  this  peculiar  feature  of  that  Confession,  even  more  than  to  its 
philosophic  and  theologic  excellence,  that  its  remarkable  power 
to  attract  and  hold  men  is  due. 

That  a  radical  contrast  existed  between  the  Roman  and  the 
Protestant  conceptions  of  the  Christian  life  is  apparent  to  every 

student  either  of  the  respective  creeds 

1,    Christian  Life:  Papal  ,  .,      ,  ,  , ,     r.     , ,..   .         . 

and  Protestant  conceptions.      and  theologies,  or  of  the  actual  living  of 

their  respective  adherents.  There  was, 
indeed,  in  the  language  of  the  Council  of  Trent  and  in  other  papal 
deliverances,  much  that  sounded  well  in  this  regard.  The  need 
of  a  decisive  change  in  the  moral  nature  of  man,  the  indispens- 
ableness  of  a  second  birth  in  Christ  in  order  to  justification,  the 


PAPAL  AND  PROTESTANT  CONCEPTIONS.         463 

state  of  grace  as  distinct  from  the  state  of  nature,  the  necessity 
of  divine  aid  in  reaching  such  a  state  and  continuing  in  it,  the 
importance  of  true  repentance  and  of  cordial  obedience  to  the 
divine  commandments,  the  obligation  to  perform  all  good  works 
imposed  by  the  church,  and  the  privilege  of  sanctification  through 
her  ministries,  are  all  set  forth  in  the  Tridentine  Decrees  in 
terms  which  at  first  view  might  satisfy  the  Protestant  mind  and 
conscience.  So  in  the  later  declarations  of  Rome,  such  as  the 
Syllabus  Errorum  and  the  Vatican  Decrees,  one  finds  phrases  and 
statements  which  may  be  interpreted  in  such  a  spiritual  sense  as 
would  bring  them  into  harmony  with  the  best  convictions,  the 
highest  experiences,  of  evangelical  Protestantism. 

Yet  closer  investigation  of  these  papal  formularies  will  not  fail 
to  bring  into  light  certain  radical  defects  which  sadly  vitiate  the 
whole.  On  one  side  an  excessive  emphasis  is  laid  on  what  is 
merely  external  in  religion,  on  form  and  outward  act  and  cere- 
mony, to  such  an  extent  as  almost  to  hide  from  sight  the  inward 
and  spiritual  reality  in  religion.  On  another  side,  the  church  and 
her  priestly  mediation  is  thrust  into  the  foreground  in  such  a 
manner  as  almost  entirely  to  obscure  that  fundamental  doctrine  of 
saving  faith,  personal  faith  in  a  personal  Christ,  in  which  Chris- 
tian living  truly  begins.  And  still  further,  the  essential  things  in 
religion  are  so  diluted  and  minified — repentance  weakened  into 
penance,  obedience  changed  into  conformity  with  ecclesiastical 
requisitions,  devotion  reduced  to  loyalty  to  the  church,  and  char- 
ity into  contributions  to  her  support  and  advancement — that  as  we 
read  and  contemplate,  we  almost  lose  the  vision  of  what  is  central 
and  essential  in  practical  Christianity.  We  wonder  whether  true 
religion  can  flourish  or  even  survive  under  the  suffocating  press- 
ure of  such  formal  and  mortiferous  conceptions.  It  would  indeed 
be  a  serious  error  to  infer  that  there  are  no  truly  pious  souls 
among  the  multitudes  who  are  enrolled  as  communicants  in  the 
papal  church,  or  to  say — as  the  Confession  in  substance  declares — 
that  that  church  itself  is  a  synagogue  of  Satan,  and  no  part  of 
the  true  Church  of  God  on  earth.  Protestantism  has  often  erred, 
still  sometimes  errs,  in  failing  to  see  the  better  possibilities  in  the 
case,  and  to  perceive  how  much  of  essential  religion,  both  in 
belief  and  in  life,  actually  exists,  notwithstanding  such  defects, 
within  the  fold  of  Rome. 

But  against  all  these  diluted  and  delusive  conceptions  of  relig- 
ion, Protestantism  was  throughout  an  intelligent,  earnest,  solemn 
protest.  Wickliffe  and  Huss  and  Savonarola  had  prepared  the  way 
for  such  a  protest  ;  and  the  Ninety-five  Theses  of  Luther  and  the 


464  the;  christian  life. 

Sixty-seven  Articles  of  Zwingli  were  only  the  expression  of  the 
profoundest  convictions  as  to  the  weakness  and  unprofitableness  of 
the  papal  concept  of  religion — convictions  which  had  worked  them- 
selves into  the  very  heart  of  Christian  men  in  central  and  northern 
Europe.  The  time  had  come  when  even  the  continued  exist- 
ence and  preservation  of  spiritual  Christianity  demanded  that 
clear  and  broad  lines  should  be  drawn  between  penance  and 
scriptural  repentance,  between  absolution  by  the  priesthood  and 
forgiveness  with  God,  between  submission  to  the  church  and 
conformity  to  her  requisitions  on  one  side,  and  true  loyalty  to 
Christ  and  loving  obedience  to  his  will  on  the  other.  But  if 
the  Reformation  had  been  such  a  protest  merely — an  exposure  of 
the  weaknesses  and  errors  of  the  Roman  theory  of  religious  living, 
and  a  repudiation  of  the  corruptions  consequent  upon  that  theory, 
it  would  hardly  have  survived  in  the  great  struggle  with  papal 
power.  It  was  necessary  that  a  larger,  loftier,  purer  conception 
of  Christian  manhood  and  Christian  living  should  be  introduced 
as  a  substitute.  This  was  more  important  than  any  formal 
restatement  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  grace,  or  any  new  organ- 
ization of  the  church  according  to  the  biblical  ideal.  Hence  there 
appears  even  from  the  earliest  periods  in  the  Protestant  develop- 
ment a  new  theory  of  living — a  far  nobler  vision  of  what  it  is  to 
be  in  the  scriptural  sense  a  Christian  man.  Evidences  of  this  are 
to  be  found  in  almost  every  Confession,  whether  Lutheran  or 
Calvinistic,  and  in  the  writings  of  almost  every  prominent  Re- 
former. In  a  word,  Protestantism  from  the  first  planted  itself 
on  this  spiritual  concept,  not  merely  as  a  theory  of  living  to  be 
urged  upon  the  reason  and  the  conscience,  but  also  as  a  practical 
test  and  measure  of  its  great  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in 
Christ  only — a  test  and  measure  of  Christianity  itself. 

It  is  an  exceedingly  interesting  study  to  note  how  this  concept 
grows,  broadens,  matures,  in  the  bright  succession  of  the  Protest- 
ant creeds  and  theologies.  Sometimes,  in  the  stress  of  the 
struggle  against  the  assumptions  of  Rome,  it  is  retired  compara- 
tively from  view  ;  sometimes,  in  the  conflict  with  error  arising 
within  the  Protestant  domain  itself,  it  seems  to  become  relatively 
subordinate.  In  some  cases  it  is  stated  in  terms  too  brief  or  too 
vague  to  be  easily  apprehended  ;  and  in  some  the  true  doctrine 
is  seen  to  be-still  enveloped  in  the  web  of  papal  error.  Yet  it  is 
one  of  the  grandest  evidences  of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, that  this  fundamental  conception  was  not  only  rooted  deepl)r 
in  the  conviction  of  all  parties,  but  continued  to  grow  and  unfold 
itself  like  a  flower,   decade  by  decade,  until  at  last  in  the  later 


GENERAL    CONCEPTION.  405 

formularies  it  presents  itself  in  the  largest  measure  of  complete- 
ness which  it  was  possible  for  the  sanctified  mind  of  that  era  to 
reach.  Personal  union  with  Christ,  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit, 
faith  and  repentance,  the  Bible  as  the  rule  of  obedience,  right- 
eousness and  truthfulness  and  charity  and  unselfish  consecration 
to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  moral  welfare  of  the  world, — these 
came  by  degrees  to  be  not  only  the  very  essence  of  belief,  but  also 
the  supreme  law  of  conduct — the  vital  characteristic  of  the  true 
Protestant.  And  in  the  five  chapters  in  the  Confession  just 
named,  together  with  the  chapters  that  immediately  follow,  we 
have  the  consummation  of  the  process,  in  terms  alike  of  the 
loftiest  thought  and  of  the  purest  experience.  This  is  a  fact 
which  those  who  misconceive  and  misrepresent  the  Westminster 
Symbols,  as  if  they  were  mere  definitions  of  dogma,  sadly  overlook. 
The  palpable  and  redeeming  fact  in  the  case  is  that  the  Confession 
and  the  Catechisms  are  saturated  alike  with  this  practical  and 
spiritual  quality.  One  of  the  finest  illustrations  of  this  character- 
istic may  be  found  in  the  Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge  .  .  .  together 
with  the  Practical  Use  Thereof,  which  though  without  full  ecclesi- 
astical warrant,  well  represents  the  general  sentiment  of  these 
formularies.  The  chief  general  use  of  Christian  Doctrine,  says 
that  treatise,  is  to  convince  a  man  of  sin  and  of  righteousness  and 
of  judgment ;  partly  by  the  law  or  covenant  of  works,  that  he 
may  be  humbled  and  become  penitent ;  and  partly  by  the  gospel 
or  covenant  of  grace,  that  he  may  become  an  unfeigned  believer 
in  Jesus  Christ,  and  be  strengthened  in  his  faith  upon  solid 
grounds  and  warrants,  and  give  evidence  of  the  truth  of  his  faith 
by  good  works,  and  so  be  saved. 

In  turning  from  this  introductory  survey  to  study  the  grand 

theme  itself,  it  becomes  necessary  at  once  to  frame  some  definite 

conception   of   the    Christian   L,ife,    not 

i  ,    ,   .     ,.  ,  '  2.    General  Conception 

merely  as  presented  in  the  creeds,  but     of  tne  Cnristian  Llfe. 

also  as  developed  practically  within  the 

domain  of  Protestantism  during  the  centuries  that  have  inter- 
vened since  these  five  chapters  were  wrought  into  the  Confession 
of  Faith.  What  is  needed  at  this  point,  in  other  words,  is  a 
working  definition  of  the  phrase, — one  which  will  enable  the  mind 
to  discriminate  on  one  side  between  this  type  of  living  and  all 
others,  and  on  the  other  side  duly  to  appreciate  this  type  of  life 
in  its  essential  qualities  and  in  its  superhuman  grandeur.  Here 
it  should  be  noted  as  a  primal  fact  that  the  Christian  life,  contem- 
plated as  an  ideal,  is  neither  a  speculation  evolved  by  philosophic 


±66  THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

analysis  of  human  nature,  nor  a  dream  of  poetry  originating  in 
the  elevated  fancy  of  man.  That  life  is  not  to  be  regarded 
as  something  which  has  sprung  into  existence  through  human 
wit  or  wisdom,  or  as  a  product  of  the  developing  experience  of 
the  race,  however  elevated  by  culture  or  beautified  by  esthetic 
sentiment  or  ennobled  by  natural  morality.  He  who  so  conceives 
of  it  misses  altogether  its  real  significance.  In  a  word,  it  is  fun- 
damental to  all  right  or  helpful  apprehensions,  that  the  Christian 
life  should  be  regarded  as  radically  and  absolutely  supernatural: — 
as  throughout  a  life,  in  Pauline  phrase,  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 
This  is  the  primal  fact  which  differentiates  it  decisive^  from  the 
life  of  the  unregenerate  world. 

It  is  obvious  as  another  primal  fact  that  the  only  accurate  or 
adequate  description  of  this  type  of  life  must  be  derived  from  the 
Scriptures.  No  ancient  traditions,  no  ecclesiastical  prescripts,  no 
ordinances  or  decrees  of  the  church,  no  counsels  or  injunctions  of 
men,  even  though  they  were  apostles  in  zeal  or  knowledge,  can 
define  this  life  properly,  apart  from  the  Holy  Oracles.  The  same 
Spirit  who  creates  the  Christian  man,  has  in  his  own  words  por- 
trayed the  Christianized  manhood,  pointed  out  its  inherent  graces, 
prescribed  the  virtues  essential  to  it,  laid  down  the  laws  and 
methods  of  its  development,  provided  the  sources  of  its  culture, 
and  indicated  the  spiritual  end  toward  which  it  must  ever  aspire. 
The  Bible,  in  a  word,  as  the  inspired  message  of  God  to  mankind, 
is  the  only  authoritative  witness  to  the  nature  or  characteristics 
of  the  Christian  life,  and  from  its  lessons  there  can  be  no  legiti- 
mate departure.  The  spiritualized  consciousness  may  indeed  bear 
helpful  testimony  to  the  reality  and  nature  of  that  life,  and  the 
unfolding  experience  of  the  multitudo  fidelium,  the  true  Church 
of  God,  may  abundantly  confirm  what  the  individual  conscious- 
ness manifests.  But  the  final  authority  and  test  must  be  found 
in  the  inspired  Word  alone,  and  in  that  Word  as  illuminated  and 
applied  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  specific  elements  or  characteristics  of  the  Christian  life  are 
easily  discerned.  We  may  here  briefly  note  four  particular  features 
of  that  life:  its  ideal,  its  motive,  its  law,  and  its  vital  manifesta- 
tions. First  of  all,  the  one  and  sole  ideal  is  Christ  himself,  in  the 
perfection  of  his  personal  qualities  and  virtues,  and  in  both  his 
teaching  and  his  example.  In  his  presence,  as  apprehended  by 
the  true  disciple,  all  standards  of  natural  ethics,  all  precepts  of 
earthly  policy,  all  worldly  examples  however  bright  or  eminent, 
fade  away.  The  believer  is  not  governed  even  by  the  law  of  God, 
regarded  as  an  abstract  rule  of  action,  strict  and  clear  and  in  some 


CHARACTERISTIC   ELEMENTS.  467 

sense  fearful  in  its  impersonal  sway.  Not  even  the  teachings  and 
commandments  of  Christ  himself,  considered  apart  from  his  holy 
personality,  can  be  made  the  supreme  canon  of  Christian  living. 
It  is  in  the  personal  Christ  alone,  in  all  that  constitutes  him  our 
prophet  and  priest  and  king,  ruling  alike  by  his  words  and  his 
illustrative  action,  and  becoming  himself  the  vivid  law  that  regu- 
lates thought  and  purpose  and  activity, — in  this  personal  Christ 
alone,  as  he  himself  abundantly  declared,  that  the  Christian  finds 
his  supreme  and  sufficient  ideal.  He  is  both  author  and  finisher 
of  faith,  not  merely  in  the  sense  of  having  both  begun  and  com- 
pleted by  himself  that  scheme  of  redemption  on  which  faith 
reposes,  but  as  being  in  the  added  sense  the  one  sole  object  on 
which  the  eye  of  faith  loves  to  rest  for  guidance,  and  in  which 
the  heart  of  faith  more  and  more  rejoices,  as  the  believer  moves 
on  and  upward  in  the  regenerate  experience. 

Secondly :  the  central  motive  in  Christian  living  is  love,  in  the 
biblical  significance  of  that  word.  Primarily  it  is  love  toward 
God  in  his  threefold  personality,  and  specially  in  view  of  his 
gracious  manifestation  of  himself  in  the  Gospel, — that  love  which 
is  substantially  lacking  in  the  unrenewed  nature,  but  which  flows 
into  the  soul  whenever  quickened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  becomes 
a  supreme  and  absorbing  sentiment  within  the  breast, — that  love  to 
God  which  Christ  has  enjoined  upon  his  followers 'as  the  first  and 
greatest  commandment.  Consequent  upon  this  is  that  Christlike 
love  for  all  men  of  whatever  class  or  condition,  in  whatever  degra- 
dation or  misery  involved,  which  the  Lord  himself  inculcated  in 
many  a  parable  and  precept,  and  of  which  his  whole  life,  and 
specifically  his  mediatorial  mission  and  his  atoning  passion  were 
the  bright  illustration.  It  is  an  aphorism  that  he  who  does  not 
thus  love  his  fellow  men  and  count  them  as  neighbors  in  the  New 
Testament  sense,  cannot  rightly  claim  the  name  of  Christian. 
Connected  with  this  generic  love  of  humanity  stands  that  specific 
caritas,  that  special  affection  toward  the  whole  household  of  faith 
and  to  each  true  disciple,  by  which  all  who  heartily  follow  Christ 
as  their  ideal,  are  drawn  and  held  together  within  the  sacred  fel- 
lowship and  communion  of  saints.  Such  elevated  and  sanctifying 
love,  expressing  itself  in  these  three  directions,  is  an  essential, 
indispensable  element  in  the  Christianized  character, — a  virtue 
rising  in  quality  and  scope  far  above  all  the  prescripts  of  human 
morality, — a  grace  superior  even,  as  an  apostle  testifies,  to  the 
faith  that  lays  hold  on  Christ  as  a  present  Savior,  or  to  the  hope 
that  aspires  to  everlasting  companionship  with  him  in  glory. 

Thirdly :  the  sole  rule  or  authority  in  the  Christian  life  is  the 


468  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

kingdom  of  heaven  established  within  the  soul  in  virtue  of  its  vital 
union  with  Christ  as  its  Redeemer  and  L,ord.  That  spiritual  king- 
dom is  introduced  in  the  covenant  of  loyalty,  in  the  bond  of  holy 
allegiance,  which  is  instituted  at  the  very  outset  of  the  Christian 
career.  Christ  himself  succinctly  describes  it  in  his  analysis  of 
the  seven  traits  which  characterize  distinctively  the  renewed  soul, 
and  in  his  description  of  the  seven  beatitudes  which  those  attain 
who  make  it  the  supreme  purpose  of  their  being  to  possess  these 
traits,  and  to  make  them  manifest  in  action,  as  his  loyal  adherents. 
In  its  final  development  it  is  a  kingdom  of  heaven  realized  in 
heaven  itself,  where  such  allegiance  binds  the  redeemed  spirit  to 
the  throne  of  God  in  happy  service  and  worship  forever.  But  as 
it  is  experienced  in  the  present  life  it  is  a  kingdom  of  heaven  also, 
as  distinguished  from  all  earthly  authority  or  sway — a  state  of  soul 
which  lifts  its  possessor  above  mere  human  law  or  influence, 
enables  it  to  discard  the  authorities  or  requisitions  of  the  world 
as  controlling  motives,  helps  it  to  know  and  acknowledge  but  one 
rule  only,  and  leads  it  on  to  an  obedience  which  is  ever  prompt 
and  faithful  because  it  springs  from  love,  and  which  holds  the 
Christianized  man  in  unswerving  loyal t)^  through  all  time,  through 
all  eternity. 

Fourthly  :  we  have  in  the  list  of  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  as 
furnished  by  Paul  in  his  letters  to  the  Galatian  and  the  Ephesian 
saints,  and  in  the  noble  list  of  virtues  commended  by  Peter  to  the 
believers  scattered  throughout  Asia,  an  exhibition  of  the  specific 
qualities  which  differentiate  the  Christian  life  from  all  other 
living.  These  are  unselfish  qualities,  having  their  origin  not  in 
the  selfhood  of  the  natural  man,  but  in  the  corrective  movement 
and  impress  of  the  Spirit  on  the  soul ; — they  are  unworldly  traits, 
having  no  close  affinity  with  those  elements  of  character  which 
attract  the  natural  eye,  or  make  their  possessor  conspicuous  in  the 
world  ; — they  are  distinctively  religious  traits,  never  springing  up 
in  minds  unaffected  by  divine  truth,  but  belonging  by  nature 
exclusively  within  the  sphere  of  true  piety  ; — they  are  celestial 
qualities,  affiliating  their  possessor  not  with  ordinary  humanity, 
but  with  angels  and  the  sanctified.  They  are,  in  a  word,  Christ- 
like gifts  and  endowments,  graces  that  spring  from  union  with 
him,  virtues  which  he  both  illustrates  and  commends  to  his 
disciples  as  the  indispensable  and  the  beautiful  marks  of  their 
discipleship.  And  surely  it  is  a  most  suggestive  fact  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  speaking  in  the  Scriptures  does  not  content  himself 
with  general  statements  merely  as  to  the  Christianized  life,  but 
again  and  again — as  in  the  passages  referred  to — presents  these 


PRODUCT    OF   THE   SPIRIT.  469 

details  of  it  with  such  minuteness  of  language  and  such  glow  of 

coloring  as  make  it  impossible  for  the  student  of  Holy  Writ  to 

mistake  as  to  his  practical  teaching.     If  we  do  not  know,   know 

thoroughly  and  scientifically,  what  the  Christian  life  is  in  essence 

and  manifestation,  it  is  because  we  have  not  adequately  studied 

these  inspired  descriptions. 

The  Christian  Life  may  therefore  be  defined  as  a  supernatural 

mode  of  living,  induced  through  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit 

and  described  in  the  Scriptures,  having 

.,  .  ~,    .  .       ..    .j     ,        ,  ,  3.    Christian  Life  and  the 

the  personal  Christ  as  its  ideal  and  love     Holy  Sp|f|t .  th£ir  nltktUmSm 

as  its  inspiring  motive,   controlled  by 

the  authority  of  Christ  as  its  supreme  law,  and  characterized  by 
specific  graces  and  virtues  such  as  differentiate  it  essentially  from 
the  natural  life  of  man.  Accepting  this  as  a  working  definition 
of  the  phrase,  we  shall  now  find  it  important,  before  proceeding 
to  consider  the  specific  topics  involved  in  the  doctrine,  to  empha- 
size afresh  the  vital  relations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  such  a  type  of 
life.  It  has  already  been  said  that  such  a  development  in  char- 
acter is  to  be  regarded  as  thoroughly  supernatural :  it  belongs,  in 
other  words,  to  a  sphere  in  which  God  is  specifically  working 
to  produce  moral  results  which  would  be  wholly  unattainable 
without  his  ministrations.  As  in  conversion  and  regeneration  we 
found  two  persons  concerned,  the  divine  and  the  human  ;  and  as 
in  the  process  of  sanctification  we  discovered  a  gracious  coopera- 
tion between  the  divine  and  the  human  agent,  so  here  the  Chris- 
tian life  is  the  product,  not  of  the  divine  energy  acting  upon  man 
as  a  passive  recipient  merely,  but  of  that  energy  working  in  and 
through  the  human  person  as  a  conscious  and  willing  actor  in  the 
development  of  this  unique  spiritual  product.  That  the  position 
of  the  Christian  in  the  sweet  unfolding  of  such  a  life  is  one  of 
dependence,  is  true  beyond  question :  without  divine  help  and 
nurture  not  one  in  the  list  of  holy  graces  enumerated  by  Christ 
and  by  Paul  and  Peter  would  ever  spring  into  existence.  Yet  in 
and  throughout  the  transcendent  process  the  human  person  is 
himself  a  living  agent,  ever  working  with  the  Spirit,  and  ever 
accountable  on  his  side  for  those  contributing  endeavors  which 
are  as  truly  indispensable  as  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  the  beautiful 
result.  Believers  in  a  word  are,  in  the  terms  of  the  Confession, 
(XVI  :ii),  to  obey  the  divine  commandments,  because  such 
obedience  and  the  good  works  involved  in  it  are  the  fruits  and  evi- 
dences of  a  true  and  lively  faith:  and  in  this  way,  by  godly  living 
after  this  sort,  they  are — it  is  said — to  manifest  their  thankful- 
ness, strengthen  their  assurance,  edify  their  brethren,  adorn  the 


470  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

profession  of  the  Gospel,  stop  the  mouths  of  the  adversaries, 
and  glorify  God  whose  workmanship  they  are,  created  in  Christ 
Jesus  thereunto,  that,  having  their  fruit  unto  holiness,  they  may 
have  the  end,  eternal  life. 

Considering  more  specifically  the  relations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
the  development  of  such  a  type  of  living,  we  may  note  among 
the  essential  conditions  on  the  part  of  the  believer,  first,  abso- 
lute Trust  in  the  Spirit.  There  is  a  threefold  presentation  in 
Scripture  of  acceptable  religious  trust :  trust  in  God  the  Father 
in  the  broad  field  of  providence  and  moral  administration,  as 
supremely  wise  and  right  and  tender  in  his  dealings  with  men, 
and  specifically  with  the  believer ;  trust  in  God  the  Son  as 
Mediator,  the  prophet  and  priest  and  king,  effective  in  every 
gracious  office,  and  able  and  willing  to  save  unto  the  uttermost ; 
and  trust  in  God  the  Spirit,  within  the  sphere  wherein  he  specially 
works,  for  the  illumination,  effectual  call,  regeneration  and 
sanctifying  of  all  those  who  accept  the  salvation  offered  in  the 
Gospel.  What  is  here  to  be  emphasized  is  that  this  third  form 
of  religious  trust  is  just  as  real,  just  as  essential,  just  as  effica- 
cious in  the  matter  of  Christian  living,  as  either  of  the  preceding. 
It  is  a  grave  mistake  to  indulge  low  or  vague  conceptions  of  the 
relationship  thus  existing  between  the  Spirit  and  the  believer  : 
without  the  same  kind  and  the  same  measure  of  trust  which  is 
requisite  to  acceptance  with  Christ,  spiritual  life  could  not 
begin,  nor  could  it,  if  begun,  reach  any  worthy  consummation. 
And  such  trust  must  include  not  merely  belief  in  his  personality, 
and  confidence  in  his  character  and  word,  but  also  the  willingness 
to  commit  the  soul  to  him  entirely,  as  the  diseased  patient  com- 
mits his  case  to  a  wise  physician,  and  an  unswerving  assurance 
that  he  can  and  will  do  for  the  culture  of  the  Christly  life  all  that 
is  promised  in  the  Bible.  He  who  falls  short  at  this  point  can  no 
more  expect  to  attain  such  a  life,  than  he  who  hesitates  to  trust 
the  mediating  and  atoning  Savior.  As  we  confide  in  the  Spirit 
for  the  Scriptures  and  all  that  they  contain,  and  as  we  confide  in 
all  the  things  of  Christ  which  he  shows  unto  us,  so  and  in  equal 
measure  is  he  himself  to  be  trusted  at  every  stage  and  in  every 
experience  that  goes  to  make  up  the  renewed  life  in  Christ. 

Such  confidence  in  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  divine  Person  working 
supernaturally  both  upon  the  soul  and  within  it  in  order  to  induce 
holy  living,  is  on  the  broadest  philosophic  grounds  entirely 
reasonable.  His  character,  his  infinite  capacities  and  resources,  his 
actual  operation  in  thus  transforming  myriads  of  human  lives,  his 
renewing  and  sanctifying  and  perfecting  energy  as  tested  by  wide 


TRUST   IN   THE   SPIRIT.  471 

experiment,  warrant  the  demand  that  he  shall  be  trusted  implic- 
itly and  by  all  and  everywhere.  It  is  said  by  way  of  objection 
that  we  do  not  see  him  at  this  interior  work  as  we  see  the  Father 
in  his  unfolding  providence ;  but  surely  there  is  hardly  less  in 
providence  which  entirely  transcends  our  apprehension  and  is  just 
as  full  of  sacred  mystery.  It  is  said  that  we  cannot  discern  the 
Spirit  in  his  work  as  we  can  behold  the  incarnate  Son,  born 
visibly  into  human  life,  acting  historically  before  the  eyes  of  men, 
and  by  his  acts  and  miracles  compelling  us  to  believe  in  him.  But 
closer  view  reveals  the  fact  that  there  is  a  mystery  in  redemption 
as  wrought  by  Christ,  no  less  profound  or  impressive  than  that 
which  is  exhibited  in  providence — a  mystery  as  deep  as  that  which 
appears  in  the  production  of  a  godly  life  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is 
said  that  the  processes  of  grace  are  all  incomprehensible, — that  we 
cannot  discover  the  connection  between  the  instruments  employed 
and  the  result  produced  ;  and  above  all  that  we  can  neither  detect 
in  our  consciousness  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  nor  measure  the 
electric  force  he  employs  in  transmuting  our  dead  souls  into 
newness  of  life.  But  certainly  the  presence  of  such  mystery  can 
never  justify  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no  Holy  Ghost,  or  that 
the  doctrine  of  a  supernatural  work  wrought  by  him  in  human 
character  is  all  an  illusion.  So  long  as  in  conjunction  with  the 
mystery  there  is  made  manifest  in  consciousness  and  in  the  devel- 
opments of  personal  experience,  a  result  which  cannot  be  explained 
except  on  the  hypothesis  of  such  a  divine  person  present  and 
working  within  the  soul,  so  long  may  we  cherish  the  most  implicit 
faith  in  that  person,  and  unreservedly  intrust  our  entire  spiritual 
being  to  his  gracious  mediation  and  culture.  Contemplated  in  the 
purest  light  available,  such  commitment  may  be  not  only  justi- 
fied but  regarded  as  the  culminating  act  of  the  human  spirit — the 
last  and  supreme  form  of  that  trust  in  God  which  is  at  once  the 
greatest  necessity,  the  profoundest  impulse,  and  the  highest 
glory  of  man. 

Second  :  Obedience  to  the  Spirit.  The  Symbols  contain  many 
affirmations  of  the  fundamental  doctrine,  (L.  C.  91.  S.  C.  39)  that 
the  duty  which  God  requireth  of  man  is  all  summed  up  in  obedience 
to  his  revealed  will.  It  is  said  (XIX)  that  Adam  and  all  his  pos- 
terity are  bound,  even  under  the  covenant  of  works,  to  personal, 
entire,  exact  and  perpetual  obedience;  that  the  moral  law  stamped 
upon  the  heart  of  the  race,  doth  ever  bind  all,  as  well  justified  per- 
sons as  others,  to  the  obedience  thereof ;  and  that  this  obligation 
springs  not  merely  from  the  nature  of  the  law  itself,  but  in 
respect  of  the  authority  of  God  the  Creator  who  gave  it.     It  is  said 


472  THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

(VIII  :  iv)  that  Christ  himself  as  our  Mediator  was  made  under 
the  law  and  did  perfectly  fulfill  it;  and  that  this  perfect  obedience, 
active  as  well  as  passive,  was  an  essential  part  of  his  mediation 
and  sacrifice.  And  on  this  ground,  all  Christians  are  called  to  the 
duty  of  obedience,  personal  and  entire,  exact  a?id  perpetual,  and 
such  obedience,  exhibited  in  the  good  works  required  in  the  Gos- 
pel, is  declared  to  be  the  only  adequate  fruit  and  evidence  of  a 
justifying  faith.  In  a  word,  Christianity  is  a  type  of  religion 
which  begins  and  ends  in  obedience  to  the  revealed  will  of  God. 

What  should  here  be  noted  is  that  obedience  to  the  Spirit  is  one 
form,  and  in  certain  aspects  even  the  supreme  form,  of  such 
generic  obedience.  The  same  loyal  regard  to  the  divine  will 
which  should  be  cherished  toward  God  the  Father  or  God  the 
Son,  is  also  to  be  manifested  in  equal  measure  and  with  equal 
fidelity  toward  God  the  Holy  Ghost.  There  is  even  something 
special  to  be  recognized  in  this  third  form  of  obedience,  since  it  is 
the  Spirit  who  makes  the  divine  will  known  to  the  regenerated 
soul,  who  guides  the  soul  into  all  duty  as  really  as  into  all  truth, 
and  who  empowers  the  soul  to  do  whatsoever  is  laid  upon  it  as  a 
sacred  obligation.  As  in  the  mystery  of  prayer  he  maketh  inter- 
cession in  and  for  the  saint,  himself  in  a  true  sense  inditing  each 
petition  so  that  it  conforms  as  an  inward  desire  to  the  will  of  God 
in  his  comprehensive  ordering  of  the  universe,  so  the  Spirit  ani- 
mates the  saint  in  every  field  of  service,  guides  him  to  the  right 
solution  of  all  problems  of  duty,  directs  him  specifically  what  to 
do  for  God,  and  strengthens  him  to  meet  and  discharge  each  divine 
requirement.  Hence  obedience  to  the  Spirit  is  an  indispensable 
element  and  condition  in  Christian  living.  He  who  does  not  trust 
the  Spirit  sufficiently  to  obey  him,  and  to  obey  him  in  the  full 
sense  and  degree  just  described,  cannot  be  said  to  have  the  Spirit 
abiding  in  him,  to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit,  to  walk  in  and  with 
the  Spirit,  according  to  the  apostolic  delineations.  For  the  Spirit 
is  a  law  as  well  as  an  inspiration,  a  daily  guide  and  teacher  as  truly 
as  a  regenerating  power;  and  he  who  does  not  accept  the  Spirit  as 
one  would  accept  an  unerring  teacher  and  guide,  has  hardly 
entered  upon  the  beginnings  of  a  fruitful  Christian  life. 

It  is  true  that  this  conception  has  often  been  perverted  into 
error,  and  has  become  at  times  a  fountain  of  corrupting  supersti- 
tion. The  records  of  Christianity  furnish  abundant  illustrations 
of  false  teaching  and  false  living  that  have  sprung  from  inadequate 
apprehension  of  this  sublime  truth.  Men  have  fancied  that  their 
own  imaginings  or  their  own  dogmas  or  heresies  were  the  products 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  working  mystically  in  heart  and  brain.     The 


OBEDIENCE   TO   THE   SPIRIT:     COMMUNION.  173 

inner  light,  as  it  has  been  termed,  has  been  set  up  as  a  guide  to 
truth  or  to  duty,  even  where  the  alleged  truth  is  not  revealed  in 
Scripture,  and  in  some  instances  where  the  supposed  duty  is  at 
variance  with  the  requisitions  of  the  inspired  Word.  Gross  super- 
stitions, corrupt  practices,  even  deadly  sins,  have  sometimes  been 
justified  on  the  ground  that  they  were  suggested  or  imposed  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  The  corrective  to  all  such  aberrations  and 
mischiefs  is  to  be  found  in  one  simple  test — the  conformity  of  all 
these,  or  their  lack  of  conformity,  to  the  written  Scriptures.  If 
we  believe  that  these  Scriptures  were  truly  inspired  by  the  Spirit, 
so  that  what  we  hear  in  them  is,  in  the  strong  phrase  of  the  Con- 
fession, the  Spirit  speaking  in  the  Word,  then  his  subsequent 
speaking  immediately  to  the  soul,  if  indeed  he  ever  speaks  except 
in  conjunction  with  some  biblical  truth  or  precept,  must  be  in  har- 
mony with  what  he  has  already  made  known  in  the  Bible.  Our 
Confession  has  anticipated  much  of  modern  error  and  peril  at  this 
point,  in  its  declaration  (I  :  vi)  that,  while  the  inward  illumination 
of  the  Spirit  is  necessary  for  the  saving  understanding  of  the  Word 
revealed,  nothing  is  ever  at  any  time  to  be  added  authoritatively 
to  that  Word  either  by  the  traditions  of  men,  or  by  new  revelations 
of  the  Spirit :  Minutes,  111-113.  In  a  word,  the  Spirit  speak- 
ing in  the  Scriptures  and  the  Spirit  speaking  in  the  believing 
soul  is  ever  one  and  the  same  blessed  person,  and  is  ever  consistent 
with  himself. 

Third  :  Communion  with  the  Spirit.  The  student  of  the  teach- 
ings of  our  Lord  and  those  of  his  apostles  on  this  point  must  be 
impressed  with  the  variety,  the  freshness  and  the  strength  of  the 
imagery  employed  to  describe  the  peculiar  relationship  established 
through  grace  between  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  regenerate  soul. 
He  dwells  in  the  believer  and  the  believer  dwells  in  him  :  he 
abides  with  and  in  a  sense  inhabits  the  disciple,  as  God  dwells  in 
a  temple  dedicated  to  his  praise.  He  is  a  daily  teacher,  and  every 
saint  is  a  pupil  in  his  school ;  a  paraclete,  ever  ready  to  hasten  to 
the  Christian  at  whatever  hour  of  need  ;  a  comforter  ever  present 
with  his  tender  sympathy  and  care  ;  a  companion  and  friend 
walking  ever  by  the  side  of  those  whom  Christ  loves,  and  holding 
intercourse  habitually  with  them,  as  Christ  communed  with  the 
disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus.  All  true  prayer  is  prayer  in  the 
Spirit  in  the  sense  that  it  is  offered  in  harmony  with  his  will,  and 
under  his  guidance  :  and  the  believer  is  even  said  to  pray  by  the 
Spirit,  he  himself  praying  in  the  saint  and  for  him,  with  such 
groaning  and  intercession  as  we  can  never  fully  comprehend. 
Image  is  thus  added  to  image,  illustration  is  piled  upon  illustration, 


474  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

in  order  to  give  increased  emphasis  to  that  communion  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  Paul  associates  with  the  love  of  God  and  the 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  loftiest  benediction  that 
can  be  pronounced  upon  the  assemblies  of  the  saints. 

How  much  is  implied  in  such  communion  we  may  never  be  able 
in  this  life  to  comprehend.  It  is  certain  that  we  are  in  little  danger 
of  entertaining  exaggerated  conceptions  of  this  wonderful  fellow- 
ship, which  stands  out  so  singularly  in  the  Word  of  God  as  in 
some  sense  the  final  and  supreme  bestowment  of  divine  grace.  It 
is  true  that  serious  errors  have  arisen  at  this  point  also, — that 
false  doctrines  as  to  such  communion  have  at  times  corrupted  the 
church  and  impaired  the  life  of  individual  believers,  and  that  false 
practices  and  even  gross  vices  have  had  currency  in  Christendom, 
which  have  justified  themselves  by  appeal  to  this  transcendent 
truth — the  keystone  in  some  sense  in  the  arch  of  Christian  belief. 
In  the  Larger  Catechism  (105  :  113)  some  of  these  dangerous 
issues  are  detailed,  and  their  variance  with  the  divine  Word  de- 
clared. Other  Protestant  creeds  contain  similar  warnings  against 
the  perversion  of  this  blessed  verity.  But  the  truth  remains  not- 
withstanding all  such  error  :  trust  in  the  Spirit  ever  leads  on  to 
obedience,  and  obedience  opens  the  way  to  communion,  and  such 
communion  becomes,  as  it  must,  the  daily  inspiration  and  the 
regulative  principle  and  law  of  the  Christian  life.  And  well  may 
all  believers  in  all  lands  and  times  recite  together  the  ardent 
declaration  of  Luther  in  his  Catechism:  The  Holy  Ghost  has 
called  me  through  the  Gospel,  enlightened  me  by  his  gifts,  and 
sanctified  and  preserved  me  in  the  true  faith,  just  as  he  calls, 
gathers,  enlightens  and  sanctifies  the  whole  Christian  Church 
on  earth,  and  preserves  it  in  union  with  Jesus  Christ  in  the  one 
true  faith. 

Passing  from  these  more  generic  aspects  of  the  Christian  Life, 
and  contemplating  that  Life  in  its  beautiful  details  as  set  forth  in 

the  Symbols,  we  are  brought  at  once  to 
4.    Faith  defined:    creed     the  memorable  chapter  (XIV)  on  SVw- 
statements:    the  Protestant     .       ~  .J7       .„,  ^  „  ,    ,, 

doctrine.  in%  Fait'l>  Wltn  tne  equally  remarkable 

definitions  and  illustrations  found  in 
the  Catechisms:  L.  C.  72;  S.  C.  86.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that 
the  subject  of  religious  faith  received  such  marked  prominence  in 
Protestant  symbolism  generally.  The  Augsburg  Confession,  in 
its  strong  protest  against  the  papal  error  of  justification  through 
such  works  as  the  church  imposed,  declares  (Art.  IV)  that  men 
cannot  be  justified  before  God  by  their  own  powers,  merits  or 


FAITH    DEFINED  :     THE   PROTESTANT   DOCTRINE.  475 

works,  but  are  justified  freely  as  a  matter  of  grace  for  the  sake 
of  Christ  through  faith,  when  they  believe  that  they  are  received 
into  favor,  and  their  sins  forgiven  for  his  sake  only.  And  in  the 
Article  (XX)  on  Good  Works  the  faith  that  saves  is  more  fully 
defined :  The  name  of  faith  doth  not  only  signify  a  knowledge  of 
the  history,  which  may  be  in  the  wicked  and  in  the  devil,  but  it 
also  signifieth  a  faith  which  believeth  not  only  the  history,  but  also 
the  effect  of  the  history;  to  wit,  the  article  of  remission  of  sins, — 
that  through  Christ  we  receive  grace  and  righteousness  and  such 
remission  of  all  transgressions.  In  the  Formula  of  Concord,  the 
doctrine  of  salvation  through  faith  only  is  more  fully  elaborated, 
especially  in  Art.  Ill:  De  Justitia  Fidei.  A  brief  chapter,  De 
Fide,  appears  in  the  First  Helvetic,  and  one  much  more  extensive 
in  the  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  (XVI)  in  which  faith  is  formally 
defined  as  not  a  human  opinion  and  persuasion,  but  a  most  firm 
confidence  and  clear  and  steady  assent  of  the  mind,  a  most  certain 
apprehension  of  the  truth  of  God,  and  therefore  of  God  himself 
as  the  highest  good,  and  especially  of  the  divine  promise  and  of 
Christ  who  is  the  crown  of  all  promises — omnium  promissionum 
colophon.  The  Belgic  Confession  (XXII)  declares  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  kindleth  in  our  hearts  an  upright  faith,  which  embraces 
Jesus  Christ  with  all  his  merits,  appropriates  him  and  seeks  noth- 
ing more  besides  him.  .  .  .  Faith  is  the  instrument  which  holds 
us  in  communion  with  him  in  all  his  benefits, — which  benefits, 
when  they  become  ours,  are  more  than  sufficient  to  acquit  us  of 
our  sins.  Declarations  of  the  same  tenor  appear  in  nearly  all  the 
creeds,  and  most  elaborately  in  those  of  latest  date,  such  as  the 
Canons  of  Dort  and  the  Irish  Articles  which  (37)  define  justifying 
faith  as  not  only  the  common  belief  of  the  tenets  of  the  Christian 
religion  and  persuasion  of  the  truth  of  the  Word  of  God  in  gen- 
eral, but  also  a  particular  application  of  the  gracious  promises  of 
the  Gospel  to  the  comfort  of  our  own  souls,  whereby  we  lay  hold 
on  Christ  with  all  his  benefits. 

Such  statements  prepare  us  to  appreciate  the  terse  definition  in 
the  Shorter  Catechism:  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  a  saving  grace, 
whereby  we  receive  and  rest  upon  him  alone  for  salvation  as  he  is 
offered  to  us  in  the  Gospel.  The  Larger  Catechism  (72)  declares 
that  this  saving  grace  is  wrought  in  the  heart  of  a  sinner  by  the 
Spirit  and  Word  of  God, — that  it  carries  with  it  a  profound  con- 
viction of  sin  and  misery,  and  of  spiritual  disability  and  exposure 
to  eternal  loss  without  Christ, — that  it  inspires  assent  to  the  truth 
and  promises  of  the  Gospel,  and  leads  the  sinner  to  rest  on  Christ 
and  his  righteousness  for  the  pardon  of  sin  and  for  acceptance  in 


476  THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

the  sight  of  God  unto  salvation.  The  Confession  in  the  chapter 
now  under  examination  commences  with  a  declaration  that  saving 
faith  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  the  heart,  and  is  wrought  ordina- 
rily, and  also  strengthened  when  once  received,  by  the  ministry 
of  the  Word  and  by  the  right  use  of  the  sacraments  and  of  prayer. 
The  principal  acts  or  such  faith  are  admirably  enumerated  as 
accepting,  receiving  and  resting  upon  Christ  alone  for  justification, 
sanctification  and  eternal  life.  Elsewhere  it  is  affirmed  that  the 
Christian  believcth  whatsoever  is  revealed  in  the  Word,  for  the  author- 
ity of  God  himself  speaking  therein,  and  acts  according  to  what- 
ever is  there  taught.  Similar  distinctions  and  definitions  appear 
at  many  other  points  in  the  Symbols,  specially  in  conjunction  with 
what  is  said  respecting  the  mediation  of  Christ.  Grouping  all 
these  statements  together,  we  discern  here  another  illustration  of 
that  elaboration  and  fullness,  and  that  philosophic  exactness  in 
language  and  expression,  which  give  the  Symbols  of  Westminster 
such  marked  prominence  among  the  formularies  of  Protestantism. 
Like  the  phrase,  saving  understanding,  employed  to  describe 
something  more  and  higher  than  mere  natural  discernment  of 
religious  truth,  the  phrase,  saving  faith,  was  employed  by  the 
Assembly  (Minutes,  276)  to  distinguish  such  faith  from  all  other 
and  subordinate  uses  of  the  term,  such  as  intellectual  faith  in  the 
Bible  and  its  teachings,  the  faith  of  miracles,  the  faith  of  devils 
or  of  angels,  false  faith,  or  (in  an  objective  sense)  the  truth  on 
which  trust  is  reposed — the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  It 
was  used  by  the  advocates  of  Rome  in  the  age  of  Luther  and  sub- 
sequently, to  signify  rather  an  implicit  reliance  on  the  church,  the 
sacraments,  the  priesthood,  as  the  immediate  sources  of  salvation. 
The  Council  of  Trent  indeed  affirms  in  general  (Ch.  VIII.  in  the 
Decree  on  Justification)  that  faith  is  the  beginning  of  human 
salvation,  the  foundation  and  the  root  of  all  justification;  yet  in 
the  same  connection  it  speaks  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism  as  the 
instrumental  cause  of  such  justification,  represents  priestly  abso- 
lution as  an  essential  condition,  and  declares  such  good  works  as 
the  church  imposes,  to  be  indispensable  signs  and  evidences  that 
the  soul  is  justified.  The  ninth  canon  under  the  Decree  on  the 
Sacraments  pronounces  the  anathema  of  the  church  upon  any  one 
who  shall  say  that  in  the  three  sacraments,  baptism  and  confirma- 
tion and  order  or  ordination,  there  is  not  imprinted  on  the  soul 
receiving  them  a  character — that  is,  a  certain  spiritual  and  indel- 
ible sign  of  grace  and  salvation.  While  that  astute  Council  did 
not  attempt  to  justify  the  particular  abuses,  such  as  the  sale  of 
indulgences,  which  Luther  and  his  associates  were  so  strongly 


SAVING    FAITH  :     ITS   VALUE.  477 

opposing,  it  still  clung  to  that  subtle  dogma  of  justification  in  and 
through  the  church  which  stands  in  dark  antithesis  over  against 
the  nobler  conception  of  a  justification  wrought  out  through  Christ 
alone,  and  received  and  appropriated  by  faith  in  him  only. 

Protestantism  agreed  in  placing  such  faith  in  Christ  and  his 
mediatorial  work  in  the  foreground,  as  distinct  from  all  trust  in 
church  or  sacrament  or  priest  on  one  hand,  and  from  all  confidence 
in  self  or  in  human  worth  or  virtue  on  the  other : — such  faith 
including  on  one  side  implicit  belief  in  the  testimony  of  the  Scrip- 
tures concerning  the  Messiah  in  all  his  mediating  offices  and 
relations,  and  on  the  other  side  a  final,  complete,  irrevocable  trust 
in  the  salvation  thus  provided,  and  an  absolute  commitment  of 
the  soul  to  this  Savior  to  be  saved  in  this  way  and  in  this  way 
only.  In  the  terse  phrase  of  Edwards  (on  Justification)  faith  in- 
cludes the  whole  act  of  unition  to  Christ  as  a  Savior.  Christian 
faith,  says  Bushnell,  is  the  faith  of  a  transaction — the  trusting 
of  ourselves  as  beings  to  a  Being,  to  be  by  him  governed  and 
possessed  forever.  On  this  one  condition  salvation  was  made  by 
all  true  Protestants  to  turn  :  faith  in  Christ  only,  was  the  article, 
not  merely  of  a  standing  or  a  falling  church  as  Luther  declared, 
but  of  a  redeemed  or  ruined  soul  also.  The  Confession  recognizes 
the  fact  that  such  faith  may  be  strong  in  one  disciple  and  weak  in 
another,  and  that  it  may  be  often  and  many  ways  assailed  or  weak- 
ened :  and  is  careful  also  to  teach  that  such  faith  is  not  in  the  best 
case  a  meritorious  ground  of  salvation,  but  is  itself  a  gift  of  God, 
wrotight  in  the  believer  by  the  Spirit  and  the  Word,  and  is  a 
divinely  imposed  condition  simply — a  condition  without  whose 
presence  salvation  cannot  be  attained.  The  Larger  Catechism 
(73)  specially  guards  against  error  at  this  point  in  the  statement 
that  faith  does  not  justify  because  of  those  other  graces  which  do 
always  accompany  it,  or  of  good  works  which  are  the  fruits  of  it, 
nor  as  if  the  grace  of  faith  was  itself  imputed  for  justification,  as 
the  earlier  Arminianism  had  suggested;  but  only  as  it  is  an  instru- 
ment by  which  the  believer  receiveth  and  applieth  Christ  and  his 
righteousness.  Reynolds  in  one  of  his  sermons  before  the 
Assembly  aptly  said  that  faith  justifies  as  a  window  is  said  to  en- 
lighten a  room,  because  it  is  most  apt  (fitted)  to  let  in  that  light 
which  comes  from  another  body.  How  far  such  a  spiritual  con- 
ception rises  above  the  subtle  and  misleading  decrees  and  canons 
of  Trent,  or  above  any  doctrine  of  grace  which  more  recent 
Catholicism  has  enunciated,  it  is  not  difficult  for  the  careful 
student  to  see. 

Two  specific  topics  here    demand   brief    consideration  :    the 


478  THE    CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

reasonableness  of  saving  faith,  and  its  peculiar  value  as  an  active 

force  in  character  and  in  religious  living.     In  the  general  sense 

of   confidence  or   trust,    faith  under- 
5.    Saving   faith  reason-     lies  the  entire  life  of  man      In  its  most 

able:  its  power  in  character        ,.    A.        r  .^  .         ,. 

and  life  subjective    form,   it  is   reliance    upon 

the  action  of  our  own  rational  facul- 
ties— trust  in  ourselves  as  real  and  thinking  persons.  Objectively, 
it  is  the  assurance  we  feel  respecting  what  lies  beyond  our- 
selves, as  the  existence  of  an  external  world,  the  laws  of  nature, 
the  impersonal  forces  at  work  about  us.  In  the  Catechism  of 
Cyril  L,ucaris,  there  is  a  striking  statement  of  the  presence  and 
office  of  faith  in  the  ordinary  life  of  man  :  Everything  which  is 
done  in  the  world,  even  by  men  who  are  unconnected  with 
the  Church,  is  done  by  faith.  Agriculture  is  founded  on  faith  : 
for  one  who  did  not  believe  that  he  should  gather  in  the  increase 
of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  would  not  undertake  the  labor  of 
husbandry.  Mariners  are  guided  by  faith  when  the  intrust  their 
fate  to  a  slight  plank,  and  prefer  the  agitation  of  the  unstable 
waters  to  the  more  stable  element  of  the  earth.  They  retain  for 
themselves  nothing  but  faith,  to  which  they  trust  more  than  to  any 
anchor. — Faith  in  man  involves  another  element,  confidence  in  his 
judgment  and  his  voluntary  and  moral  nature, — a  confidence 
which  underlies  all  human  action  and  fellowship,  and  without 
which  human  society  in  its  varied  forms  could  not  exist.  Such 
reliance  is  as  natural  to  man  as  his  own  breathing,  and  in  some 
variety  it  flows  into  and  becomes  an  active  principle  in  all  human 
life.  Religious  faith,  speaking  broadly,  is  simply  this  instinctive 
and  comprehensive  trust  in  that  which  lies  outside  of  ourselves, 
and  especially  in  our  fellow  men,  elevated  and  applied  specifically 
to  God, — the  soul  resting  comprehensively  on  his  character,  his 
administration,  his  revealed  grace.  In  its  highest,  its  saving 
form,  it  is  such  confidence  in  God  in  view  of  sin  and  condemna- 
tion,— an  assurance  that  he  is  able  to  deliver,  and  that  in  Christ  he 
does  deliver  those  who  believe  on  him  from  all  sinfulness  and  guilt, 
and  an  unreserved  casting  of  the  soul  on  his  plan  of  mercy  as  the 
only  provision  for  restoration  to  holiness  and  to  the  divine  favor 
and  fellowship.  In  this  aspect  saving  faith  is  not  a  single  voli- 
tion or  a  transient  act,  or — as  Lessing  held — a  temporary  leaning 
on  authority  until  reason  is  developed,  or  any  merely  provisional 
stage  in  the  intellectual  or  moral  life  ;  but  rather  a  permanent 
state  of  the  soul — a  holy  condition  or  disposition,  which  hence- 
forth animates  the  whole  man  forever,  and  determines  alike  his 
acts  and  his  character  for  all  the  future. 


CHRISTIAN    FAITH    REASONABLE.  479 

Viewed  in  the  calmest,  most  philosophic  aspect,  such  trust  as 
this  is  the  most  reasonable  action  which  man,  contemplated  as 
a  sinner,  can  ever  perform.  There  are  indeed  expressions  in  the 
Symbols  and  in  other  Protestant  creeds,  and  there  is  much  in 
Protestant  theology,  earlier  and  later,  which  would  impl}'  that 
such  trust  is  an  act  of  the  soul  altogether  above  and  beyond 
reason — if  indeed  it  be  not  even  an  act  against  which  the  natural 
reason  protests.  The  language  of  Paul  in  his  Corinthian  letters, 
and  also  some  utterances  of  our  Lord  himself,  are  quoted  in  the 
support  of  such  opinions.  But  the  deeper,  wiser  view  compels  a 
careful  correction  of  such  statements  and  interpretations.  It  is  true 
that,  in  the  phrase  of  Coleridge,  reason  has  its  own  horizon,  while 
religious  faith  has  another  and  broader  horizon,  so  that  those  who 
exercise  such  faith  are  enabled  to  discern  truth,  to  perceive  and  rest 
upon  divine  verities,  which  the  natural  man  may  not  discern,  or 
which  to  his  narrower  understanding  may  seem  to  be  foolishness. 
Yet  in  the  largest  sense  there  is  nothing  either  in  the  objects  thus 
discerned  by  an  intelligent  faith,  or  in  the  act  of  accepting  these 
objects  as  real  and  resting  absolutely  upon  them  for  time  and 
for  eternity,  against  which  clarified  and  calm  reason  will  ever 
protest.  The  Christian  compromises  nothing  in  his  rational  nature 
when  he  determines  to  believe  in  the  verities  of  our  holy  religion, 
and  to  live  on  the  hypothesis  that  they  are  true,  true  now  and 
true  forever.  In  this  sense  he  may,  in  the  language  of  an  apostle, 
give  a  reason  to  every  man  who  asks  for  a  rational  justification 
of  the  faith  that  is  in  him.  Just  as  we  may  firmly  maintain  that 
there  are  no  intrinsic  contradictions  between  the  teachings  of 
Scripture  and  the  philosophy  or  the  science  of  men  within  the 
same  departments  of  knowledge,  so  we  may  in  the  broadest  sense 
maintain  the  glorious  reasonableness,  not  merely  of  the  doctrines 
we  cherish,  but  of  the  absolute  and  happy  commitment  of  our- 
selves and  our  destinies  to  what  by  the  help  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
we  thus  discern  and  believe. 

That  such  faith  is  this,  when  admitted  into  the  breast,  be- 
comes at  once  not  only  a  permanent  state  or  disposition  of  the 
soul,  but  also  a  powerful  operative  force  in  character,  and  a  dom- 
inating temper  in  the  moral  life,  is  obvious.  In  the  language  of 
the  first  Helvetic  Conf.  such  faith  doth  first  send  out  of  itself 
charity,  and  then  very  excellent  fruits  of  all  virtues.  There  is 
indeed  a  degree  of  justice  in  the  criticism  made  upon  the  Symbols 
and  on  the  Protestant  formularies  generally,  to  the  effect  that 
they  represent  faith  too  much  on  its  passive  side,  as  a  simple 
receiving   and   reposing  on  the  promises  of  God  in  the  Gospel 


480  THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

— an  inert  and  inoperative  resting  on  Christ  and  his  grace, 
which  leaves  nothing  for  the  soul  further  to  do  or  bear  in  the 
interest  of  its  salvation.  But  the  vital  fact  is  that  saving  faith  is  a 
voluntary  and  a  moral  as  well  as  an  intellectual  matter,  both 
explicit  and  implicit  ;  that  the  will  and  the  conscience  as  truly 
as  the  sentiment  of  trust  become  engaged  in  it ;  that  in  a  word, 
it  involves  and  possesses  the  entire  man,  and  animates  with  new 
energy  his  thoughts,  his  feelings,  his  purposes,  his  entire  life.  A 
holy  concord  becomes  at  once  apparent  between  his  perceptions, 
his  emotions,  and  his  will ;  and  thus  converted,  the  man  begins  at 
once  to  show  the  electric  energy  of  such  faith  in  all  his  actions, 
and  throughout  his  moral  living. 

History  tells  us  what  faith,  in  the  general  sense  of  the  term,  has 
done  for  men  and  for  the  world, — what  mighty  works  it  has  per- 
formed, what  victories  it  has  won,  what  vast  changes  it  has 
wrought  and  is  continually  working  in  ordinary  life.  But  when 
a  genuinely  religious  faith  enters  into  the  soul — when  that  soul 
truly  believes  and  rests  upon  what  God  has  revealed,  and  in  all 
sincerity  intrusts  itself  forevermore  to  the  Savior  and  the  salva- 
tion made  known  to  it  in  the  Gospel,  then  there  enters  into  the 
mind,  the  heart,  the  character,  an  energy  mightier  than  any  which 
it  is  possible  for  the  natural  man  to  experience.  The  writer  to 
the  Hebrews  has  presented  no  exaggerated  picture  of  what  such 
faith  has  actually  accomplished,  pathetic  beyond  all  compari- 
son and  almost  incredible  as  his  statements  seem.  The  sublime 
fact  is  that  similar  results  are  actually  reached  in  our  age  and  in 
every  age  as  truly  as  in  the  periods  of  which  the  apostle  wrote  ; 
faith  still,  as  in  the  stormy  era  of  the  Reformation,  subdues  king- 
doms, works  righteousness,  obtains  or  verifies  and  experiences 
the  promises,  and  in  multiplied  ways  proves  its  actual  and  supreme 
potency  in  human  life.  Such  faith  is  an  abiding  inspiration  in 
the  soul :  it  continually  works  by  love,  and  purifies  both  the 
heart  and  the  conduct  ;  it  is  the  fount  from  which  all  other  holy 
graces  and  virtues  flow,  and  the  perpetual  spring  of  all  Christian 
living.  A  truly  Christian  manhood  becomes  possible  only  through 
the  possession  and  the  influence  of  such  faith,  as  an  active  force 
resident  in  the  very  centers  of  the  moral  nature.  While  there- 
fore we  may  and  should  emphasize  the  passive  side  of  saving  faith 
— the  element  of  acceptation  and  repose  in  the  salvation  offered, 
as  if  that  salvation  were  a  strong  vessel  sent  to  convey  the  soul 
through  whatever  tempestuous  seas  into  the  haven  of  eternal  rest, 
we  are  bound  to  lay  equal  stress  on  this  faith,  regarded  as  an 
active  power,  penetrating  the  entire  man,  and  moving  him  on  with 


REPENTANCE  :     ITS   ESSENTIAL    ELEMENTS.  481 

superhuman  energy  to  such  Christian  living  and  fruitfulness  as 
will  demonstrate  both  its  reality  and  its  preciousness.  It  is  only 
as  we  contemplate  faith  on  this  side  of  it  that  we  are  enabled  to 
see  clearly  why  it  is  laid  down  as  a  primal  and  indispensable  con- 
dition of  salvation  ;  thus  viewed,  it  explains  away  all  difficulties, 
illuminates  the  mystery  of  regeneration,  shows  what  conversion  is 
and  means,  and  renders  the  conception  of  the  Christianized  Iyife 
the  grandest  vision  vouchsafed  to  man  this  side  of  heaven. 

The  remarkable  chapter  on  Saving  Faith  is  followed  in  the  Con- 
fession by  an  equally  important  chapter  (XV)  entitled,  Of  Re- 
pentance  unto  Life.      It   has  been  a 

,.  .,      *  ,    , ,  6.    Repentance     defined: 

question  among   theologians   whether     its  essential  elements. 

faith  or  repentance  should  be  consider- 
ed first  in  the  order  of  scientific  exposition.  Both  Catechisms 
follow  the  order  preferred  in  the  Confession,  and  this  is  the  more 
general  usage.  Calvin  affirms  (Inst.  B.  Ill  :  4)  that  repentance 
not  only  follows  faith,  but  is  produced  by  it.  But  his  subsequent 
discussion  shows  that  repentance  and  conversion  were  regarded 
by  him  as  nearly  synonymous  :  it  is  also  apparent  that  he  uses 
the  term,  faith,  in  a  sense  so  comprehensive  as  to  include  that 
godly  sorrow  for  sin  and  that  sincere  purpose  to  forsake  sin  which 
constitute  evangelical  repentance.  It  was  natural  that  the  Re- 
formers, in  their  ardent  struggles  against  the  false  conception  of 
faith  held  by  the  papal  church,  should  centralize  and  exalt  faith, 
in  the  nobler  sense  of  the  term,  as  the  comprehensive  and  the 
sole  condition  of  salvation.  And  it  may  have  been  feared  that 
the  introduction  of  repentance  as  in  some  sense  a  coordinate  con- 
dition, might  lead  to  an  undue  emphasizing,  as  indeed  appeared 
in  the  primitive  Arminianism,  of  the  human  factor  in  the  scheme 
of  grace.  Later  theologians  have  held  that  faith  is  the  means 
while  repentance  is  the  end,  and  that  while  faith  ever  leads  on 
to  repentance,  repentance  may  not  lead  to  or  result  in  saving 
faith.  It  has  been  held  also  that  the  reversal  of  this  order  in- 
volves certain  injurious  consequences,  such  as  the  conceiving  of 
repentance  as  a  legal  act,  and  the  interposing  it  as  such  between 
the  soul  and  Christ  as  the  object  of  trust  and  the  foundation  of 
hope. 

In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  establish  clearly  a  chronologic  order  in 
the  case,  since  each  experience  involves  and  presupposes  the  other. 
To  repent  of  sin  and  to  believe  in  Christ  as  a  Savior  from  sin  are 
really  two  aspects  of  one  and  the  same  spiritual  transaction.  As 
Bunyan  has  taught  us  in  his  great  allegory,  it  is  only  when  the 


482  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

sinner  stands  before  the  cross  and  discerns  the  Savior  crucified, 
that  he  throws  off  the  burden  of  his  sin,  and  sees  it  rolling  away. 
Some  recognition  of  Christ,  and  some  measure  of  appropriating 
faith  must  thus  be  involved  in  all  true  repentance.  On  the  other 
hand,  such  recognizing  and  appropriating  faith  seems  to  require 
as  its  condition  some  deep  consciousness  of  sin  and  guilt  and  im- 
pending doom,  such  as  will  impel  the  convicted  soul  to  look  away 
unto  Jesus  for  the  deliverance  it  needs.  The  practical  fact  is  that 
no  one  repents  worthily  except  in  the  sight  and  vision  of  Christ 
as  a  possible  Savior  from  sin  ;  nor  does  any  one  truly  attain  the 
sight  and  vision  of  Christ  without  finding  his  wicked  nature  sub- 
dued within  him,  and  his  eyes  filled  with  penitential  tears. 
Whether,  therefore,  we  place  faith  first  and  repentance  subsequent, 
as  the  Symbols  do,  or  reverse  the  order  of  the  two  elements,  we 
should  never  forget  that  both  are  in  reality  parts  of  the  same 
gracious  experience,  logically  set  in  a  certain  procession,  but 
chronologically  and  spiritually  one  and  inseparable.  So  we  should 
ever  interpret  the  tender  injunction  so  often  repeated  in  the  New 
Testament :  Repent  and  Believe. 

The  biblical  conception  of  acceptable  repentance  is  well  defined 
in  the  language  (87)  of  the  Shorter  Catechism  : — a  saving  grace 
whereby  a  sinner,  out  of  a  true  sense  of  his  sin,  and  apprehension 
of  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ,  doth  with  grief  and  hatred  of  his 
sin,  turn  from  it  unto  God  with  full  purpose  of  and  endeavor  after 
new  obedience.  The  Larger  Catechism  (76)  expands  the  definition 
in  terms,  but  adds  nothing  except  that  this  saving  grace  is  said 
to  be  wrought  in  the  heart  of  a  sinner  by  the  Spirit  and  Word  of 
God.  The  Confession  emphasizes  the  sense  of  the  filthiness  and 
odiousness  of  sin  as  contrary  to  the  holy  nature  and  righteous  law 
of  God,  and  defines  the  scope  of  repentance  in  the  declaration  that 
the  penitent  soul  is  henceforth  resolved  to  walk  with  God  in  all 
the  ways  of  his  commandments.  Other  descriptive  phrases  appear 
in  the  Minutes;  279,  and  elsewhere.  Such  an  experience  is  of 
course  to  be  radically  differentiated  from  all  experiences  that 
might  seem  to  be  in  any  way  related  to  it ; — from  natural  regret 
arising  from  some  perception  of  the  loss  or  other  harmful  conse- 
quence, providential  or  retributive,  that  may  be  following  after 
indulgence  in  transgression  ; — from  moral  remorse,  the  sting  of 
outraged  conscience,  in  view  not  so  much  of  evil  results  flowing 
from  a  sinful  course,  but  rather  of  the  intrinsic  wrong,  the  sense 
of  wickedness  in  the  sight  of  the  personal  reason  and  judgment, 
that  must  rise  up  occasionally  in  every  soul  not  seared  and  dead- 
ened by  personal  sin  ; — also  from  what  may  be  termed  penitence, 


CONVICTION    AND    RENUNCIATION.  483 

such  as  that  of  Judas,  springing  up  in  the  form  of  intense  convic- 
tion, and  even  of  despair,  in  the  contemplation  of  sin  as  committed 
before  God.  These  experiences  doubtless  exist  in  numberless 
instances,  and  in  measures  more  or  less  marked,  even  where  the 
Bible  has  never  gone  to  convince  men  of  sin  and  righteousness 
and  judgment,  and  still  more  often  among  the  multitudes  who 
have  heard  its  faithful  testimony  but  have  still  been  unwilling  to 
turn  away  from  their  transgressions.  They  are  never  to  be  con- 
founded with  that  biblical  repentance  which,  in  the  phrase  of 
Paul,  is  not  to  be  repented  of — the  repentance  unto  life. 

Calvin  has  comprehensively  defined  acceptable  repentance  as  a 
true  conversion  of  our  life  to  God,  proceeding  from  a  sincere  and 
serious  fear  of  God,  and  consisting  in  the  mortification  of  our  flesh 
and  of  the  old  man,  and  in  the  vivification  of  the  Spirit.  The 
Augsburg  Confession  (Art.  XII)  says:  Repentance  consisteth 
properly  of  two  parts;  one  is  contrition,  or  terrors  stricken  into 
the  conscience  through  the  acknowledgment  (or  recognition)  of 
sin;  the  other  is  faith,  which  is  conceived  by  the  Gospel,  and  doth 
believe  that  for  the  sake  of  Christ  sins  be  forgiven,  and  comforteth 
the  conscience  and  freeth  it  from  terrors.  The  Catechism  of  Hei- 
delberg defines  repentance  as  twofold;  the  dying  of  the  old  man 
and  the  quickening  of  the  new, — heartfelt  sorrow  for  sin  on  the 
one  side,  causing  us  to  hate  it  and  turn  from  it  always  more  and 
more,' — heartfelt  joy  in  God  on  the  other  side,  causing  us  to  take 
delight  in  living  according  to  the  will  of  God  in  all  good  works. 
The  Second  Helvetic  Conf .  teaches  that  repentance  is  a  change  of 
heart  produced  in  a  sinner  by  the  word  of  the  Gospel  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  includes  a  knowledge  of  native  and  actual 
depravity,  a  godly  sorrow  and  hatred  of  sin,  and  a  determination 
to  live  hereafter  in  virtue  and  holiness.  Repentance,  say  the  Irish 
Articles  (40),  is  a  gift  of  God  whereby  godly  sorrow  is  wrought 
in  the  heart  of  the  faithful  for  offending  God,  their  merciful 
Father,  through  their  former  transgressions,  together  with  a  con- 
stant resolution  for  the  time  to  come  to  cleave  unto  God  and  to 
lead  a  new  life.  One  of  the  Confessions  embodies  the  whole  in  the 
simple  declaration,  that  true  repentance  is  turning  to  God  and  all 
good,  and  turning  away  from  the  devil  and  all  evil.  Nearly  all  of 
the  Protestant  creeds  contain  similar  definitions,  though  with  some 
confusion  in  many  cases  between  repentance  and  faith  on  one 
hand,  and  repentance  and  conversion  as  a  consequence  of  faith 
on  the  other. 

Recurring  to  the  Westminster  definition,  which  is  more  full  and 
exact  than  any  of  its  predecessors  in  the  confessional  series,  we 


484  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

find  the  substance  of  repentance  to  consist  in  the  two  elements,  con- 
viction and  renunciation; — the  first  implying  a  deep  and  adequate 
sense  of  sin,  not  merely  as  an  offense  to  the  conscience  or  reason, 
but  as  a  transgression  of  the  law  of  God,  and  a  crime  against  him 
as  our  Father  and  our  King ; — the  second  implying  the  actual 
forsaking  of  all  sin  as  an  element  in  the  life,  and  a  solemn  purpose 
to  walk  henceforth  in  the  ways  of  holiness,  in  obedience  full  and 
cordial  to  all  divine  commands.  And  we  are  further  taught 
that  this  doctrine  of  repentance  is  to  be  preached  by  every  minister 
of  the  Gospel,  as  well  as  that  of  faith  in  Christ,  on  the  ground  that 
this  evangelical  grace,  as  it  is  termed,  is  an  essential  element 
always  in  true  piety  :  none  may  expect  pardon  without  it.  To 
emphasize  the  obligation,  we  are  told  on  one  side  that  the  smallest 
sin  unrepented  of  deserves  damnation,  and  on  the  other  that  the 
greatest  sin  may  be  forgiven  to  those  who  truly  repent.  Still 
further,  it  is  enjoined  that  men  should  not  content  themselves 
with  merely  general  sorrow  for  their  sinfulness,  but  should  repent 
each  one  for  himself  of  his  particular  sins,  particularly:  and  this 
is  to  be  done,  not  because  the  sinner  can  render  any  satisfaction 
for  his  sins  or  purchase  pardon  by  way  of  merit  in  consequence  of 
such  repentance,  but  because  God  commandeth  all  men  every- 
where to  repent,  as  it  is  his  supreme  right  to  command.  It  will 
be  seen  that  these  statements  cover  the  whole  ground,  as  it  had 
not  been  covered  by  any  antecedent  symbol ;  and  it  is  a  suggest- 
ive fact  that  the  solemn  and  searching  doctrine  here  enjoined  has 
not  been  modified  in  any  particular  by  more  recent  investigation. 
Now  as  in  the  era  of  the  Assembly,  and  through  all  the  future, 
such  repentance  must  remain  in  its  fullness  as  one  of  the  indis- 
pensable elements  in  the  gracious  process  of  salvation. 

It  may  be  profitable,  before  passing  to  consider  other  interesting 
features  of  the  Christian  Life  as  described  in  the  Symbols,  to  note 

briefly  the  marked  spiritual  contrast 

7.    Protestant  and  Papal     between   this   Protestant   doctrine    of 
doctrines  contrasted:    Con-  ,    ,,       „  _,,_.,    ,. 

fession  of  Sin  repentance   and   the    Roman  Catholic 

conception.  The  Roman  analysis  of 
repentance  presents  three  elements,  attritio  cordis,  confessio  oris, 
satisfactio  opcris.  The  analysis  is  worthy  of  careful  study,  and 
the  definition  derived  from  it  might,  so  far  as  the  language  goes, 
be  accepted  by  Protestants  as  adequate.  The  attritio  cordis, 
or  contrition  of  spirit  in  view  of  sin,  is  an  essential  element  in 
evangelical  repentance:  so  also  are  the  confessio  oris,  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  our  transgressions  before  God;  and  the  satisfactio 
operis,  or  the  desire  to  make  reparation  for  any  offense  against 


PAPAL  AND  PROTESTANT  DOCTRINE  COMPARED.     485 

him  or  against  our  fellow  men.  He  in  whom  these  three  elements 
are  found,  if  the  language  is  interpreted  in  a  proper  biblical  sense, 
may  justly  be  regarded  as  a  penitent  soul  such  as  God  in  the 
Gospel  has  promised  to  pardon  and  to  save.  But  we  are  con- 
strained to  ask  whether  this  contrition  of  spirit  be  indeed  the 
genuine  and  deep  conviction  which  the  Scriptures  require,  or  is 
rather  the  unprofitable  penitence  of  men  like  Esau  or  Judas,  or 
mere  remorse  of  conscience,  or  natural  regret  simply,  or — what  is 
still  inferior — a  sense  of  shame  or  humiliation  in  view  of  some 
departure  from  the  imposed  requisitions  of  the  church.  Wemay 
properly  inquire  whether  this  confession  of  the  mouth  is  that 
hearty  and  unreserved  acknowledgment  before  God  for  sins  com- 
mitted against  his  holy  law  which  he  requires,  or  is  merely  a 
confession  to  the  priesthood,  imposed  as  a  condition  of  receiving 
the  mass — a  confession  covering  only  minor  offenses  against 
ecclesiastical  law,  or  perchance  an  acknowledgment  of  some 
relatively  trivial  form  of  wrong-doing.  So  we  may  justly  ask 
whether  the  satisfaction  in  act  is  that  cordial  disposition  to  undo 
all  evil  done,  to  forsake  all  sin  as  related  to  others,  to  live  a  truly 
holy  life  in  obedience  to  the  divine  commands,  or  is  simply  some 
partial  and  perfunctory  reparation,  or  submission  to  some  form  of 
penance  in  person  or  purse,  required  by  the  church  as  a  condition 
of  restoration  to  her  favor. 

In  pressing  these  questions  it  would  be  an  obvious  departure 
from  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  the  communion  of  saints,  to 
affirm  that  evangelical  repentance  is  an  experience  unknown 
within  the  papal  fold,  or  to  declare  that  there  are  but  few  within 
that  fold  whom  God  regards  as  truly  penitent  before  him,  and  in 
his  grace  accepts  exactly  as  he  accepts  us.  Unquestionably  there 
are  wide  differences  of  penitential  experience  within  the  church 
of  Rome,  specially  in  countries  where  greater  enlightenment  has 
been  enjoyed,  and  in  ages  such  as  our  own  in  which  there  has 
been  marked  spiritual  advance  universally,  among  Romanists  as 
well  as  others,  in  the  apprehension  and  appropriation  of  saving 
truth,  and  particularly  of  the  covenanted  mercy  of  God  in  Christ. 
Though  no  formal  change  in  dogma  has  been  made  since  the 
Council  of  Trent,  as  indeed  none  can  well  be  made,  constituted 
as  the  Roman  organism  is,  we  may  strongly  hope  that  the  true 
doctrine  finds  its  way  into  many  hearts  within  that  communion, 
and  that  many  such  as  Pascal  and  Madame  Guion  may  fitly  kneel 
by  our  side,  as  we  bow  before  God  and  with  contrition  of  soul 
and  confession  of  guilt  cast  ourselves  at  his  feet,  pleading  for 
mercy  in  the  name  of  Christ,  our  Lord  and  theirs. 


486  THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

Yet  the  painful  fact  remains  that  the  biblical  doctrine  on  this 
vital  subject  has  not  received,  is  not  now  receiving,  just  recognition 
in  the  Roman  communion.  When  Luther  hurled  his  theses  like 
cannon-shot  against  that  corrupt  and  corrupting  scheme  of  pen- 
ance and  indulgence  and  absolution  represented  by  men  like 
Tetzel,  he  assailed  an  evil  against  which  the  intelligent  mind  and 
conscience  of  Europe  had  long  protested,  and  which,  if  it  had  been 
allowed  to  continue  and  flourish  without  rebuke  as  it  did  in  his 
day,  would  have  been  fatal  ultimately  to  Christianity  itself.  A 
radical  reformation  of  such  unbiblical  teaching  and  practice  was 
an  indispensable  prerequisite  to  the  restoration  of  vital  piety  with- 
in the  church,  and  such  reformation  was  possible  only  through 
the  enunciation  afresh  and  with  utmost  force  of  the  inspired 
truth  that  God  alone  can  forgive  sin,  that  forgiveness  is  attain- 
able only  through  faith  in  Christ  and  his  mediation,  and  that  no 
other  price  is  demanded,  no  other  condition  acceptable,  than  such 
faith  cherished  in  the  soul,  apart  from  all  churchly  merit  or  inter- 
position. The  Tridentine  Council  saw  clearly  the  justice  and 
wisdom  of  such  a  claim,  and  therefore  in  form  withdrew  the 
countenance  of  the  church  from  the  gross  corruptions  which  had 
shocked  the  moral  sense  of  Europe,  while  still  affirming  the  right 
of  the  church  to  determine  wherein  true  repentance  consists,  and 
the  necessary  instrumentality  of  the  church  in  securing  forgive- 
ness and  absolution  to  the  truly  penitent.  One  has  only  to  read 
the  particular  decrees  and  canons  relating  to  this  subject,  and 
especially  the  chapters  on  contrition,  on  confession  and  absolu- 
tion, and  on  the  satisfaction  requisite  in  view  of  sin,  to  be 
impressed  on  the  one  side  with  the  astuteness  and  skill  of  the 
statements,  and  on  the  other  with  the  dangerous  errors  interwoven 
with  the  essential  truth  in  the  case.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  by 
the  thoughtful  student  that,  in  the  strenuous  endeavor  of  the 
Council  to  preserve  in  unimpaired  force  the  prerogatives  and 
assumed  functions  of  the  church  in  the  whole  matter  of  repentance 
and  forgiveness,  irreparable  violence  was  done  to  the  plain,  simple, 
solemn  doctrine  as  set  forth  by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles.  Later 
teachers  such  as  Moehler  (Symbolism,  219,  seq.)  have  taught 
that  proper  contrition  involves  a  profound  detestation  of  sin, 
springing  out  of  the  awakened  love  of  God,  together  with  the 
conscious,  deliberate  determination  never  more  to  sin,  but  rather 
to  fulfill  the  divine  law  from  and  in  love  for  God.  It  has  also 
been  maintained  that  confession  to  the  priesthood  is  only  a  mode 
of  confessing  to  God  through  their  official  instrumentality,  that 
the  penances  imposed  by  the  church  are  temporal  punishments 


AURICULAR    CONFESSION.  487 

only,  and  that  the  absolution  bestowed  by  the  church  is  simply 
her  authoritative  testimony  that  God  has  granted  forgiveness 
to  the  sinner  through  her  mediation.  Yet  no  such  melioration 
can  do  away  with  the  dangerous  doctrine  of  Trent,  or  protect 
the  church  of  Rome  from  the  recurrence  of  those  detestable 
practices  against  which  the  Reformation  was  such  an  indignant 
protest.  Even  Moehler  claims  that  the  church  has  the  right  not 
only  to  pronounce  absolution  but  also  to  grant  indulgences,  and 
that  these,  if  dispensed  with  wisdom,  are  useful. 

In  connection  with  the  Roman  dogma  as  to  auricular  confession, 
with  its  consequent  ecclesiastical  absolution,  it  is  well  to  notice 
especially  the  important  section  (vi)  on  this  subject  in  the  chapter 
now  under  examination.  That  section  strongly  affirms  the  obli- 
gation of  every  man  to  confess  his  sins  before  God  privately,  and 
assures  the  true  penitent  that  for  all  sin  thus  privately  confessed 
he  shall  receive  mercy,  and  without  any  intervention  of  the  priest- 
hood or  of  the  church.  But  where  he  has  scandalized  his  brother 
or  the  church  of  Christ,  he  ought  to  be  willing — it  is  said — also  to 
confess  his  fault  to  the  brother  wronged,  or  publicly  before  the 
church,  and  so  declare  his  repentance  to  those  that  are  offended.  In 
the  Directory  for  Worship  formal  provision  is  made  (Ch.  XI)  for 
the  receiving  of  such  public  confession,  and  for  such  action  by  the 
church  as  a  proper  acknowledgement  of  sin  may  justify — specially 
in  the  interest  of  reconciliation  and  restoration.  This  is  as  far  as 
the  Reformed  communions  generally  have  gone  in  the  matter  of 
ecclesiastical  forgiveness.  The  language  of  some  of  the  earlier 
creeds,  specially  the  Catechism  of  Luther,  and  the  Augsburg 
Conf.  (Art.  IV),  seem  indeed  like  an  approach  to  the  papal  heresy 
as  to  both  confession  and  clerical  absolution.  Luther  is  quoted 
as  saying  that  a  minister  preaching  the  Gospel  cannot  open  his 
mouth  without  constantly  remitting  sin,  for  the  reason  that  the 
Gospel  itself  is  a  proclamation  of  the  sin  of  all  men  remitted 
through  the  atonement:  and  the  Apologia  affirms  that  absolution 
is  the  Gospel  itself — our  sins  being  truly  remitted  here  on  earth, 
through  the  power  of  the  keys  intrusted  to  the  church.  Zwingli, 
however  (52-5),  declares  in  his  emphatic  way  that  God  alone 
remits  sin,  and  remits  it  solely  through  Christ, — that  confession, 
if  made  to  a  priest,  is  not  for  the  remission  of  sins  through  him 
but  for  consultation  only, — that  works  of  satisfaction  may  not  be 
imposed  by  the  priesthood  as  a  condition  of  absolution, — and  that 
those  who  demand  any  pecuniary  rewards  for  such  absolution  are 
followers  of  Balaam  and  Simon,  and  veritable  legates  of  Satan. 
Calvin  pronounces  the  papal  doctrine  of  confession  and  absolution 


488  THE    CHRISTIAN    UFE. 

a  mortal  poison,  denies  that  the  right  to  absolve  men  from  sin  is 
any  part  of  the  legitimate  power  of  the  keys,  and  denounces  the 
imposing  of  penance  and  the  sale  of  indulgences  as  not  only  pollu- 
tion and  imposture  but  also  rapacity  and  robbery.  Yet  he  stren- 
uously enjoins  private  or  personal  as  distinct  from  auricular 
confession,  commends  the  public  acknowledgement  of  sin  before 
the  church  where  such  sin  has  been  a  wrong  to  others,  and  in 
glowing  terms  proclaims  the  readiness  of  God  to  forgive  all  the 
sins  of  all  men,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  when  these  are  duly 
acknowledged  before  him  and  heartily  renounced. 

The  chapter,  Of  Good  Works  (XVI)  which  immediately  follows 
those  on  Saving  Faith  and  Repentance  unto  Life,  brings  into  view 

another  of  those  broad  and  deep  lines 
8.    Good  Works:   nature     which  divided  Protestantism  from  the 
and   worth.     Catholic   and      ut,rr>  a    *.  4-t,  «.• 

.»    .    .    .    .  *  ~    *  church  of  Rome,  and  at  the  same  time 

Protestant  statements.  ' 

sets  before  us  what  is  an  ultimate  sign 

and  test  of  the  truly  Christian  life.  The  radical  error  in  which 
Romanism  had  become  entangled  through  its  false  doctrine 
respecting  faith  and  repentance,  bore  its  legitimate  and  poisonous 
fruitage  at  this  point,  in  a  low  and  unspiritual  conception  of  what 
constitutes  the  Christian  man  in  action — of  the  marks  and  evi- 
dences by  which  he  may  be  distinguished  experimentally  and 
fundamentally  from  the  merely  natural  man.  Hence  it  was  neces- 
sary that  the  Reformers  should  not  only  exemplify  in  themselves 
that  loftier  type  of  manhood  which,  as  they  claimed,  the  doctrine 
of  salvation  through  Christ  only  would  surely  induce  in  all  who 
received  it,  but  should  also  formulate  their  belief  in  a  definition  of 
the  works,  the  acts,  the  practical  living  which  are  the  proper  signs 
of  such  a  manhood  when  shaped  and  animated  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
This  was  a  fundamental  necessity,  and  was  so  regarded  by  the 
Protestant  leaders  almost  without  exception.  All  were  agreed  in 
repudiating  the  papal  conception  of  good  works  as  inadequate  and 
corrupting:  all  realized  that  some  suitable  substitute,  which  would 
stand  the  test  both  of  Scripture  and  of  experiment,  must  be  pro- 
vided. Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say  that,  if  Protestantism  had  not 
furnished  such  a  broad  and  noble  doctrine  of  Christian  man- 
hood, and  if  its  adherents  had  not  in  a  remarkable  degree  illus- 
trated that  doctrine  by  their  personal  living,  their  good  works 
shining  as  bright  examples  in  the  household  and  in  society  as  well 
as  within  the  church,  the  Protestant  movement  would  have  col- 
lapsed and  become  a  terrible  failure.  It  was  indeed  the  grandest 
mission  of  the  Reformers  to  live  out  the  doctrine  of  justification 


GOOD    WORKS:     NATURE    AND    WORTH.  [>'.) 

by  faith  as  well  as  to  proclaim  it  in  the  ears  of  men:  it  was,  in  a 
word,  their  good  works  quite  as  much  as  their  profound  messages 
which  attracted,  which  influenced,  which  won  the  peoples  of 
central  and  northern  Europe  to  their  support.  Such  holy  man- 
hood, set  in  living  contrast  with  the  degenerate  acts  and  lives  of 
the  majority  of  those  who  represented  Rome  in  that  fierce  conflct 
for  supremacy  in  European  thought  and  faith,  became  an  argument 
which  even  the  might  of  the  Papacy  was  powerless  to  resist. 

The  Council  of  Trent  was  not  indifferent  to  so  important  an 
issue,  as  its  declarations  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  good  works,  and 
their  merit  in  connection  with  justification  (Decree  on  Justif. 
Chap.  XVI  and  the  corresponding  Canons)  clearly  show.  It  was 
charged  upon  the  Protestants  by  the  Council  that  in  emphasizing 
justification  by  faith  they  were  ignoring  and  even  forbidding  good 
works,  and  thus  proving  recreant  to  the  moral  element  in  Chris- 
tianity. And  it  was  in  view  of  that  charge  specifically,  that  the 
framers  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  introduced  the  long  Article 
(XX)  into  their  symbol,  in  which  on  one  side  they  condemn  the 
childish  and  needless  and  unprofitable  works,  ceremonial  and 
formal,  imposed  by  the  Roman  priesthood,  and  on  the  other  side 
assert  their  loyalty  to  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  all  other 
moral  obligations  enjoined  in  the  holy  Scriptures.  They  do,  in- 
deed, affirm  with  emphasis  that  even  such  works  cannot  reconcile 
God  to  us  or  deserve  the  remission  of  sins,  and  that  every  one 
who  trusteth  by  his  works  to  merit  grace,  does  in  effect  despise 
the  merit  of  Christ,  and  his  plan  of  salvation.  They  declare  that 
while  conscience  cannot  be  quieted  by  any  works,  but  by  faith 
alone,  yet  such  works  are  obligatory,  because  it  is  the  will  of  God 
that  we  should  do  them  ;  and  add  the  important  statement  that  it 
is  only  by  faith,  dwelling  as  a  living  principle  in  the  soul,  that 
any  wrorks  acceptable  with  God  can  be  performed.  To  quiet  the 
controversy  which  subsequently  arose  in  Lutheran  circles,  one 
party  affirming  that  good  works  in  the  biblical  sense  of  the  term 
are  necessary,  the  other  maintaining  that  they  are  even  detri- 
mental to  salvation,  the  Formula  of  Concord,  nearly  fifty  years 
later,  presented  another  elaborate  Article  (IV),  in  which  it  was 
said  that  good  works,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  phrase,  must  as 
certainly  follow  a  true  faith  as  fruits  of  a  good  tree,  and  that  all 
regenerate  persons  are  debtors  to  do  such  good  works  ;  yet  that 
such  obedience  is  to  be  rendered,  not  by  the  compulsion  of  law, 
but  in  a  free  and  spontaneous  spirit  ;  and  such  works  are  said  to 
be  necessary,  not  because  they  merit  salvation  in  any  way,  but 
simply  because  they  are  a  testimony    that  the  Holy  Spirit  is 


490  THE    CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

present  and  dwells  in  us — a  sure  sign  that  we,  unworthy  though 
we  may  be,  are  saved  already. 

It  would  be  impracticable  here  to  speak  of  the  teaching  of  the 
various  Reformed  symbols,  nearly  all  of  which  enunciate  the 
same  doctrine  with  less  or  greater  elaboration,  and  with  incidental 
shadings  and  variations.  Zwingli  had  given  the  keynote  in  his 
terse  declaration  (22)  that  our  works  are  good  so  far  as  they  are 
of  Christ,  but  so  far  as  they  are  ours,  they  are  not  truly  good. 
The  Heidelberg  Catechism,  in  a  declaration  almost  equally  terse, 
responded  in  the  statement  that  the  only  good  works  are  those 
which  are  done  from  true  faith,  according  to  the  law  of  God,  and 
for  his  glory,  and  not  such  as  rest  on  our  own  opinions  or  the 
commandments  of  men.  In  harmony  with  these  declarations  are 
the  First  Helvetic  (XIV),  eminently  the  Second  Helvetic  (Cap. 
XVI),  the  French  Confession  (22-24),  in  which  may  be  traced 
the  personal  dictation  of  Calvin,  the  Belgic  (Art.  XXIV),  and 
the  Scotch  Confession  (XIII-XIV),  with  the  quaint  titles,  Of 
the  Cause  of  Gude  Warkis,  and  What  Warkis  are  Reputit  Gude 
befoir  God.  The  language  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  (XII) 
may  be  quoted  here,  as  representing  the  maturest  British  thought 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century:  Albeit  that  good  works 
which  are  the  fruits  of  faith  and  follow  after  justification,  cannot 
put  away  our  sins  and  endure  the  severity  of  God's  judgment,  yet 
they  are  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God  in  Christ,  and  do  spring 
out  necessarily  of  a  true  and  lively  faith,  insomuch  that  by  them 
a  lively  faith  may  be  as  evidently  known  as  a  tree  discerned  by 
the  fruit.  This  Article  has  the  greater  significance  to  us  from  the 
fact  that  it  was  incorporated  almost  literally  into  those  Irish  Arti- 
cles, which  have  already  been  recognized  in  other  connections  as 
the  germ  of  the  Westminster  Symbols,  and  also  into  the  Articles 
of  Religion  drawn  up  two  centuries  later  by  John  Wesley  for  the 
guidance  of  American  Methodism. 

Turning  now  in  the  light  shed  by  these  antecedent  creeds  to 
the  teaching  of  our  own  Symbols  as  contained  in  this  chapter,  and 

in  the  corresponding  statements  in  the 
9.    Good  Works:  doctrine     ~  ,     ,.  >         A1 

of  the  Symbols:  its  value.         Catechisms,  we  may   note,   first,    the 

definition  of  good  works  with  which 
the  discussion  commences, — only  such  as  God  hath  comma?ided  in 
his  holy  Word,  and  not  such  as  without  the  warrant  of  Scripture 
are  devised  by  men  out  of  blind  zeal,  or  upon  any  pretense  of  good 
intention.  This  definition  was  evidently  designed  to  rule  out, 
not  merely  all  papal  error,  but  also  certain  false  opinions  which 
had  found  currency  in  Protestant  circles,  especially  through  the 


GOOD   WORKS  :     FURTHER    ANALYSIS.  491 

Arminian  defection.  In  the  exposition  of  the  third  petition  in  the 
prayer  of  our  Lord,  we  find  an  admirable  statement  of  the  doctrine 
in  the  proposition  (192),  that  we  are  to  pray  that  God  by  his  Spirit 
and  grace  would  make  us  able  and  willing  to  know,  do  and  submit 
to  his  will  in  all  things,  with  the  like  humility,  cheerfulness,  faith- 
fulness, diligence,  zeal,  sincerity  and  constancy  as  the  angels  do 
in  heaven. 

Secondly:  the  real  nature  of  such  good  works  as  the  fruits  and 
evidences  of  a  true  and  lively  faith ;  by  which  believers  may 
manifest  their  thankfulness,  strengthen  their  assurance,  edify 
their  brethren,  adorn  the  profession  of  the  Gospel,  stop  the 
mouths  of  adversaries,  and  glorify  God  by  their  obedience  to  his 
will.  It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  such  an  interpretation  shuts 
out  at  once  the  kind  of  works,  ceremonial  and  ecclesiastical,  which 
the  Council  of  Trent  had  prescribed,  and  on  the  other  hand  proves 
the  falsity  of  the  papal  charge  that  the  Protestant  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  was  injurious  to  practical  religion,  inasmuch 
as  it  tended  to  turn  the  thoughts  of  men  away  from  those  duties 
which  God  had  enjoined  in  his  holy  law.  It  was  a  decisive  answer 
also  to  that  Antinomianism  which  affirmed  that  good  works  have 
no  relation  to  salvation,  and  to  that  still  more  dangerous  opinion 
developed  during  the  Majoristic  controversy,  that  such  works  may 
even  be  detrimental  to  salvation.  It  was  also  an  answer  equally 
decisive  to  the  notion  developed  during  the  same  controversy  and 
afterward,  that  good  works  are  in  some  degree  a  coordinate  or  at 
least  a  subsidiary  ground  of  acceptance  with  God,  since  none  can 
in  fact  perform  such  works  excepting  those  who  are  already 
accepted  of  him. 

Thirdly:  the  source  of  all  good  and  acceptable  works  is  said  to 
be  the  actual  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, — the  ability  to  do  such 
works  lying  not  in  the  believer  independently,  but  flowing  into 
him  supernaturally  in  conjunction  with  his  faith  in  Christ.  Ac- 
cording to  one  statement  proposed  in  the  Assembly,  it  is  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  in  regenerate  persons  that  enables  them  to  do  all  that 
good  which  at  any  time  they  do,  and  they  are  so  far  from  having 
any  strength  in  themselves  for  holy  performances  that,  notwith- 
standing the  grace  they  have  already  received,  there  is  always 
required  a  continued  influence  from  the  same  holy  and  blessed 
Spirit,  to  work  in  them  to  will  and  to  do:  Minutes,  277-8.  The 
important  caution  is  added,  that  this  must  not  be  regarded  as  an 
excuse  for  negligence  in  duty,  nor  is  the  believer  to  wait  for  some 
special  motion  of  the  Spirit  before  entering  upon  the  performance 
of  any  known  duty.     Supreme  dependence  on  God  for  aid  is  not 


492  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

to  be  regarded  as  inconsistent  with  the  completest  devotion  of  the 
soul  to  every  appointed  task:  the  promise  of  such  supernatural 
aid  is  rather  to  be  viewed  as  supplying  the  strongest  possible 
stimulus  and  encouragement  to  the  performance  of  all  recognized 
obligation.  It  is  implied  in  these  statements  that  such  good 
works,  wrought  in  grace,  are  not  occasional  acts  or  temporary 
efforts,  but  constitute  rather  the  great  business  of  life,  and  are  to 
be  persisted  in  without  ceasing  and  without  questioning  while 
life  lasts. 

Fourthly:  works  done  by  the  believer  under  the  inspiring  influ- 
ence of  the  Holy  Spirit,  are  acceptable  with  God;  not  indeed  because 
they  are  always  done  perfectly  or  without  fault  or  blemish  in  his 
sight — since  this  will  never  be  in  this  life — but  in  virtue  of  their 
spiritual  worth,  viewed  as  signs  of  personal  union  with  Christ  and 
of  an  indwelling  disposition  to  obey  him.  As  the  person  of  the 
regenerate  man  is  accepted  and  counted  as  righteous  in  his  justi- 
fication, so  his  works  are  regarded  as  worthy  though  they  be 
accompanied — defiled  and  mixed — with  many  weaknesses  and 
imperfections.  We  bless  God,  say  the  Articles  of  the  English 
Synod,  that  the  obedience  of  Christians,  though  in  this  life  always 
imperfect,  yet  being  the  fruit  of  their  union  with  Christ,  is 
accepted  for  his  sake  and  well-pleasing  to  God. 

Fifthly:  although  thus  acceptable  with  God  in  Christ,  such 
works  can  never  merit  pardon  or  eternal  life,  so  great  is  the  dis- 
proportion between  them  even  at  the  best  and  the  claim  which 
God  rightly  has  upon  the  powers  and  services  of  all,  and  so  glo- 
rious and  precious  is  that  eternal  life  as  seen  in  contrast  with  the 
holiest  living  of  saints  on  the  earth.  At  the  best  the  Christian 
has  but  done  his  duty,  and  must  confess  himself  an  unprofitable 
servant,  unworthy  of  divine  favor  or  of  everlasting  felicity.  It 
follows  that  no  Christian  can  ever  do  more  than  his  proper  duty — 
more  than  God  justly  requires:  works  of  supererogation,  such  as 
Rome  exalted  into  prominence  as  constituting  a  species  of  claim 
upon  divine  justice  or  mercy,  are  declared  to  be  impossible:  no  man 
can  do  more  for  God  than  he  ought.  The  proposition  was  at  one 
stage  of  the  discussion  adopted  by  the  Assembly  (278),  that  those 
who  in  their  obedience  attain  to  the  greatest  height  which  is  pos- 
sible in  this  life,  are  yet  so  far  from  being  able  to  supererogate  and 
to  do  more  than  God  requires,  as  that  they  are  never  able  to  do  so 
much  as  in  duty  they  are  bound  to  do. 

Sixthly:  Works  done  by  nnregenerate  men,  though  they  may 
spring  from  good  moral  incentives  and  may  be  beneficent  or 
upright  in  the  estimate  of  others,   can  never  merit  pardon  or 


WORKS    DONE    BY    T7NREGENERATE    PERSONS.  493 

acceptance  with  God.  Such  works,  it  is  said,  do  not  proceed  from 
a  heart  purified  by  faith,  nor  do  they  conform  to  the  letter  or  the 
spirit  of  Scripture,  regarded  as  the  supreme  law  of  human  life. 
The  sound  position  is  taken  that  all  such  works,  however  excellent 
in  themselves,  are  in  fact  sinful  and  displeasing  to  God,  and  there- 
fore cannot  render  him  who  performs  them  meet  to  receive  grace 
from  God.  Yet  it  is  added,  though  it  be  an  apparent  paradox, 
that  the  neglect  of  such  works  is  still  more  sinful,  still  more  dis- 
pleasing. The  teaching  of  this  section  has  been  severely  criticised 
on  the  ground  that  it  does  injustice  to  the  really  worthy  deeds  of 
beneficence  or  of  righteousness  which  are  done  by  persons  as 
yet  unrenewed  in  heart.  The  Declaratory  Act  of  the  United 
Church  affirms  that  it  is  not  to  be  held  that  the  natural  man 
cannot  perform  actions  in  any  sense  good,  although  actions  which 
do  not  spring  from  a  renewed  heart  are  not  spiritually  good  or 
holy — such  as  accompany  salvation.  In  the  proposed  Revision  of 
the  Confession,  the  language  and  structure  of  the  section  were 
.so  modified  as  to  escape  this  criticism,  as  follows :  Works  done 
by  unregenerate  men,  although  they  may  be  things  which  God 
commands,  and  of  good  use  both  to  themselves  and  others,  and 
although  the  neglect  of  such  things  is  sinful  and  displeasing  unto 
God,  yet  because  they  proceed  not  from  a  heart  purified  by  faith, 
nor  are  done  in  a  right  manner,  according  to  the  Word,  nor  to  a 
right  end,  the  glory  of  God,  do  not  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
divine  law,  and  hence  they  cannot  be  pleaded  as  a  ground  of 
acceptance  with  God. 

Regarded  as  a  whole,  this  chapter  furnishes  a  marked  example 
of  that  calm  discrimination  on  the  one  side  and  that  comprehen- 
sive summarizing  of  essential  truth  on  the  other,  of  which  there 
are  so  many  illustrations  in  the  Symbols.  No  important  element 
of  the  doctrine  was  forgotten  or  omitted,  and  there  was  no  error 
current  anywhere  in  the  Protestant  churches  which  was  not  care- 
fully eliminated.  The  controversies  which  had  agitated  and 
divided  the  earlier  Protestantism,  especially  on  the  continent, 
were  wisely  quieted,  and  this  was  done  without  compromise  or 
surrender  of  anything  needful  to  the  biblical  doctrine.  The 
alleged  conflict  between  Paul  and  James,  between  the  gospel  of 
faith  and  the  gospel  of  service,  is  here  shown  to  have  no  real 
existence.  The  erroneous  teachings  and  corrupt  practices  of 
Rome  are  all  faithfully  excluded.  And  surely  it  is  a  fine  commen- 
tary on  both  the  substance  and  the  form  of  the  statement,  that 
after  two  centuries  and  a  half  it  still  stands  out  as  the  clearest, 
fullest,  wisest  declaration  that  the  Christian  Church  has  ever  made 


494  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

on  this  vital  theme.  It  brings  the  Christian  life  before  us  in  its 
proper  light,  as  a  type  of  life  in  which  faith  and  works,  belief  and 
duty,  piety  and  service,  are  blended  together  in  a  harmony  as 
complete  as  that  of  a  rainbow  in  the  sky. 

Two  other  chapters  remain  to  complete  our  view  of  that  Life 

as  furnished  by  the  Symbols  :  of  these  the  first  is  that  (XVII) 

which  treats    Of  the  Perseverance  of  the 
10.  Perseverance:   the     0   .  ,       „,    .    ,  .  .,       ,  .,  . ,, 

Christian  Life  permanent.     Saints-     Stated  m  another  form<  xt  1S  the 
intensely  practical  problem  whether  the 

Christian  life,  originating  in  the  regenerative  and  effectual  call 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  animated  not  merely  by  intellectual  conviction, 
but  by  a  spiritual  and  saving  faith,  characterized  by  true  sorrow 
for  sin  and  a  dominant  purpose  to  renounce  and  forsake  it,  and 
consecrated  to  good  works  in  the  sense  and  measure  just  de- 
scribed, possesses  the  quality  of  permanence  ;  or  may  in  some 
instances  give  way  to  the  grosser  life  of  sin  and  death,  so  that 
the  soul,  once  thus  endowed  and  renewed,  may  fall  back  into  an 
estate  of  guilt  and  of  condemnation.  The  strong  declaration  of 
the  Confession  is  that  no  such  soul  can  totally  or  finally  fall  away 
from  the  state  of  grace,  but  will  certainly  persevere  therein  to  the 
end,  and  be  eternally  saved.  In  the  Larger  Catechism  (79)  it  is 
said  that  true  believers  can  neither  totally  nor  finally  fall  away 
from  this  gracious  estate,  but  are  kept  by  the  power  of  God 
through  faith  unto  salvation.  And  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  (36) 
such  perseverance  to  the  end  is  named  as  one  of  the  essential  and 
assured  benefits  which  flow  from  or  accompany  our  justification, 
adoption  and  sanctification.  In  other  parts  of  the  Confession 
(XI :  v,  XII  :  i,  XIII :  iii)  we  are  taught  that  true  believers  are 
never  cast  off,  but  are  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption, — that 
although  the  remaining  corruption  for  a  time  may  much  prevail, 
yet  through  the  continual  supply  of  strength  from  the  sanctifying 
Spirit  of  Christ,  the  regenerate  part  doth  overcome, — and  that 
though  they  may  by  their  sins  fall  under  the  fatherly  displeasure  of 
God,  and  may  not  have  the  light  of  his  countenance  restored  until 
they  confess  their  sins;  and  renew  their  faith  and  repentance, 
they  can  never  fall  from  the  state  of  justification.  The  doctrine  is 
expanded  in  a  variety  of  specifications,  in  the  Sum  of  Saving 
Knowledge:  and  in  Truth's  Victory  Over  Error  it  is  said  to  be 
impossible  for  the  elect  to  be  seduced, — impossible  not  in  respect 
of  the  will  and  power  of  the  elect  themselves,  but  in  respect  of 
the  immutability  of  God's  decree  Concerning  them,  and  of  his 
purpose  to  keep  them  powerfully  against  seduction. 


PERSEVERANCE  :     CONSERVATION    UNTO   LIFE.  495 

The  history  of  the  doctrine  thus  strongly  stated,  is  one  of  deep, 
almost  tragic  interest.  It  had  been  charged  by  papal  advocates 
that  the  Protestant  dogma  of  justification  by  faith  in  what  Christ 
had  done  for  the  believers,  taken  in  conjunction  with  its  strict 
doctrine  of  election,  not  only  rendered  good  works  useless,  but 
ensured  salvation,  whatever  sin  the  believer  once  justified  might 
commit.  The  Council  of  Trent  (Decree  on  Justif.  Ch.  XIII) 
affirmed  in  contrast  that  as  regards  the  gift  of  perseverance,  no  one 
may  herein  promise  himself  anything  as  certain  with  an  absolute 
certainty,  though  all  ought  to  place  and  repose  a  most  firm  hope 
in  the  help  of  God.  The  Council  further  warned  all  believers  by 
labors,  by  watchings,  by  almsdeeds,  by  prayers  and  oblations,  by 
fastings  and  chastity,  to  work  out  their  salvation  in  constant 
fear  for  the  combat  which  yet  remains  with  the  flesh,  the  world  and 
the  devil,  wherein  they  cannot  be  victorious  but  through  the 
grace  of  God.  This  was  a  legitimate  inference  from  the  papal 
dogma  that  justification  is  not  an  act  but  a  process,  and  a  process 
which  is  never  completed  till  sanctification  is  perfected  in  another 
life.  The  general  position  of  Protestantism  is  informally  stated 
in  the  Catechism  of  Luther:  We  pray  that  God  would  so  guard 
and  preserve  us  that  the  devil,  the  world  and  our  own  flesh  may 
not  deceive  us,  nor  lead  us  into  misbelief,  despair  or  any  other 
great  shame  or  vice  ;  and  that,  though  we  may  be  thus  tempted, 
we  may  nevertheless  finally  prevail  and  gain  the  victory.  So  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism  in  its  definition  of  the  doctrine  of  forgive- 
ness of  sins  (56),  declares  that  God  for  the  sake  of  the  satisfac- 
tion of  Christ,  will  no  more  remember  our  sins,  neither  the  sinful 
nature  with  which  we  have  to  struggle  all  our  life  long,  but  will 
graciously  impart  to  us  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  that  we  may 
nevermore  come  into  condemnation.  And  the  French  Confession 
in  the  same  spirit  (XXI)  declares  that  faith  is  not  given  to  the 
elect  only  to  introduce  them  into  the  right  way,  but  also  to  make 
them  continue  in  it  to  the  end  :  as  it  is  God  who  hath  begun  the 
work,  he  will  also  perfect  it. 

Yet  the  doctrine  as  presented  in  the  Symbols  can  hardly  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  formal  tenets  of  Protestantism  prior  to  the 
rise  of  the  Arminian  controversy.  It  was  indeed  urged  by  the 
original  Arminians  as  an  argument  against  the  extreme  Calvinism 
of  their  day,  that  its  doctrine  of  election  involved  the  absolute 
certainty  that  none  of  the  elect  would  ever  fall  away,  while — as 
they  cautiously  said — it  has  never  been  proved  from  Scripture 
{  Remonstrance,  Art.  V)  that  grace  once  given  can  never  be  lost. 
The  followers  of  Arminius  thus  joined  with  Catholicism  in  the 


496  THE    CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

affirmation  made  first  by  Aquinas,  that  no  one  could  have  any  cer- 
tainty of  his  salvation  except  by  a  special  revelation  from  heaven, 
and  on  what  they  claimed  to  be  scriptural  grounds  maintained 
that  a  total  and  final  falling  away  from  grace  is  always  possible. 
This  position  was  in  harmony  with  their  strong  protest  against 
the  Augustinian  dogma  of  irresistible  grace,  and  with  their  claim 
that  election  and  condemnation  are  conditioned  upon  the  fore- 
knowledge of  God,  and  are  made  to  depend  on  the  foreseen  belief 
or  unbelief  of  men.  It  was  a  marked  and  serious  departure  from 
the  general  teaching  of  the  antecedent  creeds,  especially  of  the 
British  Isles.  The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XVII)  had  declared 
that  the  godly  consideration  of  predestination  and  our  election  in 
Christ  is  full  of  pleasant,  sweet  and  unspeakable  comfort  to  godly 
persons,  .  .  .  because  it  doth  greatly  establish  and  confirm  their 
faith  of  eternal  salvation  ;  and  the  Irish  Articles,  compiled  while 
the  controversy  was  in  progress,  taught  that  the  elect  of  God  are 
in  time  inseparably  united  unto  Christ  by  the  effectual  and  vital 
influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the  fifth  Canon  of  the  Synod  of 
Dort,  we  have  an  elaborate,  analytic,  comprehensive  statement 
of  the  doctrine,  with  full  answers  to  the  objections  urged  against 
it, — a  statement  which  gave  form  to  the  Westminster  declarations, 
and  which  has  ever  since  stood  as  substantially  the  final  answer 
of  Calvinism  to  whatever  species  of  opposition  or  criticism. 

It  is  important  to  discriminate  carefully  between  the  inac- 
curate and  the  real  grounds  on  which  the  fact  of  the  permanence 
of  the  Christian  life,  once  possessed,  is  based.  Nottipon  their  own 
free  will,  is  the  comprehensive  caution  to  be  noted  in  the  case.  It 
is  not  claimed  that  the  certainty  affirmed  rests  on  any  indepen- 
dent capacity  or  action  of  the  believer  :  his  regeneration  and 
conversion  may  imply  such  permanence,  but  of  themselves  they 
can  not  ensure  it.  The  renewed  will  is  still  a  fallible  and  weak  will 
and,  were  it  left  to  itself,  it  would  be  liable,  even  certain,  to  fall 
away  from  God  and  duty.  Nor  is  it  claimed  that  present  sinless- 
ness  or  perfection,  were  it  attained  by  the  Christian  in  this  life, 
would  be  a  sufficient  guarantee  against  ultimate  apostacy.  At 
the  same  time  it  may  justly  be  held  that  such  a  comprehensive 
spiritual  work  as  is  instituted  .in  regeneration  and  carried  on  in 
sanctification,  does  of  itself  justify  a  strong  presumption  that  such 
a  work  will  not  come  to  naught,  but  will  rather  be  maintained  so 
long  as  life  lasts,  even  in  defiance  of  all  the  adverse  influences 
which  from  without  and  from  within  may  be  warring  against  it. 
Nor  is  this  presumption  fairly  offset  by  the  fact  that  even  the  best 
Christians  commit  sin,  or  by  the  further  fact  that  some  Christians 


PERSEVERANCE  :     TRUE    GROUND   OF   HOPE.  497 

do  fall  into  damnable  sin,  and  even  seem  for  a  time  to  have  lost 
wholly  the  grace  that  first  renewed  them.  The  chapter  under 
examination  admits  the  existence  of  such  defection,  points  to  the 
powerful  temptations  of  Satan  and  the  world,  and  to  the  preva- 
leucy  of  inward  corruption,  speaks  of  the  neglect  of  preservative 
grace,  declares  that  God  is  often  displeased  and  his  Spirit 
grieved  by  the  lapse  of  believers  into  sin,  and  details  the  conse- 
quences of  such  lapse  in  the  loss  of  spiritual  graces  and  comforts, 
in  the  hardening  of  the  heart,  the  wounding  of  conscience,  the 
scandal  wrought  to  the  injury  of  other  souls  and  of  the  church, 
and  the  judgments  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  incurred  by  such 
apostacy. 

Yet  the  chapter  strongty  affirms  the  doctrine  of  ultimate  perse- 
verance, and  bases  it  where  only  it  can  properly  be  based,  on  the 
threefold  divine  ground  revealed  in  the  Bible.  The  first  form  of 
this  divine  assurance  is,  as  the  older  Calvinism  earnestly  main- 
tained, in  the  immutability  of  the  decree  of  election,  flowing  from 
the  free  and  unchangeable  love  of  God  the  Father, — it  being 
regarded  as  a  blessed  certainty  that,  when  God  has  once  chosen  a 
soul  and  made  it  an  heir  of  life  eternal,  he  will  not  give  up  his 
holy  purpose,  or  abandon  the  gracious  work  which  he  has  once 
begun  in  its  behalf.  The  second  form  of  assurance  is  found  in 
the  efficacy  of  the  merit  and  intercession  of  fesus  Christ,  and  in  the 
character  of  that  covenant  of  grace  into  which  he  has  once  entered 
with  the  believer, — it  being  judged  a  certain  thing  that,  the  plan 
of  salvation  having  thus  been  applied  in  any  case,  and  Christ  and 
his  mediation  once  accepted  and  enjoyed,  he  will  not  permit  the  be- 
lieving soul  to  go  away  from  him  wholly  and  forever.  The  third 
ground — which  indeed  the  earlier  Calvinism  did  not  sufficiently 
appreciate — is  the  abiding  of  the  Spirit  and  the  seed  of  God  within 
the  soul,  the  daily  ministrations  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  interest 
of  continued  holiness, — it  being  held  that,  having  regenerated 
that  soul,  and  begun  within  it  the  work  of  salification,  he  will 
not  give  up  the  sacred  task  which  he  has  once  undertaken,  but  will 
carry  it  on,  in  defiance  of  temptations  without  and  of  infirmity  and 
corruption  within,  until  that  work  is  completed  in  glory.  It  is 
from  this  threefold  divine  ground,  not  from  anything  in  the  be- 
liever, or  anything  that  can  be  done  by  the  believer  in  and  of 
himself,  that,  in  the  phrase  of  the  Confession,  ariseth  the  certainty 
of  the  perseverance  and  final  salvation  of  all  true  saints. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  that  the  Scriptures  contain  not  only  exam- 
ples of  saints  who  have  fallen  grievously  from  the  faith,  but 
also  counsels  and  warnings  which  imply  that  all  saints  are  liable 


498  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

to  such  defection.  It  is  also  to  be  admitted  that  in  practical  life 
such  defection  is  sometimes  apparent, — professing  believers  falling 
into  sin  and  living  in  it,  and  in  some  instances  apparently  dying 
in  a  state  of  entire  apostacy.  The  primitive  Arminians  urged 
such  objections  to  the  doctrine  with  very  great  force,  and  the 
argument  has  been  expanded  and  urged  with  even  greater  vigor 
in  more  modern  times  :  see  Watson,  Institutes.  Yet  while  John 
Wesley,  in  the  Methodist  Articles  (XII)  affirms  that  after  we 
have  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  may  depart  from  grace  given 
and  fall  into  sin,  he  also  quotes  the  language  of  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles,  that  by  the  grace  of  God  we  may  arise  again  and  amend 
our  lives.  And  while  he  would  maintain  as  an  abstract  proposi- 
tion the  possibility  of  an  utter  and  final  lapse,  or  at  least  say  with 
Armiuius  that  it  has  not  been  proved  from  Scripture  that  grace 
once  given  can  never  be  lost,  still  American  Methodism,  at  least 
in  our  time,  would  be  willing  to  leave  the  matter  where  John 
Wesley  left  it — resting  as  trustfully  as  the  most  ardent  Calvinism 
in  the  probability,  if  not  the  certainty,  that  no  truly  con- 
verted soul  will  ever  finally  pass  into  a  state  of  condemnation. 
The  Canon  of  Dort  declares,  in  language  which  the  intense  con- 
flict of  that  age  alone  could  warrant,  that  Satan  abhors  this 
doctrine,  that  the  world  ridicules  it,  and  that  the  ignorant  and 
hypocrites  abuse  and  heretics  oppose  it.  But  we  may  cordially 
appropriate  its  further  statement  that  the  spouse  of  Christ  hath 
always  most  tenderly  loved  and  constantly  defended  this  doctrine 
as  an  inestimable  treasure  ;  and  that  God  against  whom  neither 
counsel  nor  strength  can  prevail,  will  dispose  her  to  continue 
this  conduct  to  the  end.  The  English  Articles  (Presbyterian) 
in  the  same  faith,  affirm  that  if  any  believers,  departing  from 
God  through  un  watch  fulness  and  neglect  of  prayer,  lapse  into 
spiritual  languor  or  fall  into  grievous  sins,  yet  by  the  mercy  of 
God  who  abideth  faithful,  they  are  not  cast  off,  but  are  chas- 
tened for  their  backsliding,  and  through  repentance  restored  to 
his  favor  so  that  they  perish  not. 

It  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  earnest  desire  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly  to  make  their  doctrinal  teachings  in  the 

highest  measure  practical  and  com- 
1 1 .    Assurance  of  Salvation :     f orti      to  the  clmrch  that  af ter  hay. 
nature  and  ground :  its  relation     .  .    .,   ^      „,    .    .       T  .r     . 

to  faith  in£         forth  the  Christian  Life  m 

all  these  varied  aspects,  describing 
its  origin  in  divine  grace,  its  essential  quality  in  faith,  its  char- 
acteristic repentance,    its  efflorescence  in   good  works,    and    its 


ASSURANCE   OF    FINAL  SALVATION.  499 

permanence  and  blessed  perpetuity,  they  should  add  one  chapter 
more  (XVIII)  to  the  series,  under  the  title,  Of  Assurance  of 
Grace  and  Salvation.  Just  as  in  this  interest  they  seemed  to 
interject  the  small  but  stimulating  chapter  on  adoption  between 
the  two  grand  chapters  on  justification  and  sanctification,  so  here 
apparently  for  the  comfort  of  believers  they  speak  not  merely  of 
perseverance,  but  of  the  full,  happy,  perfect  certitude  to  which 
the  persevering  saint  may  by  grace  attain.  What  is  to  follow 
in  their  scheme  relates  to  the  proper  attitude  and  duty  of  the 
Christian  within  the  sphere  of  law,  his  obligations  to  the  civil 
power,  to  the  church,  and  to  his  fellow  men  in  various  partic- 
ulars. In  this  chapter  we  are  led  to  linger  a  little  longer  in  med- 
itation on  his  inward  state,  as  one  of  assurance  of  salvation. 

Nothing  is  more  remarkable  among  the  Reformers  as  a  class 
than  their  superb  assurance  not  only  of  the  truthfulness  of  the 
doctrines  they  advocated,  but  also  of  their  personal  salvation  in 
and  through  the  truth  and  the  strong  grace  of  Christ.  History 
furnishes  no  worthier  examples  in  any  department  of  life,  or  in 
any  age  since  the  apostolic,  of  undaunted  confidence,  of  the 
unswerving  sense  of  security,  of  limitless  hopefulness,  than  may 
be  found  among  the  men  who  framed  the  creeds,  formulated  the 
theologies,  guided  the  religious  life  and  activity  of  their  day,  and 
preached  as  if  inspired.  The  evidence  may  be  read  alike  in  their 
sermons,  their  councils  and  their  acts  :  it  is  manifest  everywhere 
in  their  career,  as  if  it  were  a  gale  of  inspiration  fresh  from 
heaven.  Yet  no  definite  doctrine  on  the  subject  of  assurance  as 
distinct  from  faith  worked  its  way  into  their  formularies, — doubt- 
less for  the  reason  that  the  spiritual  reality  must  first  have  been 
strongly  experienced  before  it  could  be  expressed  in  confessional 
form.  Of  faith,  strong  and  joyous  and  invincible,  we  read  much 
in  the  earlier  creeds  :  the  first  Helv.  Conf . ,  for  example,  defining 
such  faith  as  the  certain  and  indubitable  apprehension  as  to  all  those 
things  that  are  to  be  hoped  for  from  the  grace  of  God.  But  of 
the  assurance  which  is  defined  in  the  Westminster  Symbols  as 
not  of  the  essence  of  faith,  but  rather  as  a  higher  and  richer  experi- 
ence, a  fruit  and  consummation  of  faith,  which  but  few  relatively 
do  attain,  we  find  only  occasional  traces.  The  elements  of  the 
doctrine  are  indeed  apparent  in  such  devotional  creeds  as  the 
Catechism  of  Heidelberg,  and  in  such  trumpet-like  declarations 
as  the  Scotch  Confession,  full  of  the  strong  passion  of  battle  and 
the  sense  of  victory.  But  it  required  a  more  reflective  and  dis- 
criminating age,  one  further  removed  from  the  direct  strifes 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  produce  the  doctrine  itself  in  the  full 


500 


THE    CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 


form  in  which  it  appears  in  the  Westminster  creed.  The  debates 
on  the  subject  in  the  Assembly  (Minutes,  259,  seg),  show  with 
what  careful  discrimination  and  what  spiritual  interest  they  form- 
ulated this  striking  chapter. 

It  is  here  dogmatically  affirmed  that  the  children  of  God  may  be 
infallibly  assured,  not  only  that  they  are  actually  in  a  state  of  grace 
now,  but  that  they  shall  persevere  therein  tinto  salvation,  L.  C.  80. 
The  important  caution  is  added  that  such  assurance,  while  in  one 
aspect  it  is  a  development  of  saving  faith,  is  not  of  the  essence 
of  faith  in  any  such  sense  that  none  but  those  who  consciously 
possess  it  may  be  regarded  as  true  believers.  This  was  the  more 
important  as  neither  Luther  nor  Calvin  had  recognized  any  broad 
distinction  between  faith  and  assurance.  It  is  also  admitted  that 
such  confidence  may  be  in  divers  ways  shaken,  diminished  and  inter- 
mitted :  and  negligence  and  falling  into  special  sins,  and  wounding 
the  conscience  by  yielding  to  sudden  temptation  and  manifold 
distempers,  are  named  among  these  ways  of  impairing  such  assur- 
ance. It  is  even  said  that  God  may  withdraw  the  light  of  his 
countenance,  and  suffer  those  who  truly  fear  and  love  him  to  walk 
for  a  time  in  spiritual  darkness,  as  if  deserted  by  him.  Yet  even 
in  such  dread  emergenc)r,  they  are  said  to  be  supported  by  the 
operation  of  the  Spirit  from  utter  despair.  And  since  love  of 
Christ  and  of  the  brethren,  sincerity  of  heart  and  conscience  of 
duty,  never  do  entirely  die  out  of  the  Christian  breast,  such  assur- 
ance may  in  due  time  be  revived — it  is  said — so  that  the  believer, 
once  more  walking  in  the  light,  may  rest  with  absolute  security  in 
his  hope  of  ultimate  salvation.  Nor  is  this  hope, — it  is  added, — 
a  bare  conjectural  and  probable  persuasion,  but  a  gracious  cer- 
tainty induced  in  the  believing  spirit  by  the  Spirit  of  God, — a 
certainty  founded  partly  on  the  divine  promises,  partly  on  the 
testimony  of  the  Spirit  to  the  soul,  and  partly  on  the  inward  evi- 
dence which  the  possession  of  spiritual  graces  and  virtues  sup- 
plies. This  witness  of  the  Spirit,  direct  and  indirect — to  use  the 
distinction  of  Wesley — is  however  to  be  carefully  defined,  so 
as  to  distinguish  it  from  dangerous  superstition.  Nor  is  the 
believer  to  expect  extraordinary  revelation  in  confirmation  of  his 
holy  certitude — a  statement  evidently  designed  to  meet  the  claim 
of  Aquinas  that  nothing  short  of  such  revelation  could  justify  our 
assurance  of  personal  salvation.  The  believer  must  rather  find 
that  certitude  in  what  he  has  by  grace  already  become,  and  in  the 
gracious  pledges  which  God  has  made  in  his  Word  to  every  saint. 
Another  practical  caution  is  added  here,  in  the  suggestion  that 
there  may  be  an  unwarranted  and  delusive  assurance,  a  counterfeit 


ASSURANCE    ATTAINABLE.  501 

of  the  true,  such  as  appears  in  the  false  hopes  and  carnal  presump- 
tions of  hypocrites  and  other  unregenerate  men — whose  hope,  it  is 
said,  shall  utterly  perish. 

Early  Arminianism  denounced  the  doctrine  of  assurance  as  a 
pillow  for  the  flesh,  hurtful  to  good  manners,  godliness,  prayer 
and  other  holy  courses.  But  when  duly  guarded  against  miscon- 
struction and  abuse,  the  doctrine  as  here  presented  may  be  joy- 
fully accepted  as  a  final  corollary  from  the  antecedent  teachings  of 
the  Symbols  respecting  saving  faith  and  its  fruitage  in  repentance, 
in  good  works,  and  in  perseverance  in  the  struggle  after  holiness. 
It  is  a  happy  song  of  confidence  and  expectation  which  not  merely 
here  and  there  a  Paul  or  a  Luther  or  a  Knox  may  sing,  but  as 
well  a  holy  strain  that  may  be,  ought  to  be,  on  the  lip  and  in  the 
heart  of  every  true  disciple.  The  Larger  Catechism  justly  teaches 
(80)  that  all  such  as  truly  believe  in  Christ  and  are  endeavoring  to 
walk  in  all  good  conscience  before  him,  may  properly  cherish  this 
serene,  unswerving  confidence  that  their  present  state  of  grace 
will  eventuate  in  a  realized  and  completed  salvation  amid  the 
felicities  of  heaven.  An  equally  impressive  statement  of  the 
truth  appears  in  the  subsequent  declaration  (83)  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  invisible  Church — all  true  saints — have  communicated 
to  them  in  this  life  the  first  fruits  of  glory  with  Christ,  as  they  are 
members  of  him  as  their  head,  and  so  are  interested  in  that  glory 
which  he  is  possessed  of  :  and  as  an  earnest  thereof,  enjoy  the 
sense  of  God's  love,  peace  of  conscience,  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  the  hope  of  glory.  In  the  same  glowing  strain,  the  Sum  of 
Saving  Knowledge,  in  setting  forth  the  several  warrants  and 
motives  for  believing  in  Christ,  quaintly  says  :  Whosoever  be- 
lieveth  the  doctrine  delivered  by  the  Son  of  God,  and  findeth 
himself  powerfully  drawn  to  believe  in  him  by  the  sight  of  life  in 
him  .  .  .  may  be  sure  of  right  and  interest  to  life  eternal  through 
him. 

As  we  close  at  this  point  the  study  of  the  Christian  Life  as  pre- 
sented in  this  series  of  chapters  in  the  Confession,  with  the  con- 
firmatory teaching  in  the  Catechisms,  we 

should  note  the  fact  that,  so  far  as  any  i2'  Perfection  in  the 
,  .  .     Christian  Life :  Final  Re- 

formal   statement   goes,    one   important 

question  remains  unanswered, — the  ques- 
tion whether  this  Christian  life  does  actually  reach  what  may  be 
called  perfection,  or  entire  completion,  in  the  present  world.     The 
Roman  dogma  of  perfection  as  consisting  simpfy  in  conformity 
in   faith  and  conduct  to  the  teachings  and   impositions  of   the 


502  THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE. 

church,  had  indeed  been  formally,  indignantly,  repudiated  by 
the  Reformers,  as  little  better  than  a  travesty  on  what  the  Bible 
requires  in  order  to  true  spiritual  completeness.  The  mystical 
speculations  and  practical  pretensions  of  the  primitive  Anabap- 
tists, and  other  aberrations  of  the  same  class,  had  also  been 
rejected  as  without  biblical  warrant,  and  as  involving — as  the  sub- 
sequent history  of  such  aberrations  clearly  shows — very  wide  and 
even  fatal  departure  from  the  biblical  idea  of  entire  holiness 
in  heart  and  life.  Neither  the  perfectionism  of  George  Fox 
in  England,  nor  that  of  Spener  and  the  Moravian  Brethren  in 
Germany,  had  as  yet  made  its  appearance.  The  doctrine  of 
Wesley  (Sermons  on  Christian  Perfection)  that  a  certain  type  of 
perfection,  not  angelic  or  Adamic  or  in  any  sense  absolute  in 
itself,  but  consisting  in  evangelical  obedience  and  abstinence  from 
sinning,  in  perfect  love  toward  God  in  Christ,  and  in  entire  con- 
secration to  his  service,  may  be  and  ought  to  be  attained  by  every 
believer, — this  doctrine,  especially  in  the  various  forms  which 
it  has  assumed  in  more  recent  times,  had  scarcely  an  existence 
as  a  dogma  prior  to  the  eighteenth  century.  Hence  we  find  no 
distinctly  formulated  propositions  on  this  subject  in  the  earlier 
creeds. 

In  the  Westminster  formularies,  however,  we  may  gather  up 
various  indications  that  the  doctrine  of  a  sanctification  completed 
in  the  present  life,  even  in  the  guarded  form  of  it  afterward  pre- 
sented by  Wesley,  was  not  regarded  by  the  Assembly  as  sound. 
Thus  it  is  directly  said  in  the  Confession  (XIII  :  ii)  that  while 
sanctification  is  throughout  in  the  whole  man,  it  is  yet  imperfect 
in  this  life, — some  remnants  of  corruption  abiding  still  in  every 
part  of  his  nature,  with  the  inevitable  consequence  in  continual 
and  irreconcilable  struggle  between  the  spirit  and  the  flesh.  It  is 
also  said  (XVI  :  v)  that  though  our  good  works  are  good  because 
they  proceed  from  the  Spirit  moving  within  us,  yet  so  far  as 
they  are  ours,  they  are  always  defied  and  mixed  with  many  weak- 
nesses and  imperfections.  And  while  growth  in  grace  is  enjoined 
as  a  duty  upon  every  regenerate  soul,  and  resistance  to  all  sin 
even  in  its  most  subtle  and  secret  forms  is  required  of  every  one 
as  a  sign  of  discipleship,  yet  we  are  warned  (L,.  C.  77)  that  this 
process  of  sanctification  is  ?iot  in  this  life  perfect  in  any  saint,  but 
groweth  continually  up  to  or  toward  perfection.  And  in  the 
Shorter  Catechism  (37)  it  is  said  that  the  souls  of  believers  are 
at  their  death — not  before — made  perfect  in  holiness,  and  do  imme- 
diately pass  into  glory.  Other  incidental  illustrations  might 
be  quoted  to  show  that  the  Westminster  divines  regarded  the 


PERFECTION    NOT    ATTAINED    ON    EARTH.  503 

construction  of  the  Christian  character  as  a  process  too  great,  too 
grand  to  be  finished  in  such  a  life  as  this.  Its  foundations  indeed, 
as  they  conceived,  are  laid  here  in  saving  faith  and  love,  and 
strenuous  struggle  with  remaining  sin,  and  in  such  union  with 
Christ  as  the  Spirit  institutes  on  earth,  but  the  completion  of  it 
is  a  work  which  heaven  alone  can  realize  in  full  perfection.  Dick- 
son (Truth's  Victory)  illustrates  the  general  belief  of  the  age  in 
his  quaint  distinction  between  a  perfection  of  parts  and  a  perfec- 
tion of  degrees  :  the  former  apparent  when  we  have  a  part  of  any 
grace,  and  are  renewed  in  some  measure  in  any  power  or  faculty 
of  the  whole  man,  though  we  be  not  come  to  the  just  and  due 
measure  in  any  of  them  :  the  latter  consisting  in  the  complete 
measure  of  our  conformity,  and  our  exact  correspondence  to  the 
law  of  God  in  respect  of  all  whatsoever  it  requires.  Perfection 
of  degrees  he  pronounces  unattainable  in  this  life  :  it  is  one  of  the 
graces  of  heaven. 

In  closing  our  survey  of  the  Christian  Life,  as  portrayed  in  the 
Symbols,  we  may  well  pause,  first,  to  mark  the  illustration  afforded 
in  this  impressive  statement,  of  the  profound  spiritual  experience 
and  attainments  of  the  men  who  drafted  it.  This  group  of  chap- 
ters shows  us  not  merely  what  the  divines  of  Westminster 
believed,  but  what  they  had  personally  felt — what  they  had  real- 
ized in  their  own  souls  as  Christian  men.  They  had  themselves 
attained  the  saving  faith  ;  they  had  been  humbled  before  God  in 
the  true  repentance  ;  they  had  themselves  wrought  the  good 
works  which  are  the  signs  and  fruits  of  true  faith  ;  they  had 
cherished  the  holy  temper  of  perseverance,  and  had  known  in 
personal  consciousness  some  large  measure  of  the  spiritual  assur- 
ance, which  they  here  describe  so  well.  In  a  word,  they  had 
experienced  personally  what  they  set  forth  in  these  chapters;  and 
their  religion,  their  godly  living  and  activities,  were  simply  the 
efflorescence  of  their  clear,  strong,  spiritual  creed  as  here  defined. 
Nor  may  we  doubt  that  it  was  not  .so  much  their  aspiration  after 
theologic  completeness,  as  their  ardent  desire  to  help  those  who 
might  accept  their  formularies  into  higher  religious  experience 
and  a  nobler  type  of  life,  that  led  them  to  sketch  with  so  much 
care  this  striking  portraiture  of  the  Christianized  man,  —  a 
delineation  which  might  almost  be  regarded  as  their  greatest 
confessional  work. 

In  this  connection  we  may  wisely  note  also,  the  essential  har- 
mony of  their  teaching  with  all  the  most  thoughtful,  most  thor- 
ough and  spiritual  beliefs  cherished  in  this  department  of  doctrine 
by  antecedent  Protestantism.       One  of  the  grandest  facts  in  the 


504  THE    CHRISTIAN   LIFE. 

history  of  the  Reformation  is  the  fact  that,  while  the  Reformers 
could  not  always  agree  in  their  statements  of  the  Christian 
Truth,  they  were  so  cordially  agreed  in  their  view  respecting  what 
constitutes  the  Christian  man,  and  in  their  harmonious  endeavors 
to  rise  in  actual  living  up  to  that  lofty  standard.  Accepting 
Christ  as  their  ideal,  and  love  as  their  supreme  motive,  and  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  their  law,  they  became  in  a  remarkable 
degree  one  in  soul  and  one  in  life,  notwithstanding  all  doctrinal 
variations.  And  in  the  formularies  of  Westminster  we  find  an 
elaborate  and  beautiful  reproduction  of  all  that  the  antecedent 
Protestantism  had  either  taught  or  experienced  at  this  vital  point. 
In  their  portraiture  of  the  Christian  life,  the  living,  glowing, 
actual  piety  of  the  Reformation  found  its  completest  expression. 

It  should  be  observed  further,  that  the  developments,  theolog- 
ical and  practical,  of  the  past  two  centuries  have  added  nothing 
of  importance  to  this  remarkable  portraiture.  There  have  indeed 
been  great  changes  in  the  views  and  in  the  experience  and  practice 
of  Christians  since  that  historic  era.  The  Christianized  man  of 
the  nineteenth  century  is  another,  and  in  some  features  a  larger 
and  grander  product,  than  the  Christian  man  of  the  sixteenth  or 
seventeenth  century.  But  the  subsequent  experience  of  evan- 
gelical Christendom,  complex  and  involved  and  sometimes  revolu- 
tionary as  it  has  been,  has  not  altered  or  done  away  with  any 
essential  element  in  the  spiritual  concept  here  brought  before  us. 
The  Christian  life  is  still  as  of  old  essentially  a  supernatural  life, 
originating  in  the  gracious  election  of  God  and  the  effectual  call 
of  his  blessed  Spirit.  Faith,  saving  faith,  is  as  indispensable  a 
factor  in  that  life  as  ever.  No  adequate  substitute  has  been  found 
for  evangelical  repentance,  as  the  correlative  to  acceptable  faith. 
The  good  works  enjoined  by  Scripture  are  still  required  of  every 
one  who  aspires  to  lead  the  Christian  life.  Perseverance  in  believ- 
ing and  trusting,  and  in  godly  walk  and  conversation,  are  as 
indispensable  now  as  they  were  in  the  days  of  L,uther  and  Calvin, 
or  in  the  subsequent  era  of  the  Westminster  divines.  Whatever 
modifications  have  since  come  into  religious  experience,  whatever 
changes  have  occurred  in  the  outward  forms  of  doctrine  or  the 
practical  living  of  Christians,  or  in  the  attitude  of  sects  or  schools 
within  the  Protestant  domain,  these  essential  elements  in  spiritual 
Christianity  still  stand  unchanged,  unmodified,  unimpaired, — as 
indeed  they  have  stood  ever  since  the  days  when  our  L,ord  taught 
and  the  New  Testament  was  written. 

It  may  be  added  finally,  that  whatever  of  modification  the 
future  shall  reveal  in  the  forms  which  piety  may  assume,  or  in 


FINAL    REVIEW.  505 

the  duty  or  conduct  of  Christians  in  the  world,  no  essential  change, 
no  radical  variation,  no  real  compromise  as  to  these  cardinal  ele- 
ments can  ever  occur.  There  will  never  come  an  age  when  the 
process  of  salvation  will  be  essentially  different  from  that  which 
has  been  affirmed  and  experienced  during  these  three  Protestant 
centuries.  Regeneration  and  conversion,  pardon  and  acceptance 
with  God  through  the  mediation  of  the  Messiah  alone,  sanctifica- 
tion  through  the  Spirit,  Christ  reproduced  within  us  as  well  as 
Christ  acting  and  suffering  vicariously  in  our  behalf,  will  and  must 
forever  remain  as  the  central  verities  of  supernatural  Christianity. 
And  through  all  the  future  the  true  man  in  Christ  Jesus  will  and 
must  be  a  man  effectually  called  and  savingly  wrought  upon  by 
the  Holy  Ghost, — a  man  whose  inspiration  is  faith  and  whose  law 
of  living  is  love, — a  man  who  is  devoted  to  holiness  and  godliness 
as  the  chief  end  of  his  existence,  and  who  through  grace  is  enabled 
to  persevere  in  such  a  type  of  life  as  these  spiritual  verities  require, 
through  all  time  and  forever.  Analytic  theologians  may  still  differ 
as  to  many  details  in  Christian  belief  and  experience,  and  denom- 
inations may  still  divide  and  conflict  around  questions  of  creed 
and  ordinance  and  worship.  But  around  these  fundamental 
elements  there  never  can  be  any  essential  diversity  among  those 
who  follow  Christ,  and  who  in  their  hearts  believe  that  the 
Christian  life  as  taught  and  exemplified  by  him,  and  as  imitated 
by  his  disciples  through  the  ages,  is  the  true  and  the  only  true  and 
worthy  life  for  man.  To  surrender  these  cardinal  elements  would 
be  to  abandon  Christianity  as  a  supernatural  religion,  and  ulti- 
mately to  plunge  into  the  abysses  of  a  gross  naturalism  which 
knows  no  God  but  Nature,  accepts  no  rule  of  living  higher  than 
vSelf ,  and  anticipates  no  worthy  consummation  for  our  race  either 
here  or  hereafter. 


LECTURE  TENTH— THE  LAW  OF  GOD. 

Moral  Law  :  Moral  Government  :  The  Ten  Command- 
ments :    Christ  and  Law  :    Morality  :    Law  and  Grace. 

C.  F.   Ch.  XIX:    L.   C.  91-152:    S.  C.  39-84. 

It  has  been  strenuously  urged  against  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly that  in  formulating  its  Symbols  it  gave  excessive  prominence 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  in  God,  his  supreme  will  and  his 
dominating  and  eternal  decree, — under  the  influence  of  this  theo- 
logic  tendency  ignoring  or  minifying  other  important  doctrines, 
such  as  the  fatherhood  in  God,  and  his  immeasurable  tenderness 
and  mercy  toward  man.  A  large  part  of  this  objection  loses  its 
significance,  as  soon  as  the  grand  correlated  doctrine  of  Law,  as 
presented  in  these  formularies,  is  rightly  apprehended.  The  will 
of  God  is  seen  at  once  to  be  not  an  arbitrary  force,  mysterious  as 
it  is  resistless,  but  a  power  animated  and  controlled  in  every 
manifestation  by  holy  law.  The  absolute  decree  is  not  some  dark 
and  awful  purpose,  having  no  recognizable  basis,  but  a  determin- 
ation which  is  shaped  in  every  part  and  movement  by  perfect 
law.  The  sovereignty  in  God  is  not  an  arbitrary  rule  in  which 
infinite  reason  manifests  no  sway,  but  is  rather  a  sovereignty 
exercised  in  and  through  sacred  law — a  law  worthy  of  him  who 
not  only  enacts  it  as  a  rule  for  his  creatures,  but  himself  illustrates 
and  obeys  it  throughout  his  holy  administration.  Law  thus,  in 
the  fine  phrase  of  Hooker,  hath  her  seat  in  the  bosom  of  God, 
and  her  voice  is  but  the  expression  of  his  august  purpose  and 
his  majestic  will.  Nor  can  there  be  anything  in  his  sublime 
scheme  of  grace  and  redemption  which  is  at  variance  with  this  holy 
supremacy  of  law:  the  mercy  that  pities  and  the  grace  that  saves, 
are  as  truly  regulated  by  law  as  are  the  stars  in  their  harmonious 
movement  through  the  skies.  What  Hooker  styles  the  harmony 
of  the  world,  or  of  the  material  universe  which  is  everywhere  and 
evermore  under  law,  is  even  more  deep,  more  melodious,  more 
winning  in  the  moral  universe,  and  most  of  all  within  the  special 
sphere  of  salvation. 

Hence  we  discover  the  significance  of  such  a  chapter  (XIX)  as 
that  which  we  are  about  to  examine  with  its  simple  title,  Of  the 
La.7v  of  God.     Having   set   forth  the   Plan   and  the   Process  of 


PLACE    OF    LAW    IN   THE   SYMBOLS.  507 

Salvation,  and  described  the  fruits  of  that  gracious  scheme  as  seen 

in  the  Christian  L,ife,  the  Symbols  proceed  at  once  to  an  exposition 

of  that  divine  L,aw,  according  to  whose 

1  •       -.1     ™,  •  *.-      if  4.  u  *•    Place  of  law  in  the 

teaching  the  Christian  life  must  ever  be     Symbols.  u$  prominence# 

regulated.     The  logical  connection  and 

necessity  are  at  once  apparent.  For,  though  the  Christianized  man 
is  now  animated  and  guided  by  the  interior  ministries  of  the  Spirit, 
and  is  thus  living  in  some  sense  within  a  higher  sphere  than  that 
of  law,  in  another  sense  he  is  more  fully  and  truly  than  ever  under 
obligation  to  obey  every  jot,  every  tittle,  of  the  divine  command- 
ments. Christ  came  not  to  abolish,  but  to  fulfill  the  law, — not  to 
release  his  disciples  from  the  duty  of  obedience,  but  to  spiritualize 
and  exalt  the  law,  and  make  it  more  completely  and  also  more 
graciously  the  supreme  rule  of  their  life.  Though  called,  justified 
and  sanctified  inwardly,  and  though  by  faith  and  repentance  and 
perseverance  they  were  to  be  assured  of  their  acceptance  with 
God,  they  were  still  to  live  out  their  faith,  to  prove  its  reality  and 
power,  by  lives  sweetly  submitted  to  law,  just  as  Christ  himself 
came  under  the  law,  and  glorified  it  by  his  obedience. 

The  place  of  law  in  the  Westminster  system  is  best  appre- 
hended by  a  study  of  the  proportion  and  relation  of  the  two  ele- 
ments, belief  and  duty,  in  the  Catechisms.  The  question  which 
at  the  outset  confronts  us  in  both  is  the  fundamental  question  re- 
specting the  contents  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  the  answer  in 
both  is  in  the  same  terms  :  The  Scriptures  principally  teach  what 
man  is  to  believe  concerning  God,  and  what  duty  God  requires  of 
man.  And  the  duty  which  God  requires  of  man,  both  agree  in 
saying  (91  and  39) ,  is  obedience  to  his  revealed  zvill — in  other  words, 
to  his  holy  law.  The  proportion  of  the  two  elements  is  sugges- 
tive. While  belief  in  the  doctrines  of  grace,  and  the  effects  of 
such  belief  on  character  and  life,  are  placed  in  the  foreground, 
only  thirty-five  of  the  one  hundred  and  seven  answers  in  the 
Shorter  Catechism  relate  to  such  belief,  while  sixty-nine,  or  about 
sixty  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  are  concerned  with  duty, — chiefly  as 
set  forth  (in  forty-four  answers)  in  the  exposition  of  the  Ten 
Commandments,  and  (in  eighteen  answers)  in  a  commentary  on 
the  Ivord's  Prayer.  This  proportion  shows  that  it  was  the  pri- 
mary aim  of  the  compilers  to  produce  in  their  Catechism  a  prac- 
tical rather  than  a  theological  document ;  one  in  which  duty 
should  be  the  main  element,  yet  duty  conditioned  upon  and  em- 
phasized by  the  antecedent  exposition  of  saving  belief. 

The  Larger  Catechism  contains  a  somewhat  greater  doctrinal 
element, — a  feature  explained  by  the  fact  that,  while  the  Shorter 


508  THE    I. AW    OF    GOD. 

was  designed  chiefly  for  the  common  people,  this  was  drafted 
for  the  benefit  rather  of  those  called  to  office  in  the  Church, — in 
the  language  of  the  Adopting  Act  of  the  Assembty  of  Scotland, 
a  directory  for  catechising  such  as  have  made  some  proficiency 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  grounds  of  religion.  Yet  while  ninety 
of  its  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  answers,  or  nearty  forty-six  per 
cent,  relate  to  belief  and  its  fruits,  one  hundred  and  six,  fifty-four 
per  cent,  of  the  whole,  relate  to  the  duties  which  God  requires 
of  man.  And  of  this  second  group  of  answers,  fifty-eight,  or 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  whole  number  in  the  Catechism, 
and  more  than  one-third  in  space,  are  occupied  with  the  exposi- 
tion of  the  Law  of  God,  as  found  in  the  Ten  Commandments, 
while  twenty-eight  others  are  devoted  to  the  exposition  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  see  in  the  further  study 
of  the  Larger  Catechism,  that  nowhere  in  confessional  literature 
can  there  be  found  so  minute,  discriminating,  comprehensive  a 
commentary  on  the  divine  law,  as  the  appointed  rule  of  conduct 
for  every  man,  and  specially  for  all  believers.  Its  enumeration 
of  obligations  imposed  and  of  sins  forbidden,  including  not  only 
all  overt  action,  but  also  all  inward  thought  and  feeling,  is  well- 
nigh  overwhelming.  So  specific  and  detailed,  so  penetrating  and 
inclusive,  so  solemn  and  subduing  are  its  statements,  that  we 
spontaneously  pronounce  it  a  most  remarkable  code  of  ethics, 
even  more  readily  than  we  revere  it  as  an  admirable  statement  of 
evangelical  truth. 

It  might  be  expected  that  the  element  of  doctrine  would  be 
made  more  prominent  in  the  Confession,  since  two  such  practical 
symbols  were  planned  for  and  prepared  in  conjunction  with  that 
formulary.  It  was  not  needful  to  say  as  much  relatively  about 
duty,  while  the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  document  required  that 
more  should  be  incorporated  in  it  about  saving  belief.  Yet  of  the 
thirty-three  chapters  in  the  Confession,  at  least  thirteen  are 
directly  concerned  with  duty  in  various  aspects,  and  five  more 
present  doctrine  primarily  or  chiefly  in  forms  which  involve  the 
element  of  personal  obligation.  For  faith  and  repentance  and 
good  works,  and  perseverance  in  them,  are  all  obligations  as  well 
as  privileges, — duties  of  the  highest,  most  comprehensive  and 
solemn  character,  as  truly  as  they  are  gracious  gifts  flowing  into 
the  soul  through  the  mediation  of  Christ.  But  when  in  the  study 
of  the  Confession  we  reach  this  large  and  commanding  chapter 
on  the  Law  of  God,  we  pass  immediately  into  a  sphere  where 
duty  is  the  sole,  supreme  feature.  And  in  the  twelve  chapters 
that  follow,   constituting  in  space  more  than  one-third  of   the 


BELIEF   AND   DUTY  :    THEIR    RELATIVE    PROMINENCE.        509 

entire  Symbol,  we  read  of  nothing  but  law  and  obligation  toward 
God  and  man,  toward  self  and  society,  toward  the  state  and  the 
church.  The  stud}7  of  these  chapters,  in  their  connection  with  the 
introductory  exposition  of  the  divine  law,  will  convince  the  student 
that  the  Confession  itself  is  much  more  than  a  mere  compilation 
of  credeuda, — that  it  is  also,  and  even  primarily,  an  admirable 
code  of  morals,  wisely  fitted  in  many  aspects  to  guide  and  regu- 
late the  Christian  life. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  this  feature  of  the  Symbols  should 
have  been  relatively  so  much  retired  from  view  ;  and  that  the  ele- 
ment of  belief,  even  of  intellectual  as  distinguished  from  saving 
belief,  should  have  come  so  generally  to  be  regarded  as  their  dom- 
inating element.  What  we  know  of  the  men  of  Westminster 
justifies  rather  the  judgment  that,  great  theologians  as  some  of 
them  were,  and  tenacious  disputants  respecting  abstractions  in 
doctrine,  as  they  appear  to  have  sometimes  been,  they  were  men 
who  believed  in  law,  and  held  themselves  strenuously  to  the 
supreme  obligation  of  loyalty  to  known  duty  at  whatever  cost. 
While  they  emphasized  and  exalted  grace,  they  also  exalted  and 
emphasized  the  Ten  Commandments.  They  lived,  as  we  know, 
in  an  age  when  the  chief  problems  to  be  solved  were  problems  of 
duty — when  ecclesiastical  and  civil  battles  were  to  be  fought  in 
defense  of  right  or  in  stern  opposition  to  wrong.  What  Macaulay 
has  said  of  them,  and  their  obedience  to  conscience  and  their  un- 
flinching fidelity  not  merely  to  abstract  truth  but  still  more  to 
what  they  believed  to  be  duty,  is  both  true  and  just.  As  we  shall 
have  occasion  hereafter  to  see,  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides  were 
not  braver,  firmer,  more  loyal  to  obligation  than  they,  even  when 
such  loyalty  cost  them  place  and  support  and  life  itself. 

Yet  it  has  happened  in  later  times  that  the  Symbols  which  they 
labored  so  long  and  earnestly  to  frame,  have  come  to  be  viewed 
largely  as  a  series  of  merely  abstract  propositions,  over  which  tech- 
nical theologians  may  wrangle,  and  at  which  thoughtless  minds 
may  point  the  finger  of  scorn  or  of  ridicule.  It  may  indeed  be 
that  formularies  so  extensive  and  complex,  dealing  with  so  many 
profound  problems  in  philosophy  as  well  as  religion,  do  furnish 
opportunity  for  such  misapprehension  of  their  main  design,  or 
even  for  inappreciative  criticism  or  contumely.  Perhaps  the  imme- 
diate successors  of  the  divines  of  Westminster  found  a  certain 
degree  of  relief,  amid  the  troublous  times  that  followed  in  Britain 
during  the  latter  half  of  that  centur}7,  in  theorizing  and  disputing 
about  doctrine  rather  than  battling  in  behalf  of  duty.  In  the 
century  that  followed,  such  misconception  of  the  Symbols  became, 


•r)10  THE    LAW    OF    GOD. 

as  appears  in  the  sad  history  of  British  Moderatism,  far  too  gen- 
eral. So  in  our  own  century  they  have  been  viewed  too  often 
as  a  complicated  series  of  dogmatic  statements,  theological  rather 
than  practical,  whose  acceptance  is  hardly  essential  to  our  being 
Christians,  or  even  contributory  to  our  well-being  as  Christians. 
In  this  view  multitudes  who  never  comprehended  or  even  read 
them,  point  at  them  in  derision  or  treat  them  with  indifference,  as 
being  merely  the  creation  of  divines  given  overmuch  to  abstract 
speculation,  or  as  the  dead  and  dried  shell  of  old  dogmas  which 
have  little  or  no  relation  to  current  life.  How  far  such  opinions  are 
from  a  correct  and  appreciative  estimate  of  the  Symbols,  regarded 
especially  as  a  compendium  of  duty,  will  become  apparent  in  our 
further  studies. 

A  cursory  survey  of  the  place  which  the  Law  of  God  held  in 
Protestant  symbolism  generally,  may  be  of  service  at  this  point. 

It   is  a  familiar  fact    that  the  Cathol- 
2.    Doctrine  of  Law  in     .  .         .    ,  .    -     .    .  , 

Protestant  symbolism.  lclsm  of  the  Penod  of  the  Reformation 

charged  Protestantism  generally  with 
indifference  to  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  even  with  affirming 
that  obedience  to  these  divine  requisitions  was  inimical  to  salva- 
tion. The  Council  of  Trent  in  its  Decree  on  Justification  for- 
mally condemned,  as  if  it  were  a  Protestant  doctrine,  the  opinion 
that  the  observance  of  these  commandments  is  unnecessary  or  is 
impossible  to  one  who  is  justified  through  grace  ;  and  by  contrast 
taught  that  God  by  commanding  them,  both  admonishes  us  to  do 
what  we  are  able,  and  to  pray  for  help  where  we  are  not  able, 
and  gives  us  grace  that  we  may  be  able  to  do  whatever  he  com- 
mands. In  three  Canons  (XVIII-XX)  appended  to  this  Decree, 
the  Council  pronounced  the  anathema  of  the  church  on  all  who 
should  say  that  such  obedience  is  impossible,  or  that  the  ten  com- 
mandments do  not  appertain  to  Christians,  or  that  nothing  but 
faith  is  required  by  the  Gospel,  as  if  the  Gospel  were  a  bare  and 
absolute  promise  of  eternal  life  without  reference  to  the  condi- 
tion of  obeying  the  law  of  God.  And  Romanism  from  that  day 
to  the  age  of  Bellarmine  and  our  own,  has  charged  Protestants 
with  holding  the  errors  which  are  here  condemned,  as  if  these 
were  necessary  corollaries  from  its  fundamental  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication through  Jesus  Christ  and  his  grace  alone. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  some  of  the  Protestant  leaders,  even 
Luther  himself,  became  at  times  amenable  to  such  a  charge, — at 
least  to  the  extent  of  retiring  relatively  from  their  teaching  this 
element  of  moral  law.  Some  special  exposure  to  this  liability  grew 
out  of  their  earnest  protestations  against  the  Roman  perversion 


LAW    IN    PROTESTANT   SYMBOLISM.  511 

of  the  doctrine  of  law,  and  its  false  view  of  good  works,  with 
all  the  practical  corruptions  which  that  view  involved.  So  stren- 
uous were  they  in  their  resistance  to  the  ceremonialism  which  as 
a  cerement  had  wrapped  itself  around  the  Roman  church,  and 
so  opposed  to  that  ecclesiasticism  which  perverted  even  the  Ten 
Commandments  into  so  many  props  to  sustain  the  priestly  power 
and  to  oppress  true  spiritual  life,  that  they  sometimes, — it  must 
be  confessed — overlooked  that  obligation  of  loyal  and  loving  obe- 
dience to  law,  which  is  as  much  a  part  of  true  religion  as  justifying 
faith  itself.  It  may  also  be  that  in  declaring  the  deliverance  of 
Christians  from  the  requisitions  of  the  ceremonial  law,  they  failed 
sometimes  to  distinguish  sufficiently  between  the  ceremonial  and 
the  moral  law,  and  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  moral  law  is  by  its 
own  nature  incapable  of  abrogation,  and  must  stand  in  unimpaired 
force  under  the  Gospel  as  before.  Yet  this  was  only  an  occa- 
sional mistake.  The  Reformers  generally,  both  Lutheran  and  Cal- 
vinistic,  held  firmly  in  the  main  to  the  sacredness  of  the  divine 
law,  and  unswervingly  affirmed  the  obligation  of  all  believers  to 
obey  it  in  both  letter  and  spirit.  One  exception  will  hereafter 
be  considered  at  length, — the  fourth  commandment,  which  both 
Luther  and  Calvin  were  inclined  to  regard  as  an  ordinance  for  the 
Hebrews  during  the  legal  dispensation — a  ceremonial  regulation 
simply,  rather  than  an  obligation  laid  upon  the  universal  Church 
through  all  lands  and  ages.  In  their  revolt  against  the  repro- 
duction of  Judaism,  with  its  priestly  orders  and  Old  Testament 
ritual,  within  the  church  of  Rome,  and  in  their  ardent  advocacy 
of  Christian  liberty,  they  doubtless  at  this  point,  and  perhaps  at 
some  others,  fell  short  of  that  entire,  unconditional  loyalty  to  the 
divine  law  in  every  part  of  it,  which  is  unquestionabty  enjoined 
in  Scripture,  and  which  has  been  very  generally  acknowledged 
by  evangelical  minds  in  later  times. 

But  of  their  general  faithfulness  to  the  doctrine  of  law  as  well 
as  the  correlated  doctrine  of  grace,  we  happity  have  abundant 
proof  in  the  series  of  Protestant  creeds.  The  Small  Catechism 
of  Luther  commences  with  an  exposition  of  each  of  the  command- 
ments, declaring  that  God  threatens  to  punish  all  who  transgress 
these  commandments,  and  promises  every  blessing  to  all  who 
gladly  keep  them.  In  respect  even  to  the  fourth  commandment, 
this  Catechism  says  by  way  of  exposition  that  it  requires  us  not 
to  despise  preaching  and  the  Word  of  God,  but  to  deem  that 
Word  holy,  and  willingly  to  hear  and  learn  it.  The  Augsburg 
Confession  (Art.  VI)  declares  that  men  ought  to  do  the  good 
works  commanded  of  God,  because  it  is  his  will,  though  not  in 


512  THE   LAW    OF    GOD. 

the  expectation  that  they  shall  merit  justification  before  him  on 
account  of  such  obedience.  The  Formula  of  Concord  (IV)  repels 
in  terms  the  papal  charge  that  Protestants  held  that  good  works 
were  not  needful  and  might  even  be  detrimental  to  salvation;  and 
in  two  subsequent  Articles  (V-VI)  discusses  fully  the  true  doc- 
trine, setting  forth  the  nature  of  the  law  as  a  statement  of  what 
is  just  and  acceptable  to  God,  and  of  whatever  is  sinful  and  oppo- 
site to  his  holy  will,  and  pointing  out  the  real  uses  of  the  law  in 
its  relation  to  the  scheme  of  grace  revealed  in  the  Gospel.  There 
are,  it  is  said,  three  distinct  uses  of  the  law; — to  maintain  moral 
discipline  so  that  wild  and  intractable  men  might  be  restrained  by 
appointed  barriers, — to  bring  such  men  also  to  an  acknowledgment 
of  their  sin  and  guilt  before  God, — and  thirdly,  that  regenerate 
men  might  have  some  certain  rule  whereby  they  may  and  ought 
to  shape  their  lives.  Under  the  latter  head  it  is  added  that  true 
believers,  though  they  regard  themselves  as  freed  through  Christ 
from  the  constraint  and  curse  of  the  law,  are  still  to  meditate  on 
it  day  and  night,  and  continually  to  exercise  themselves  in  the 
keeping  thereof.  On  this  ground,  it  was  enjoined  upon  all  min- 
isters to  preach  the  law,  not  merely  to  the  impenitent  but  also  and 
equally  to  those  who  had  been  regenerated  and  by  faith  justified, — 
the  law,  it  is  said,  being  one  and  the  same  to  all,  namely,  the 
unchangeable  will  of  God;  and  the  fruits  of  obedience  thereto 
being  substantially  those  fruits  of  the  Spirit  which  the  Gospel 
requires  from  all  who  profess  to  believe  in  Christ. 

This  is  in  substance  the  doctrine  of  the  subsequent  creeds. 
The  Second  Helvetic  Confession  (Cap.  XII),  the  French  Con- 
fession (XXIII)  and  the  Belgic  (XXIV-XXV)  contain  similar 
teachings :  and  in  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  as  in  the  Small 
Catechism  of  Luther,  we  find  a  detailed  exposition  of  the  duties 
enjoined  in  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  an  acknowledment  of 
the  obligation  of  all  to  live,  not  according  to  some  but  according 
to  all  these  divine  statutes.  The  Scotch  Confession,  with  its 
customary  earnestness,  declares  (XIV)  that  God  has  given  to  man 
his  holy  Law,  in  which  not  only  are  forbidden  all  such  works  as 
displease  and  offend  his  holy  majesty,  but  also  are  commended 
all  such  as  please  him,  and  as  he  has  promised  to  reward  :  and 
(XV)  that  this  Law  is  most  just,  most  equal,  most  holy  and  most 
perfect,  commanding  those  things  which,  if  they  were  wrought 
in  perfection,  are  able  to  give  life,  and  to  bring  man  to  eternal 
felicity.  The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (VII)  affirm  that,  though  the 
ceremonial  law  has  been  abolished  under  the  Gospel,  no  Christian 
man  whatsoever  is  free  from  the  obedience  of  the  Commandments 


L,AW   DEFINED  :     VARIETY    IN    FORM.  513 

which  are  moral:  and  the  Anglican  Catechism,  like  that  of  Hei- 
delberg, introduces  the  Ten  Commandments  as  the  basis  of  its 
instruction  of  children  in  respect  to  personal  duty.  To  the  Irish 
Articles,  with  their  strong  meat  as  to  the  covenant  of  works  and 
the  obligation  binding  man  to  entire  and  perfect  obedience,  and  as 
to  the  relation  of  law  and  grace  in  justification  under  the  Gospel, 
it  is  not  needful  to  refer  in  detail.  Current  Protestant  opinion  is 
indicated  in  the  Articles  of  the  English  Synod  which  state  the  doc- 
trine of  Christian  obedience  in  the  following  terms:  We  believe 
and  acknowledge  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  laid  his  people 
by  his  grace  under  new  obligation  to  keep  the  perfect  law  of  God, 
and  has  by  precept  and  example  enlarged  our  knowledge  of  that 
law,  and  illustrated  the  spirit  of  filial  love  in  which  the  divine  will 
is  to  be  obeyed. 

What  is  thus  apparent  in  the  creeds  of  Protestantism  is  no  less 
visible  in  the  theologies  of  the  sixteenth  and  especially  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century.  Calvin,  while  he  emphasizes  the  differences 
between  the  law  and  the  gospel,  as  found  in  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testaments  respectively,  3Tet  introduces  into  the  Institutes  a  long 
and  elaborate  exposition  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  quotes 
the  remark  of  Augustine  that  obedience  to  God  in  these  is  some- 
times the  parent  and  guardian  and  sometimes  the  origin  and  source 
of  all  virtue.  Luther,  as  his  Larger  Catechism  shows  us,  was  no 
less  earnest  than  Calvin  in  maintaining  the  just  and  holy  suprem- 
acy of  the  moral  law.  Later  divines,  Lutheran  and  Reformed, 
were  essentially  agreed  at  this  point.  And  what  was  true  as  to 
the  theologies  of  Protestantism,  was  no  less  true  in  the  personal 
convictions  and  practical  living  of  Protestants  generally.  While 
they  received  the  gospel  as  the  only  foundation  of  their  hope  of 
salvation,  they  also  bowed  in  cordial  submission  to  the  law  as  the 
practical  test  or  index  of  the  sincerity  and  value  of  such  hope. 
And  it  is  matter  of  history  that  no  small  measure  of  the  influence 
attained  by  Protestantism  over  the  practical  life  of  northern 
Europe  was  due  to  such  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  moral  law. 

Without  adverting  further  to  that  important  distinction  be- 
tween providential  and  moral  law,  between  providential  and  moral 
government,   which   since    the  era  of 

Butler  and  Edwards,  has  been  so  prom-        3"    Law  of  God   defined: 
,  .„._...         Moral   Law   in    Nature,   in 

ment  an  element  especially  m  Calvin-     scrfDture 

istic  theology,  we  may  here  consider 

specifically  the  meaning  of  the  terse  title  given  to  this  chapter, 

the  Law  of  God.     Moral  law  may  be  defined  generically  as  the 


514  THE   LAW  OF   GOD. 

expression  of  the  will  of  God  as  our  Creator  and  Sovereign  and 
Father,  through  specific  statutes  and  with  appropriate  authority 
over  mankind  as  his  creatures  and  subjects  and  children.  This 
law,  in  the  strong  phrase  of  Calvin,  is  the  true  and  eternal  rule  of 
righteousness,  prescribed  to  men  of  all  ages  and  nations  who 
wish  to  conform  their  lives  to  the  will  of  God.  He  quotes  Cicero 
as  borrowing  from  Plato  the  striking  statement  that  human  laws 
are  the  souls  of  states,  and  himself  describes  them  as  the  strong 
nerves  of  civil  polity.  But  this  divine  law,  in  the  wide  sweep  of 
its  dominion  and  in  the  majesty  of  its  sway,  rises  as  far  above  all 
human  laws  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth.  It  is 
indeed  the  strong  nerve  of  the  divine  government — the  soul 
and  life  of  that  righteous  and  holy  polity  which  God  is  adminis- 
tering over  mankind.  This  moral  law  exists  in  a  variety  of  forms, 
and  with  less  or  more  of  comprehensiveness  and  cogency.  It  is 
sometimes  described  in  the  Symbols  as  a  law  of  nature — a  moral 
rule,  so  visibfy  stamped  on  the  very  constitution  of  material 
things  that  the  eye  of  man  may  readily  read  its  requisitions,  and 
in  some  degree  appreciate  its  mandatory  claim.  In  this  sense  it 
is  represented  (Ch.  I  :  i)  as  the  light  of  nature,  flashing  out  in 
the  works  of  creation  and  providence  in  such  ways  as  to  make  man- 
ifest to  men  their  duty,  and  to  render  inexcusable  their  neglect. 
Bishop  Butler  teaches  (Analogy,  Part  I  :  Ch.  Ill),  that  there  is 
a  kind  of  moral  government  (including  law)  implied  in  the  natural 
government  of  God  : — that  the  notion  of  such  a  government  (and 
law)  is  not  fictitious  but  natural,  and  is  suggested  to  our  thought 
by  the  constitution  and  course  of  nature. 

Moral  law  is  sometimes  set  forth  as  a  law  written  on  the  heart 
of  man  himself,  at  the  very  instant  of  creation,  and  by  an  inward 
spiritual  compulsion  inciting  him  to  free  and  loving  obedience. 
It  is  sometimes  (VII :  i-ii)  represented  as  a  covenant  or  compact  in 
which  God  lays  specific  enactments  upon  man,  and  requires  perfect 
and  personal  obedience,  with  implied  promises  and  threatenings 
appended.  In  the  chapter  now  under  consideration  it  is  described 
not  merely  as  a  covenant  imposed  upon  Adam,  but  as  a  uni- 
versal rule  of  righteousness,  adjusted  to  the  moral  nature  and 
condition  of  mankind  even  as  fallen ;  and  this  rule  of  righteousness 
is  said  to  have  been  in  substance  delivered  by  God  npon  Mount 
Sinai  in  ten  commandments.  Thenceforward  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment it  is  gradually  broadened  and  spiritualized,  and  is  described 
by  various  terms,  such  as  word,  testimony,  statute,  ordinance, 
judgment.  In  the  New  Testament,  under  the  hand  of  Christ,  it 
receives  its  complete  and  final   form,   as  a  rule  of  love  as  well  as 


LAW   IN  THE   SCRIPTURES.  515 

righteousness — a  rule  including  all  men  alike,  and  requiring  obe- 
dience not  in  overt  action  only,  but  in  disposition,  heart,  purpose, 
inmost  thought  and  impulse.  Yet  we  are  not  contemplating 
many  laws,  but  only  one  and  the  same  law,  varying  indeed  accord- 
ing to  the  capabilities  and  moral  conditions  of  those  to  whom  it 
is  applied,  but  remaining  as  God  sees  it  always  the  one  perpetual 
rule  of  life  for  man.  Dickson  (Truth's  Victory  over  Error) 
affirms  the  identity  of  all  divine  law  and  its  universal  claim, 
in  the  statement  that  all  the  precepts  of  the  moral  law  belong  to 
the  law  of  nature,  naturally  engraven  upon  the  hearts  of  men, 
which  cannot  be  abrogated,  but  obliges  all  men  perpetually  and 
unceasingly  from  natural  reason  itself. 

We  are  not  concerned  in  the  present  discussion  with  the  law 
written  on  the  heart  of  man  at  his  creation,  and  which  undoubt- 
edly included  in  its  broad  sweep  every  moral  act  possible  to  him, 
nor  with  that  specific  commandment  referred  to  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  covenant  of  works,  and  which  was  transgressed  in  the 
temptation  and  the  fall.  Neither  in  fact  are  we  concerned  with 
the  law  of  nature  generically — that  primal  book  of  the  law,  which 
is  written  on  the  stars,  stamped  on  the  constitution  of  the  earth, 
and  exhibited  to  man  in  all  the  myriad  forms  of  order  and  rule 
apparent  in  physical  nature.  Nor  have  we  occasion  here  to  con- 
sider specially  the  ceremonial  law  mentioned  in  the  chapter,  with 
its  typical  ordinances, — partly  of  worship,  prefiguring  Christ,  his 
graces,  actions,  sufferings  and  benefits  ;  and  partly  holding  forth 
divers  instructions  of  moral  duties,  all  which  ceremonial  laws  are 
now  abrogated  under  the  New  Testament.  The  Confession  also 
recognizes  what  is  termed  judicial  law, — enactments  imposed 
upon  the  Hebrew  nation  as  a  body  politic,  but  expiring  together 
with  the  state  of  that  people,  and  therefore  not  obligatory  upon 
other  states  or  nations,  any  further  than  the  general  equity  thereof 
may  require.  Our  present  concern  is  with  that  universal  moral 
law  of  which  the  chapter  declares  that  it  doth  ever  bind  all,  as 
ivell  justified persons  as  others,  to  the  obedience  thereof :  and  of  which 
it  is  also  said,  that  as  a  rule  of  life  it  claims  such  obedience  not 
only  in  regard  of  the  matter  contained  in  it,  but  also  in  respect 
of  the  authority  of  God  the  Creator  who  gave  it — an  obligation 
which,  it  is  added,  Christ  in  the  Gospel  doth  not  any  way  dissolve 
but  much  strengthen.  In  the  L,arger  Catechism  (93)  there  is  a 
remarkable  definition  of  this  moral  law  which  is  both  more 
specific  and  more  comprehensive  than  that  in  the  Confession  : 
The  declaration  of  the  will  of  God  to  mankind,  directing  and 
binding  every  one  to  personal,  perfect  and  perpetual  conformity 


516  THE    LAW   OP   GOD. 

and  obedience  thereunto,  in  the  frame  and  disposition  of  the  whole 
man,  soul  and  body,  and  in  performance  of  all  those  duties  of 
holiness  and  righteousness  which  he  oweth  to  God  and  man, — 
promising  life  upon  the  fulfilling  and  threatening  death  upon  the 
breach  of  it  :  Minutes,  400-1.  No  such  definition  as  this — one 
so  clear  and  concise,  so  broad  and  impressive, — can  be  found  any- 
where else  in  Christian  symbolism. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  examination  of  this  Law  of  God  in 
detail,  specially  as  contained  in  the  Ten  Commandments,  we  shall 

do   well    to    consider    the   suggestive 
4.    Uses  of  the  Moral  Law :  ,  .  .    ,      _       ,    ,  .     ,    , 

rules  of  interpretation.  teaching  of  the  Symbols,  particularly 

the  Larger  Catechism,  respecting  the 
uses  of  this  law,  and  the  rules  which  must  be  observed  for  the 
right  understanding  of  it.  The  Formula  of  Concord,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  enumerated  three  uses  which  the  law  subserves  in 
its  application  not  to  a  holy,  but  to  a  sinful  race, — to  restrain  men 
from  sin,  to  convince  and  convict  of  sin  committed,  and  to  guide 
the  regenerate  in  duty  and  a  holy  life.  The  French  Confession 
declares  (Art.  XXIII)  that  we  must  seek  aid  from  the  law  and 
the  prophets  for  the  ruling  of  our  lives,  as  well  as  for  our 
confirmation  in  the  promises  of  the  Gospel  :  and  the  Belgic  Con- 
fession (XXV)  inculcates  the  same  obligation  in  kindred  terms. 
The  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  while  declaring  that  Christians 
are  not  sub  lege  but  sub  gratia,  yet  teaches  that  in  the  law  we 
have  the  revealed  formulas  of  both  vice  and  virtue,  and  therefore 
it  is  not  to  be  fastidious^  rejected, — that  asset  forth  in  the  gospel 
it  also  brings  us  to  Christ,  and  is  to  be  regarded  as  obligatory 
through  his  endorsement, — and  consequently  that  all  are  to  be 
condemned  who  set  aside  the  law  as  no  longer  of  service  to  Chris- 
tians. The  chapter  we  are  considering,  taken  in  conjunction 
with  the  teaching  of  the  Larger  Catechism  (94-97)  presents  the 
subject  in  greater  detail  than  any  previous  creed.  The  analysis 
is  evidently  based  on  the  Institutes  of  Calvin  (B.  II  :  Ch.  8),  in 
which  the  various  offices  of  the  law,  especially  as  it  is  applied  to  the 
unregenerate,  are  very  forcibly  presented.  It  is  said,  first,  that 
the  law,  though  no  man  can  attain  to  righteousness  and  life  by  it, 
is  still  of  great  tise  to  all  men  alike  :  and  this  general  or  universal 
use  is  said  to  be  to  inform  them  of  the  nature  and  will  of  God,  and  of 
their  obligation  toward  him  ;  to  convince  them  also  of  the  pollution 
of  their  nature ,  hearts  and  lives,  as  revealed  by  the  law,  and  of 
their  disability  to  obey  as  they  ought  ;  consequently  to  make 
them  humble,  and  incline  them  to  see  their  need  of  Christ  as  their 
deliverer  from  sin  and  miser)-.     To  the  unregenerate  as  a  class, 


USES  OF  THE   LAV..  517 

the  law  is  said,  secondly,  to  be  of  direct  use  in  awakening  their 
consciences,  and  inciting  them  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  or 
as  an  alternative  to  leave  them  inexcusable,  while  under  the  con- 
demnation which  the  law  pronounces.  To  the  regenerate  as  a 
class,  the  law  is  said,  thirdly,  to  be  of  special  use  to  restrain  them 
from  the  corruptions  to  which  they  still  are  exposed,  and  by  its 
promises  to  encourage  them  in  duty  and  thankfulness  by  reveal- 
ing what  blessings  they  may  expect  upon  the  performance  thereof. 
And  these  various  uses,  specially  to  the  regenerate,  are  further 
said  not  to  be  contrary  to  the  grace  of  the  gospel,  but  to  sweetly 
comply  zvith  it, — there  being  no  antagonism  between  the  law  and 
the  gospel  at  this  point,  but  both  when  rightly  used  working 
harmoniously  together  in  the  interest  of  salvation.  The  subject 
of  the  uses  of  the  law  seems  to  have  engrossed  largely  the  interest 
of  the  Assembly  in  respect  both  to  the  unregenerate  and  to  be- 
lievers; the  debate  referring,  however,  more  to  shades  of  thought 
and  of  expression  than  to  the  essential  doctrine  :  Minutes,  pp. 
272-4  ;  400-2. 

The  concluding  section  of  the  chapter  contains  a  truth  which 
has  been  too  often  overlooked,  in  the  statement  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  enables  the  will  of  man  to  do  that  freely  and  cheerfully  which  the 
will  of  God,  revealed  in  the  law,  requireth  to  be  do?ie.  No  doctrine 
of  law  can  be  either  sound  or  valuable  which  does  not  include 
this  correlated  and  consummating  truth.  To  the  sinner  who  is 
conscious  of  the  pollution  and  the  disability  here  implied,  and  at 
the  same  time  is  convicted  in  conscience  in  view  of  his  spiritual 
condition,  it  is  a  matter  of  unspeakable  moment  to  discover  such 
a  divine  agency  as  is  here  described, — one  that  is  able  to  cleanse 
the  pollution  and  help  the  disability,  and  to  empower  him  to  do 
and  to  do  freely  and  cheerfully  what  God  requires.  So  to  the 
Christian  who  is  in  like  manner  oppressed  with  the  sense  of 
infirmity  and  of  failure,  and  who  realizes  how  inadequate  his  best 
obedience  is,  the  presence  of  such  an  agency  brings  life  and 
strength  and  assurance,  so  that  he  now  runs  cheerfully  and  freely 
and  joyously  in  the  way  of  the  divine  commandments.  It  was 
proposed  in  the  Assembly,  in  the  interest  of  the  high  doctrine 
respecting  the  sovereignty  of  the  Spirit,  that  the  words,  and  is 
subordinate  to  it,  should  be  added,  but  objection  being  made,  the 
proposition  was  happily  withdrawn,  leaving  the  statement  as  it 
now  appears.  Such  a  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  an  energizing 
and  guiding  power  within  the  soul,  is  indispensable  to  any  right 
conception  of  the  uses  of  the  law  in  conjunction  with  the  scheme 
of  grace.     It  is  hardly  needful  to  add  that  the  bestowment  of  the 


518  THE  LAW  OF  GOD. 

Spirit  upon  the  sinner  in  order  that  he  may  be  enabled  to  surren- 
der himself  heartily  to  the  claim  of  law,  and  upon  the  believer 
that  he  may  render  such  obedience  as  the  law  demands,  is  not 
something  separate  and  apart  from  the  penitential  embracing  of 
Christ  as  a  Savior,  or  from  loyal  devotion  to  him  and  his  cause. 
The  Spirit  in  all  this  complex  process  works  in  the  interest,  not 
of  a  righteousness  and  a  salvation  to  be  secured  through  perfect 
obedience  to  the  law,  but  rather  in  the  interest  of  the  Gospel  as 
a  scheme  of  free  and  unmerited  grace. 

In  respect  to  the  rules  to  be  observed  in  the  understanding  and 
application  of  the  law,  several  precepts  are  laid  down  in  the  Larger 
Catechism  (99),  which  are  worthy  of  most  careful  study.  They 
were  doubtless  drawn  in  large  degree  from  the  regulative  instruc- 
tions suggested  by  commentators  on  preceding  creeds-:  see  espec- 
ially Ursinus  on  the  Heidelberg  Catechism.  An  interesting  debate 
on  these  rules  is  reported  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Assembly:  396-8. 
As  given  in  the  Catechism,  they  should  be  considered  in  conjunc- 
tion with  those  more  comprehensive  rules  which  are  laid  down  in 
the  opening  chapter  of  the  Confession  for  our  guidance  in  the 
interpretation  and  use  of  the  Scriptures  generally.  In  condensed 
form  these  precepts  are  as  follows:  First,  the  law  is  to  be  regarded 
as  perfect  in  itself,  and  as  demanding  full  conformity  and  entire 
or  perfect  obedience  from  all  men, — no  sin  to  be  allowed  in  the 
least  measure,  and  every  duty  done  in  the  utmost  degree  possible. 
Second :  the  law  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  relating  only  to  words 
and  works  and  outward  acts,  but  as  reaching  the  understanding, 
the  affections  and  the  will,  and  demanding  supreme  control  over 
all  the  powers  and  activities  of  the  soul.  Third  :  the  several 
commandments  are  not  mutually  exclusive,  but  are  rather  so  inter- 
woven that  one  and  the  same  duty  is  often  presented  in  a  variety 
of  forms  or  relations.  Fourth:  a  prohibition  always  implies  the 
antithetic  command,  and  a  positive  command  implies  the  antithetic 
prohibition,  and  threatenings  and  promises  in  the  law  also  stand 
over  against  each  other  in  a  similar  way.  Fifth  :  while  what  is 
forbidden  once  is  forbidden  always,  and  what  is  enjoined  once  is 
enjoined  always,  every  particular  duty  is  not  to  be  done  at  all 
times  or  in  all  circumstances.  Sixth:  the  prohibition  of  one  spe- 
cific sin  or  the  enjoining  of  one  specific  duty  must  be  interpreted 
as  inclusive  of  all  sins  or  all  duties  of  the  same  class,  together 
with  all  the  causes  or  occasions  associated  with  them.  Two  other 
practical  rules  are  appended  to  these;  that  we  ought  to  induce 
others  to  do  or  to  avoid  whatever  we  are  ourselves  commanded 
or  forbidden  to  do,  so  far  as  others  occupy  the  same  place  and 


TEN    COMMANDMENTS  :     GENERAL    YIKW  .  519 

condition  with  ourselves;  and  that  we  are  also  bound  to  help  others 
in  doing  what  is  commanded  to  them,  and  in  like  manner  to  refrain 
from  partaking  with  them  in  doing  whatever  they  are  forbidden 
to  do  in  any  commandment. 

That  these  precepts  are  just  and  valuable  in  the  interpretation 
of  the  moral  law,  in  whatever  form  of  it,  is  quite  manifest:  it  is 
also  obvious  that  they  are  sufficient  for  our  guidance  in  such  inter- 
pretation. Thoroughly  applied,  they  bring  us  face  to  face  with 
that  law  as  an  inclusive  and  searching  rule  of  life,  profoundly 
spiritual  in  its  reach,  intensely  practical  in  all  that  it  either  enjoins 
or  prohibits;  infinitely  just  alike  in  command  and  prohibition,  and 
divinely  gracious  in  intention,  inasmuch  as  absolute  obedience  to 
it  would  be  both  the  supreme  glory  and  highest  blessedness  of 
man.  The  sweep  of  this  law  thus  interpreted  is  as  wide  as 
humanity,  and  so  specific  as  to  comprehend  within  its  sway  the 
most  secret  act,  the  inmost  thought  and  impulse  of  every  human 
being.  Its  position  is  as  settled  and  unchangeable  as  the  stars  are 
in  their  courses,  and  its  supremacy  is  none  other  than  the  suprem- 
acy of  God. 

Holding  in  mind  this  generic  conception  of  the  moral  law,  we 

may  now  proceed  to  consider  the  specific  form  of  it  given  in  the 

Ten  Commandments.    It  has  already  been 

said  that  man  by  nature  was  under  moral        5*    *ne  ^en  Command- 
.  c         .-.  ,     c  t  •      ments:  general  view:  the 

government  from  the  very  instant  ot  his     .      _  .. 

creation,  having  the  law  of  God  written  in 

his  heart,  and  power  to  fulfill  it.     This  was  true  of   him,   even 

before  the  special  prohibition  which  resulted  in  his  temptation  and 

his  fall  from  the  primal  state  of  obedience.     In  like  manner  law 

existed  and  claimed  its  legitimate  jurisdiction  over  man  during 

the  long  centuries  between  the  creation  and  the  flood,  and  during 

the  entire  patriarchal  period  extending  to  the  exodus  from  Egypt. 

The  crime  of  Cain,  the  corruption  of  all  flesh  upon  the  earth, 

the  impiety  of  Babel,  were  each  and  all  transgressions  of  this  one 

divine  law.     The  life  of  the  patriarchs  was  a  life  of  obligation 

throughout,  in  forms  adjusted  to  their  several  grades  of  moral 

development.     Traces  of  specific  law,  such  as  the  institution  of 

the  Sabbath  and  of  sacrifices,   appear  at  various  points  in  the 

Hebraic  history  prior  to  the  formal  enactment  at  Sinai.     What  we 

have  therefore  in  the  Decern  Verba  is  not  a  new  law,  but  rather  a 

new  promulgation  in  more  comprehensive  and  commanding  form 

of  legal  recmisitions  which  were  written  in  the  heart  of  humanity 

from  the  beginning,  but  which  now  needed  more  fresh  and  vivid 


520  THE    LAW  OF   GOD. 

statement.  Warburton  (Divine  Legation  of  Moses)  has  estab- 
lished this  view  by  unquestionable  argumentation.  We  have  in 
the  Decalogue,  as  he  has  shown,  a  consummation  of  all  the 
obligations,  whether  toward  God  or  toward  man,  which  in  all 
preceding  eras  had  been  laid  on  the  conscience  of  the  race.  At 
the  same  time  that  marvelous  code  was  an  embodiment  under 
direct  divine  dictation  of  those  fundamental  principles  of  right- 
eousness, those  broad  legal  obligations,  which  the  race  is  bound 
to  observe  in  all  lands  and  ages  to  the  end  of  the  world.  The 
Decalogue,  in  other  words,  is  an  incorporation  of  what  from  the 
day  of  creation  and  from  the  exodus  was,  and  has  continued  ever 
since  and  will  continue  while  the  world  stands,  to  be  for  our 
humanity  the  one  perfect  and  supreme  Law  of  God.  This  was, 
in  the  language  of  the  Catechism  (92)  the  rule  of  obedience  revealed 
to  Adam  in  the  estate  of  innocence,  and  to  all  mankind  in  him, 
however  far  they  may  have  forsworn  allegiance  to  its  claims. 

We  find  in  the  Symbols  only  a  general  account  of  the  enact- 
ment of  this  ecumenical  code,  as  having  been  delivered  by  the  voice 
of  God  upon  Mdunt  Sinai,  and  written  by  him  on  the  two  tables  of 
stone.  But  it  will  be  noted  that  this  brief  statement  openly  claims 
for  the  Decalogue  a  supernatural,  a  divine  origin,  and  therefore 
demands  for  it  universal  recognition  on  the  authority  not  of  Moses 
but  of  God  himself.  In  contrast  with  this  affirmation  we  are  con- 
fronted by  the  hypothesis  of  a  purely  Mosaic  authorship,  on  the 
basis  of  antecedent  Egyptian  and  other  legislation.  But  one  who 
studies  this  code  in  itself,  who  properly  estimates  its  legal  exact- 
ness and  comprehensiveness  and  its  lofty  ethical  quality,  and  who 
perceives  how  vitally  it  has  affected  legislation  in  all  succeeding 
times  and  among  many  nations,  and  how  it  is  still  the  germ  of 
the  best  systems  of  law  established  in  the  most  civilized  lands, 
must  set  this  hypothesis  aside  as  wholly  inadequate.  However 
learned  Moses  may  have  been  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians, 
there  is  as  yet  no  clear  evidence  from  either  the  biblical  accounts 
or  the  archeological  discoveries  of  recent  date,  that  the  code  he 
brought  to  the  fleeing  children  of  Israel  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia 
was  his  own  construction  simply,  fashioned  on  the  basis  of  what 
he  had  learned  in  Egypt.  Nor  can  one  who  properly  appreciates 
the  character  and  career  of  this  remarkable  man,  at  once  the  legis- 
lator and  leader,  the  patriarch  and  prophet  and  father  of  his 
people,  rest  in  the  conclusion  that  the  transaction  at  Sinai  was 
throughout  a  shrewd  and  wicked  fraud.  As  the  hypothesis  that 
Christ  was  a  man  only  is  abundantly  refuted  by  what  he  was  and 
what  he  did,  as  described  by  the  Evangelists,  so  the  hypothesis 


DIVINE   ORIGIN  OF  THE   DECALOGUE.  521 

that  the  Decalogue  was  merely  a  fabrication  by  Moses,  deceitfully 
imposed  upon  the  Hebrews  as  a  divine  code,  fails  utterly  to  main- 
tain itself  in  the  presence  either  of  the  sacred  record  or  of  the 
subsequent  history  of  the  man  or  the  nation. 

Nor  is  it  strange  that  at  such  a  juncture  in  the  career  not  of 
the  Israelites  only,  but  of  the  race  as  involved  with  them  in  the 
development  of  the  plan  of  salvation  a  great  miracle  should  have 
been  wrought,  and  the  voice  of  God  heard,  with  accompanying 
lightnings  and  thunders  and  trumpet  sounds,  and  the  two  tables 
of  stone  inscribed  and  delivered  by  the  divine  hand,  to  the  awe- 
stricken  descendants  of  Abraham  just  emerging  from  their  estate 
of  tribal  slavery  into  national  independence.  That  God  could 
have  wrought  such  a  gigantic  miracle,  if  he  saw  fit,  is  of  course 
unquestionable  :  that  the  exigency  which  had  come  upon  the 
Israelites,  and  on  mankind  as  a  fallen  race  in  need  of  such  a  new 
enactment  and  enforcement  of  moral  law,  justified  such  miracle, 
seems  very  clear  to  those  who  apprehend  in  any  adequate  degree 
the  divine  plan  of  grace  for  the  Jews,  and  through  them  for 
humanity.  Every  step  in  the  unfolding  of  this  gracious  plan  has 
been  conditioned  upon  miracle  as  the  only  effectual  attestation  ; 
and  in  this  instance  not  only  a  confirmatory  miracle,  but  just 
such  a  miracle  as  this,  so  awful  in  its  magnitude  and  grandeur, 
so  potent  in  its  impressiveness,  was  even  to  human  view  indis- 
pensable. Augustine  has  well  said  (Civ.  Dei.  X  :  13)  that  it  was 
fit  that  the  law  which  was  given  not  to  one  man  or  a  few  enlight- 
ened men,  but  to  the  whole  of  a  populous  nation,  should  be 
accompanied  by  awe-inspiring  signs — great  marvels  wrought  by 
the  ministry  of  angels.  Yet  he  adds  the  suggestive  remark,  as  if 
to  guard  against  anthropomorphism,  that  as  the  sound  which  com- 
municates the  thought  conceived  in  the  silence  of  the  mind  is  not 
the  thought  itself,  so  the  form  by  which  God,  invisible  in  his  own 
nature,  became  visible  in  this  instance  was  not  God  himself.  Nor 
has  it  ever  been  shown,  though  the  objection  has  often  been  made, 
that  the  record  in  the  book  of  the  Exodus,  as  authentically  written 
by  Moses  himself,  is  historically  untrue  :  the  writers  of  subse- 
quent Scripture  rather  assume  and  demonstrate  its  historic  relia- 
bility, notwithstanding  all  that  recent  criticism  and  unbelief  have 
urged  against  it.  Though  it  could  be  proved  that  some  portions 
of  the  five  books  which  bear  the  name  of  Moses,  were  written  by 
other  hands  and  at  later  dates,  no  evidence  has  thus  far  appeared 
to  discredit  our  faith  that  the  story  of  the  Exodus,  with  all  its 
remarkable  and  its  supernatural  incidents,  was  written  by  the 
hand  of  the  man  who  himself  led  the  Israelites  forth  from  the 


522  THE    LAW   OF    GOD. 

house  of  bondage,  and  consolidated  them  into  one  strong 
nationality. 

Continuing  our  general  inspection  of  the  Decalogue,  we  may 
at  this  point  briefly  note  certain  introductory  facts  which  should 
be  carefully  borne  in  mind  in  the  proposed  study.  First :  though 
given  to  the  Hebrews  as  a  body,  and  for  the  purpose  of  uniting 
them  more  closely  in  their  political  and  social  life,  the  command- 
ments are  each  and  all  personal  in  form, — addressed  directly  to 
the  individual  conscience,  and  evidently  intended  to  develop  in 
each  and  all  the  sense  of  individual  responsibility.  Second  : 
while  these  commandments  are  in  form  negative,  pointing  out  to 
each  person  addressed  what  he  must  not  do,  they  are  also  positive 
in  their  scope,  enjoining  in  each  instance  those  personal  duties 
which  stand  over  against  the  sins  prohibited.  Third  :  while  the 
negative  and  positive  prescripts  of  the  law  relate  primarily  to  out- 
ward action,  they  also  include  by  implication  the  inward  purpose 
and  spirit,  and  demand  from  every  subject  not  merely  an  external 
morality,  but  also  an  inherent  righteousness — an  appropriate  state 
and  disposition  of  the  soul  in  view  of  these  requirements.  Fourth  : 
the  motives  brought  to  bear  in  order  to  prevent  indulgence  in  sin, 
and  to  encourage  fidelity  to  duty,  are  chiefly  drawn  in  the  first 
instance  from  the  present  rather  than  the  future  life  ;  promise 
and  warning  relating  alike  to  the  present  world  primarily.  Two 
reasons  may  be  given  for  this  fact ; — that  the  degree  of  develop- 
ment in  the  persons  first  addressed  rendered  them  mainly  suscep- 
tible to  this  type  of  appeal ;  and  further,  that  to  the  Hebrews  as 
a  corporate  nation  none  but  motives  drawn  from  the  present  life 
could  apply.  < 

Fifth  :  the  end  in  view  and  the  proper  tendency  of  the  whole 
law  was,  as  Calvin  has  well  said,  a  perfection  of  righteousness — 
the  forming  of  the  entire  life  of  the  individual,  and  of  the  nation 
also,  after  the  example  of  the  divine  purity.  In  other  words,  its 
primary  purpose  was  not  to  convict  and  condemn,  but  to  educate, 
to  direct,  to  sanctify.  Sixth:  while  the  law  was  thus  adjusted 
to  the  moral  condition  of  the  individual  Hebrew,  and  to  the  needs 
of  the  Hebrews  as  a  nation,  its  precepts  are  adapted  to  the  neces- 
sity of  mankind  universally,  and  its  right  to  control  is  as  wide 
as  humanity  under  all  dispensations  alike,  and  through  all  time. 
The  theory  that  the  Jehovah  who  issued  these  commands,  was 
merely  the  God  of  the  Hebrews  as  distinct  from  other  nationali- 
ties,— that  in  this  transaction  he  was  acting  provincially  rather 
than  as  the  God  of  all  mankind,  is  sufficiently  confuted  by  the 
obvious  applicability  and  authoritativeness  of  the  Decalogue  as  a' 


INTRODUCTORY  FACTS  :  THE  TWO  TABLES.        523 

code  of  laws  designed  for  the  whole  world.  The  race  can  never  out- 
grow this  code,  or  revolt  successfully  against  its  holy  supervision. 
As  Dean  Stanley  has  said,  in  terms  which  are  true  of  all  Christian 
nations  as  of  the  English  people  :  Its  precepts  are  embedded  in 
the  heart  of  the  Christian  religion  :  Side  by  side  with  the  Prayer 
of  our  Iyord  they  appear,  inscribed  on  our  sanctuaries,  read  from 
our  altars,  and  taught  to  our  children  as  the  foundation  of  all 
morality.  As  L,uther  well  declared  in  the  preface  to  his  L,arger 
Catechism,  whosoever  has  thoroughly  examined  and  studied  the 
Ten  Commandments,  understands  the  whole  Scripture,  and  is  able 
on  trying  occasions  and  emergencies,  to  excel  in  wisdom,  counsel 
and  consolation. 

Two  other  points  should  be  briefly  mentioned, — the  differences 
between  the  records  in  Exodus  and  Deuteronomy,  and  the  division 
into  the  two  tables.  These  differences  are  in  large  degree  verbal 
only,  and  are  easily  explicable,  especially  if  the  record  in  Exodus 
be  regarded  as  primary,  and  that  in  Deuteronomy  as  a  somewhat 
later  rescript.  It  would  involve  no  questioning  of  the  proper 
authoritativeness  of  the  records,  or  even  of  the  Mosaic  authorship, 
if  with  Ewald  and  others  we  should  regard  such  verbal  changes 
as  additions  made  in  the  form  of  comment  by  other  hands.  The 
chief  of  these  differences  appears  in  the  reason  given  for  the  ob- 
servance of  the  law  of  the  Sabbath, — that  reason  in  Exodus  being 
the  fact  of  the  divine  cessation  from  the  creative  work  on  that 
day,  and  in  Deuteronomy  being  the  providential  deliverance  of 
the  chosen  people  from  Egyptian  bondage.  But  these  two  reasons 
are  not  contradictory  or  mutually  exclusive  :  the  first  is  generic 
while  the  second  is  specific,  and  both  may  be  as  they  doubtless 
were  designed  to  be,  conjoined  in  the  incentive  they  offer  for 
obedience  to  the  command.  In  fact,  the  special  reason  given  in 
Deuteronomy  is  only  a  repetition  in  substance  of  the  sentence 
with  which  the  Decalogue  is  introduced  alike  in  both  records,  and 
which  to  the  Hebrew  was  a  strong  incentive  to  obedience  to  each 
and  all  of  the  commandments.  Under  the  Gospel,  as  we  know, 
a  third  reason  for  such  observance  is  found  in  the  mediation  of 
the  risen  Lord  ;  not  only  creation  and  providence,  but  also  salva- 
tion through  him,  being  all  united  in  enforcing  the  injunction  to 
remember  the  Sabbath  day  and  keep  it  holy. 

The  Symbols  follow  the  current  Reformed  distribution  of  the 
L,aw  into  the  two  tables  :  the  first  four  commandments  containing 
our  duty  to  God,  and  the  other  six  our  duty  to  man.  I^uther  in  his 
Smaller  Catechism,  following  the  general  usage  of  the  Western 
Church  before  the  Reformation,  which  is  still   the  usage  of  the 


524  THE   LAW   OF   GOD. 

Roman  communion,  blends  the  second  and  third  commands  into 
one,  and  sub-divides  the  tenth,  making  the  first  table  to  consist  of 
three  only,  and  the  second  of  seven  commandments.  The  Cate- 
chism of  Heidelberg  adopts  the  distribution  approved  by  Calvin 
and  the  Westminster  divines,  and  by  the  Reformed  churches  gen- 
erally ;  and  this  is  doubtless  the  preferable  arrangement.  There 
are  some  good  reasons,  however,  for  associating  the  fifth  com- 
mandment closely  with  those  in  the  first  table,  since  parents  are 
the  authors  of  our  being,  and  are  endowed  de  facto  with  an 
intrinsic  right  to  govern  us,  and  in  this  way  are  in  some  true  sense 
the  representatives  of  God  and  his  authority  and  claims  ;  and 
since  also  the  honoring  of  parents  is  a  lower  yet  correlated  form 
of  that  piety,  which  has  its  highest  form  in  the  honoring  of  God 
supremely  as  the  Father  as  well  as  Sovereign  over  all.  At  least, 
the  fifth  commandment  may  properly  be  regarded  as  a  transi- 
tional precept,  in  and  through  which  we  pass  easily  from  the  duties 
we  owe  directly  to  God,  to  those  which  we  sustain  in  various 
ways  toward  our  fellow  men.  The  tenth  and  last  command  may 
in  a  similar  way  be  viewed  as  transitional  also,  since  the  mind  is 
carried  over  in  it  from  the  contemplation  of  overt  acts  to  the 
consideration  of  those  moral  feelings  and  motives  which  should 
underlie  all  our  obedience.  It  is  in  fact  the  direct  point  of  con- 
nection between  the  Decalogue  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
wherein  our  Lord  carries  our  thought  altogether  beyond  the 
sphere  of  outward  action,  into  that  inward  sphere  of  moral  pur- 
pose and  sentiment  wherein  character  truly  lies.  What  he  came 
to  fulfill  in  the  spirit,  had  already  been  begun  in  the  letter  :  Thou 
shalt  not  covet ! 

Our  Lord  groups  the  duties  enjoined  in  the  first  table  of  the 
law  under  the  comprehensive  concept  of  love  to  God,  as  consti- 
tuting the  first  and  great  command- 
6.  The  First  Table:  Duties     ment      a  sacred  requisition  far  above 
toward  God :   The  sins  for-  .,  ,  ,  ,  .  , 

bidden:  the  obligations  im-  even  that  second  commandment  which 
posed,  is  like  unto  it  in  spirit,   love  to  our 

fellow  men.  Just  as  in  the  prayer 
which  he  himself  has  taught  the  world  to  offer,  the  name  and 
will  and  kingdom  of  God  are  placed  before  all  desires  which 
center  in  ourselves  or  others,  so  here  God  and  his  claims  are 
made  primal  and  supreme  :  duty  toward  him,  in  contrast  with 
the  ordinary  inclination  and  habit  of  men,  or  the  prescripts  of  sec- 
ular philosophy,  is  the  first  and  chief  concern.  Nor  is  this  order 
of  obligation  to  be  interpreted  as  indicating  any  narrow  or  selfish 


FIRST  TABLE  :     DUTIES   TO   GOD.  525 

desire  for  supremacy  on  the  part  of  the  divine  lawgiver ;  it  is 
in  harmony  rather  with  the  eternal  fitness  of  things,  that  God 
should  be  here  as  everywhere  first,  and  his  claim  to  love  and 
loyalty  supreme.  That  claim  is  directly  emphasized  in  the  pre- 
liminary sentence,  introducing  the  first  commandment, — a  sen- 
tence in  which  God  first  declares  himself  as  eminently  Lord  and 
King  over  the  Hebrews  in  virtue  of  his  own  nature  and  election, 
and  then  points  to  his  deliverance  of  the  chosen  people  from  their 
house  of  bondage  as  constituting  a  further  ground  of  obligation 
on  their  part  to  honor  and  obey  him.  Yet  this  claim  is  not  lim- 
ited in  its  range  to  the  Israelites,  since  God  is  as  truly  the  con- 
stituted Lord  by  nature  over  all  men,  and  by  his  providential 
and  preserving  care  over  all  has  laid  them  universally  under  the 
same  primal  obligation.  Calvin  in  commenting  on  this  sentence 
has  well  said  that  every  man  ought  to  welcome  the  Lawgiver,  to 
observe  whose  commands  he  is  particularly  called  ;  from  whose  be- 
nignity he  expects  an  abundance  of  temporal  blessings  and  a  life  of 
immortality  and  glory  ;  by  whose  wonderful  power  and  mercy  he 
knows  himself  to  be  delivered  from  the  jaws  of  death.  The 
Larger  Catechism  (101)  has  well  explained  the  sentence  in  its 
broadest  range,  in  the  declaration  that  therein  God  manifesteth  his 
sovereignty  as  being  Jehovah,  the  eternal  and  immutable  and 
almighty  God,  having  his  being  in  and  of  himself,  and  giving 
being  to  all  his  words  and  works  ;  that  he  is  also  a  God  in  cove- 
nant, as  with  Israel  of  old  so  with  all  his  people  everywhere  ; 
who,  as  he  brought  them  out  of  their  bondage  in  Egypt,  so  he 
delivered  us  from  our  spiritual  thralldom ;  and  therefore  we 
are  bound  to  take  him  for  our  God  alone  and  to  keep  all  his  com- 
mandments. 

In  the  first  commandment,  flowing  directly  out  of  this  intro- 
ductory declaration,  we  find  a  solemn  and  authoritative  prohibi- 
tion of  what  in  various  forms  is  the  primal  sin  of  our  corrupted 
race  against  God,— the  sin  of  atheism,  which  positively  or  nega- 
tively denies  his  existence, — the  sin  of  agnosticism,  which  holds 
that  the  fact  of  his  existence  and  his  relationship  to  man  is 
incapable  of  proof,  and  therefore  can  neither  be  affirmed  nor 
rejected, — the  sin  of  polytheism,  which  permits  belief  in  mauy 
gods  besides  Jehovah,  all  entitled  to  worship  and  service, —  the  sin 
of  preferring  and  adoring  some  other  deity  before  him,  the  true 
and  only  God.  In  the  Shorter  Catechism  (47)  these  sins  in  their 
boundless  variety  are  summed  up  in  the  statement  that  the  com- 
mandment forbiddeth  the  denying  or  not  worshiping  and  glorifying 
the  true  God  as  God  a?id  our  God,  and  the  giving  of  that  worship 


526  THE   LAW   OF   GOD. 

and  glory  to  any  other  which  is  due  to  him  alone.  In  the  Larger 
Catechism  (105)  these  sins  are  elaborately  specialized  into  nearly 
a  hundred  particulars,  wherein  men  may  offend  against  the  divine 
law  at  this  point.  A  suggestive  record  of  the  manner  in  which 
these  multiplied  specifications  for  the  first  four  commandments 
were  furnished,  appears  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Assembly,  403-12, 
seq.  It  is  also  there  said  (406)  that  after  debate  it  was  resolved 
to  begin  with  the  affirmative  duties  enjoined  in  all  the  command- 
ments, though  the  commandments  themselves  in  all  instances  but 
two  begin  with  the  naming  of  the  sins  forbidden.  Positively,  we 
are  required,  according  to  the  Shorter  Catechism  (46),  to  know 
a?id  acknowledge  God  to  be  the  only  true  God  and  our  God,  and 
to  worship  and  glorify  him  accordingly  ;  and  this  terse  statement 
is  expanded  in  the  Larger  into  nearly  as  many  specifications, 
covering  in  fact  the  whole  sum  and  body  of  our  duty  toward  him. 
Such  devout  recognition  of  the  existence  and  unique  supremacy 
of  God  in  himself,  and  of  his  relations  to  man  as  his  creature,  is  in 
a  word  the  grand  primary  obligation  of  all  mankind — an  obliga- 
tion which  no  one  can  any  more  throw  aside  than  he  can  shake 
off  his  essential  immortality.  And  by  way  of  emphasis  it  is  added 
that  the  phrase,  before  me,  teaches  that  this  God  who  seeth  all 
things,  taketh  special  notice  of,  and  is  much  displeased  with,  the 
sin  of  having  any  other  God  :  and  that  this  fact  should  be  a  pow- 
erful argument  both  to  dissuade  us  from  this  sin  in  whatever 
form  or  degree,  and  to  incite  us  to  do  all  that  we  do  as  in  his  sight 
and  for  his  glory .  In  these  words,  therefore,  we  have  the  foun- 
dation of  all  true  religion,  and  the  corner-stoneof  all  acceptable 
belief  and  service  :  thus  to  know  God  is  religion,  and  thus  to 
serve  and  honor  him  is  life,  spiritual  and  everlasting. 

As  the  first  commandment  demands  the  cordial  recognition  of 
God  in  his  existence  and  supremacy  and  his  relationship  to  man, 
so  the  second  requires  the  like  recognition  of  him  as  a  Spirit,  to 
be  alone  worshiped  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  as  our  Lord  explicitly 
taught.  As  Spirit,  pure  and  absolute,  invisible,  and  without  body, 
parts  or  passions,  God  cannot  be  represented  by  any  image  what- 
soever, whether  found  on  earth  or  in  the  air  or  sea.  While  we  may 
in  figures  of  speech  represent  him  in  imagery  drawn  from  the 
various  spheres  of  human  experience  or  observation,  we  are  ever 
to  bear  in  mind  the  merely  rhetorical  quality  of  all  such  repre- 
sentations. The  conception  of  God  belongs,  like  that  of  space 
or  force  or  law,  to  what  Hamilton  happily  describes  as  the  un- 
picturable  notions  of  the  human  intelligence.  To  worship  him 
by  images,  or  as  in  any  way  incarnated  in  physical  symbols,  or 


DIVINE    WORSHIP:     SIN   OF    IDOLATRY.  527 

indeed  in  any  manner  not  appointed  in  Scripture,  is  in  a  word 
that  second  great  sin  of  the  race — the  sin  of  idolatry.  The  L,arger 
Catechism  affirms  (109)  that  the  making  any  such  representation 
of  God,  or  of  any  of  the  three  Persons  in  the  Godhead,  either 
inwardly  in  our  minds,  or  outwardly  in  any  likeness  of  any 
creature,  with  a  view  to  the  worship  of  Deity  in  or  by  such  image, 
is  a  direct  violation  of  this  searching  commandment.  Among  the 
scandals  excluding  from  the  sacrament  the  Assembly  expressly 
named  the  buying,  selling,  giving  or  keeping  any  images  or 
pictures  of  the  Trinity  or  any  Person  thereof,  for  the  sake  of 
devotion  or  out  of  esteem  of  the  same  :  Minutes,  183-4.  The 
Catechism  also  forbids  the  making  of  any  representation  of  the 
feigned  deities  of  heathenism,  and  all  worship  of  them  or  service 
in  their  honor.  In  like  manner,  all  superstitious  devices  which 
corrupt  the  true  worship,  by  adding  to  it  or  taking  from  it, 
whether  invented  by  ourselves  or  received  by  tradition  from 
others  under  any  title  of  antiquity  or  custom  or  devotion,  are 
classed  with  the  idolatries  of  paganism, — a  clause  intended  doubt- 
less to  carry  in  it  a  condemnation  of  the  accumulated  ceremonials 
and  mummeries  of  Rome.  It  was  more  than  once  proposed  in 
the  Assembly  to  add  tolerating  a  false  religion  among  the  sins 
condemned  by  the  second  commandment ;  but  the  same  end  was 
sufficiently  gained  by  adding  a  clause  of  like  import  to  the  duties 
enjoined  in  that  command.  One  illustration  of  the  temper  of  the 
Assembly  at  this  point  appears  in  the  petition  addressed  to  Parlia- 
ment at  the  outset  of  their  deliberations,  that  all  monuments  of 
idolatry  and  superstition,  but  more  especially  the  whole  body  and 
practice  of  papacy,  may  be  totally  abolished  by  law.  Sacrilege  and 
simony,  neglect  or  contempt  of  the  appointed  ordinances  of 
religion,  and  all  opposition  to  such  forms  of  worship  as  God  has 
prescribed  for  the  promotion  of  his  glory  and  the  culture  of  true 
piety,  are  also  included  in  that  class  of  sins  against  the  divine 
spirituality  of  which  the  gross  idolatries  of  the  heathen  world 
furnish  the  most  offensive  illustration. 

Over  against  the  sins  thus  enumerated  and  forbidden,  are  placed 
by  implication  the  corresponding  duties  which  all  men  are  bound 
to  regard, — summed  up  (108)  in  the  receiving,  observing  and 
keeping  pure  and  entire,  all  such  religious  7vorship  and  ordina?ices 
as  God  hath  instituted  in  his  Word.  Among  these  are  specified 
prayer  and  thanksgiving  in  the  name  of  Christ,  the  reading  and 
hearing  and  preaching  of  the  truths  of  Scripture,  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacraments,  the  maintenance  of  church  government 
and  discipline,  and  also  fasting  and  the  making  of  religious  vows 


•r)2S  THE    I.AW    OF   GOD. 

and  oaths  in  the  name  of  God.  And  it  is  a  suggestive  illustration 
of  the  temper  of  the  times  that  there  is  added  as  an  important 
part  of  this  obligation  the  disapproving  and  detesting  and  oppos- 
ing of  all  false  worship,  in  which  the  ceremonies  and  ritual  of  the 
papal  communion  were  doubtless  included.  The  primitive  Prot- 
estantism, especially  in  the  Reformed  communions,  was  strongly 
opposed  to  all  pictures,  even  of  Christ,  in  the  sanctuaries,  as 
savoring  of  superstition,  if  not  of  idolatry  :  see  Second  Helv. 
Conf.  Ch.  IV.  The  adoration  of  such  scenic  representations,  or 
of  symbols  such  as  the  cross,  is  clearly  a  violation  of  the  prescribed 
rule  of  spiritual  devotion. 

The  fact  that  reasons  for  obedience  are  appended  to  three  of  the 
Ten  Commandments,  two  in  the  form  of  solemn  warning  and  one 
in  the  winning  aspect  of  promise,  is  one  of  marked  significance. 
And  it  has  been  justly  suggested  that,  though  these  reasons  are 
connected  directly  with  only  three,  they  apply  as  truly  in  the  form 
both  of  promise  and  of  warning  to  the  other  seven  commands, — 
becoming  no  less  really  so  many  incentives  to  obedience  to  the 
Decalogue  in  every  part.  The  special  reason  appended  to  the  sec- 
ond commandment  is  worthy  of  careful  notice.  Idolatry  in  all 
these  multiplied  forms  must  be  prohibited,  and  the  true  worship  of 
God  as  a  Spirit  maintained  in  its  full  spirituality  and  force,  because 
this  Jehovah  is,  as  he  here  declares,  a  jealous  God, — jealous  in 
the  sustaining  of  his  rightful  authority  and  claim, — jealous  also 
in  respect  to  the  worship  and  service  properly  due  to  him  and  to 
him  alone, — and  jealous  in  the  sense  of  indignation  against  not 
only  all  idolatry  and  reverence  for  the  false  deities  of  heathenism, 
but  also  against  any  and  all  deviations  or  failures  in  the  observ- 
ance of  that  adoration  which  is  properly  his  right,  though  this 
should  appear  even  within  his  own  church,  or  in  his  own  elect. 
The  question  whether  it  is  just  to  visit  judicially  the  iniquity  of 
the  fathers,  in  these  aspects  of  it,  upon  the  children  even  unto  the 
third  and  fourth  generation,  is  a  part  of  the  more  comprehensive 
question  whether  it  is  wise  and  just  and  good  in  God  to  bind  our 
race  together  in  such  constitutional  and  representative  unity  as 
makes  each  man  and  each  generation  an  actual  and  essential  factor 
in  the  lives  and  destinies  of  the  men  and  the  generations  that  follow 
them.  That  this  organic  union  is  a  blessing  more  than  a  curse 
is  illustrated  in  this  instance  in  the  corresponding  declaration, 
that  the  mercies  poured  out  so  benignantly  on  those  who  abhor 
idolatry  and  cultivate  true  spiritual  worship,  are  by  the  same  law 
of  organic  unity  carried  down  to  their  posterity,  not  for  three  or 
four,  but  for  a  thousand,  or  an  uncounted  number  of  generations. 


TAKING    HIS    NAME    IN    VAIN.  528 

And  in  view  of  this  correlated  fact,  are  we  not  forbidden  to  chal- 
lenge the  sovereign  arrangement  here  illustrated,  and  encouraged 
rather  to  rejoice  in  the  assurance  that  grace  as  well  as  sin  flows 
dow7n  from  parent  to  child,  and  from  one  generation  of  believers  to 
another,  even  through  long  ages  of  holy  and  blessed  experience  ? 

Postponing  the  further  consideration  of  the  matter  of  divine 
worship  until  it  arises  again  in  conjunction  with  the  doctrine  of 
the  Church  and  its  sacraments  and  ordinances,  we  may  turn  to 
the  third  commandment  which  stands  in  such  living  relations 
to  the  two  preceding  commands  as  inculcating  together  with  them 
the  comprehensive  and  primary  obligation,  not  of  the  Hebrews 
only,  but  of  all  men  through  all  time  toward  God  as  the  Creator 
and  Lord  and  Father  of  all.  The  term,  name,  appears  often  in 
Scripture,  and  in  a  variety  of  associations  and  of  meanings,  as 
descriptive  not  merely  of  the  titles  properly  applied  to  God,  but 
also  of  all  those  attributes  and  activities  which  these  titles  suggest. 
In  this  commandment  it  is  doubtless  used  to  signify,  in  the  terse 
phrase  of  the  Shorter  Catechism  (bb)  ,a?iy  thing  whereby  God  maketh 
himself  known.  In  the  Larger  (112),  the  definition  is  specialized 
to  include  titles,  attributes,  ordinances,  the  word  (or  revelation), 
sacraments,  prayer,  oaths,  vows,  lots,  divine  works,  and  whatever 
else  there  is  by  which  God  makes  himself  known  to  men.  And 
the  duty  enjoined  is  the  holy  and  reverent  use  of  all  these  in 
thought,  meditation,  word  and  writing,  by  an  hoi}'  profession,  and 
answerable  conversation,  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  our- 
selves and  others.  Nor  can  it  be  said  by  any  faithful  student  of 
the  Bible  either  that'the  significant  word,  name,  is  here  too  broadly 
defined,  or  that  the  corresponding  duty  is  too  comprehensively  or 
strongly  enforced.  He  who  justly  apprehends  the  high  and 
solemn  doctrine  of  the  two  preceding  commands  as  to  the  exist- 
ence and  spirituality,  the  relationship  and  supremacy  of  God  as 
Lord  over  all,  will  not  fail  to  discover  the  manifold  significance 
of  every  name  he  bears,  or  to  appreciate  the  obligation  of  the 
entire  race  of  man  to  revere  such  names,  and  to  bow  down  in 
constant  and  holy  reverence  before  him  who  condescends  through 
them  to  make  himself  known  to  the  world. 

The  sin  of  profanity,  of  which  open  blasphemy  is  the  most 
awful  illustration,  stands  out,  in  close  conjunction  with  the  .sins  of 
atheistic  unbelief  and  idolatry,  as  one  of  the  primal,  flagrant  and 
almost  universal  crimes  of  mankind.  The  prohibition  here  sol- 
emnly pronounced  does  not  relate  merely  to  the  failure  to  use  the 
name  of  God  in  the  reverent  way  just  described,  but  to  the  abuse 
of  that  name  (L.  C.  113)  in  a?i  ignorant,  vain,  irreverent,  profan.  . 


530  the;  law  of  god. 

superstitious,  ivicked  mentioning  or  otherwise  using  the  divine  titles, 
attributes,  ordinances  or  works,  by  blaspheming  or  perjury;  also 
all  sinful  cursing,  oaths,  vows  and  lots  ;  violating  of  our  oaths  and 
vows  if  lawful,  and  fulfilling  of  them  if  of  things  unlawful ;  also 
all  murmuring  and  quarreling  at  and  curious  prying  into  and  mis- 
applying of  the  divine  decrees  and  providences;  also,  the  misinter- 
preting, misapplying,  or  any  way  perverting  the  Word,  or  any 
part  of  it,  to  profane  jests,  curious  and  unprofitable  questions, 
vain  janglings,  or  the  maintaining  of  false  doctrines;  also,  abusing 
the  Word  or  the  creatures  or  anything  contained  under  the  name 
of  God,  to  charms  or  sinful  lusts  or  practices  ;  also  the  malign- 
ing, scorning,  reviling  or  any  wise  opposing  of  the  divine  truth, 
grace  and  ways  ;  also,  the  making  profession  of  religion  in  hypoc- 
risy or  for  sinister  ends  ;  or  being  ashamed  of  it  or  a  shame  to  it, 
by  uncomfortable,  unwise,  unfruitful  and  offensive  walking,  or 
backsliding  from  it.  This  remarkable  definition  is  quoted  here 
in  full,  not  merely  for  its  singular  comprehensiveness  and  co- 
gency, but  as  a  striking  illustration  of  the  wide  thoughtfulness, 
the  intense  spirituality,  and  the  broad  and  deep  religious  experi- 
ence of  the  men  who  framed  it.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  defi- 
nition is  too  broad  or  too  deep  or  penetrating  :  no  one  among  the 
offences  named  can  properly  be  thrown  out  from  the  category  in 
our  interpretation  of  the  inclusive  phrase,  taking  the  name  of  God 
in  vain. 

Ivike  the  second  command,  a  solemn  reason  is  appended  to  this 
comprehensive  injunction  :  The  Lord  will  not  hold  him  guiltless, 
who  in  any  form  commits  this  heinous  offence  against  him  and 
his  prerogatives.  Many  minor  forms  of  this  offence  may,  as  the 
Catechism  (114)  intimates,  escape  the  censures  and  punishment 
of  men,  but  he  who  is  the  Lord  over  all  will  not  acquit  or  spare 
those  who  sin  thus  grievously  against  him,  and  will  by  no  means 
suffer  them  to  escape  his  righteotis  judgment.  God  is  not  only 
jealous  of  his  name  and  prerogatives,  as  he  may  justly  be,  but 
with  justice  he  may  and  does  pronounce  his  condemnation  and 
bring  condign  punishment  on  those  who  thus  offend.  Nor  are 
we  at  liberty  to  limit  this  punitive  visitation  altogether,  though 
at  the  first  it  was  limited  primarily,  to  the  inflictions  of  the  present 
life.  Although  the  blasphemer  and  the  profane  man  should 
escape  divine  judgment  here,  they  must  face  it  hereafter.  For 
certainly  the  sin  of  blasphemy  or  profanity  is  no  less  culpable  in 
the  sight  of  God  than  that  of  idolatry  or  of  atheistic  unbelief.  It 
is  indicative  of  a  state  of  soul  as  far  estranged  from  him  as  that 
of  the  skeptic  or  the  idolater, — a  state  of  soul  wherein  he  is  not 


FIRST   TABLE  :     THE   SABBATH.  531 

enthroned  as  he  has  the  intrinsic  right  to  be,  and  wherein  the 
true  and  pure  throb  of  religious  love  and  devotion  is  never  felt. 
Even  in  those  minor  forms  which  society  easily  condones,  and 
which  originate  often  in  thoughtless  ignorance  or  in  moments  of 
excitement,  the  taking  of  the  names,  titles,  attributes,  ordinances, 
words  or  works  of  God  in  vain,  remains  an  offence  against  reason 
and  conscience,  and  a  crime  which  the  Being  thus  despised  and 
contemned  will  not,  can  not  justly,  suffer  to  pass  without  con- 
demnation here  or  hereafter.* 

The  right  of  the  fourth  commandment  to  an  enduring  place  and 

authoritativeness  among  the  other  enactments  of  the  Sinaitic  code 

has  often  been  questioned.     Some  of 

the  early  Fathers  pronounced  it  a  cere-        *•    ™e  first  T*ble :  four^ 
.  ,         ,     ,     ,  ,      ,        and  fifth  commandments:  the 

monial   and   shadowy    command,    de-     c^ath 

signed   for    the    Hebrews    only,    and 

therefore  becoming  void  under  the  Gospel,  with  the  other  ele- 
ments of  the  ceremonial  law.  Zwingli  doubtless  referred  to  it,  as 
well  as  to  the  other  holy  days  observed  by  Rome,  in  the  sweep- 
ing declaration,  (25)  that  time  and  place  are  in  the  power  of  man 
— not  man  in  their  power  :  and  that  those  who  bind  the  pious  to 
place  and  time,  defraud  them  and  rob  them  of  their  Christian 
freedom.  The  position  of  Luther  as  to  the  obligatoriness  of 
the  commandment  is  well  known.     The  Augsburg  Confession 

*It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  this  solemn  injunction  is  endorsed  by  civil 
legislation  in  Christian  countries  generally.  In  such  countries  blasphemy 
and  profanity  are  regarded  as  offences  indictable  at  common  law.  Blas- 
phemy is  defined  in  civil  procedure  as  a  public  denial  of  the  being  or  attri- 
butes or  relations  of  God,  or  contumelious  reproaches  of  Christ,  or  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  or  scoffing  at  the  Scriptures  as  the  Word  of  God.  And  as  such 
it  is  condemned  by  law,  on  the  ground  that  it  is  a  gross  violation  of  decency 
and  good  order,  injurious  to  the  essential  interests  of  civil  society,  and  detri- 
mental to  the  administration  of  justice.  Profane  swearing,  loudly  uttered 
and  with  repetition,  is  condemned  in  like  manner  because  of  its  tendency  to 
disturb  the  peace,  corrupt  the  morals  of  the  community,  and  undermine  the 
foundation  of  Christianity.  Hence  profanity  and  blasphemy  are  punishable 
offences  in  the  civil  courts, — the  aim  of  such  punishment  being,  not  to  pre- 
vent free  and  sincere  discussion  even  of  the  fundamental  question  whether 
God  exists,  or  to  restrict  full  liberty  of  thought  or  conscience  in  the  matter 
of  religions  belief  or  expression,  but  to  preserve  the  public  peace  and  order 
by  an  outward  respect  for  the  prevalent  religion  of  the  country.  It  certainly 
is  not  necessary  to  liberty  of  thought  or  conscience  that  one  should  be  per- 
mitted without  restraint  to  vilify  religion,  or  to  profane  the  name  of  God,  or 
to  do  or  say  aught  that  shall  tend  to  impair  in  other  minds  due  veneration 
for  him  as  the  creator  and  governor  and  judge  of  the  world  :  Anderson, 
L,aw  Diet. 


532  THE    LAW    OF    GOD. 

directly  affirmed  (Part  Sec  :  VII)  that  the  Scripture  (the  New 
Test.)  has  abrogated  the  Sabbath,  and  that  the  observance  of 
either  the  seventh  or  the  first  day  of  the  week,  is  not  a  necessity, 
under  the  Christian  law  of  liberty.  Calvin  enjoins  observance  of 
the  day,  not  so  much  on  the  ground  of  its  authoritativeness  as  a 
part  of  the  Decalogue,  but  rather  because  it  is — to  use  his  own 
phrase — a  remedy  necessary  to  the  preservation  of  the  church,  and 
a  help  in  personal  meditation  and  devotion.  It  should  be  added 
that  Calvin  also  lays  special  stress  on  the  Sabbath  as  an  emblem  of 
the  spiritual  and  eternal  rest  promised  to  the  people  of  God, — an 
argument  in  its  favor  not  infrequently  urged  by  the  divines  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Luther,  while  questioning  the  authority 
of  the  commandment,  is  no  less  earnest  than  Calvin— as  his  Larger 
Catechism  shows — in  insisting  that  the  day  should  be  honored, 
not  merely  by  cessation  from  labor,  but  by  attending  divine 
service,  hearing  the  Word  faithfully,  and  being  employed  in  all 
holy  words  and  actions.  The  chief  Helvetic  Confession  (XXIV) 
represents  what  was  probably  the  highest  teaching  of  the  Re- 
formed churches  of  that  date,  in  the  statement  that  the  Sabbath 
should  be  devoted  to  the  worship  of  God  and  to  holy  rest  ; — add- 
ing, however,  the  practical  remark  that  the  day  should  be 
observed  in  Christian  freedom,  not  with  Jewish  superstition,  and 
that  we  ought  not  to  believe  that  one  day  is  in  itself  really  holier 
than  others.  Among  the  Post- Acta  of  the  Synod  of  Dort  appears 
a  deliverance,  declaring  that  in  the  fourth  commandment  there  is 
both  a  ceremonial  and  a  moral  element,  and  that  while  the  cere- 
monial element  is  abolished,  the  moral  element  is  still  obligatory 
on  all  Christians,  and  the  day  therefore  ought  to  be  consecrated 
to  divine  worship,  with  cessation  from  all  servile  labors  excepting 
those  which  spring  from  charity  and  present  necessity,  and  also 
from  all  recreations  which  hinder  the  worship  of  God. 

A  more  marked  advance  beyond  the  doctrine  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  whether  Reformed  or  Lutheran,  is  seen  in  the  chapter  on 
Religious  Worship  (XXI)  in  the  Westminster  Confession  :  God 
in  his  Word  by  a  positive,  moral  and perpetual  commandment ',  bind- 
ing all  men  in  all  ages,  hath  particularly  appointed  one  day  in 
seven  for  a  Sabbath  to  be  kept  holy  unto  him  ....  and  this 
observance  is  to  be  continued  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  The  same 
chapter  further  teaches  that  the  day  is  kept  holy  unto  the  Lord 
when  men,  after  a  due  preparing  of  their  hearts  and  ordering 
of  their  common  affairs  beforehand,  do  not  only  observe  an  holy 
rest  all  the  day  from  their  own  works,  words  and  thoughts  about 
their  worldly  employments  and  recreations,  but  also  are  taken  up 


THE   SABBATH  :     ITS    WARRANT.  533 

the  whole  time  in  the  public  and  private  exercises  of  his  worship, 
and  in  the  duties  of  necessity  and  mercy.  It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  add  to  this  clear  and  strong  statement  the  explanatory  answers 
in  the  two  Catechisms,  which  harmonize  fully  with  the  doctrine 
of  the  Confession,  but  do  not  go  beyond  it  in  either  content 
or  form. 

The  holy  day  thus  recognized  was  instituted  primarily  at  the 
creation  (L,.  C.  20),  when  God  rested  or  ceased  from  his  creative 
work,  so  far  at  least  as  the  earth  and  man  were  included.  Traces 
of  the  day  as  a  divine  institution  appear  early  in  the  Scriptures, 
in  the  periods  of  seven  days  there  frequently  mentioned,  and 
especially  in  conjunction  with  the  kindred  institution  of  sacrifices. 
It  is  also  obvious  that  the  Israelites  observed  the  day  before  the 
Exodus,  so  that  the  Sinaitic  command,  with  its  suggestive  word, 
remember,  was  simply  a  more  formal  ordaining  of  the  day  as  one 
of  worship,  in  close  conjunction  with  the  larger  development 
of  worship  itself  under  the  Aaronic  cultus.  This  more  formal 
enactment  by  no  means  proves  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  a  con- 
secrated time  first  through  the  Decalogue,  nor  does  the  celebration 
of  the  day  as  a  commemoration  of  the  deliverance  from  the  Egyp- 
tian house  of  bondage,  according  to  Deuteronomy,  exclude  its 
primary  use  as  a  commemoration  of  the  sublime  creative  act.  The 
numerous  references  scattered  through  not  only  the  Mosaic  books 
but  the  later  historical  books  also  and  the  psalms  and  prophecies, 
show  conclusively  that  in  the  Hebrew  mind  creation  and  provi- 
dential preservation  as  reasons  and  incentives  were  habitually 
blended  in  the  observance  and  enjoyment  of  this  consecrated 
time. 

The  Confession  (XXI  :  vii)  also  recognizes  the  change  of  sacred 
time  in  the  statement  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  the  seventh  or  last  day  of  the  week  was  the 
appointed  Sabbath  ;  but  that  from  that  resurrection ,  and  in  com- 
memoration of  that  crowning  event  in  the  divine  scheme  of  grace, 
the  first  day  became  the  Christian  Sabbath,  and  is  to  remain 
such  to  the  end  of  the  world.  A  threefold  instituting  of  the  day, 
to  celebrate  not  merely  creation  and  providence,  but  also  salva- 
tion through  a  risen  Savior,  is  here  affirmed, — the  day  conveying 
to  the  Christian  not  only  all  that  it  represented  to  the  Hebrew, 
but  also  the  still  more  glorious  fact  of  the  deliverance  of  the  soul 
from  sin,  and  the  new  life  and  manhood  created  in  Christ  Jesus. 
The  intent  and  design  of  the  day  are  thus  in  the  present  dispensa- 
tion immensely  broadened,  and  its  uses  are  more  numerous, 
exalted  and  edifying  to  the  soul.     The  worship  and  work  of  the 


5u4  THE   LAW   OF   GOD. 

Christian  Church,  its  growth  and  influence  in  human  life,  are 
with  each  new  century  centering  more  and  more  in  and  around 
the  Sabbath  :  and  it  may  well  be  anticipated  that  as  the  Church 
develops  in  character  and  incapacity  for  usefulness,  the  Christian 
Sabbath  will  become  more  and  more  precious  in  its  uses  and  its 
blessings  even  to  the  end  of  time.  While  therefore  the  change 
of  day  rests  on  no  express  direction  from  our  Lord,  and  seems 
rather  to  have  grown  up  spontaneously  in  conjunction  with  his 
successive  revelations  of  himself  after  his  resurrection,  that  change 
by  no  means  weakens  the  obligation  of  all  men  to  observe  the 
Sabbath  in  its  threefold  significance  and  beauty,  as  the  sacred 
time  appointed  of  God — the  blessed  Day  of  days. 

The  Confession  claims  (XXI  :  vii)  that  it  is  of  the  law  of 
nature  as  well  as  a  positive  institute  of  Scripture  that  some 
due  proportion  of  time  should  be  set  apart  for  the  worship 
of  Deity  ;  thus  anticipating  the  broad  and  strong  argument 
for  the  Sabbath  on  natural  grounds  which  has  been  urged, 
in  such  effective  forms,  in  more  recent  periods.  The  Larger 
Catechism  teaches  (118)  that  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  has  a 
certain  basis  also  in  the  constitution  of  the  family, — the  charge 
to  keep  it  being  specially  directed  to  governors  of  households  and 
other  superiors  ;  they  being  bound  not  only  to  keep  the  day 
themselves,  but  to  see  that  it  is  observed  by  all  those  who  are 
under  their  control.  In  the  original  Symbol,  as  accepted  by  the 
Scotch  churches,  the  civil  magistrate  also  is  said  (XXIII :  iii)  to 
be  empowered  to  require  that  all  the  ordinances  of  God  (the 
Sabbath  doubtless  included)  be  duly  settled,  administered  and 
observed :  and  in  the  American  Symbol,  as  modified  at  the  time  of 
its  adoption,  it  is  declared  to  be  the  duty  of  every  such  magis- 
trate to  see  that  all  religious  and  ecclesiastical  assemblies  be  held 
without  molestation  or  disturbance,  as  well  on  the  Sabbath  as  at 
other  times.  This  is  in  harmony  with  the  legislation  in  support 
of  the  Christian  Sabbath  which  from  Constautine  and  Theodosius, 
from  Charlemagne  and  Alfred,  has  been  enacted  in  most  civil- 
ized lands,  and  which  in  forms  more  or  less  positive  now  stands 
among  the  imperative  statutes  not  only  of  the  American  States, 
but  also  of  Britain  and  the  countries  of  northern  and  central 
Europe.  In  such  legislation  works  of  necessity  and  mercy,  works 
to  which  men  are  compelled  by  some  unavoidable  constraint  of  cir- 
cumstances or  to  which  they  are  moved  by  motives  not  of  gain 
but  of  kindness  and  humanity,  are  allowed.  But  the  carrying  on 
of  ordinary  avocations  for  the  pecuniary  advantage  to  be  derived 
therefrom,  what  is  styled  common  labor,  manual  not  mental, 


THE  SABBATH  :  ITS  USES.  535 

is  directly  forbidden  :  so  also  are  all  hunting  and  sporting,  and 
all  theatrical  and  other  forms  of  immoral  amusement.  Such  legis- 
lation is  justified  by  some  authorities  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
essential  as  a  police  regulation  simply,  in  the  interest  of  good  order 
and  the  welfare  of  society  ;  by  other  authorities  it  is  justified  on 
the  broader  ground  that  religion,  and  eminently  the  Christian 
religion,  may  so  far  forth  justly  claim  the  protection  of  civil  law. 
In  either  view  such  legislation  is  not,  in  the  words  of  Cooley, 
to  be  regarded  as  an  encroachment  on  the  religious  liberty  of 
the  people,  even  though  it  be  enacted  in  the  interest  of  the 
Christian  religion.* 

The  Confession  is  wisely  silent  respecting  the  specific  relations 
between  the  civil  and  the  religious  Sabbath,  for  the  reason  that  the 
amount  and  cogency  of  such  legislation  must  be  determined  by 
conditions  widely  variant  in  different  lands  and  times.  It  is  also 
wisely  silent  as  to  the  multitude  of  specific  problems  presenting 
themselves  at  different  periods,  with  respect  to  the  particular  priv- 
ileges and  duties  of  Christians  in  their  use  of  the  holy  day, — 
following  apparently  the  good  rule  laid  down  in  the  opening 
chapter  on  the  Scriptures,  that  there  are  some  circumstances  con- 
cerning the  worship  of  God  and  government  of  the  Church,  which, 
are  to  be  ordered  by  the  light  of  nature  and  Christian  prudence,  if 
only  the  general  rules  of  the  Word  are  faithfully  observed.  In 
this  sense  and  under  these  limitations,  the  fourth  commandment 
is  as  truly  positive,  moral  and  perpetual,  binding  all  men  in  all 
ages,  as  any  other  commandment  in  the  Decalogue  ;  and  while 
the  Decalogue  stands  as  a  divine  law  for  mankind  under  the  Chris- 
tian as  well  as  under  the  Hebraic  dispensation,  so  long  will  the 
Christian  Sabbath  stand  as  an  obligation  resting  individually  on 

*Bi.ackstone  (Com.  in  loc)  bears  emphatic  testimony  to  the  value  of  the 
civil  Sabbath  in  the  following  words  :  Besides  the  notorious  indecency  and 
scandal  of  permitting  any  secular  business  to  be  publicly  transacted  on  that 
day  in  a  country  professing  Christianity,  and  the  corruption  of  morals  which 
usually  follows  its  profanation,  the  keeping  one  day  in  seven  holy,  as  a  time 
of  relaxation  and  refreshment  as  well  as  for  public  worship,  is  of  admirable 
service  to  the  state,  considered  merely  as  a  civil  institution.  It  humanizes, 
by  the  help  of  conversation  and  society,  the  manners  of  the  lower  classes, 
which  would  otherwise  degenerate  into  a  sordid  ferocity  and  savage  selfish- 
ness of  spirit :  it  enables  the  industrious  workman  to  pursue  his  occupation 
in  the  ensuing  week  with  health  and  cheerfulness  :  it  imprints  on  the  minds 
of  the  people  that  sense  of  their  duty  to  God  so  necessary  to  make  them  good 
citizens,  but  which  yet  would  be  worn  out  and  defaced  by  an  unremitted 
continuance  of  labor,  without  any  stated  times  of  recalling  them  to  the  wor- 
ship of  their  Maker  :  See  Ringgold,  Legal  Aspects  of  the  First  Day  of  the 
Week. 


536  THE   LAW   OF   GOD. 

all  men,  but  eminently  on  all  who  claim  to  be  disciples  of  Christ. 
He  indeed  taught  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  is  to  be 
used  in  the  free  temper  of  the  Gospel,  and  himself  wrought  deeds 
of  necessity  and  of  rnercy  on  that  holy  day;  yet  in  no  circumstances 
did  he  ever  ignore  or  minify  the  Sinaitic  command  to  remember 
the  day  and  keep  it  holy.  Rather  is  it  due  to  his  teaching  and 
influence  that  what  was  at  first  a  Jewish  ordinance,  to  be 
enforced  with  technical  strictness,  has  now  become  a  glorious 
institution,  wide  as  the  race  in  its  sweep,  and  full  of  vast  and 
growing  benediction  to  all  who  loyally  accept  and  observe  it. 

Regarding  the  fifth  commandment  as  a  transitional  ordinance, 
setting  forth  an  obligation  closely  allied  to  those  enforced  in  the 
four  commandments  preceding,  we  may  embody  its  teaching 
under  the  comprehensive  term,  piety,  as  used  by  Paul  in  his  first 
letter  to  Timothy — piety  toward  the  parents  to  whom  the  life  of 
the  child  is  due,  and  by  whose  provident  care  and  love  that  life 
has  throughout  infancy  and  youth  been  sustained.  Their  claim 
to  honor  and  affection,  and  to  all  the  responsive  ministries  of 
which  the  child  is  capable,  is  obviously  the  highest  human  ana- 
logue to  that  supreme  claim  which  God  himself  rightly  holds. 
The  term,  Father,  is  the  term  that  he  accepts  and  uses  as 
expressive  of  a  relationship  to  man  which  is  antecedent  even  to 
that  indicated  by  the  term,  Sovereign  ;  and  in  like  manner  the  tie 
which  binds  together  the  human  father  and  his  child  is  fhe  most 
fundamental,  the  most  sacred,  the  most  tender  of  all  the  bonds 
which  exist  in  human  life.  In  a  father,  says  Calvin  (Inst.  B.  II : 
Ch.  8),  we  ought  to  recognize  something  divine  ;  for  it  is  not 
without  reason  that  he  bears  one  of  the  titles  of  the  Deity.  The 
obligations  which  parents  sustain  toward  their  offspring,  and  the 
corresponding  duties  which  children  owe  to  parents,  are  thus  in 
their  nature  not  only  primary  but  superior  to  anj^  which  either 
class  can  come  under,  in  any  other  human  relation.  As  the  family 
comes  before  the  state,  and  as  the  law  of  the  household  is  the 
primal  and  supreme  law  while  the  family  exists  in  its  unity,  so  the 
injunction  to  honor  father  and  mother  shines  out  with  a  peculiar 
lustre,  and  with  a  tender  solemnity  also,  such  as  no  other  obliga- 
tion in  life  can  equal.  It  has  its  abundant  warrant,  not  only 
in  the  divine  declaration,  but  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
and  its  practical  necessity  as  a  part  of  the  moral  order  of  the 
world. 

The  Larger  Catechism  (124-126)  broadens  the  command  by 
including  in  it  not  only  natural  parents,  but  all  superiors  in  age  and 
gifts,  and  especially  those  who  by  any  divine  ordinance  are  set  in 


HONORING    PARENTS  :     DUTIES    INVOLVED.  537 

any  place  of  authority,  whether  in  family,  church  or  common- 
wealth. It  carries  the  injunction  still  farther  by  classifying  all 
persons  as  either  superiors  or  inferiors  or  equals,  and  by  defining 
at  length  the  various  duties  which  members  of  each  of  these 
classes  owe  to  members  of  the  others — superiors  to  inferiors  as 
well  as  inferiors  to  superiors,  and  equals  to  equals  in  whatever 
relation.  It  also  describes  in  detail  the  sins  or  offences  which 
the  members  of  any  one  of  these  classes  may  commit  against  the 
members  of  any  other.  May  it  not  be  questioned  whether  these 
very  broad  generalizations,  though  interesting  and  suggestive  in 
themselves,  are  really  warranted  by  or  were  contemplated  in  the 
commandment  as  originally  given  :  and  also  whether  they  do  not 
tend  to  draw  the  mind  away  from  that  most  sacred  duty  of  hon- 
oring father  and  mother  supremely,  which  after  all  stands  out 
before  us  as  far  above  any  obligation  which  men  as  superiors 
or  inferiors  or  equals  can  sustain  toward  each  other,  outside  of 
the  household  ?  The  explanation  that  the  parental  claim  is  here 
employed  representatively,  and  that  it  includes  all  types  of  rightful 
authority,  and  is  selected  because  it  most  easily  enforces  the  gen- 
eral principle  involved,  hardly  seems  consistent  with  the  special 
language  used.  Though  it  may  be  true,  as  Oehler  and  others  have 
claimed,  that  a  foundation  is  laid  in  this  commandment  for  the 
sanctification  of  all  social  life,  in  virtue  of  the  principle  of  divine 
authority  recognizable  in  it,  still  this  is  not  the  primary  or  chief 
aim  of  the  injunction. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  confine  our  range  of  thought  chiefly 
if  not  wholly  within  the  family,  as  seems  more  legitimate,  we 
shall  still  discern  at  once  a  multitude  of  specific  and  important 
duties  on  the  part  of  children,  which  the  term,  honor  and  the  cor- 
responding term,  piety,  so  well  suggest  :  affection,  reverence, 
obedience,  submission  to  just  correction,  imitating  good  ex- 
ample, fidelity  to  parental  interests,  loyalty  to  parental  name  and 
honor,  bearing  with  infirmity,  and  dutiful  ministrations  in  the 
time  of  old  age.  Covering  them  in  love,  is  the  expressive  phrase 
which  the  Catechism  (127)  employs  in  describing  this  filial 
obligation,  and  so  living  as  to  be  an  honor  to  them  is  a  correspond- 
ing phrase,  equally  comprehensive  and  expressive.  The  sins  of 
which  children  may  be  guilty  are  described  (128;  with  equal 
minuteness  ;  neglect  of  the  services  and  duties  due  to  parents, 
envying  at,  contempt  of,  and  rebellion  against  their  persons  and 
places  in  their  lawful  commands,  counsels  and  corrections  ;  curs- 
ing, mocking,  and  all  such  refractory  and  scandalous  carriage  or 
conduct  as  becomes  a  shame  and  dishonor  to  them  and  to  their 


538  THE    LAW    OF    GOD. 

government.  The  obligations  of  parents  toward  their  childrenr 
and  the  sins  of  which  they  may  be  guilty  in  this  relation  by  both 
act  and  neglect,  are  set  forth  with  corresponding  minuteness  and 
solemnity.  The  two  chapters  in  the  Directory  for  Worship,  on 
the  ordinance  of  baptism  (VIII)  and  family  worship  (XVI) 
may  well  be  studied  in  this  connection  :  also  Larger  Catechism, 
165-167. 

As  in  the  second  and  third  commandments  we  find  solemn 
warnings  against  disobedience  appended  by  way  of  enforcing  the 
obligations  imposed,  so  here  we  find  a  most  beautiful  promise  in 
the  words,  that  thy  days  may  be  long  i?i  the  land.  In  the  record  in 
Deuteronomy  two  suggestive  clauses  are  added  :  as  the  Lord  thy 
God  hath  commanded  thee ;  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee :  both 
possibly  introduced  by  some  later  hand,  for  the  purpose  of  illus- 
trating and  emphasizing  the  original  command.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  also  that,  while  divine  threatenings  sound  out  in  conjunction 
with  the  antecedent  commands,  this  is  as  Paul  suggests  the  first 
commandment  with  promise  only — as  if  God  would  specially 
sanctify  the  household,  and  encourage  children  to  obedience,  by 
special  assurance  of  his  fatherly  interest  and  benediction.  Pri- 
marily this  promise  undoubtedly  applied  to  the  wandering  He- 
brews in  the  desert,  and  to  the  goodly  land  which  God  had  pledged 
himself  to  give  to  Abraham  and  his  descendants.  In  this  specific 
form  the  divine  pledge  was  abundantly  fulfilled  in  the  fair  her- 
itage of  Canaan,  long  held  by  the  Israelites  as  their  own,  and  never 
lost  until  they  had  disobeyed  the  divine  commands  at  a  thousand 
points,  and  proved  themselves  unworthy  of  the  parental  love 
which  God  had  bestowed  upon  them.  Among  the  heinous  offences 
of  which  as  a  people  they  were  guilty,  our  Lord  solemnly  empha- 
sized the  fact  that  they  had  made  void  the  law — this  particular 
commandment — by  their  pharisaic  traditions  :  and  in  that  light 
the  promise,  as  he  implied,  changed  itself  into  a  warning  direct 
and  terrible. 

But  the  promise  is  as  broad  as  the  obligation  to  which  it  is  ap- 
pended :  the  blessing  of  heaven  in  length  of  days  and  in  temporal 
as  well  as  spiritual  prosperity  is  pledged  through  all  time  to  the 
children  who  in  the  biblical  sense  honor  their  parents,  father  and 
mother,  according  to  the  commandment.  Such  a  promise,  like 
many  other  promises  of  Hoty  Writ,  is  to  be  interpreted  according 
to  the  spirit  rather  than  by  the  letter,  since  loving  and  obedient 
children  are  sometimes  removed  from  life  before  their  parents, 
and  since  on  the  other  hand  disobedient  and  rebellious  children 
may  live  to  old  age,  fattening  ungratefully  upon  the  riches  which 


SECOND    TABLE  :     DUTIES   TOWARD    MAN.  539 

diligent  parents  have  laid  up  in  store  for  them,  but  to  which  in 
the  eye  of  God  they  have  no  rightful  claim.  Yet  in  the  interac- 
tions of  the  divine  administration,  such  length  of  days  spent  in 
wicked  indulgence  may  itself  become  a  curse,  while  God  may  fully 
recompense  in  other  sufficient  ways  those  dutiful  children  who 
have  been  earlier  removed  from  the  present  life.  After  all,  the 
general  rule  prevails,  that  obedience  to  this  command  brings 
blessing,  if  not  in  the  specific  form  of  length  of  days,  still  in  gen- 
eral prosperity  such  as  the  phrase  in  Deuteronomy,  that  it  may  go 
we/l  with  thee,  certainly  indicates,  and  in  spiritual  bestowments 
also,  such  as  furnish  to  filial  children  an  abundant  compensation. 
Nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  divine 
condemnation  rests  even  in  this  world  on  every  child  that  dis- 
obeys this  just  injunction.  Monsters  are  they  rather  than  men, 
exclaimed  the  illustrious  sage  and  teacher  of  Geneva,  in  his 
exposition  of  this  command.  Well  said  Agur,  the  son  of  Jakeh, 
in  words  that  thrill  us  by  their  solemnity  :  The  eye  that  mocketh 
at  his  father,  and  despiseth  to  obey  his  mother,  the  ravens  of  the 
valley  shall  pick  it  out,  and  the  young  eagles  shall  eat  it. 

In  turning  from  the  first  to  the  second  table  of  the  Decalogue, 

we  pass  over  from  the  domain  of  piety  to  the  domain  of  equity — 

from   the   contemplation   of    the   duties 

which  all  men  alike  owe  to  God  and  to        8-    The  Second  Table: 

their  parents  as   his  representatives,  to  .     .  n .  s  ns 

. ,        .         r    i  ,     ■         ,  .  ,      against  man. 

the  consideration  of  those  duties  which 

in  the  various  other  relations  of  life  men  owe  to  one  another. 
Four  primal  classes  of  sin  are  here  solemnly  prohibited  ;  murder, 
adultery,  theft,  slander  :  in  other  words,  sin  against  the  body, 
sin  against  purity,  sin  against  property,  and  sin  against  char- 
acter. We  do  not  need  the  express  comment  of  our  L,ord 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  to  assure  us  that  in  the  matter 
of  murder  and  adultery,  and  by  implication  also  in  the  matter 
of  theft  and  slander,  the  original  commandment  reaches  far 
beyond  the  single  crime  specified,  and  includes  all  minor 
varieties  of  that  crime,  and  even  the  disposition  or  desire  to 
commit  such  sin  in  whatever  form.  The  Mosaic  code  itself 
condemns  not  merely  the  act  of  killing,  but  maiming  and 
wounding  and  other  injury  to  the  bodily  person,  and  even 
prescribes  with  what  seems  like  excessive  severity  the  penalty 
due  to  such  minor  offences — an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth  ;  and  the  later  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  both  precept 
and  example,  show  that  the  sixth  commandment  was  regarded 


,540  THE    LAW    OF    GOD. 

by  the  Hebrews  throughout  their  history  as  covering  all  that 
class  of  crimes  of  which  the  actual  killing  of  another,  except 
when  directly  prescribed  by  Levitic  law,  was  the  most  heinous 
and  awful  illustration.  In  like  manner  adultery  and  robbery 
and  false  witnessing  were  condemned  by  that  code,  and  by  the 
prophets  and  teachers  of  the  Hebraic  dispensation,  in  all  their 
minor  as  well  as  in  their  chief  and  most  glaring  varieties.  Our 
Lord  therefore  was  simply  enforcing  in  its  fullness  the  Old  Testa- 
ment law,  when  he  declared  that  he  who  even  looketh  on  a 
woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  committed  adultery  with  her  already 
in  his  heart.  So  his  impressive  addition  of  the  words,  Defraud 
not,  to  the  list  of  the  laws  of  the  second  table  as  quoted  to  the 
young  ruler,  indicate  not  another  commandment  but  rather  a  gen- 
eral rule  of  life,  applicable  not  only  to  theft  but  also  to  murder 
and  adultery  and  slander — all  of  which,  even  in  their  minor  forms, 
involve  the  element  of  fraudulency. 

Accordingly  the  Shorter  Catechism  declares  (68-69)  that  the 
sixth  commandment  forbids  the  taking  away  of  our  own  life, 
or  the  life  of  our  neighbor  unjustly,  or  whatever  tendeth  there- 
unto, and  on  the  other  hand  enjoins  the  obligation  to  make  all 
lawful  endeavor  to  preserve  our  own  life,  and  the  life  of  others. 
It  is  noticeable  that  in  the  exposition  of  this  command,  and 
also  in  that  of  the  three  commandments  following,  our  duty 
to  ourselves  is  placed  before  our  duty  to  others.  In  this  instance 
suicide  is  presented  as  the  first  and  in  some  sense  the  supreme 
form  of  murder,  and  care  for  the  preservation  of  our  own  life  as 
even  taking  precedence  of  our  obligation  to  preserve  the  lives 
of  others.  So  the  seventh  is  said  (71-72)  to  forbid  all  unchaste 
thoughts,  words  and  actions,  and  to  require  the  preservation  of  our 
own  chastity  and  that  of  others  in  heart,  speech  and  behavior. 
The  eighth  forbids  (74-75)  whatever  doth  or  may  hinder  our  own 
wealth  or  outward  estate  or  that  of  our  neighbors;  and  commends 
the  lawful  procuring  and  furthering  the  wealth  and  outward  estate 
of  both  ourselves  and  others.  And  the  ninth,  with  like  compre- 
hensiveness (77-78)  forbids  on  one  hand  whatsoever  is  prejudicial 
to  truth,  or  injurious  to  our  own  good  name  or  the  good  name  of 
others,  and  on  the  other  hand  requires  the  maintaining-  a?id  pro- 
moting of  truth  between  man  and  man,  and  of  our  own  good  name 
and  that  of  our  neighbor, — especially,  it  is  added,  in  witness- 
bearing,  as  in  civil  or  ecclesiastical  courts.  Such  is  the  broad 
scope  of  these  four  commands  according,  not  merely  to  the  Cate- 
chisms of  Westminster,  but  to  those  of  Heidelberg  and  of  Luther, 
and   to  the  Protestant   symbolism   and   exposition   universally. 


MURDER,    ADULTERY,    THEFT,    SLANDER.  541 

Though  the  earlier  formularies  are  less  specific  and  positive,  it 
is  doubtful  whether  a  single  expression  can  be  found  in  any  of  the 
Protestant  creeds,  that  indicates  the  least  degree  of  swerving  from 
the  high  and  searching  doctrine  taught  by  the  Assembly. 

The  Larger  Catechism  proceeds  to  a  remarkable  specialization 
and  amplification  of  these  obligations,  in  such  fullness  as  almost 
to  overwhelm  us.  It  is  inexpedient  here  to  refer  to  the  scores  of 
particular  offences,  and  the  scores  of  particular  duties,  descending 
even  to  very  small  detail,  which  are  named  in  the  answers  under 
these  four  heads.  One  curious  illustration,  bearing  on  the  ques- 
tion of  temperance  or  total  abstinence,  may  be  mentioned:  among 
the  eighteen  or  twenty  sins  said  to  be  forbidden  by  the  sixth 
commandment  is  the  immoderate  use  of  meat,  drink,  labor  and  recre- 
ations :  and  among  the  twenty-five  or  thirty  duties  enjoined  is  a 
sober  use  of  meat,  drink,  physic,  sleep,  labor  and  recreations.  The 
biblical  references  also  (more  than  three  hundred  in  number), 
appended  to  these  answers  by  the  Assembly  on  the  request  of 
Parliament,  show  both  how  comprehensive  their  interpretation 
of  the  commandments  was,  and  how  thoroughly  they  planted 
their  teaching  on  the  authoritative  Scriptures.  It  would  be  hard 
to  name  any  sin  or  any  duty  properly  included  within  these  four 
main  divisions,  which  is  not  here  specified  or  implied,  or  for  whose 
recognition  there  is  not  some  suitable  inspired  justification.  In 
fact,  we  have  in  this  section  of  the  Larger  Catechism  what  it  would 
not  be  improper  to  describe  as  a  full,  if  not  complete  system  of 
practical  ethics,  applicable  not  to  the  Hebrews  only  but  to  all  men, 
and  efficient  in  every  relation  of  human  life  through  all  time. 
Had  the  Westminster  divines  done  nothing  more  than  to  enu- 
merate this  list  of  sins  to  be  avoided  and  of  duties  to  be  done,  for 
the  guidance  of  their  own  generation,  and  of  those  who  should 
come  after  them  in  the  English-speaking  sections  of  Christendom, 
they  would  have  done  a  work  of  inestimable  value  in  itself,  and 
would  have  been  recognized  as  among  the  ablest  teachers  of  sound 
and  high  morality,  on  the  foundation  of  Scripture,  which  Prot- 
estantism in  any  age  has  produced. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  demonstrative  of  the  divine  origin  of 
the  Decalogue,  that  its  four-fold  division  of  offences  has  passed 
in  substance  into  the  criminal  legislation  of  most  civilized  lands, 
and  that  its  elevated  ethical  teaching  and  temper  have  influenced 
so  widely  and  permanently  the  jurisprudence  of  mankind.  That 
remarkable  code  does  not  indeed  treat  so  much  of  those  crimes 
against  the  state  or  against  the  public  good  which,  in  one  form  or 
another,  occupy  so  large  a  place  in  modern  legislation.     It  lays 


542  THE    LAW    OF    GOD. 

small  stress  relatively  on  the  public  or  general  relations  of  the  four 
classes  of  offences  which  it  so  strongly  condemns  :  in  other  words, 
it  is  essentially  a  personal  code,  dealing  simply  with  the  relations 
subsisting  between  man  and  man, — civil  rather  than  criminal,  in 
the  technical  sense  of  these  terms.  We  know  indeed  that  the 
public  good,  the  welfare  of  organized  society,  is  involved  inex- 
tricably in  the  consequences  of  individual  action  ;  and  modern 
jurisprudence  is  justified  in  ranking  these  general  effects  of  con- 
duct even  higher  than  any  effects  experienced  by  the  individual 
who  has  been  injured  through  any  transgression.  Yet  this 
social  and  public  aspect  of  wrong-doing  is  much  less  conspicuous 
in  such  primitive  forms  of  society  as  that  of  the  Hebrews  at  the 
Exodus  :  and  the  Decalogue  was  wisely  adjusted  first  of  all  to 
such  a  primitive  condition  and  grade  of  development.  By  the 
very  form  of  its  prohibitions  and  commands  it  was  peculiarly  fitted 
to  awaken  among  such  a  people  that  sense  of  personal  responsi- 
bility, that  consciousness  of  personal  guilt  in  view  of  wrong  done 
to  another  person,  which  is  after  all  fundamental  in  the  applica- 
tion of  law  to  human  conduct,  even  in  the  highest  forms  of  civil- 
ization. The  remarkable  fact  is  that,  notwithstanding  this  special 
adaptation,  it  still  survives  through  the  ages  as  at  once  the  norm 
and  the  animating  principle  in  the  framing  and  the  administra- 
tion of  law  in  all  Christian  lands,  and  seems  destined  to  hold  its 
place  as  an  authoritative  rule  for  man  and  for  society  so  long  as 
the  sovereignty  of  God  is  recognized  in  the  earth. 

The  tenth  commandment  may  properly  be  regarded,  like  the 
fifth,  as  transitional  in  its  purpose  and  scope, — a  command  de- 
signed to  bring  into  special  view  the 

9.    The  Tenth  Command-     truth  that  God  is  not  content  wjth  the 

ment :  Law  in  the  Old  Testa-  ,«..         r  .. 

"  prohibition  of  overt   action,    or  even 

ment.  .  . 

with  the  enjoining  of  those  positive 

duties  which  as  acts  stand  in  antithesis  with  the  several  forms  of 
sin  condemned  expressly  in  the  Decalogue.  In  the  word,  covet, 
it  introduces  a  deeper  and  broader  view  of  human  obligation,  as 
including  not  only  outward  conduct  whether  forbidden  or  re- 
quired, but  also  the  disposition  or  state  of  heart  which  underlies 
all  action.  It  is  clearly  a  mistake,  although  supported  by  the 
great  name  of  Augustine  and  by  subsequent  church  usage,  to  hold 
that  there  are  two  commands  against  such  coveting  :  the  varia- 
tion in  the  order  in  which  the  objects  coveted  are  named  in 
Exodus  and  Deuteronomy,  does  not  justify  such  a  distinction. 
Coveting  is  essentially  the  same  thing,  whether  the  object  coveted 
be  a  wife,  a  house,  a  manservant,  a  maidservant,  an  ox  or  ass,  or 


TENTH    COMMANDMENT  :     COVETING.  543 

anything  else  which  rightfully  belongs  to  another.  It  is  the  inor- 
dinate desire  to  obtain  such  object  in  an  unlawful  way,  or  without 
regard  to  the  rights  and  claims  of  its  possessor.  We  are  indeed 
taught  by  an  apostle  to  covet  or  desire  earnestly  the  best  gifts, 
such  as  the  gift  of  prophecy  or  of  speaking  with  tongues,  but 
such  desire  involves  no  inclination  to  take  away  from  others  any 
corresponding  gifts  which  they  may  possess  :  the  same  apostle, 
not  inconsistently,  pronounces  covetousness  to  be  akin  to  idolatry, 
and  declares  that  it  ought  not  to  be  so  much  as  named  among 
saints.  Both  the  New  Testament  and  the  Old  contain  abundant 
warnings  against  this  wicked  wishing  for  what  does  not  belong 
to  us,  this  desire  to  have  what  others  possess,  though  the  desire 
may  lie  as  a  secret  impulse  in  the  soul,  never  emerging  into  voli- 
tion or  overt  action.  Covetousness  as  thus  defined  is  like  the 
love  of  money,  a  root  of  all  other  evil, — a  germinating  and  insti- 
gating form  of  wickedness,  which  may  lead  him  who  indulges  it 
on  to  theft  or  adultery  or  murder,  or — as  in  the  case  mentioned 
by  our  Lord — to  impiety  and  ingratitude  toward  parents.  In  its 
inmost  principle  of  selfishness  it  may  not  only  violate  in  spirit 
every  command  of  the  second  table,  but  may  even  assail  the 
rights  of  God  and  inordinately  desire  for  itself  what  belongs  to 
him  alone. 

In  this  view  of  the  subject,  the  commandment,  Thou  shalt  not 
covet,  is  fitly  placed  at  the  end  of  the  Decalogue  as  a  comprehend- 
ing and  ultimate  prohibition,  throwing  back  its  solemn  warning 
over  all  the  forbidding  and  the  enjoining  that  had  preceded  it.  The 
two  Catechisms  agree  with  this  view  in  their  definition  of  the 
command  as  forbidding  all  discontentment  with  our  own  estate, 
and  all  envying  and  grieving  at  the  good  of  our  neighbor,  together 
with  all  inordinate  viotions  or  affections  to  anything  that  is  his  ;  and 
also  as  requiring  from  us  full  contentment  with  our  own  condi- 
tion, and  such  a  charitable  frame  of  the  whole  soul  toward  our 
neighbor,  as  that  all  our  inward  motions  and  affections  toward  him 
tend  unto  and  further  all  that  good  which  is  his .  Luther,  divid- 
ing the  commandment  into  two  after  Augustine,  teaches,  first, 
that  we  should  so  fear  and  love  God  as  not  to  try  to  defraud  our 
neighbor  of  his  inheritance  or  home,  or  obtain  it  under  any  pre- 
text of  a  legal  right,  but  rather  should  aid  and  assist  him  to  keep 
it ;  and  secondly,  that  we  must  so  love  and  fear  God  as  not  to 
detach,  extort  or  alienate  from  our  neighbor  his  wife,  servants  or 
cattle,  but  rather  induce  them  to  stay  with  him  and  do  their 
duty  :  Larger  Catechism,  in  loc.  The  Catechism  of  Heidelberg 
more  tersely  but  also  more  profoundly  sums  up  the  whole  in 


544  THE    LAW    OF    GOD. 

the  statement,  that  we  must  not  suffer  even  the  least  inclina- 
tion or  thought  against  any  of  the  commandments  to  enter  our 
hearts,  but  rather  with  the  whole  heart  must  continually  hate  all 
sin,  and  take  pleasure  in  all  righteousness.  Ursinus  in  his  com- 
mentary on  that  Catechism  teaches  that  the  design  and  end  of 
this  command  is  to  secure  the  internal  obedience  and  regulation 
of  all  our  affections  toward  God,  and  toward  all  men  as  our  neigh- 
bors ;  and  declares  that  this  is  by  no  means  a  superfluous  com- 
mandment, but  one  added  to  the  rest,  or  superinduced  upon  them, 
as  a  comprehensive  rule  and  interpretation. 

The  tenth  commandment,  thus  expounded,  becomes  an  inter- 
esting illustration  of  the  general  method  of  God  in  the  evolution 
of  his  moral  law  during  the  patriarchal  and  Hebraic  dispensations. 
As  at  Eden,  so  for  many  subsequent  centuries,  Thou  shalt  not, 
was  the  prevalent  form  assumed  by  the  divine  injunctions  in  the 
process  of  developing  and  culturing  the  race  ethically,— though 
not  unmingled  with  some  positive  requisitions,  such  as  appear  in 
the  institution  of  sacrifices  and  of  the  Sabbath.  At  length,  as  the 
infantile  race  became  able  to  bear  it,  the  more  positive  element 
came  more  openly  into  play,  blending  with  the  anteceding  pro- 
hibitions ;  Thou  shalt,  standing  out  not  in  antagonism  but  in  close 
correlation  to  the  primitive,  Thou  shalt  not.  In  a  similar  way 
the  first  prohibitions  related  almost  exclusively  to  outward  and 
overt  acts,  but  at  length  it  became  practicable  to  extend  the  divine 
sway  more  distinctly  over  the  volitions,  the  inward  desires  and 
impulses  of  men.  As  on  one  side  the  constant  movement  was 
from  the  negative  to  the  positive,  so  on  another  side  there  was  a 
continuous  movement  from  the  outer  to  the  inner  life  of  man, — 
God  constantly  aiming  to  include  ultimately  the  entire  moral 
nature  and  being  within  the  range  of  his  educational  and  regu- 
lative law.  Traces  of  such  a  twofold  movement  appear  at  various 
points  even  before  the  flood,  and  during  the  long  patriarchal  era, 
and  the  period  of  the  captivity  in  Egypt.  But  in  the  Decalogue 
the  disciplinary  process  becomes  still  more  visible,  and  in  the  final 
command,  Thou  shalt  not  covet,  we  discern  a  transition  which  was 
to  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  stage  of  moral  culture  and  life  for 
the  Hebrews  and  through  them  for  mankind. 

It  would  be  a  serious  mistake  to  suppose  that  in  this  evolu- 
tionary process  the  prohibitions  were  retired  as  the  positive 
requisitions  were  introduced,  or  that  overt  actions  ceased  to  be 
significant  when  the  inner  life  was  thus  brought  consciously  under 
the  divine  jurisdiction.  As  the  river  carries  on  in  its  broadening 
current  the  waters  of  the  fountain  where  it  originated,  and  those 


LAW    IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  545 

of  every  tributary  streamlet  in  its  course,  so  each  positive  requisi- 
tion carried  the  correlative  prohibition  in  its  bosom,  and  each  new- 
statute,  laid  upon  the  conscience  of  the  inward  man,  represented 
not  with  less  but  with  augmented  force  the  law  that  applied  prim- 
arily to  overt  conduct  only.  But  as  we  pass  onward  through 
the  era  of  Joshua  and  the  Judges  and  Samuel,  through  the  sub- 
sequent period  of  the  Kings  and  Chronicles,  we  discern  at  a  hun- 
dred points  the  patient,  steady,  beautiful  unfolding  of  the  divine 
law  in  more  spiritual  and  commanding  aspects, — the  Mosaic 
economy  and  ceremonials  contributing  their  proportion  age  after 
age  to  the  impressive  development.  In  the  Psalms,  (xix,  cxix, 
and  others)  we  see  that  law  constantly  increasing  in  spirituality 
and  in  holy  force, — no  longer  a  cluster  of  negations  but  an  orderly 
array  and  system  of  positive  precepts, — no  longer  a  rule  of  out- 
ward action  only,  but  a  penetrating,  searching,  commanding  code 
to  which  the  entire  moral  man,  without  and  within,  is  forever- 
more  to  be  subject.  In  the  prophetical  writings,  especially  in 
those  which  have  most  to  say  of  the  coming  Messiah  and  of  his 
kingdom,  this  process  is  more  and  more  visibly  continued  :  the 
law  comes  out  progressively  in  forms  more  spiritual  and  more 
glorious  :  love  toward  God  and  holy  obedience  to  his  will,  and 
corresponding  love  toward  man  in  whatever  place  or  relation, 
become  more  and  more  the  animating  principle  of  life  in  both 
action  and  feeling.  At  last  the  sacred  evolution  reaches  the  stage 
where,  whether  it  shall  succeed  or  shall  fail  to  control  and  inspire 
the  Jewish  mind,  it  must  pause  awhile,  until  He  should  come 
whose  mission  in  part  it  was  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill  all  divine 
law — to  interpret  the  Decalogue  in  all  its  spiritual  significance,  and 
by  his  example  and  obedience  to  establish  it  more  firmly  than 
ever  as  the  supreme  rule  and  guide  of  human  life  while  the  world 
shall  stand. 

It  is  an  easy  transition  from  law  in  the  Old  Testament,  when 

thus  rightly  estimated,  to  law  in  the  New  Testament  as  enunciated 

by  our  Lord  and  commended  by  the  .       .     ,     „ 

J                  .       ^       _         .         '  10.    Law  in  the  New  Test- 
apostles    under   the   Gospel.      It   can 

.      „    ,               ,    ,                            ^.  ament:   three  special  char- 
hardly  be  regarded  as  an  exaggeration  acteristics# 

in  Luther  to  say,  as  he  does  at  the  close 

of  his  Larger  Catechism,  that  no  doctrine  or  discipline  can  ever 

be  produced,  which  will  be  equal  to  the  Ten  Commandments,  since 

they  propose  a  type  of  character  so  exalted  that  no  one  is  able 

through  the  powers  of  man  to  attain  it,  and  whoever  should  attain 

it  would  become  a  heavenly,  angelic  being,  far  superior  to  all  the 


546  THE   LAW  OF  GOD. 

sanctity  of  the  world.  Yet  in  the  New  Testament,  and  specially 
in  the  teaching  of  Christ,  these  commandments  assume  a  breadth 
of  application,  a  dignity  of  claim,  and  a  glory  in  fruitage,  of  which 
the  devout  Hebrew  could  have  had  no  adequate  appreciation  or 
experience.  Three  things  may  here  be  specially  noted :  First,  the 
marked  widening  of  the  area  of  human  obligation  already  adverted 
to,  especially  through  the  application  of  the  law  to  the  inmost 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.  An  inspired  writer  who  well 
understood  the  divine  purpose,  has  happily  compared  the  law  in 
this  respect  to  a  sword  with  double  edge,  not  only  cutting  its  way 
into  and  through  all  overt  action,  but  piercing  even  to  the  dividing 
asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  of  the  joints  and  the  marrow  of  char- 
acter. As  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  our  L,ord  taught  in  the 
three  instances  of  killing,  of  adultery  and  of  false  swearing,  and 
again  in  the  three  religious  duties  of  charitable  giving,  prayer, 
and  fasting,  so  every  requisition  under  the  Gospel  is  first  of  all 
internal — a  requisition  respecting  the  state  of  heart,  as  something 
far  deeper  than  any  or  all  external  obligation.  Abundant  testi- 
mony appears  elsewhere  both  in  his  direct  precepts  and  in  his 
parables  that  Christ  accepted  no  obedience,  no  service,  but  that  of 
the  heart,  and  that  the  kingdom  which  he  sought  to  establish  and 
enforce  was  primarily  and  chiefly  a  kingdom  within  the  believing 
soul. 

Catholicism  at  the  Reformation  and  subsequently,  in  the  interest 
of  its  theory  of  indulgence  and  absolution,  attempted  to  draw  the 
line  of  human  responsibility  at  a  more  external  point,  affirming 
that  while  human  acts  and  even  positive  volitions,  cherished  and 
carried  into  execution  so  far  as  practicable,  are  sinful  in  the  light 
of  the  New  Testament  law,  concupiscentia,  or  the  experiencing  of 
inward  desires  or  passions  which  are  not  thus  carried  out  in  pur- 
pose or  conduct,  should  not  be  viewed  as  culpable  in  the  eye  of 
that  law.  But  Protestantism  in  its  eager  resistance  to  the  sophis- 
tries and  the  wicked  practices  appearing  in  conjunction  with  this 
superficial  and  destructive  teaching,  held  with  the  writer  to  the 
Hebrews  that  the  very  thoughts  as  well  as  intents  of  the  heart  are 
properly  amenable  to  divine  law.  The  Decree  of  the  Council  of 
Trent  states  the  Roman  position  guardedly,  affirming  that  in  the 
case  of  those  born  again,  concupiscence,  while  it  is  of  sin  and 
inclines  to  sin,  is  not  in  the  judgment  of  the  church  truly  and 
properly  sin,  and  should  not  be  called  sin.  But  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  this  delusive  dogma  has  led  men  in  recent  times  and 
in  the  most  highly  developed  sections  of  the  church,  to  prac- 
tical mischiefs  of    the  most  dangerous  kind, — mischiefs  which 


LAW  in  the  new  testament.  547 

Protestantism  in  large  degree  escaped  by  affirming  that  the  whole 
man  in  every  impulse  and  movement  of  his  nature,  physical  as  well 
as  moral,  is  accountable  to  God  under  the  Gospel.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  the  Longer  Catechism  of  the  Greek  Church  agrees  with 
Protestantism  in  pronouncing  all  concupiscence  sinful,  both  be- 
cause it  betrays  an  impure  soul  and  because  it  is  the  seed  from 
which  all  sinful  action  springs.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism 
expresses  the  general  Protestant  teaching  in  the  statement  (10) 
that  God  is  terribly  displeased  with  our  inborn  as  well  as  actual 
sins  and  will  punish  them  in  just  judgment  ;  and  (113)  that  we 
must  not  permit  the  least  inclination  or  thought  contrary  to  any 
divine  command  to  enter  our  heart,  but  must  rather  with  the 
whole  heart  hate  all  sin  and  find  pleasure  in  all  righteousness. 
The  Formula  of  Concord  (Art.  I)  condemned  in  terms  the  papal 
doctrine  that  depraved  concupiscences  are  not  sin  but  merely 
concreated  conditions  and  essential  properties  of  the  corrupted 
nature,  and  held  that  original  sin,  as  being  itself  sinful,  is  the  foun- 
tain of  evil  thoughts  and  evil  discoursings  as  well  as  evil  deeds. 
The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (IX)  directly  affirm,  in  obvious  antago- 
nism to  the  dogma  of  Trent,  that  concupiscence  and  lust  hath  of 
itself  the  nature  of  sin, — a  phrase  altered  by  the  Westminster 
divines  in  their  revision  of  these  Articles,  so  as  to  affirm  positively 
that  such  concupiscence  is  always  sinful .  These  illustrations  show 
that  evangelical  Protestantism  from  the  beginning  repudiated  the 
Roman  casuistry  on  this  subject,  and  affirmed  that  the  corruption 
of  our  nature,  as  our  own  Confession  declares  (VI  :  v) ,  is  both 
itself,  and  all  the  motions  thereof,  truly  and  properly  sin. 

Secondly  :  law  in  the  New  Testament,  as  thus  spiritualized  and 
comprehensively  applied,  is  also  invested  with  greater  authority, 
and  thus  is  pressed  home  with  increased  cogency  upon  the  reason 
and  the  conscience.  The  authoritativeness  of  the  moral  law  in 
the  antecedent  dispensations  was  derived  in  part  from  what  that 
law  was  seen  to  be  in  itself  as  something  infinitely  worthy  of 
human  obedience,  but  chiefly  from  the  fact  that  it  emanated  from 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Hebrews — the  Lord  God  who  spoke  the  very 
words  of  the  law  at  Sinai  amid  thunders  and  lightnings  and  super- 
human voices,  and  who  in  the  simple  and  solemn  expression, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord,  made  the  claims  of  law  forever  sacred  and 
supreme.  But  Christ  came  to  fulfill  the  law  in  a  still  higher 
sense, — not  only  to  spiritualize  its  precepts,  as  we  have  seen,  but 
also  to  enforce  them  by  his  own  word  and  personality.  Law  to 
the  Christian  means  more  than  it  could  possibly  mean  to  the 
Jew,  because  there  stands  behind  it  evermore  the  living  Christ, 


548  THE   LAW   OF   GOD. 

the  incarnate  Deity,  enacting  it  afresh,  not  indeed  in  the  manner 
of  Sinai  but  in  ways  still  more  impressive,  as  they  were  more  in 
harmony  with  the  deepened  spirituality  of  the  various  precepts. 
The  Messiah  thus  came  to  give  new  authoritativeness  to  the  law 
in  two  correlated  ways,  as  the  Son  of  Man  and  as  the  Son  of  God. 
As  Son  of  Man,  he  made  the  law  forever  glorious  by  his  own  com- 
plete obedience  to  it,  and  by  the  illustration  of  its  worth  shining 
forth  in  his  own  perfect  example.  As  Son  of  God,  he  endorsed 
the  law  even  more  impressively  than  the  Jehovah  of  the  Hebrews 
had  ever  done  ;  surrounding  it  with  all  the  splendors  of  an  incar- 
nated Deity  ;  himself  as  God  standing  behind  and  above  it,  and 
strengthening  it  with  all  the  resources  of  an  authority  as  im- 
perial, comprehensive,  unchallengeable  as  it  was  visible.  In  the 
chapter  now  under  review,  it  is  expressly  said  that  the  obligation 
to  obey  the  moral  law  is  found  not  only  in  regard  of  the  matter 
contained  in  it,  but  also  in  respect  of  the  authority  of  God  the  Creator 
who  gave  it :  and  it  is  added  in  language  which  is  too  weak  to 
convey  the  full  reality,  neither  doth  Christ  in  the  Gospel  a7iy  way 
dissolve,  but  much  strengthen  this  obligation.  During  the  debate 
in  the  Assembly  on  this  chapter  (Minutes,  272-4)  it  was  at  first 
resolved  to  add,  after  the  statement  respecting  the  authority  of 
God  the  Creator,  the  words  :  from  whom  it  should  always  have 
had  that  binding  power  though  it  had  never  received  any  cor- 
roboration from  Christ  in  the  Gospel.  We  are  taught  elsewhere 
that  Christ  is  King  over  all,  empowered  to  expand  and  enforce 
the  law,  and  is  also  the  Judge  before  whom  the  solemn  question 
of  obedience  or  disobedience  to  the  law  in  deed  and  word  and 
inmost  thought  is  to  be  finally  adjudicated.  In  his  hands,  there- 
fore, the  law  assumes  an  authoritativeness,  exhibits  a  right  to 
demand  implicit,  perfect  and  perpetual  obedience,  such  as  it  could 
not  have  had  in  the  antecedent  dispensations. 

Thirdly  :  the  law  as  thus  made  authoritative  by  Christ,  is  en- 
forced by  superadded  sanctions  on  the  side  both  of  reward  and  of 
penalty.  From  the  beginning  God  was  pleased  to  urge  obedience 
upon  men,  not  only  by  the  revelation  to  them  of  the  inherent 
righteousness  and  worth  of  the  law  in  itself,  but  also  by  acquainting 
them  with  the  blessings  that  in  his  ordained  constitution  of  things 
should  follow  due  regard  for  its  claims,  and  also  with  the  mis- 
eries and  the  curse  involved  of  necessity  in  all  disobedience.  In 
the  terse  language  of  the  chapter,  God  while  requiring  exact  and 
perpetual  obedience,  promised  life  upon  the  fulfilling  and  threatened 
death  zipo?i  the  breach  of  his  holy  law.  Gerizim  and  Ebal,  the 
mount  of  blessing  and  the  mount  of  cursing,  stand  over  against 


NEW  TESTAMENT    U\V  :    ITS   SANCTIONS.  549 

each  other  throughout  the  Old  Testament ;  and  though  at  first 
the  rewards  aud  penalties  appear  to  be  temporal  only — conse- 
quences experienced  in  this  life  rather  than  in  a  future  state — 
still  in  the  later  stages  of  the  revelation  eternity  is  brought  in 
more  and  more,  as  if  to  enforce  the  issues  of  time,  and  God 
encourages  obedience  by  promises  and  discourages  disobedience 
by  warnings  which  can  be  realized  only  in  a  life  far  beyond  the 
present  state  of  being. 

It  is  one  of  the  criticisms  of  John  Stuart  Mill  (Three  Essays) 
that  such  use  of  sanctions  is  in  itself  unjustifiable,  and  is  calcu- 
lated to  diminish  in  our  estimation  the  superior  incentive  of  the 
right  as  right,  discerned  by  the  reason,  felt  by  the  conscience.  A 
wiser  Mind  than  his  saw  that,  whatever  might  be  true  of  angels 
or  of  a  race  of  perfect  men,  our  weak  and  corrupted  humanity, 
in  disposition  averse  to  holiness  and  ever  disobedient  in  act, 
needed  even  from  the  experience  of  Eden  onward  whatever  influ- 
ence could  in  this  additional  way  be  brought  to  bear  in  securing 
obedience  and  in  deterring  mankind  from  sin.  The  fallacious 
reasoning  of  the  philosopher  is  confuted,  not  only  by  observation 
of  the  conduct  of  men  generally,  but  by  the  punitive  legislation 
of  all  civilized  nations,  and  by  ten  thousand  illustrations  in 
domestic  and  social  life.  It  is  a  decisive  fact  that  our  Lord  held 
forth  the  same  doctrine  of  sanctions  which  the  older  Scriptures 
taught,  but  in  forms  and  aspects  even  more  impressive.  While 
on  one  side  he  brought  into  clearer  light  than  ever  before  the 
ineffable  beauty  of  a  genuinely  holy  life,  and  so  commended  obe- 
dience in  itself  more  fully  to  all  who  heard  his  words  or  beheld 
his  example,  on  the  other  side  he  brought  eternity  into  human 
view  as  no  patriarch  or  legislator,  psalmist  or  prophet  of  the  older 
dispensations  had  ever  done,  and  then  utilized  the  revelation  in 
every  available  way  as  a  deterrent  from  evil  and  a  stimulant  to 
goodness.  No  teacher  ever  set  forth  as  he  did  the  vital,  inevitable, 
solemn  relationship  between  the  deeds  of  the  present  life  and  the 
fruitage  of  the  eternal  state.  No  teacher  ever  so  cheered  those 
who  sought  to  obey  the  divine  law,  with  sublime  disclosures  of 
that  holy  Hill  where  the  men  of  clean  hands  and  pure  hearts  on 
earth  are  finally  to  be  congregated  in  everlasting  purity  and  in  a 
blessedness  which  nothing  but  such  purity  can  ever  attain.  Nor 
did  any  other  teacher  ever  set  forth  with  such  honesty  and  tender- 
ness and  such  convincing  power  the  fact,  the  certainty  and  the 
awf  ulness  of  hell  as  the  ultimate  estate  of  all  those  whom  the  law  in 
its  majesty  and  he  himself  as  judge  must  finally  condemn  for  their 
disobedience.     And  it  is  in  full  harmony  with  his  teaching  that 


550  THE  LAW  OF  GOD. 

the  Larger  Catechism  declares  (152)  that  every  sin,  even  the 
least,  being  committed  against  the  sovereignty,  goodness  and  holi- 
ness of  God,  and  against  his  righteous  law,  deserveth  his  wrath 
and  curse,  both  in  this  life  and  that  which  is  to  come. 

Two  topics  remain  to  be  considered  in  order  to  complete  the 
study  of  this  suggestive  and  fruitful  chapter.     The  first  of  these 

is  concerned  with  the  relationship,  by 
11.    Law  of  God  and  hu-    both  affiliation  and  contrast    between 
man  morality.  .  , ,  ,  , 

the  moral  law  thus  interpreted  as  the 

supreme  rule  of  life,  and  all  human  morality — the  justitia  civilis  or 
justitia  externa,  so  often  mentioned  in  the  symbolism  and  the  the- 
ology of  early  Protestantism.     It  was  natural  that  the  Reformers, 
in  their  strenuous  condemnation  of  those  who  in  the  phrase 
of  Paul  were  going  about  to  establish  their  own  righteousness, 
should  sometimes  fail  to  note  the  true  worth  of  native  morality 
as  seen  among  men,  and  should  become  too  severe  and  sweeping 
in  their  censure  of  all  endeavor  to  live  uprightly  on  the  platform 
of  natural  equity  merely.     It  is  to  be  confessed  that  in  more 
recent  times  there  has  been  too  much  inconsiderate  and  injurious 
animadversion  in  the  Protestant  pulpit  upon  moralists  as  a  class, 
on  the  assumption  that  all  systems  of  morals  discernible  by  the 
light  of  nature  or  through  the  teachings  of  providence,  are  not 
only  insufficient  to  secure  salvation,  but  are  intrinsically  and  rad- 
ically unworthy.     But  it  ought  never  to  be  forgotten  that  there 
are  many  vital  points  of  affiliation  between  all  such  systems  and 
the  supreme  morality  inculcated  in  holy  Scripture, — that  the  rela- 
tionship is  not  altogether  one  of  contrast  and  antagonism,  but 
rather  that  all  true  morality  of  whatever  grade  or  type  rests  in 
large  degree  on  one  and  the  same  basis,   and  is  entitled  so  far 
forth   to  just  appreciation  by   Christian  minds.     As  our  L,ord 
beholding  the  young  ruler  loved  him,  even  while  exposing  the 
ethical  deficiency  in  his  outwardly  blamless  life,  so  we  may  well 
recognize  the  fact  that  many  who  have  not  entered  upon  the  true 
life  of  obedience  to  the  law  of  God,  as  set  forth  in  his  Word, 
may  still  perform  acts  which  are  equitable  and  charitable,  good 
in  their  outward  effect  and  in  a  certain  measure  good  in  the  spirit 
that  prompts  them,  though  such  acts  may  not  render  the  actor 
worthy  of  pardon  or  acceptance  with  God.     Whatever  deeds  are 
prompted  by  right  reason,  whatever  action  springs  from  the  con- 
viction and  impulsion  of  conscience,  whatever  in  conduct  has  its 
basis  in  sound  ethical  principle  as  distinguished  from  immoral 
selfishness,  whatever  contributes  in  this  way  to  the  moral  order  and 


UW    AND    MORALITY.  551 

true  well-being  of  society,  has  a  valid  claim  on  the  recognition 
and  respect  of  the  Christian  Church, — so  long  at  least  as  this  does 
not  lead  to  any  ignoring  of  the  doctrine  of  the  pravity  and  disa- 
bility of  man,  or  that  of  the  need  of  genuine  faith  in  Christ  and 
true  repose  in  his  mediation  as  the  only  ground  of  salvation. 
The  Confession  of  Augsburg,  while  denouncing  as  profane  the 
dream  that  Christian  righteousness  is  naught  else  but  a  civil  and 
philosophic  righteousness,  still  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  will 
of  unregenerate  man  hath  liberty  to  work  a  civil  righteousness, 
and  to  choose  such  things  as  reason  can  reach  unto.  And  the 
Form,  of  Concord  admits  that  men  not  regenerate  do  render  to 
the  law  a  certain  manner  and  degree  of  the  obedience  required  by 
it, — though  it  adds,  that  they  do  this  as  b>r  constraint  and  unwill- 
ingly because  they  are  carnal. 

But  while  this  view  should  justly  be  held,  it  may  also  with 
equal  justice  be  claimed  that  there  are  several  particulars  in  which 
the  morality  enjoined  in  Scripture,  especially  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament— the  new  obedience,  as  it  was  happily  termed  in  several 
Protestant  creeds — is  superior  not  only  to  the  best  and  purest 
living  of  unrenewed  men,  but  to  the  noblest  systems  of  morals 
ever  framed  by  the  natural  reason.  First  of  all :  in  its  origin 
and  source.  All  natural  morality,  even  in  its  loftiest  forms,  origi- 
nates in  and  with  man  himself.  It  comes  to  him  partly  through 
the  action  of  the  natural  reason  and  conscience  ;  it  flows  partly 
from  the  recognized  agreements  of  reason  and  conscience  in  society 
or  in  the  race  ;  it  springs  in  part  from  the  worthiest  philosophies. 
But  its  source  is  always  human  and  hiiman  only  ;  it  never  rises 
higher  than  humanity.  Biblical  morality  is  truly  supernatural  in 
origin  as  well  as  in  content.  The  principles  that  regulate  it,  the 
motives  that  rule  in  it,  the  spirit  that  animates  it,  are  all  higher 
than  man.  It  is  not  a  discovery  but  a  revelation.  Its  real  author 
is  God  :  its  primal  source  is  in  his  perfect  and  holy  nature  :  its 
certification  is  seen  in  his  august  signature,  and  its  authority  flows 
directly  as  a  river  of  life  from  his  throne. 

Secondly  :  in  the  quality  and  range  of  its  requirements.  Natural 
morality  is  chiefly  relative  and  external  in  its  demands  :  it  con- 
cerns itself  mainly  with  outward  conduct,  and  with  the  relation- 
ships of  men,  organic  or  specific,  in  practical  life.  It  has  indeed 
an  interior  hemisphere  of  motive  and  principle,  more  or  less 
recognizable,  but  its  developments  are  limited  chiefly  to  the  out- 
ward— the  visible  in  action.  The  morality  of  Scripture,  as  we 
have  already  had  occasion  to  note,  concerns  itself  primarily  with 
what  is  inward, — with  purposes,  motives,  feelings,  volitions  ;  in  a 


552  THE  LAW  OF  GOD. 

word,  with  character.  It  thus  has  an  incomparably  broader  range 
of  development  and  influence.  Both  in  the  number  and  scope  of 
the  duties  it  imposes,  and  in  the  generic  conception  of  duty  as  the 
dominating  principle  in  all  worthy  manhood,  it  rises  immeasur- 
ably above  the  loftiest  morality  ever  realized  through  natural 
powers  or  even  conceived  by  the  natural  man. 

Thirdly  :  in  the  kind  and  measure  of  authority  employed.  The 
weakness  of  all  natural  systems  of  morals  lies  not  merely  in  the  nar- 
rowness of  their  range,  but  also  in  the  measure  of  imperativeness 
with  which  their  claims  are  enforced.  They  may  summon  to  their 
aid  the  calm  command  of  the  reason,  the  urgent  pleading  of 
conscience,  the  moral  bearings  of  the  act  proposed,  the  voice  and 
judgment  of  human  society,  and  beyond  all  this  the  universal  and 
indestructible  mandate  of  the  right  and  the  wrong  as  necessary 
and  eternal  elements  of  action.  It  may  go  farther  than  this  and 
invoke  in  behalf  of  its  requisitions  the  influence  of  a  personal  Deity 
to  whom  the  soul  is  amenable,  so  far  as  such  a  Deity  is  revealed 
in  nature  or  in  the  human  reason.  But  there  it  must  pause, 
though  the  will  should  remain  obdurate  against  its  commands, 
and  the  man  refuses  to  yield  it  due  obedience  :  in  this  emergency 
it  can  neither  prevent  the  evil  it  condemns  nor  promote  the  good 
it  desires,  whatever  may  be  the  consequences.  Biblical  morality 
introduces  another  series  of  influences,  higher  in  kind  and  more 
potential  in  effect.  It  reveals  the  Deity  of  nature  in  more  dis- 
tinct and  impressive  forms  as  the  Creator,  the  moral  Governor, 
the  final  Judge  of  all  mankind.  It  reveals  this  Deity  in  Christ 
as  a  perfect  example  of  a  purely  ethical  life,  and  as  showing  his 
obedience  to  the  moral  law  even  in  the  mystery  of  the  cross.  It 
reveals  this  Deity  also  in  the  Holy  Spirit  whose  office  it  is  to  dis- 
close the  law  in  higher  and  broader  forms,  to  commend  it  to  the 
heart,  and  by  many  gracious  ministries  to  encourage  and  enable 
the  soul  to  obey  its  requisitions.  It  also  presents  a  vast  series  of 
promises,  invitations,  precepts,  warnings,  drawn  not  only  from  the 
present  life  but  also  from  that  eternity  of  which  the  moral  aspira- 
tions in  man,  even  in  his  degenerate  estate,  are  a  constant  fore- 
tokening and  witness.  In  a  word,  it  concentrates  upon  the  whole 
sphere  of  human  obligation  the  complete  force  of  the  divine  per- 
sonality and  the  divine  relations — the  force  of  truth,  of  duty  and 
of  eternity,  and  thus  transcends  immeasurably  in  its  incitements 
to  obedience  all  the  incentives  which  the  morality  of  nature  in  its 
noblest  forms  can  bring  to  bear  upon  the  soul. 

It  follows  of  necessity  that  biblical  morality  can  and  does 
develop  a  higher  ethical  capability  and  experience  in  man, — lifts 


LAW  and  grace;.  653 

him  upward  into  a  grander  ethical  life  in  both  purpose  and  action, 
than  is  in  fact  attainable  through  the  ministries  of  the  purest 
natural  systems  of  morality.  The  best  moralist,  in  a  word,  is 
made  a  better  man  ethically  by  becoming  a  Christian,  and  surren- 
dering his  life  freely  to  that  supernatural  guidance  and  control 
which  Christianity  supplies.  He  thus  obtains  broader  and  deeper 
conceptions  of  what  morality  is  and  demands,  receives  into  his 
nature  more  vigorous  and  effective  impulses  toward  obedience, 
attains  a  stricter  discipline  of  self  and  a  loftier  type  of  purpose 
and  of  action  and  by  such  processes  grows  by  degrees  into  a  com- 
pleter manhood  than  would  otherwise  be  possible.  Admitting  into 
his  soul  all  those  finer  and  more  spiritual  influences  that  flow  off 
from  the  divine  law  and  the  divine  grace,  he  finds  his  whole  being 
electrified  and  energized.  He  is  brought  into  conscious  fellowship 
with  all  that  is  true  and  beautiful  and  good.  God,  in  a  word,  now 
rules  and  reigns  in  his  moral  life,  and  the  presence  and  sway  of 
God  in  and  through  his  holy  law  and  grace  makes  that  life  incom- 
parably pure,  incomparably  sublime  and  blessed. 

The  other  topic  remaining  to  be  considered  is  the  relationship 
between  law  and   grace, — the    relation    between  this  divinely 

revealedand divinely  energized  moral- 

,  A,         ,     ^  *.    r  .  A  12.  Law  and  Grace :  faith 

lty  and  the  salvation  that  comes  into     and  obedjencc# 

the  soul  of  man  in  and  through  resting 

in  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  gracious  mediation.  As  we  have  seen, 
once  and  again,  it  was  the  peculiar  glory  of  the  Reformers  and  of 
the  Protestant  churches  universally,  that  the}''  exalted  faith,  sim- 
ple trust  in  the  promises  of  God  in  Christ  and  simple  commitment 
of  the  soul  in  penitence  and  love  to  the  Redeemer,  to  be  by  him 
cleansed  from  sin  and  freed  from  guilt,  as  the  basal  principle  in 
the  Christian  religion — the  one  essential  act  on  the  part  of  man, 
on  which  the  character  and  the  destinies  of  the  soul  were  to  turn 
forevermore.  The  sum  of  the  Gospel,  said  Zwingli  in  his  opening 
Articles,  is  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  true  Son  of  God,  has  made 
known  to  us  the  will  of  the  heavenly  Father,  and  by  his  innocence 
has  redeemed  us  from  everlasting  death  and  reconciled  us  to  God; 
and  this  Christ  therefore  is  the  sole  and  only  way  of  salvation  to 
all  who  ever  have  been,  who  now  are,  or  who  ever  shall  be.  Fides 
sola  justificat,  was  the  motto  which  all  alike,  Lutheran  and 
Reformed,  were  agreed  in  inscribing  on  their  sanctuaries,  pro- 
claiming in  their  pulpits,  and  recording  as  the  central  and  saving 
truth  in  their  various  formularies.  And  it  was  this  cardinal  doc- 
trine which  not  only  enabled  Protestantism  at  the  first  to  make 
such  marvelous  headway  against  the  casuistries  and  the  schemings 


554  THE   LAW   OF   GOD. 

and  the  denunciations  of  Rome,  but  from  the  sixteenth  century 
until  now  has  been  the  center  and  core  of  its  teaching,  and  the 
chief  secret  of  its  quickening  and  saving  power  over  men. 

It  is  not  strange  that,  under  the  influence  of  such  strong  con- 
victions as  to  the  prime  value  of  faith,  L,uther  should  have 
pronounced  the  terse  and  practical  letter  of  James  an  epistle  of 
straw,  unworthy  of  a  place  in  the  Canon,  both  because  it  con- 
tained, as  he  viewed  it,  no  doctrine  of  justification  through  faith, 
and  because  it  seemed  to  him  to  inculcate  a  doctrine  of  salvation 
through  works  which  was,  as  he  regarded  it,  essentially  at  vari- 
ance with  the  general  teaching  of  the  New  Testament.  Nor  is  it 
strange  that  in  some  minds  and  at  some  junctures  in  the  convulsions 
and  struggles  of  the  period,  the  gospel  of  works  as  enunciated  by 
James  should  have  failed  to  receive  due  recognition,  or  that  a 
pernicious  antinomianism  should  have  sprung  up  here  and  there, 
ignoring  the  authoritative  precepts  of  the  law,  and  in  the  supposed 
interest  of  grace  even  declaring  the  Ten  Commandments  inopera- 
tive and  void.  This  erratic  and  injurious  tendency  has  sometimes 
made  its  appearance  in  later  ages,  and  where  more  considerate 
adjustment  and  harmonizing  pi  the  kindred  doctrines  involved 
might  have  been  expected.  Yet  it  is  noticeable  that  even  in  the 
earlier  periods  of  the  Reformation  a  more  considerate  view  had 
currency.  The  Augsburg  Confession  itself  had  an  Article  (VI) 
on  what  was  called  the  New  Obedience,  affirming  that  faith  ought 
always  to  bring  forth  good  fruits,  and  that  men,  and  especially 
Christian  men,  ought  to  do  the  good  works  commanded  of  God  ; 
and  a  similar  Article  (IV)  appears  in  the  Formula  of  Concord, 
expressly  intended  to  quiet  the  controversies  on  this  subject  which 
nascent  antinomianism  had  introduced  into  the  German  churches. 
The  Tetrapolitan  Conf.  contains  an  entire  chapter  entitled  the 
Duties  of  a  Christian  Man,  in  which  the  relations  between  faith  and 
duty,  and  the  indispensableness  of  duty  as  an  index  and  measure 
of  faith,  are  happily  defined.  The  Reformed  symbolism  reveals 
in  various  instances  the  same  significant  fact.  The  whole  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  affirmation  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XII), 
that  although  good  works,  in  the  form  of  obedience  to  the  divine 
law,  cannot  put  away  sin  or  deliver  from  the  severities  of  the 
divine  judgment  since  they  are  always  imperfect,  yet  such  works 
are  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God  in  Christ,  because  they  spring 
necessarily  out  of  a  true  and  lively  faith,  insomuch  that  by  them 
such  faith  may  be  as  evidently  known  as  a  tree  is  discerned  by  its 
fruit:  see  Hall,  Harmony  of  the  Prot.  Confessions:  Ninth  Section. 

The  key  and  explanation  of  the  whole  is  found  in  the  recogni- 


THE   DIVINE   LAW   GLORIOUS.  555 

tion,  according  to  this  happily  worded  Article,  of  the  fact  that 
justifying  or  saving  faith  is  essentially  an  active  as  well  as  a  pas- 
sive principle — an  active  power  within  the  soul,  subduing  all 
other  thoughts  and  impulses  unto  itself,  determining  all  actions 
according  to  its  own  regulative  sway,  and  evermore  inciting  to 
and  inducing  the  performance  of  every  recognized  duty.  As  the 
Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge  tersely  states  it,  the  obedience  of  the 
law  must  flow  from  love,  and  love  from  a  pure  heart,  and  a  pure 
heart  from  a  good  conscience,  and  a  good  conscience  from  faith 
unfeigned.  Evangelical  faith  and  evangelical  obedience,  grateful 
acceptance  of  the  grace  of  God  and  loving  conformity  in  heart 
and  life  to  the  law  of  God,  are  thus  in  no  sense  antagonistic,  but 
are  alike  essential  and  indissoluble  elements  in  the  one  and  sole 
salvation  through  the  one  and  only  Mediator  between  God  and 
man,  Christ  Jesus.  There  is  no  inconsistency  or  lack  of  harmony 
in  the  New  Testament  at  this  vital  point.  The  works  which 
James  commends  are  such  as  no  power  within  the  soul  but  faith 
can  produce,  and  the  faith  which  Paul  commends  is  such  a  power, 
producing  by  virtue  of  its  own  nature  such  obedience  and  such 
works  as  God  requires  in  his  perfect  law. 

In  concluding  these  studies,  we  may  fitly  derive  from  them  a 
new  sense  of  the  nature  and  scope,  of  the  comprehensiveness  and 
cogency,  of  the  majesty  and  glory  of  the  Divine  Law,  instituted  at 
the  creation  of  man,  formulated  at  Sinai,  inculcated  in  Hebraism, 
expanded  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  forever  exalted  before 
the  eyes  of  men  as  the  supreme  moral  code  and  the  regulative 
rule  of  human  life  in  all  lands  and  times.  We  may  well  say  with 
the  venerable  Hooker  :  Law  hath  her  seat  in  the  bosom  of  God  ; 
not  in  the  narrow  reason  or  the  fallible  conscience  of  man,  neither 
in  the  dictates  of  human  experience  or  the  deductions  of  abstract 
philosophy,  nor  even  in  the  divine  will  viewed  merely  as  the 
source  of  supreme  and  resistless  power,  but  in  the  bosom  of  God, — 
in  that  holy  and  tender  and  righteous  nature  where  all  perfection 
dwells  forever,  and  whence  all  good  proceeds  to  all  the  universe 
of  being.  And  well  has  he  also  said,  that  her  voice  is  the  harmony 
of  that  universe,  and  that  all  created  things,  the  smallest  and  the 
greatest  alike,  should  do  her  homage,  as  the  mother  of  their 
peace  and  joy. 


LECTURE    ELEVENTH— CIVIL    RELATIONS 
AND  DUTIES. 

Christian  Liberty— Liberty  of  Conscience:  Civil  Mag- 
istracy :  Papal  Supremacy  :  Lawful  Oaths  :  Vows : 
Marriage — Polygamy— Celibacy  :  Divorce  :  Christianity 
in  Civil  Affairs. 

C.  F.  XX-XXIV.  L.  C.  105-8  ;  113  ;  127-130,  139.  Amer. 
Form  of  Gov.  Ch.  I.     Directory  for  Worship,  Ch.  XII. 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  under  one  general  title  the  group  of 
chapters  in  the  Confession,  five  in  number,  which  stand  between 
the  comprehensive  and  magnificent  chapter  on  the  Law  of  God  and 
those  which  describe  the  Christian  Church  with  its  sacraments, 
institutes  and  authority.  Some  of  the  subjects  introduced  in  this 
group  hardly  seem  to  be  congruous  with  the  prime  purpose  of  a 
confession  of  faith  in  the  essential  verities  of  religion:  others,  in 
the  changes  which  time  and  circumstances  have  wrought,  appear 
to  us  like  anachronisms  that  might  well  enough  be  eliminated. 
None  of  them,  excepting  those  that  occur  in  the  chapter  on 
Religious  Worship  and  the  Sabbath  Day,  make  their  appearance 
in  the  Shorter,  and  few,  and  these  but  incidentally,  in  the  Larger 
Catechism.  At  first  view,  consequently,  these  chapters  with  their 
peculiar  contents  fail,  with  the  exception  just  noted,  to  interest 
us.  Nor  is  it  until  they  are  thoughtfully  examined  under  the 
light  of  the  historic  period  during  which  they  were  framed  and 
wrought  into  the  Confession,  that  they  shine  out  in  their  true 
and  large  significance.  In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  they  con- 
template the  Christian  man  as  standing  within  the  State,  and  as 
sustaining  civil  relations  and  under  obligation  to  discharge  certain 
civil  functions  and  duties.  Though  living  under  the  Law  of  God 
primarily  and  amenable  supremely  to  its  behests,  he  is  regarded 
as  under  human  law,  and  as  accountable  not  merely  to  God  but 
also  to  the  State  and  to  society  for  the  manner  in  which  he  meets 
the  specific  requisitions  thus  imposed.  Such  earthly  citizenship 
was  regarded  justly  by  the  Assembly  as  a  matter  of  religious  as 
well  as  civil  obligation,  and  therefore  as  worthy  of  recognition  and 
enforcement  in  a  Christian  creed. 

It  is  noticeable  that  many  of  the  Protestant  symbols  discuss. 


CHRISTIAN    LIBERTY    DEFINED.  557 

some  of  them  at  considerable  length,  the  topics  presented  in  these 
chapters:  see  Hall,  Harmony  of  Protestant  Confessions.  To  com- 
prehend this  more  general  fact  rightly,  we  must  turn  to  the 
illuminating  history  of  the  Reformation  in  both  its  earliest  and 
its  later  periods.  It  is  indispensable  that  we  should  know  well  the 
civil  side  of  that  great  movement,  including  the  political  relations 
of  both  Romanism  and  Protestantism  in  the  various  countries  of 
Europe,  the  formation  of  provincial  and  state  churches,  the  rise 
of  erratic  tendencies  both  religious  and  political  such  as  Anabap- 
tism,  the  conflicts  around  the  complicated  issue  of  civil  jurisdiction 
in  religious  affairs.  Only  the  light  shed  by  due  comprehension  of 
these  civil  movements  and  events  will  adequately  solve  the  prob- 
lem which  the  presence  of  such  topics  in  the  Protestant  creeds 
presents.  Especially  is  it  important  to  this  end,  so  far  as  the 
Westminster  formularies  are  concerned,  that  we  should  be  familiar 
with  the  political  history  of  Great  Britain,  with  the  issues  civil 
and  religious  between  England  and  Scotland,  with  the  desperate 
strifes  between  Parliament  and  the  crown,  with  the  prolonged 
struggle  to  establish,  first  Catholicism,  then  Prelacy,  and  finally 
Presbyterianism,  as  the  national  Church,  and  with  the  long  and 
painful  efforts  of  various  parties  to  secure  religious  liberty  and 
toleration.  To  those  who  have  studied  that  history  with  care, 
and  reflected  upon  the  diversified  causes  at  work  and  the  profound 
principles  involved  in  it,  many  of  the  truths  and  duties  set  forth 
in  this  cluster  of  chapters  assume  a  distinctness  of  meaning,  a 
peculiar  glow  and  coloring,  which  are  not  discernible  to  the  ordi- 
nary reader.  In  the  light  shed  by  such  knowledge  let  us  enter 
on  their  examination. 

The  double  heading  in  the  twentieth  chapter,  Christian  Liberty 
and  Liberty  of  Conscience  suggests  at  once  the  practical  distinc- 
tion between  freedom  as  toward  God 

and  freedom  as  related  toman.     The        »■  Christian  Liberty:  frec- 

, ,  dom  as  toward  God,  its  na- 

two     conceptions     are     separable    in     ture  and  extent. 

thought,  and  may  well  be  considered 

apart  and  successively.  The  Christian  liberty  here  affirmed  is 
doubtless  that  deliverance  from  the  law  regarded  as  a  final  test  of 
desert  before  God,  of  which  Paul  speaks  so  earnestly  in  his  in- 
structive and  tender  letter  to  the  Galatian  church.  The  first 
section  of  the  chapter  defines  this  liberty  in  detail  as  purchased 
for  believers  through  the  mediation  of  Christ,  and  as  consisting 
of  a  large  number  of  particulars  herein  named  ; — deliverance,  not 
from  the  obligation  to  obey  the  moral  law,  since  the  claim  of 
that  law  remains  in  unabated  force  under  the  Gospel,  but  from 


558  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND   DUTIES. 

the  guilt  of  sin  and  the  curse  pronounced  by  the  law  on  all  willful 
transgression  ; — deliverance  also  from  the  natural  bondage  of  the 
soul  under  indwelling  sin,  under  the  sway  of  Satan,  and  under  the 
domination  of  this  present  evil  world  ; — deliverance  furthermore, 
from  the  sting  of  death,  the  victory  of  the  grave,  the  final  damna- 
tion which  a  career  of  sinfulness  involves.  These  are  the  more 
negative  aspects  of  the  Christian  liberty  here  described  :  its  more 
positive  aspects  appear  in  the  chapters  on  Justification  and  Adop- 
tion, and  those  which  immediately  follow.  It  was  originally  pro- 
posed in  the  Assembly  (Minutes  :  211)  to  make  a  direct  reference 
to  these  chapters,  as  a  part  of  this  definition,  but  the  reference 
was  finally  omitted — probably  on  the  ground  that  it  was  deemed 
to  be  needless.  This  liberty  is  here  tersely  defined  as  free  access 
to  God  as  his  sanctified  children,  and  happy  obedience  to  him 
with  a  willing  mind  and  out  of  love  such  as  prompts  a  filial  child 
to  regard  the  wishes  of  its  parents.  There  is  submission,  but  it  is 
the  submission  of  love  ;  there  is  faithful  obedience,  but  it  is  the 
obedience  of  affection,  pure,  sacred,  perpetual.  It  is  therefore 
in  no  sense  a  state  of  bondage,  though  it  be  marked  by  submis- 
sion and  obedience  :  it  is  rather  a  state  of  liberty  like  that  which 
angels  enjoy,  sweet  and  satisfying  and  complete. 

The  same  section  indicates  in  brief  terms  the  contrast  between 
the  measure  of  such  liberty  granted  to  believers  during  the  earlier 
dispensations,  and  that  granted  to  Christians  under  the  new 
economy  of  the  Gospel.  The  Jewish  church,  it  is  said,  was  under 
the  yoke  of  the  ceremonial  law,  from  which  the  Christian  is  made 
free.  The  Jewish  church  was  under  the  yoke  of  the  moral  law 
also,  in  a  sense  and  manner  which  is  not  true  of  the  Christian, 
and  its  access  to  God  through  the  Mosaic  forms  of  worship  was 
less  direct  and  less  inspiring.  The  difference  had  already  been  sug- 
gested in  the  chapter  on  the  Covenant  with  Man,  wherein  it  is 
taught  that  the  covenant  was  differently  administered  in  the  time 
of  the  law  and  the  time  of  the  gospel, — in  the  first  instance  by 
promises,  prophecies,  sacrifices  and  other  types  and  ordinances, 
designed  to  point  the  devout  Hebrew  forward  to  the  era  when 
full  remission  of  sins  and  full  deliverance  should  be  secured 
through  the  Messiah, — in  the  second  instance  by  the  historic 
manifestation  of  such  remission  and  deliverance  in  Christ  who 
came  as  he  himself  taught,  to  make  his  people  free  indeed. 
Hence  it  is  said  in  this  section  that  Christians  have  greater 
boldness  of  access  to  the  throne  of  grace,  and  enjoy  fuller  com- 
munications of  the  free  Spirit  of  God  than  believers  under  the  laxv 
did  ordinarily  partake  of.      The   contrast   is   both   marked    and 


FREEDOM    TOWARD    GOD.  559 

suggestive  :  it  gives  us  a  grand  conception  of  that  holy  and 
happy  liberty  wherewith  our  L,ord  makes  his  disciples  free. 

The  third  section  introduces  an  important  caution  at  this  point, 
directed  doubtless  against  those  who  were  inclined  to  turn  this 
holy  liberty  into  license,  on  the  hypothesis  that  believers  are  not 
in  any  sense  under  law  because  they  as  believers  are  under  an 
economy  of  grace.  They  who  under  any  pretence  of  liberty — it 
is  said — do  practise  any  sin  or  cherish  any  lust,  do  thereby  destroy 
the  end  of  Christian  liberty,  which  is  holiness  and  righteousness 
before  God.  As  the  Savoy  Declaration  states  it,  they  do  thereby 
pervert  the  main  design  of  the  grace  of  the  Gospel  to  their  own 
destruction.  As  the  chief  end  of  every  man  is  to  glorify  God 
and  enjoy  him  forever,  this  must  preeminently  be  the  chief  end 
of  the  Christian,  and  the  indulgence  of  any  lust  or  the  practising 
of  any  sin  must  be  intrinsically  and  absolutely  incongruous  with 
such  a  supreme  purpose.  Similar  cautions  against  wicked  license 
under  the  name  of  Christian  liberty  are  found  in  other  Protestant 
creeds,  and  the  sad  history  of  some  among  the  minor  sects  and  par- 
ties claiming  the  Protestant  name,  painfully  illustrates  the  peril 
to  which  all  such  license  leads.  The  Formula  of  Concord  (XII) 
specifically  condemns  the  errors  of  the  Anabaptists  on  the  ground 
"that  they  involve  such  perversion  of  the  true  biblical  doctrine  of 
liberty.  So  also  the  Belgic  Confession  (XXXVII),  declares 
that  the  Anabaptists  by  their  false  views  of  liberty  confound 
that  decency  and  good  order  which  God  hath  established  among 
men. 

One  hardly  knows  which  to  admire  most  in  Calvin,  the  spacious- 
ness of  his  conceptions  or  the  penetrative  thoroughness  which 
marks  his  discussions.  His  presentation  of  the  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tian liberty  as  toward  both  God  and  man  (Inst.  B.  Ill  :  19)  is  a 
striking  illustration  of  both  qualities.  It  was  undoubtedly  in 
large  degree  the  source  from  which  the  present  chapter  was 
derived.  He  defines  Christian  liberty  as  being,  first,  an  elevation 
of  the  believer  above  the  range  of  law  and  its  retributive  claims  ; 
secondly,  a  spirit  of  voluntary  and  joyous  obedience  to  the  divine 
will  through  the  impulsion  of  faith  ;  thirdly,  deliverance  from 
obligation  as  to  things  which  are  external  or  of  indifferent  moral 
quality.  He  pronounces  Christian  liberty  in  all  its  branches  as 
thus  defined,  a  spiritual  grace  or  endowment ;  and  then  earn- 
estly warns  believers  against  any  perversion  of  it  through  per- 
sonal indulgence  or  by  disregard  of  the  consciences  and  claims 
of  Christian  brethren.  Yet  with  characteristic  skill  he  draws 
clear  and  strict  lines  of  responsibility  at  the  point  where  such 


560  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND   DUTIES. 

liberty  might  change  into  culpable  neglect  of  the  rights  or  the 
authority  of  God  as  supreme.  We  must  at  all  times  study 
charity,  he  says,  and  keep  in  view  the  edification  of  our  neighbor  ; 
but  on  the  other  hand  we  must  not  offend  God  for  the  love  of  our 
neighbor.  In  the  same  chapter  Calvin  discusses  also  liberty  of 
conscience  as  toward  men  and  society,  asserting  that  there  are 
two  kinds  of  government  in  the  world  ;  the  one  spiritual,  by 
which  the  conscience  is  formed  to  piety  and  the  divine  service  ; 
the  other  political,  by  which  a  man  is  instructed  in  the  duties  of 
humanity  and  civility  which  are  to  be  observed  in  intercourse 
with  mankind. 

In  the  second  and  fourth  sections  of  this  chapter  we  find  a  cor- 
responding discussion   of  Liberty  of  Conscience — that  kind  and 

measure  of  moral  freedom  which  the 
2.    Liberty  of  Conscience :     _,    .  A .  ,       *  •  •, 

freedom  as  toward  men.  Christian  may  properly  claim  and  ex- 

ercise in  all  matters  of  belief  and  duty, 
so  far  as  his  fellow  men  are  concerned.  The  Reformation  has 
been  described  as  a  revolution  in  the  interest  of  liberty, — of  liberty 
on  one  side  to  inquire  and  investigate  freely  without  regard  to 
the  restrictions  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  on  the  other  side 
to  hold  and  advocate  whatever  truths  within  the  religious  sphere 
are  conscientiously  believed  by  the  individual  man,  although* 
such  authority  might  assume  to  prohibit  or  enjoin.  The  Theses 
of  Luther  and  the  Articles  of  Ulrich  Zwingli  are  ringing  proofs 
that  the  Reformers  from  the  beginning  realized  the  fact  that  such 
liberty  was  the  grand  underlying  and  indispensable  condition  of 
the  spiritual  movement  they  were  instituting.  While  justifica- 
tion by  faith  was  their  essential  principle,  the  right  to  interpret 
the  Scriptures  and  to  hold  whatever  the  Scriptures  clearly  taught, 
without  the  fear  or  the  favor  of  man,  was  the  formal  principle — 
as  it  has  often  been  termed — on  which  their  entire  revolution 
rested.  Hence  came  the  protests  which  appeared  so  often  and 
sounded  out  so  clearly  in  their  creeds  against  all  papal  restriction, 
against  churchly  dictation,  against  ancient  tradition  and  ecclesi- 
astical law,  and  civil  law  also,  in  whatever  repressive  forms, 
liberty  was  their  watchword  through  all  the  conflicts  and  trials 
to  which  they  were  subjected — liberty  of  thought,  liberty  of  con- 
science, and  liberty  of  speech  and  testimony  also.  And  nowhere 
did  this  characteristic  principle  find  firmer  advocacy  than  in  Scot- 
land and  England  from  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.  down  to  the  era 
when  the  Westminster  Assembly  was  convened.  One  interesting 
illustration  of  the  early  development  of  this  principle  in  Britain 
appears  in  the  bold  utterance  of  Bishop  Hooper — an  utterance 


UBKRTY    OF   CONSCIENCE    DEFINED.  561 

made  doubly  significant  and  pathetic  by  his  martyrdom  at  the 
stake  under  Mary,  in  1555,  for  his  loyalty  to  liberty  of  conscience: 
As  touching  the  superior  powers  of  the  earth,  it  is  well  known  to 
all  that  have  readen  and  marked  the  Scripture,  that  it  apper- 
tained nothing  unto  their  office  to  make  any  law  to  govern  the 
conscience  of  their  subjects  in  religion. 

But  certainly  no  stronger  or  nobler  declaration  in  the  interest 
of  such  liberty  appeared  anywhere  than  we  read  in  the  statement 
found  in  the  second  section  of  this  chapter  :  God  alone  is  Lord  of 
the  conscience,  and  hath  left  it  free  from  the  doctrines  and  command- 
me?its  of  men  which  are  in  anything  contrary  to  his  Word,  or  beside 
it,  in  matters  of  faith  or  worship.  There  is  in  the  words  an 
impressive  blending  of  conscious  responsibility  on  the  one  side  and 
resolute  loyalty  to  freedom  on  the  other.  For  the  Christian  free- 
man is  not  wholly  and  absolutely  free  in  thought  or  creed.  God 
and  his  Word  are  the  final  tests  of  religious  belief,  and  no  opinion 
or  judgment  in  any  matter  pertaining  to  saving  faith  or  to  salva- 
tion may  be  held  by  the  believer,  which  is  not  conformable  to  this 
supreme  standard.  The  narrownesses  of  the  reason  and  the  falli- 
bilities of  the  conscience  are  to  be  corrected  and  completed  from 
this  divine  source,  and  from  this  only.  In  the  strong  phrase  of 
Paul,  every  thought,  every  opinion,  every  judgment  in  the  reli- 
gious sphere  is  to  be  brought  into  willing,  entire  captivity  to  the 
obedience  of  Christ.  What  saith  the  Scripture,  was  the  funda- 
mental question — as  Protestantism  held — by  which  the  doctrines 
and  commandments  of  the  papacy  were  to  be  measured  :  the  ap- 
peal to  the  Bible  was  ever  the  final  appeal.  And  the  Reformers 
universally  recognized  the  authoritativeness  of  this  rule  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  differences  which  from  time  to  time  arose  among 
themselves  also,  as  well  as  in  regard  to  the  more  radical  differences 
which  separated  them  from  Rome.  In  the  same  way  they  tested 
the  Socinian  and  other  heresies  which  crept  in  upon  them  at 
various  points  under  cover  of  the  Protestant  name,  and  were  cor- 
rupting the  beliefs  and  practices  of  some  among  the  faithful. 
The  Westminster  divines  therefore  followed  the  universal  doc- 
trine of  Protestantism  antecedent  to  their  day,  in  affirming  that 
God  is  the  sole  Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  that  his  Word  is  the 
unerring  standard  of  belief  and  practice  for  the  Christian, — what- 
ever is  contrary  to  that  Word  or  is  beside  it  or  beyond  it  in  what- 
ever direction,  being  in  no  sense  obligatory  upon  him  as  a  disciple. 

The  section  also  warns  against  the  sin  of  professing  to  accept 
any  human  dogmas  or  obey  any  human  commandments,  when 
the  reason  and  the  conscience,  properly  enlightened  by  Scripture, 


562  CIVII,   RELATIONS  AND   DUTIES. 

are  in  protest  against  them.  Doubtless  the  main  reference  here 
was  to  those  who  as  a  matter  of  policy  professed  to  accept  the 
teachings  and  commands  of  the  papacy;  but  the  principle  laid  down 
is  universal.  To  avow  or  support  a  belief  which  we  do  not  truly 
hold,  or  to  give  credence  to  what  we  do  not  perceive  on  reasonable 
grounds  to  be  true,  even  in  submission  to  the  behests  of  the  or- 
ganized church,  is  justly  said  to  betray  true  liberty  of  conscience  ;  and 
such  betrayal,  it  is  implied,  is  a  sin  not  only  against  the  truth,  but 
against  him  who  is  the  supreme  L,ord  of  the  conscience.  On  the 
other  hand,  to  require  implicit  or  unreasoning  faith  as  Romanism 
did, — to  demand  blind  obedience  on  any  pretext  of  human  right  to 
control  belief ,  is  said  to  destroy  liberty  of  conscience,  and  reason  also. 
In  other  words,  it  is  as  sinful  to  require  such  obedience  as  it  is  to 
yield  it,  and  the  authority  ecclesiastical  or  otherwise  which 
makes  such  a  requisition  is  guilty  of  invading  that  holy  freedom 
which  God  has  given  to  every  Christian  as  a  part  of  his  spiritual 
birthright.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  recall  this  broad  statement 
when  we  come  to  consider,  under  the  general  doctrine  of  the 
Church,  the  authority  which  may  be  granted  (XXXI)  to  Synods 
and  Councils  for  her  better  government  and  further  edification ,  and 
also  the  limitations  which  may  properly  be  imposed  upon  all 
such  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 

In  the  final  section  of  the  chapter,  we  are  confronted  by  the 
serious  problem  with  which  the  Protestant  communions,  both 
IyUtheran  and  Reformed,  everywhere  had  to  deal  during  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation — the  problem  of  the  relationship 
subsisting  between  the  Church  and  the  State,  and  specially  of 
the  rights  and  responsibilities  of  the  State  within  the  eccles- 
iastical sphere.  As  the  various  questions  involved  in  this 
problem  will  come  up  more  fully  in  the  explication  of  the 
chapter  (XXIII)  which  treats  Of  the  Civil  Magistrate,  we 
may  note  here  only  so  much  as  presents  itself  in  a  prelimi- 
nary form.  That  the  State  is  ordained  of  God  as  a  perma- 
nent institution, — that  as  such  it  has  legitimate  powers  which 
may  be  exercised  in  a  lawful  way,  and  that  the  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tian liberty  or  liberty  of  conscience  warrants  no  believer  in 
opposing  or  warring  against  the  State  in  the  rightful  exercise  of 
such  powers,  is  here  directty  affirmed.  It  is  implied  also  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  Christian  freeman  as  well  as  of  the  Church 
always  to  uphold  civil  government  in  the  use  of  all  its  legitimate 
functions,  even  though  its  administration  may  be  marked  by 
many  imperfections.  But  the  section  further  declares  that  the 
civil  magistrate  on  his  part  ought  in  the  interest  of  the  Church 


RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY   NOT   FULLY   GRANTED.  563 

and  of  religion  to  take  authoritative  action  against  whatever  is 
inimical  to  the  true  faith, — such  as  the  publishing  of  opinions  or 
indulgence  in  practices  which  are  contrary  to  the  light  of  nature 
or  to  the  known  principles  of  Christianity.  The  description  of  such 
possible  offences  is  very  broad,  including  faith  and  worship  and 
conversation,  and  whatever  else  may  be  deemed  destructive  to  the 
external  peace  and  order  which  Christ  hath  established  in  his  Church. 
It  is  implied  that  the  declarative  authority  and  censures  of  the 
Church  are  not  sufficient  to  crush  out  such  hostile  influences,  and 
therefore  that  the  State  in  its  organic  capacity  ought  to  take 
action  authoritatively  against  them.  As  it  appears  in  the  original 
record,  such  delinquents  may  be  lawfully  called  to  account  and 
proceeded  against  by  the  power  of  the  civil  magistrate. 

It  should  be  said  that  the  teaching  of  this  section,  and  the  still 
more  sweeping  doctrine  of  the  chapter  on  the  Civil  Magistrate, 
were  not  accepted  with  unanimity  in  the  Assembly.  The  Minutes 
(297,  seq.)  show  that  there  were  members  who  believed  that  the 
civil  proceeding  here  described  was  in  whatever  form  of  it  con- 
trary, if  not  to  any  direct  word  of  Scripture,  still  to  the  nature 
and  genius  of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  Him  who  solemnly 
declared  that  his  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world  in  either  spirit 
or  method.  The  discussion  on  the  subject  was  continued  for 
several  days,  and  at  its  close  at  least  four  prominent  members 
formally  recorded  their  dissent  from  the  view  adopted.  Still  the 
statement  as  it  stands  undoubtedly  represents  the  judgment  of 
a  large  majority  of  the  body.  The  seriousness  of  the  error 
into  which  the  Assembly  thus  fell,  will  become  apparent  as  we 
shall  come  to  examine  the  doctrine  of  the  civil  magistracy  more 
in  detail.  Mitchell  (Introduction)  while  admitting  that  the  lan- 
guage used  in  this  section  is  capable  of  a  harsh  construction,  and 
that  it  was  so  construed  by  stricter  English  and  Scotch  Cove- 
nanters, claims  that  the  words  do  not  necessarily  require  such  a 
construction,  and  were  not  so  interpreted  by  all  who  assented  to 
their  admission  into  the  creed.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  noted  here  that 
American  Presbyterianism,  in  its  first  General  Assembly  in  1788, 
in  connection  with  the  revision  and  formal  adoption  of  the  Con- 
fession, struck  out  entirely  the  last  clause  of  this  section,  by  the 
power  of  the  civil  magistrate , — thus  rejecting  altogether  the  opinion 
that  the  State  may  be  invoked  to  protect  and  assist  the  Church  in 
its  resistance  to  any  heresy  or  to  any  irreligious  practice  which 
may  claim  protection  under  the  broad  aegis  of  liberty  of  conscience. 

That  there  was  serious  inconsistency  between  the  exalted  doc- 
trine of  liberty  stated  in  the  opening  and  the  practical  rule  laid 


564  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND   DUTIES. 

down  in  the  closing  section  of  this  chapter,  will  be  apparent  to 
the  unprejudiced  student.    That  a  still  more  serious  inconsistency 

developed  itself  in  the  acts  of  the  As- 

3.  Failure  to  carry  out  sembiv  and  in  its  general  disposition 
the  doctrine :  inconsistencies  ,  ,  -  .        c       .      «.  . 

.   .  toward  the  repression  or  such  religious 

opinions  as  were  at  variance  with  its 
teaching,  is  known  to  all  who  are  familiar  with  the  current 
history.  In  extenuation  of  this  inconsistency  two  general  facts 
should  be  considerately  borne  in  mind.  The  first  of  these  is  the 
fact  of  the  creation  and  existence  of  a  series  of  provincial  or  state 
churches  wherever  Protestantism  extended  itself — churches  estab- 
lished by  civil  enactment  and  largely  dependent  on  the  civil  power 
for  support  and  protection,  and  therefore  of  necessity  in  greater 
or  less  degree  under  civil  influence  and  jurisdiction.  It  was  uni- 
versally believed  by  the  Reformers  that  such  an  adjustment  was 
indispensable  to  protect  the  holy  cause  they  had  espoused  from 
the  aggressions  of  Rome,  backed  by  the  armies  of  papal  states 
on  the  one  side,  and  from  the  disintegrating  effects  of  heresy  in 
various  forms  on  the  other.  It  was  therefore  judged,  almost 
without  question,  that  there  should  be  such  an  organized  Protes- 
tant church  in  each  city  or  province  or  country,  supported  by  the 
particular  political  power  within  whose  domain  it  was  planted, 
and  that  there  should  be  but  one  such  church — all  other  religious 
organizations  being  undesirable  and  in  a  sense  illicit.  Presby  teri- 
anism  thus  became  the  established  church  in  Scotland,  and  Episco- 
pacy supplanted  Romanism  in  England  and  Ireland,  until  the  brief 
and  sad  hour  when  Presbyterianism  aspired  to  be  and  became  the 
one  authorized  and  politically  endorsed  church  of  the  three 
realms. r  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  the  Assembly  of  Westmin- 
ster was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  body  created  by  Parliament,  its 
members  designated,  its  pecuniary  support  provided  for,  its  rules 
of  procedure  prescribed,  and  its  commission  defined  by  the  civil 
power  creating  it.  So  it  came  to  pass  that  the  Confession  of 
Faith  and  other  formularies  were  submitted  to  Parliament  as  being 
simply  the  humble  advice  of  the  Assembly,  wholly  without  war- 
rant or  authority  until  they  should  be  considered  and  approved  by 
the  civil  tribunal.  That  the  temper  and  acts  of  the  Assembly 
should  have  been  largely  influenced,  so  far  as  liberty  of  con- 
science and  religious  toleration  were  concerned,  by  such  an  anom- 
alous and  pernicious  situation  will  be  easily  perceived. 

The  second  fact  to  be  noted  is  the  very  imperfect  development 
of  the  spirit  of  toleration,  either  on  the  Continent  or  in  the 
British  Isles.     The  intolerance  of  Rome,  which  had  shown  itself 


TOLERATION  IMPERFECTLY  DEVELOPED.        565 

in  persecutions  and  anathemas,  in  assaults  on  individual  and 
national  rights,  in  the  burning  of  Huss  and  Savonarola,  and  in 
other  equally  malevolent  forms,  passed  over  somewhat  into  Prot- 
estantism generally,  and  in  some  degree  infected  alike  its  teach- 
ings and  its  acts.  L,uther,  Zwingli,  Calvin,  Knox,  were  each  and 
all  dogmatic  men  : — dogmatic  not  only  toward  convicted  heretics 
but  even  at  times  in  their  temper  toward  each  other.  L,uther, 
disputing  violently  over  the  Hoc  est  Corpus  meum  of  Matthew, 
and  soundly  asserting  that  those  who  disagreed  with  him  in  in- 
terpretation must  be  guided  by  some  other  Holy  Ghost  than  his, 
is  a  typical  example.  The  burning  of  Servetus  was  another,  and 
the  list  of  persecutions  and  banishments,  and  even  of  martyrdoms 
at  the  instigation  of  Protestant  parties  or  leaders  might  be  indefi- 
nitely multiplied.  The  greatest  blemish  in  the  Institutes  of 
Calvin — the  defect  that  from  the  first  impaired  and  still  impairs 
largely  its  influence  as  a  superb  compendium  of  Christian  doc- 
trine— is  its  hot  temper  of  antagonism,  its  bitter  invective,  its 
intolerant  treatment  and  characterization  of  contrary  opinions. 
Nor  did  this  spirit  die  out  appreciably  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century  :  it  showed  itself  in  the  Synod  of  Dort  and  in 
the  doctrinal  conflicts  in  England  and  Scotland  as  well  as  Holland 
during  the  earlier  decades  of  the  seventeenth  century  also.  The 
Peace  of  Augsburg,  1555,  whose  binding  force  extended  even  to 
the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  1648,  guaranteed  to  Protestants  in 
Germany  freedom  of  religious  worship  only  upon  the  condition  of 
subscription  to  the  Augsburg  Confession.  It  is  not  strange 
therefore  that  the  Westminster  Assembly,  unhappily  conditioned 
as  it  was,  should  have  fallen  into  the  general  error  of  the  times — 
should  have  manifested  in  some  instances  a  spirit  and  sometimes 
taken  action  quite  at  variance  with  its  own  grand  declaration  that 
God  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  his  Word  the  only  author- 
itative guide  in  belief  and  duty.  The  special  fact  also,  that  the 
Assembly  was  expressly  instructed  by  Parliament  to  do  what  it 
could  toward  vindicating  and  clearing  the  doctrines  of  the  Church 
from  all  false  calumnies  and  aspersions  and  misconstructions,  as 
well  as  to  formulate  the  received  truth  ;  and  the  further  fact  that 
Parliament  itself  sometimes  set  the  example  of  intolerance,  and 
even  sought  to  use  the  Assembly  as  an  agent  in  repressing  her- 
esies, must  be  considerately  weighed  in  our  judgment  of  its  action. 
Bearing  these  two  facts  in  mind,  we  may  with  more  of  sympa- 
thetic indulgence  note  some  of  the  judicial  proceedings  of  the 
Assembly,  which  in  the  clearer  light  of  a  better  age  seem  to  call 
for  disapproval,  and  even  for  open  condemnation.     The  Minutes 


566  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

contain  the  record  of  various  acts  of  this  class  :  two  noted 
instances  will  suffice.  One  Paul  Best  had  written  a  book  on  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in  which  he  had  maintained,  inter 
alia,  that  the  godhead  of  the  Son  is  not  eternal  in  the  same  sense 
and  measure  as  the  godhead  of  the  Father.  After  examination  the 
teaching  of  the  book  was  condemned  by  the  Assembly,  and  its 
author  was  formally  arraigned  in  consequence  at  the  bar  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  book  also  was  presented  before  that  tri- 
bunal; what  were  termed  its  horrid  blasphemies  were  exposed;  and 
the  author  was  cast  into  the  Gatehouse  prison,  Westminster.  The 
records  of  the  Commons  show  that  the  Prolocutor  of  the  Assembly 
and  the  two  assessors  appeared  before  the  House,  described  these 
blasphemies,  and  in  behalf  of  the  Assembly  petitioned  that  Parlia- 
ment would  use  its  authority  to  execute  condign  punishment  upon 
an  offender  of  such  a  type,  in  order  that  the  world  might  know 
how  much  it  detested  such  prodigious  heresies.  The  House 
thanked  the  Assembly  for  its  care  and  desire  of  suppressing 
these  erroneous  opinions,  and  declared  its  purpose  to  inflict  severe 
punishment  on  all  persons  holding  forth  such  horrid  blasphemies. 
Committees  of  Parliament  and  also  of  the  Assembly  were  subse- 
quently sent  to  Best  to  convince  him  of  his  error,  but  without 
success.  While  still  in  prison  he  wrote  another  pamphlet  in 
defense  of  his  views,  entitled  Mysteries  Discovered,  or  a  Mercurial 
Picture  pointing  out  the  Way  from  Babylon  to  the  Holy  City. 
This  pamphlet  was  ordered  by  act  of  Parliament,  the  Assembly 
doubtless  concurring,  to  be  burned  by  the  common  hangman. 
Best  was  released  in  1647,  and  died  in  retirement  in  1657:  Min- 
utes, 102,  214-215. 

Another  instance  equally  significant  appears  in  the  case  of  a 
book  said  to  advocate  the  heretical  opinion  that  God  is  the  author 
of  sin.  The  writer  of  the  treatise,  John  Archer,  who  is  described 
as  a  man  of  good  estimation  for  learning  and  piety,  was  already 
dead.  The  Assembly,  however,  complained  of  the  treatise  before 
Parliament  and  desired  its  suppression,  together  with  the  arraign- 
ment of  the  printer  and  the  burning  of  all  copies  that  could 
be  found.  Parliament  concurred  in  the  damning  of  the  book, 
and  ordered  it  burned  by  the  public  hangman  at  five  places  in 
London,  Westminster  being  one  of  them, — the  sheriffs  of  the  city 
superintending  the  combustion,  in  the  presence  of  the  Assembly. 
Parliament  also  requested  the  Assembly  to  declare  its  detestation 
of  the  heresy,  and  such  a  declaration  was  at  once  drafted  and 
sent  to  the  House  with  a  request  that  it  be  printed,  and  be  made 
known  by  some  public  officer  at  the  time  of  the  burning  of  the 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF   INTOLERANCE.  567 

book.  There  is  an  added  record,  which  seems  to  have  been  par- 
tially erased,  in  the  form  of  a  humble  desire  that  the  House 
would  excuse  the  Assembly  from  being  present  at  the  time  of  the 
burning  :  but  subsequently  twenty  members  were  appointed  for 
this  service,  four  at  each  of  the  five  places  where  the  book  was  to 
be  burned, — the  number  being  finally  reduced  to  five  :  Minutes, 
112-3:115.     Presbyt.  Review,  April  1885. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  such  instances,  w7e  may  still  affirm  that 
the  Assembly  were  in  fact  moderate  in  their  proceedings  against 
heresy,  as  compared  with  their  predecessors,  either  British  or 
Continental.  They  had  the  strongest  practical  reasons  for  such 
moderation,  since  such  a  temper  and  purpose  on  their  part  were  the 
condition  sine  qua  non  to  their  success  in  carrying  out  their 
grand  ecclesiastical  scheme.  But  the  sad  fact  is  that  they  had 
not  yet  attained  to  such  a  measure  of  toleration  in  act  as  they 
had  themselves  enunciated  in  theory.  Gillespie  declared  in  the 
Assembly,  during  the  discussion  on  a  letter  to  be  sent  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  Scotland,  that  he  regarded  it  as  one  of  the 
greatest  mercies  he  had  ever  received  in  this  world,  to  have  religious 
liberty — liberty  of  opinion  and  liberty  of  speech,  such  as  he  had 
enjoyed  during  the  sessions  of  the  Assembly.  But  what  he 
desired,  as  he  said,  was  not  so  much  toleration,  or  forbearance 
toward  erroneous  opinion,  as  mutual  endeavor  for  a  happy  ac- 
commodation among  those  who  were  conscious  of  some  differ- 
ences in  judgment,  but  conscious  also  of  unity  in  belief  and  in 
ecclesiastical  interests.  Neither  that  eminent  leader  nor  any  other 
was  prepared  to  tolerate  heresy  as  we  now  endure  it,  or  to  consent 
even  to  the  existence  and  circulation  of  erroneous  opinions,  as  we 
now  consent.  Their  mind  and  feeling  were  in  what  may  be 
deemed  a  transitional  frame, — an  advance  on  what  had  gone 
before,  but  an  imperfect  realization  of  what  in  Great  Britain  and 
everywhere  was  sure  to  follow  in  time,  as  a  corollary  from  the 
fundamental  principle  of  Protestantism.  In  a  word,  they  failed 
to  apprehend  adequately  the  aphorism  of  Macaulay  that  the  only 
remedy  for  the  evils  of  liberty  is  liberty  :  they  accepted  the 
principle  of  toleration,  but  were  unable  to  apply  the  principle 
thoroughly  in  the  presence  of  so  much  that  seemed  to  need  firm 
and  stern  repression.  One  suggestive  illustration  of  their  gen- 
eral position  appears  in  the  repressive  order  passed  by  the 
Assembly  at  the  time  of  the  Best  agitation  :  The  liberty  of  all 
opinions  and  religions  under  the  pretense  of  liberty  of  conscience, 
maintained  in  books  and  otherwise  lately  published,  may  be 
speedily  suppressed.     But  Mitchell  in  his  admirable  Introduction 


568  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND    DUTIES. 

to  the  Minutes  (70-74)  has  shown  how  truly  tolerant  some  of  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  were,  and  has  justly  said  respecting  the 
Assembly  generally  that  it  will  ever  remain  as  its  unquestioned 
honor  that  it  first  reclaimed  for  liberty  a  large  province  in  which 
the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  had  previously  claimed 
absolute  and  arbitrary  sway.  It  is  certainly  true  that  at  least 
within  the  church,  and  to  a  large  extent  outside  of  the  church, 
they  granted  more, — as  he  claims — than  had  ever  been  granted 
in  England  before.  Milton  indeed  in  his  Areopagitica  denies 
them  this  credit,  and  in  eloquent  terms  charges  them  with 
tyranny  over  the  thoughts  and  beliefs  of  men  ;  declaring  that 
though  they  had  renounced  the  pope,  they  yet  hugged  the  pope- 
dom, and  shared  the  authority  among  themselves.  Baxter,  while 
admitting  that  the  Westminster  divines  were  for  the  most  part 
men  of  eminent  learning,  godliness,  ministerial  abilities  and  fidelity, 
agrees  in  part  with  Milton,  in  saying  that  the  more  rigid  of  them 
drew  too  near  the  way  of  prelacy,  by  grasping  at  a  kind  of  secular 
power  ;  not  using  it  themselves,  but  binding  the  magistrate  to  con- 
fiscate or  imprison  men  because  they  were  excommunicate,  and 
so  corrupting  the  true  discipline  of  the  church,  and  turning  the 
communion  of  saints  into  the  communion  of  the  multitude.  Yet 
the  careful  student  of  contemporaneous  history,  after  duly  esti- 
mating the  critical  conditions  amid  which  the  Assembly  did  its 
noble  work,  and  fairly  examining  all  that  the  body  said  and  de- 
termined in  the  interest  of  Christian  catholicity,  will  not  consent 
to  accept  as  just  the  bitter  line  of  Milton  : 

New  Presbyter  is  but  old  Priest  writ  large. 

Chapter  XXI.  in  the  Confession,  which  treats  of  Religious 
Worship  and  the  Sabbath,  was  undoubtedly  introduced  into  the 

Confession  at  this  point  under  the  con- 

4.  The  Civil  Magistrate :  vjction  that  tiiese  two  topics  might  be 
sphere  and  functions:  State  ,    ,  1  ,  .     .    r        ... 

and  Church.  regarded  properly  as  subjects  for  civil 

as  well  as  ecclesiastical  legislation. 
Enough  has  been  said  already,  in  the  consideration  of  the  chapter 
on  the  Law  of  God,  respecting  the  Sabbath,  its  triple  institution, 
its  universal  character,  its  change  of  date,  and  its  right  to  the 
observance  of  all  men  and  to  protection  by  the  State.  The  subject 
of  Worship,  especially  the  nature  and  scope  of  public  worship  and 
the  use  of  prescribed  liturgies  in  such  worship,  can  best  be  con- 
sidered under  the  general  doctrine  of  the  Church,  since  according 
to  more  recent  Presbyterian  opinion  it  belongs  to  the  church  rather 
than  the  civil  power  to  give  instruction  authoritatively  respecting 


CIVIL    MAGISTRACY.  569 

the  manner  of  glorifying  God  in  the  services  of  the  sanctuary. 
Postponing  also  the  specific  matter  of  Lawful  Oaths  and  Vows 
(XXII)  which  may  best  be  considered  later  on,  we  may  now 
proceed  to  examine  the  important  chapter  (XXIII)  which  treats 
Of  the  Civil  Magistrate.  For  reasons  already  stated,  the  topic 
found  a  place  in  many  of  the  earlier  creeds,  though  in  none  of 
them  is  the  subject  so  carefully  and  discriminatingly  presented. 
No  less  than  ten  of  the  sixty-seven  Articles  of  Zwingli  treat  in 
his  brief  and  positive  way  of  the  Magistratus  Publicus,  as  estab- 
lished by  the  words  and  acts  of  Christ,  as  endowed  with  a  legiti- 
mate authority  under  Christ,  and  as  entitled  within  his  own  proper 
sphere  to  the  allegiance  and  obedience  of  all  Christian  men.  The 
Augsburg  Confession  speaks  (XVI)  in  a  general  way  of  civil 
affairs,  and  specially  of  the  duty  of  obeying  all  who  hold  civil 
authority,  save  only  when  they  command  any  sin  :  and  the 
Formula  of  Concord  (XII)  contains  a  specialized  condemnation 
of  Anabaptist  errors  on  this  subject.  The  French  Confession 
closes  with  two  Articles  in  which  the  legitimacy  of  civil  authori- 
ties as  the  lieutenants  and  officers  of  God  is  maintained,  and  the 
corresponding  duties  of  obeying  and  paying  taxes  and  bearing 
the  yoke  of  subjection  with  a  good  and  free  will  are  enjoined.  The 
First  and  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  have  articles  (XXVII  and 
XXX)  and  the  Belgic  also  (XXXVI)  De  Magistratu,— the  two 
latter  discussing  the  matter  at  considerable  length.  Mitchell 
suggests  that  a  close  resemblance  is  traceable  between  the  Belgic 
and  the  Westminster  statement,  and  thinks  it  suggestive  that  the 
Westminster  divines  should  be  found  turning  to  Holland  for  that 
doctrine  on  this  subject  which,  from  its  history  and  its  conflicts, 
Holland  among  all  Protestant  countries  was  best  fitted  to  teach. 

But  the  clearest  historic  light  upon  the  Westminster  doctrine 
will  be  found  in  the  study  of  antecedent  British  symbols, — the 
Scotch  Confession  and  the  Thirty-Nine  and  the  Irish  Articles. 
The  first  of  these  formularies  not  only  affirmed  (XXIV)  that  all 
empires,  kingdoms,  dominions  and  cities  are  destinated  and 
ordained  of  God, — that  the  authority  vested  in  these  is  given  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  singular  profit  and  commodity  of  man- 
kind,— and  that  those  wielding  such  authority,  being  lieutenants 
of  God,  are  to  be  loved,  honored,  feared,  and  held  in  most  reverent 
estimation;  but  also  declared  that  their  power  is  given  chiefly  and 
most  principally  for  the  conservation  and  purgation  of  religion, 
and  for  the  suppression  of  idolatry  and  all  superstition  whatso- 
ever,— and  that  those  who  resist  them  or  who  refuse  to  aid  them 
in  the  discharge  of  such  duty  to  religion  are  guilty  of  neglecting 


570  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND   DUTIES. 

or  resisting  the  very  ordinance  of  God.  Tne  Introduction  to  the 
Edwardine  Articles,  1562,  declared  the  king  to  be  by  the  ordi- 
nance of  God  Defender  of  the  Faith  and  supreme  Governor  of  the 
Church  within  his  dominions, — as  such  empowered  by  virtue  of 
the  kingly  office  to  conserve  and  maintain  the  Church  in  the  unity 
of  true  religion  and  in  the  bond  of  peace.  The  Anglican  Articles 
(XXXVII)  while  denying  to  civil  rulers  the  right  to  minister  in 
the  pulpit  or  dispense  the  sacraments,  gave  them  authority  to  rule 
in  matters  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil,  and  practically  made  them 
as  supreme  within  the  church  as  within  the  state.  It  should  be 
said,  just  here,  that  American  Episcopacy  in  the  revision  of  1801, 
while  counselling  respectful  obedience  to  all  regular  and  legitimate 
civil  authority,  directly  set  aside  the  older  dogma,  and  affirmed 
that  the  state  hath  no  authority  in  things  purely  spiritual.  The 
Irish  Articles,  while  denying  to  the  king  the  right  to  administer 
the  word  and  sacraments  and  the  power  of  the  keys,  held  that  it 
was  his  prerogative  to  contain  (or  limit),  all  estates  and  degrees 
committed  to  his  charge  by  God,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  civil, 
within  their  duty,  and  to  restrain  the  stubborn  and  evil-doers  by 
the  power  of  the  sword. 

Such  was  the  current  doctrine  in  Scotland  and  England  and  Ire- 
land when  the  Westminster  Assembly  began  its  long  and  astute 
discussions  on  the  subject  of  the  civil  magistracy  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  Christian  Church.  Into  the  story  of  the  differing 
opinions  and  the  earnest  debates,  of  the  struggles  of  the  middle 
party  between  the  two  extremes,  of  the  rise  and  growth  of  Eras- 
tianism  on  one  side  and  Independency  on  the  other,  of  the  vari- 
ous propositions  discussed,  the  compromises  proposed,  and  the 
issues  finally  reached,  it  is  not  practicable  here  to  enter.  It  is  prob- 
ably safe  to  say  that  in  one  form  and  another  this  subject  occupied 
nearly  as  much  time,  and  absorbed  quite  as  much  interest,  as  the 
formulation  of  the  Confession  or  the  Catechisms.  With  much 
that  was  concluded  as  to  the  divine  authority  for  the  civil  magis- 
tracy, appointed  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  public  good  ;  as  to 
the  lawfulness  of  accepting  and  executing  such  offices  in  order  to 
maintain  piety  and  justice  and  peace  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
commonwealth  ;  as  to  the  obligation  to  support  those  holding 
such  offices,  to  honor  them  and  pay  them  just  tribute  and  pray  for 
them  ;  and  as  to  the  right  of  civil  magistrates  to  maintain  their 
own  ordained  positions  even  by  force  of  arms  or  by  waging  war  on 
just  and  necessary  occasions, — with  all  this  we  are  substantially 
agreed.  But  the  Assembly,  while  saying  much  less  than  either 
of  the  antecedent  creeds  and  guarding  the  whole  subject  more 


CHURCH    AND    STATE.  571 

carefully,  still  declared  that  the  magistrate  had  inherent  power 
to  preserve  order  and  peace  in  the  church,  to  keep  the  truth  of 
God  pure  and  suppress  all  blasphemies  and  heresies,  to  reform  all 
corruptions  and  abuses  in  worship  and  discipline,  and  to  see  that 
all  divine  ordinances  are  duly  administered.  During  an  earlier 
stage  of  its  deliberations  it  went  so  far  as  to  adopt  a  resolution, 
(Minutes,  89)  declaring  that  the  civil  magistrate  hath  authority 
and  it  is  his  duty  to  provide  that  the  word  of  God  be  truly  and 
duly  preached,  the  sacraments  rightly  administered,  church  gov- 
ernment and  discipline  established  and  duly  executed  according  to 
the  Scriptures — thus  committing  the  whole  matter  of  public  wor- 
ship and  administration  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  power. 
It  was  affirmed  that  in  order  to  secure  these  ends,  the  civil  magis- 
trate had  authority  to  call  synods  at  his  discretion,  to  be  present 
at  them,  and  to  provide  that  whatever  is  enacted  in  them  be 
according  to  the  mind  of  God.  It  was  also  declared  that  neither 
infidelity  nor  any  difference  in  religion  could  make  void  his  magis- 
terial authority,  or  free  the  people  from  the  obedience  due  within 
this  sphere. 

This  sweeping  statement  as  to  the  prerogatives  of  the  ruling 
monarch  or  his  representatives  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  though 
more  considerate  at  some  points  than  the  antecedent  doctrine  both 
on  the  Continent  and  in  the  British  Isles,  was  in  fact  an  awful  mis- 
take,— one  involving  consequences  which  the  Assembly  could  not 
at  first  apprehend,  but  which  its  members  were  soon  to  experience 
under  the  severe  discipline  of  Cromwell,  and  in  the  generation  fol- 
lowing when  Episcopacy  became  again  the  lawful  religion  of  the 
realm.  In  the  words  of  their  ablest  advocate  and  historian,  God 
suffered  them  to  be  cast  into  a  furnace  seven  times  heated,  that 
they  might  learn  in  adversity  the  lesson  they  had  not  thoroughly 
mastered  in  prosperity,  and  from  bitter  experience  be  led  to 
realize  the  full  value  and  extent  of  the  principle  enshrined  in  their 
own  Confession.  It  is  impracticable  here  to  trace  these  conse- 
quences in  detail,  or  to  show  in  how  many  ways  the  Presbyteri- 
anism  of  Great  Britain  suffered  from  the  mischievous  doctrine 
adopted  and  promulgated  by  the  Assemby.  One  illustration  of 
this  mischief  may  be  seen  in  the  cutting  remark  of  Hallam 
(Const.  Hist.)  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  (the  Established 
Kirk)  in  her  General  Assemblies  preserves  the  powers  and  affects 
the  language  of  the  sixteenth  century,  while  the  Erastianism 
against  which  she  inveighs,  secretly  controls  and  paralyzes  her 
vaunted  liberties.  She  cannot  but  acknowledge — he  adds — that 
the  supremacy  of  the  legislature  is,   like  the  collar  of  the  watch 


•~>72  civil  rp;lations  and  duties. 

clog,  the  price  of  food  and  raiment,  and  the  condition  on  which 
alone  a  religions  society  can  be  endowed  and  established  by  any 
prudent  commonwealth. 

It  is  important  just  here  to  note  the  vital  changes  made  first 
by  the  original  American  Synod  in  its  Adopting  Act,  and 
afterwards  more  fully  made  and  recorded  in  this  chapter  by 
the  first  American  General  Assembly.  The  third  section  in  the 
American  Confession  embodies  these  changes.  It  indeed  affirms 
the  duty  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  protect  the  church  of  our  com- 
mon Lord,  to  take  order  that  all  religious  and  ecclesiastical  assem- 
blies be  held  without  molestation  or  disturbance,  and  to  see  to  it 
that  no  person  is  suffered  upon  pretence  either  of  religion  or  of  infi- 
delity to  offer  any  indignity,  violence,  abuse  or  injury  to  any  other 
person  whatsoever.  It  also  affirms  that  no  denomination  of  Chris- 
tians shall  receive  any  preference  or  favor  above  another  from 
the  state,  but  that  all  ecclesiastical  persons  shall  enjoy  the  full, 
free  and  unquestioned  liberty  of  discharging  every  part  of  their 
sacred  functions  without  violence  or  danger.  But  on  the  other 
hand  it  affirms  broadly,  not  only  that  civil  magistrates  are  not 
empowered  to  administer  the  word  or  the  sacraments,  or  to  wield 
the  power  of  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  also  that 
they  shall  not  in  any  way,  even  the  least,  interfere  in  matters  of 
faith. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  decisive  change  was  the  result 
of  abstract  investigation  merely.  The  century  and  a  half  between 
A.  D.  1648  and  A.  D.  1788  had  effected  a  radical  revolution  of 
opinion  on  the  whole  subject,  at  least  in  America.  Several  of  the 
colonies  had  made  the  experiment  of  a  state  or  provincial  church, 
but  had  abandoned  it  as,  if  not  erroneous  in  theory,  impracticable 
in  fact.  Voluntaryism,  or  the  support  of  each  denomination  by  the 
free  gifts  of  its  own  adherents,  had  gradually  become  the  general 
rule.  Presbyterians,  remembering  the  civil  prosecution  of  Ma- 
kemie,  and  the  struggles  for  equitable  footing  in  New  York,  the 
persecutions  encountered  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  the  diffi- 
culties which  obstructed  their  denominational  development  in 
Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere,  were  among  the  first  to  welcome  the 
change.  As  early  as  A.  D.  1729,  the  original  Synod  in  adopting 
the  ecclesiastical  Standards  made  a  formal  exception  to  the  clauses 
in  chapters  XXI  and  XXIII, — declaring  that  it  did  not  receive 
these  clauses  as  giving  civil  magistrates  controlling  power  over 
synods  with  respect  to  the  exercise  of  their  ministerial  authority, 
or  power  of  any  sort  to  persecute  any  for  their  religion.  This 
position   was   affirmed   again   in    1736,   and   also  in   1786,   in   a 


RECENT    CHANGES   OF    DOCTRINE.  573 

communication  made  to  the  Dutch  church  of  New  York.  The 
consummating  action  of  the  first  Assembly,  1788,  has  just  been 
quoted.  To  this  should  be  added  the  elaborate  and  strong  state- 
ment of  Preliminary  Principles,  adopted  at  the  same  date  and 
amended  in  1805,  as  introductory  to  the  Form  of  Government. 
In  this  statement  the  whole  .subject  is  presented  in  full,  and  with 
such  clearness  and  emphasis  as  forbid  all  misapprehension  respect- 
ing the  position  of  American  Presbyterianism  :  See  Presb.  Digest, 
1898,  p.  154  :  also  Schaff ,  Church  and  State  in  the  United  States. 

It  should  be  said  here  that  a  similar  change  of  opinion  took 
place  in  Great  Britain  also.  The  adoption  of  the  Toleration  Act 
as  early  as  1689,  is  one  significant  sign  of  such  developing  change 
in  usage  as  well  as  in  judgment.  The  principle  of  toleration, 
especially  through  the  advocacy  of  some  prominent  English 
divines,  and  still  more  through  the  progressive  mingling  of 
differing  sects  in  English  society,  and  perhaps  to  some  extent — as 
L,ecky  claims — through  the  rise  and  growing  influence  of  skepti- 
cism also,  came  to  be  more  and  more  freely  recognized.  Inter- 
ference by  the  state  in  church  affairs,  especially  in  matters  of 
controversy  and  heresy,  became  by  degrees  less  frequent  and  less 
popular.  Persecution  by  the  civil  power  gradually  ceased,  and 
the  right  to  full  religious  liberty  was  more  and  more  cordially 
regarded.  Dissent  was  by  degrees  granted  recognition  and  privi- 
lege to  an  extent  which  the  divines  of  Westminster  would  never 
have  approved.  The  transition  in  the  present  century  is  especially 
marked.  The  United  Church  of  Scotland  now  requires  no  ap- 
proval of  any  expression  in  the  creed  which  teaches,  or  is  supposed 
to  teach,  compulsory  or  persecuting  or  intolerant  principles  in  the 
domain  of  religion.  The  Free  Church  disclaims  all  intolerant  or 
persecuting  principles,  refuses  to  regard  the  Confession  as  favoring 
intolerance  or  persecution,  and  declares  that  subscription  to  it  is 
not  inconsistent  with  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  right  of  private 
judgment.  One  other  branch  of  Scotch  Presbyterianism  declares 
that  the  use  of  civil  coercion  in  any  form  in  order  to  constrain 
men  to  renounce  a  false  creed  or  to  profess  a  true  creed,  is  incom- 
patible with  the  nature  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  must  ever 
prove  ineffectual  in  practice  :  Innes:  L,aw  of  Creeds. 

One  clause  in  the  fourth  section  of  this  chapter  should  be  noted 
here,  although  the  subject  appears  again  in  another  connection, — 

the  clause  which  declares  that  the  pope 

e  _,  ,  -i-'Z  •   -1        *•    The  Pope  in  the  State : 

of  Rome  has  no  jurisdiction  m  civil     his  civil  jurisdiction  denied. 
affairs,  or  any  power  over  civil  magis- 
trates or  any  of  their  people,  within  their  own  proper  dominion: 


574  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

Minutes,  224.  The  question  raised  by  this  clause  is  not  whether 
the  pope  is  the  ordained  head  of  the  Christian  Church  or  is,  as  was 
declared,  the  Antichrist  mentioned  in  Scripture,  but  the  sec- 
ondary question  whether  the  pope,  being  as  Romanism  claimed 
the  true  head  of  the  church  in  all  lands,  has  any  right  to  de- 
termine, for  example,  the  lawful  succession  to  the  throne  in  any 
government,  or  the  authority  to  crown  emperors  or  to  direct 
them  in  the  exercise  of  any  civil  functions  or  prerogatives.  The 
question  carries  us  back  through  many  centuries  in  European 
history,  even  to  the  era  of  Hildebrand  or  the  first  Leo.  We  are 
familiar  with  the  civil  assumptions  of  the  papacy  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  down  to  the  period  of  the  Reformation.  We  know  how 
conspicuous  a  part  the  issue  of  supremacy  between  the  ruling 
pope  and  Henry  VIII.  played  in  the  introduction  of  Protestant- 
ism in  England,  and  also  in  determining  the  attitude  of  British 
Protestantism  subsequently  down  to  the  era  of  the  Assembly. 
And  in  the  light  of  such  history  we  may  readily  see  the  large 
significance  of  this  little  clause  when  first  adopted.  It  was  not 
merely  opposition  to  Romanism  as  a  more  or  less  degenerate  type 
of  Christianity,  or  even  to  the  recognition  of  the  church  of  Rome 
as  entitled  to  some  footing  in  English  society — though  this  was 
by  no  means  granted  —  that  was  here  declared.  It  was  the 
asserted  right  of  popes  to  put  themselves  above  kings,  or  the 
church  as  represented  in  them  above  the  state,  which  the  Assem- 
bly repudiated  and  condemned.  It  was  not  the  Presbyterian 
party  alone  that  took  this  position.  Beware  of  the  growth  of 
this  Romish  Seed,  cried  Milton  in  one  of  his  most  ardent  treatises 
in  defence  of  religious  liberty.  In  his  discussion  of  Civil  Power 
in  Ecclesiastical  Causes  he  said  with  emphasis  :  Popery  is  a 
double  thing  to  deal  with,  and  claims  a  twofold  power,  the  eccles- 
iastical and  the  political,  both  usurped,  and  one  supporting  the 
other.  And  he  closes  his  famous  tract  on  Toleration  with  the 
declaration  that  popery  would  be  to  England  the  worst  of  super- 
stitions and  the  heaviest  of  all  God's  judgments. 

The  matter  was  one  which  had  agitated  Protestant  Europe  from 
the  outset  of  the  Reformation.  If  the  claim  of  the  papacy  to 
supreme  control  over  rulers  as  well  as  people  was  legitimate — if 
the  reigning  pope  had  power  as  the  legate  of  God  to  excommun- 
icate any  prince  who  should  admit  Protestantism  within  his  realm, 
or  should  protect  Protestant  leaders  or  communions  from  any 
penalties  which  the  papacy  might  exact, — if  the  old  domination 
which  from  the  days  of  the  Gregories  had  asserted  itself  in  the 
various  states  of  Europe,  and  which  had  compelled  emperors  to 


PAPAL   SUPREMACY    CONDEMNED.  575 

kiss  the  papal  toe  and  to  receive  their  insignia  of  royalty  at  Rome, 
was  to  be  continued  as  aforetime,  there  was  of  course  no  reason- 
able ground  of  hope  that  Protestantism  could  survive  even  for  a 
single  generation.  Hence  the  Reformers  in  their  creeds  and  else- 
where were  strenuous  in  denying  not  only  the  assumed  right  of 
Rome  to  control  religious  belief  and  regulate  the  interior  affairs 
of  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  also  the  equally  dangerous  claim  of 
political  supremacy,  in  whatever  form.  The  Pontiffs,  says  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  in  the  Article  De  Potestate  Ecclesiastica, 
trusting  in  the  power  of  the  keys,  have  not  only  appointed  new 
kinds  of  service  and  burdened  the  consciences  of  men,  but  have 
also  endeavored  to  transfer  worldly  kingdoms  from  one  to  another 
and  to  despoil  emperors  of  their  power  and  authority.  After 
drawing  clear  lines  between  the  ecclesiastical  and  the  civil  spheres, 
this  venerable  symbol  enters  its  earnest  protest  against  such 
ecclesiastical  usurpation:  L,et  it  not  by  force  enter  into  the  office 
of  another;  let  it  not  transfer  earthly  kingdoms;  let  it  not  abro- 
gate the  laws  of  magistrates;  let  it  not  take  away  from  their  lawful 
obedience;  let  it  not  hinder  judgments  touching  any  civil  ordi- 
nances or  contracts;  let  it  not  prescribe  laws  to  the  magistrate 
touching  the  form  of  the  republic.  This  was  in  harmony  with 
the  terse  saying  of  Luther:  The  end  of  the  state  is  temporal  peace, 
but  the  end  of  the  church  is  peace  everlasting. 

One  of  the  most  strenuous  of  these  declarations  against  the 
civil  aspirations  of  Rome  may  be  found  in  the  second  Scotch 
Confession,  or  National  Covenant  of  1580  :  We  abhor  and  detest 
all  contrary  Religion  and  Doctrine,  but  chiefly  all  kind  of  Papistrie 
in  general  and  particular  heads.  In  special,  we  detest  and  refuse 
the  usurped  authority  of  that  Roman  Antichrist  upon  the  scrip- 
tures of  God,  upon  the  Kirk,  the  civil  Magistrate  and  consciences 
of  men  ;  all  his  tyrannous  laws  made  upon  indifferent  things 
against  our  Christian  liberty  .  .  .  his  worldly  monarchy  and 
wicked  hierarchy.  The  Anglican  Articles  (XXVII)  simply  say 
in  the  briefest  and  sternest  terms:  The  bishop  of  Rome  hath  no 
jurisdiction  in  this  realm  of  England.  The  Irish  Articles  (59) 
are  much  more  specific:  The  Pope,  neither  of  himself  nor  by  any 
authority  of  the  church  or  see  of  Rome,  or  by  any  other  means 
with  any  other,  hath  any  power  or  authority  to  depose  the  king  or 
dispose  of  any  of  his  kingdoms  or  dominions,  or  to  authorize  any 
other  prince  to  invade  or  anno}'  him  or  his  countries,  or  to  dis- 
charge any  of  his  subjects  of  their  allegiance  and  obedience  to  his 
majesty,  or  to  give  license  to  any  of  them  to  bear  arms,  raise  tumult, 
or  offer  any  violence  to  his  royal  person,  state  or  government. 


570  CIVIL   RELATIONS  AND   DUTIES. 

The  highly  specialized  form  of  this  Article,  noted  in  con- 
junction with  its  date  and  place,  indicates  quite  clearly  the 
motives  which  led  the  Westminster  divines  to  introduce  into  their 
formulary  the  prohibitory  clause  respecting  the  possible  intrusion 
of  the  papal  authority  into  the  sphere  of  the  civil  magistracy  in 
Britain.  There  were  practical  reasons,  such  as  the  Irish  Article 
suggests,  for  guarding  the  English  mind  against  all  surrender  to 
the  domination  of  Rome,  in  civil  as  well  as  in  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
The  caution  was  heard  and  was  carefully  heeded,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  the  interference  of  the  papacy  with  the  person  or  prerog- 
atives of  the  sovereigns  of  Britain  was  for  the  time,  and  probably 
for  all  time,  effectively  shut  out.  The  question  of  the  succession 
to  the  British  crown  has  not  been  since  the  Reformation,  and  is 
now  wholly  unlikely  ever  to  be,  determined  in  Rome.  Moreover, 
the  present  measure  of  release  from  papal  influence  over  civil 
affairs  in  France,  in  Germany,  and  even  in  Austria  and  Italy,  is 
such  as  to  preclude  the  probability  of  such  political  interference 
through  all  the  future.  In  view  of  all  that  has  transpired 
in  political  Europe  since  Pius  IX.  issued  his  famous  Syllabus 
Errorum  in  1864,  what  is  stated  with  so  much  emphasis  in  that 
document  (VI)  respecting  civil  society  and  its  subordination  to 
the  church,  seems  like  a  dead  and  offensive  anachronism.  Still 
less  is  the  probability  that  any  papal  interference  will  ever  be 
felt  potentially  in  such  a  country  and  under  such  a  government  as 
ours.  Yet  it  may  as  well  stand,  as  for  two  centuries  and  more  it 
has  stood,  as  one  of  the  tenets  of  our  Protestant  faith  :  Much  less 
hath  the  pope  any  power  or  jurisdiction  over  civil  magistrates  in 
their  dominions,  or  over  any  of  their  people  ;  and  least  of  all, 
to  deprive  them  of  their  dominions  or  lives  if  he  shall  judge  them 
to  be  heretics,  or  upon  any  other  pretence  whatsoever. 

With  this  general  conception  of  the  nature  and  functions  and 
rights  of  the  civil  magistracy  in  hand,  we  may  now  turn  to  con- 
sider the  two  chapters  in  the  Confes- 
6.    The  Oath,  lawful  and     sion  which    apparently    best  present 
unlawful:  nature  and  ohli-    themselyes  for  inspection  in  the  light 

of  this  general  doctrine  :  the  chapter 
(XXII)  on  Lawfid  Oaths  and  Vows,  and  the  chapter  (XXIV) 
which  treats  of  Marriage  and  Divorce.  While  it  is  not  altogether 
easy  to  determine  why  these  chapters,  especially  the  former, 
should  be  introduced  into  the  creed,  or  should  be  introduced  at  this 
point  in  the  progressive  evolution  of  doctrine,  and  in  the  particular 
form  given  them,  we  may  with  profit  study  them  as  they  stand, — 


LAWFUL    OATHS    DEFINED.  577 

taking  up  first  the  subject  of  the  Oath,  as  presented  in  the  first 
four  sections  of  chapter  XXII.  The  general  line  of  distinction 
between  an  oath  and  a  vow  appears  in  the  fact  that  an  oath  is 
taken  between  man  and  man  in  the  presence  of  God  as  witness, 
while  a  vow  is  made  between  man  and  God  as  contracting  parties. 
In  taking  up  the  oath  distinctively  for  present  consideration,  no 
notice  is  necessar}-  of  profanity  in  general,  oaths  in  a  looser  and 
lower  sense  :  what  has  been  said  already  respecting  all  such  vio- 
lations of  the  third  Commandment  will  suffice.  The  oath,  strictly 
speaking,  ma}7  be  defined  as  a  statement  or  promise  or  covenant 
made  to  man  as  in  the  presence  of  God  and  under  a  sense  of  his 
supervision,  and  of  accountability  to  him,  accompanied  with  an 
appeal  to  him  for  the  sincerity  and  truthfulness  of  what  is  stated 
or  promised.  In  other  words,  an  oath  is  a  pledge  made  to  others 
that  what  is  uttered  is  true  in  itself  and  is  uttered  under  such  a 
direct  sense  of  responsibility.  Paley  (Mor.  Phil.)  defines  an  oath 
as  a  calling  upon  God  to  witness  or  to  take  notice  of  what  is  said, 
with  an  implied  renunciation  of  his  favor  or  invocation  of  his 
vengeance  if  what  is  affirmed  is  false,  or  if  what  is  promised  is 
not  performed.  The  asseveration  in  the  case  is  thus  essentially 
a  religious  act,  the  party  acknowledging  that  the  eye  of  God  is 
upon  him  as  he  makes  his  declaration,  and  consenting  in  substance 
that  the  truthfulness  of  what  he  declares  shall  be  tested  by  the 
divine  adjudication.  Belief  in  the  existence  of  God,  in  his  sov- 
ereign administration  over  human  affairs,  and  in  the  reality  of  a 
future  state  of  award  and  punishment,  is  thus  implied  in  the  act. 
That  an  element  of  imprecation  enters,  according  to  the  view  of 
Paley,  into  the  transaction  is  manifest — the  person  substantially 
submitting  his  act  to  the  divine  judgment,  with  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  guilt  and  of  ill-desert  if  the  oath  be  false.  This  impreca- 
tory element  is  often  recognized  in  the  form  of  the  oath  prescribed 
by  civil  statutes.  It  is  proper,  however,  to  add  the  corresponding 
thought  that  an  oath  also  rightly  involves  a  prayer  that  God 
would  accept  the  truthful  statement  or  promise,  and  would  bless 
with  his  favor  the  attesting  person. 

Several  classes  of  oaths  are  recognizable.  There  is  an  assert- 
ory or  attestational  oath,  which  consists  of  a  simple  affirmation 
that  what  is  stated  is  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth  so  far  as 
known  to  the  person  testifying,  and  nothing  that  is  not  true.  There 
is  a  promissory  oath,  which  is  a  pledge  to  perform  or  execute 
under  certain  specified  conditions  a  covenant  which  has  been  made 
between  the  covenanting  party  and  some  other  person  or  persons. 
A  judicial  oath  is  one  taken  in  the  course  of  justice,  imposed  by  the 


578  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND   DUTIES. 

civil  authority  and  under  certain  appointed  forms  of  law  :  an  extra- 
judicial oath  is  one  made  not  under  such  civil  obligation  but  vol- 
untarily, and  in  order  to  confirm  some  truth  or  covenant.  There 
are  also  particular  oaths,  such  as  the  oath  of  office  by  those  who 
enter  upon  any  public  position  or  service,  the  oath  of  allegiance 
or  of  conformity  or  abjuration,  the  purgatorial  oath  in  which  a 
person  swears  that  he  is  innocent  of  an  offense  charged.  It  will 
be  seen  that  what  is  common  to  all  these  varieties  is  a  solemn 
appeal  to  God  for  the  truthfulness  of  what  is  said  or  done,  and  for 
the  sincerity  of  the  speaker  or  actor  ; — the  person,  in  the  language 
of  the  first  section,  solemnly  calling  God  to  witness  what  he 
asserteth  or  promiseth,  and  to  judge  him  according  to  the  truth  or 
falsehood  of  what  he  sweareth.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism 
(99-101)  defines  an  oath  to  be  a  calling  upon  God  as  the  only 
searcher  of  hearts,  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth,  and  to  punish  if 
one  swears  falsely  ;  authorizes  the  oath  whenever  the  magis- 
trate requires  it,  or  it  may  be  needful  otherwise  to  maintain  and 
promote  fidelity  and  truth ;  and  declares  that  we  must  not  by 
false  swearing,  or  by  unnecessary  oaths,  or  by  silence  or  conniv- 
ance, violate  the  third  commandment. 

The  right  to  make  oath,  and  the  corresponding  right  of  civil 
government  to  require  oaths  in  certain  appropriate  circumstances, 
have  been  recognized  in  crude  form  even  among  pagan  nations  ; 
and  such  right  is  justified  on  both  sides  by  both  precept  and 
usage  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  also  by  our  Iyord  and  his 
apostles.  The  objections  to  the  act,  urged  by  some  Christian 
minds  and  apparently  sustained  by  certain  sayings  of  Christ,  are 
clearly  insufficient.  What  our  I^ord  and  the  inspired  James  sought 
to  correct  was  the  making  of  oaths  for  slight  reasons  or  on  trivial 
occasions,  or  in  a  manner  inconsistent  with  the  solemnity  due  to  the 
act ;  and  perhaps  especially,  in  the  case  of  Christ,  the  swearing  by 
any  other  object  than  the  Deity,  however  sacred.  The  name  of 
God  only,  it  is  said  in  section  second  of  the  chapter,  is  that  by  which 
men  ought  to  swear :  to  swear  vainly  or  rashly  by  that  name, 
or  to  swear  at  all  by  any  other  thing,  is  sinful  and  is  to  be  ab- 
horred. Under  these  conditions  it  is  further  said  that,  in  matters 
of  weight  and  moment,  an  oath  is  warranted  by  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  well  as  the  Old, — all  holy  fear  and  reverence  being 
exercised.  The  making  of  oaths  is  therefore  a  just  obligation  on 
the  part  of  the  Christian  as  of  other  men,  and  the  right  to  require 
snch  oaths  may  be  enforced  by  lawful  authority  in  state  or  church  : 
Digest  1898,  p.  672.  It  is  said  to  be  a  sin  to  refuse  an  oath  touch- 
ing anything  that  is  good  and  just,  when  thus  imposed.      The 


OATHS  :     LIMITATIONS.  579 

Augsburg  and  Second  Helvetic  Confessions  and  also  the  Thirty  - 
Nine  Articles  recognize  the  right  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  impose 
oaths,  and  the  obligation  of  Christians  both  to  make  oath  when 
thus  required  and  to  meet  faithfully  every  obligation  thus  acknowl- 
edged. On  the  other  side,  perjury — which  is  defined  by  Coke  as 
willful  and  absolute  and  false  swearing  in  any  matter  material  to 
the  issue  when  a  lawful  oath  has  been  properly  administered  in 
some  judicial  proceeding — is  not  only  a  crime  under  human  law, 
but  a  dreadful  sin  against  God  who  is  grievously  insulted  by  being 
called  in  as  a  witness  to  sustain  a  lie  :  L.  C.  113.  Subornation 
of  perjury,  or  the  hiring  or  inducing  of  another  to  swear  falsely, 
is  also  regarded  in  all  Christian  lands  as  both  criminal  and  sinful. 

The  third  section  suggests  certain  limitations  which  it  is  im- 
portant to  note.  No  civil  authority,  for  example,  can  rightly 
require  any  man  to  bind  himself  by  an  oath  to  anything  but  what 
is  good  and  just,  nor  can  any  Christian  under  any  stress  of  cir- 
cumstances submit  to  such  illicit  demand.  An  oath,  it  is  tersely 
said,  cannot  oblige  to  sin.  The  person  swearing  must  himself 
judge  the  requisition  to  be  right,  and  the  matter  in  question  to  be 
such  as  he  can  conscientiously  certify.  In  the  case  of  a  promissory 
oath  or  pledge,  he  is  limited  by  what  he  is  able  to  perform,  and  by 
what  in  his  heart  he  is  resolved  to  perform,  if  such  ability  con- 
tinues. For  illustration,  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  a  certain  form 
of  government,  or  of  conformity  with  certain  prescripts  or  regu- 
lations of  civil  government,  cannot  rightly  be  taken  by  one  who 
is  hostile  to  the  authority  imposing  the  oath,  or  who  has  it  in  his 
heart  to  refuse  such  conformity  :  he  may  decline  to  take  the  oath 
and  suffer  the  consequences  of  such  refusal,  but  he  may  not  as  a 
Christian  profess  to  assume  an  obligation  which  he  does  not  in- 
tend to  fulfill.  British  history,  both  prior  to  the  Westminster 
Assembly  and  subsequently,  furnishes  vivid  examples  both  of 
men  who  under  the  influence  of  fear  or  of  cupidity  or  ambition  or 
some  other  kindred  motive  were  guilty  of  duplicity  such  as  this, 
and  of  other  and  nobler  men  who  refused  the  submission  required 
even  at  the  cost  of  position,  of  property  and  support,  and  of  life 
itself. 

The  fourth  section  introduces  a  new  and  very  practical  ques- 
tion in  the  proposition  that  an  oath  is  always  to  be  taken  in  the 
plain  and  common  sense  of  the  words,  without  equivocation  or 
mental  reservation.  The  Irish  Articles  (67)  state  the  principle  still 
more  fully  in  their  declaration  that  the  popish  doctrine  of  equiv- 
ocation and  mental  reservation  is  ungodly,  and  tendeth  plainly  to 
the  .subversion  of  all  human  society.     This  is  a  protest  against 


580  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

all  trifling  with  the  terms  of  a  covenant  or  promise  once  made  : 
what  is  pledged,  if  it  be  a  thing  not  sinful,  binds  to  performance 
always,  although  such  performance  be  to  our  hurt.  Any  personal 
loss  that  may  follow  from  the  pledge  is  to  be  faithfully  endured, 
since  the  possibility  of  such  loss  was  involved  or  implied  in  the 
original  transaction,  and  since  the  other  party  expected  that  the 
covenant  would  be  fulfilled,  and  has  an  invincible  right  to  de- 
mand such  fulfillment.  And  it  is  added  that  an  oath  once  taken 
is  not  to  be  violated,  though  made  to  heretics  or  infidels.  In  other 
words,  the  character  of  the  opposite  part}',  although  it  should 
prove  to  be  the  worst  possible,  cannot  absolve  us  from  the  obli- 
gation to  do  to  them  or  for  them  what  we  have  once  solemnly 
promised  them  before  God,  and  under  conscious  accountability  to 
him,  that  we  will  do  if  the  ability  remains.  Any  harm  or  loss  that 
could  come  from  the  execution  of  such  a  pledge  would  be  incom- 
parably less  important  than  that  which  would  follow  our  swear- 
ing falsely  in  the  case.  But  on  the  other  hand,  if  one  has  fallen 
into  the  sin  of  taking  an  oath  to  do  some  wrong  thing,  such  as 
joining  with  others  in  committing  some  crime,  there  can  be  no 
proper  obligation  to  carry  out  such  a  wicked  pledge  :  an  unlawful 
oath  is  ipso  facto  void.  Subtle  questions  of  casuistry  will  arise 
here,  such  as  the  subsequent  payment  of  ransom  to  a  band  of 
robbers  when  life  would  be  forfeited  by  the  refusal  of  a  promise  to 
pay  ;  and  some  such  questions  are,  on  both  sides,  very  difficult 
to  solve.  Yet  the  general  law  here  laid  down  must  stand ;  Nor  is 
it  to  be  violated  although  made  to  heretics  or  infidels. 

Pascal  in  his  Provincial  Letters  has  exposed  with  unflinching 
fidelity,  not  only  the  theological  errors  and  false  doctrines  of  the 
Jesuit  order,  but  also  those  pernicious  principles  and  maxims  in 
the  sphere  of  morals,  by  which  for  a  time  that  noted  order  cor- 
rupted alike  the  minds  and  the  lives  of  men,  and  for  the  inculca- 
tion and  practice  of  which  it  has  since  his  day  been  expelled  as 
an  order  from  most  of  the  countries  of  northern  and  central 
Europe.  It  is  the  remark  of  an  acute  English  historian  that 
casuistry,  vibrating  between  the  extremes  of  impracticable 
severity  and  contemptible  indulgence,  has  been  the  inevitable 
outgrowth  of  the  papal  practice  of  confession  and  absolution.  In 
his  discussion  of  the  Jesuitic  rule  of  probabilities,  of  their  decep- 
tive teaching  respecting  intention  as  distinguished  from  action, 
and  of  their  theory  of  mental  reservation,  Pascal  has  shown  how 
utterly  loose  the  order  were  in  both  opinion  and  usage,  and  how 
ruinous  their  teaching  must  be  to  all  sincere  and  manly  and  pure 
life  within  the  church.     He  has  made  it  evident  that  they  would 


RELIGIOUS    VOWS    DESCRIBED.  581 

justify  the  violation  of  oaths,  treachery  to  promises  and  cove- 
nants, deceit,  judicial  venality,  calumny,  falsehood,  cheating  and 
theft,  unchastity  and  even  murder,  where  the  avowed  end,  being 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  upbuilding  of  his  church,  would  seem  to 
be  subserved  by  such  departures  from  the  plain  law  of  Christian 
integrity.  He  exposes  in  the  most  fearless  and  faithful  manner 
the  utterly  false  principles  of  ethics  which  underlay  their  cor- 
rupting counsels  and  practices,  shows  how  the  church  must  be 
injured  and  vitiated  through  their  teaching,  and  finally  warns 
them  against  the  condemnation  which  must  ultimately  befall 
them,  and  fully  justifies  himself  in  his  exposure  of  their  errone- 
ous belief  and  their  immoral  practice.  Never  has  any  organized 
departure  from  sound  morality,  justifying  itself  under  cover 
of  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  religion,  been  compelled  to  face  such 
an  exposure  ;  and  well  will  it  be  if  the  Provincial  Letters  shall 
stand  as  a  perpetual  warning  to  Romanist  and  Protestant  alike, 
against  all  infidelity  to  oaths  and  covenants  and  promises  among 
Christian  men.* 

A  vow,  as  distinguished  from  an  oath,  is  a  promise  given  to 
God  or  a  covenant  made  with  God  directly.  It  is  said  in  the 
fifth  section  of  this  chapter  that  a  vow  is 

of  like  nature  with  a  promissory  oath;  '•  Tne  ^ell?Ious  Vow : 
\    .  ..  .  ,  ,    ,  ,  Nature  and  worth:   Monas- 

that  it  is  not  to  be  made  to  a?iy  creature 

J  tic  vows. 

but  to  God  o?ily;    and  that  it  ought  to 

be  made  with  like  religious  care,  and  be  performed  with  the  like, 
or  even  far  greater  temper  of  faithfulness,  since  in  it  we  are  deal- 
ing immediately  with  God  and  with  God  alone.  The  conception 
of  God  as  in  sovereignty  endowed  with  absolute  right  over  us 
and  ours,  of  a  gracious  relation  established  between  him  and  us 
through  Christ,  of  a  loving  intimacy  instituted  as  within  the 
household,  and  of  a  filial  desire  on  our  part  to  show  our  regard 
for  him  in  this  relation  and  our  joyous  readiness  to  give  to  him 
as  our  Father  whatever  we  can,  underlies  the  entire  doctrine  of 

*Maine  (Ancient  Law)  says  that  the  papal  casuistry  went  on  with  its 
dexterous  refinements  till  it  ended  in  so  attenuating  the  moral  features  of 
actions,  and  so  belying  the  moral  instincts  of  our  being,  that  at  length 
the  conscience  of  mankind  rose  suddenly  in  revolt  against  it,  and  consigned 
to  a  common  ruin  the  system  and  its  doctors.  The  blow  long  pending — he 
adds — was  finally  struck  in  the  Provincial  Letters  of  Pascal,  and  since  the 
appearance  of  these  memorable  Letters  no  moralist  of  the  smallest  influence 
or  credit,  has  ever  avowedly  conducted  his  speculations  in  the  footsteps  of 
the  Casuists. — There  is  pungency  as  well  as  truthfulness  in  the  famous  epi- 
gram of  that  age  :  Si  cum  Jesuitis,  non  cum  Jesu  itis. 


582  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

vows  as  held  by  Christians.  In  an  inferior  sense  engagements, 
or  pledges  solemnly  made  among  men,  as  in  the  marriage  con- 
tract, are  characterized  as  vows  :  acts  of  special  devotion  or  sac- 
rifice to  some  cherished  interest,  personal  or  public,  are  some- 
times so  described.  But  in  the  full  sense  a  vow  contemplates  no 
parties  but  God  on  the  one  side  and  the  contracting  or  pledging 
human  actor  on  the  other  ;  and  thus  viewed,  it  becomes  in  the 
highest  degree  an  act  of  reverence  and  adoration — an  act  of  re- 
ligion. As  such,  vows  were  made  specially  in  the  form  of  votive 
offerings  to  the  deities  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  are  still  made 
almost  universally  among  the  special  devotees  of  the  various 
natural  faiths  of  the  world.  Frequent  instances  of  vows  and  of 
preceptive  enjoining  of  vows  are  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  occasional  though  less  frequent  examples  appear  in  the  New 
Testament  also.  In  some  periods  of  the  Christian  church  vows 
of  various  classes  have  been  extensively  made  and  observed  ;  and 
in  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  vow,  like  the  oath,  is  a  perma- 
nent, though  not  to  all  Christians  alike  or  in  all  ages  alike,  an 
indispensable  feature  of  practical  religion. 

The  nature  and  validity  of  vows  have  been,  especially  among 
Protestants,  matters  of  special  discussion.  Positive  vows,  such 
as  the  free  offering  to  God  of  things  especially  dear  or  valuable  to 
us,  are  ordinarily  designed  to  be  expressions  of  gratitude  or  de- 
votion,— particularly  in  view  of  some  danger  averted,  such  as 
recovery  from  serious  illness  or  deliverance  from  shipwreck  or 
immunity  in  battle,  or  of  some  peculiar  blessing  received,  such  as 
an  unexpected  inheritance  or  an  unanticipated  appointment  to 
some  place  of  honor  or  profit.  There  are  also  what  are  termed 
negative  vows,  which  are  simply  pledges  to  abstain  from  some 
evil  courses,  with  an  implied  imprecation  of  divine  disfavor  in 
the  event  of  failure  to  carry  out  the  promise  thus  made.  The 
religious  vow  is  in  general  a  special  surrendery  and  devotion  of 
self  to  a  religious  life  or  work,  in  view  of  the  divine  claims,  and 
of  the  rewards  supposed  to  be  divinely  pledged  to  those  who  make 
such  voluntary  consecration.  Interpreted  as  an  offering  of  some- 
thing to  God  which  is  really  not  already  due  to  him,  the  vow  was 
questioned,  if  not  rejected,  by  both  Luther  and  Calvin  as  involv- 
ing the  Roman  error  of  works  of  supererogation, — the  assumption 
that  the  Christian  does  not  already  belong  altogether,  body  and 
spirit,  endowments  and  possessions,  to  God  in  Christ.  Chris- 
tianity, as  they  maintained,  includes  the  complete  consecration 
of  self  to  the  divine  service — a  consecration  recognized  in  bap- 
tism and  again  in  the  act  of  confirmation,  which  ceremonies  they 


VOWS  :     THEIR    LIMITATIONS.  .r>83 

regarded  as  comprehensive  and  ultimate  vows.  The  Reformers 
generally  were  led  to  similar  conclusions  through  their  intense 
hostility  to  the  monasticism,  with  its  multiplied  vows  and  its 
flagrant  violations  of  such  vows,  especially  by  the  religious  orders, 
which  constituted  such  a  scandal  in  the  century  just  preceding 
the  Reformation.  Zwingli  declares  that  those  who  make  the 
vow  of  chastity  or  celibacy  such  as  the  monastic  system  required, 
are  constrained  to  the  act  alike  by  stupid  presumption  and  by 
puerile  arrogance.  Various  Confessions,  from  the  Augsburg  to 
the  Scotch,  protest  against  all  such  vows, — the  latter  with  char- 
acteristic fervor  declaring  that  those  who  take  the  three  chief 
Roman  vows  of  continence,  obedience  and  poverty,  together  with 
all  shavelings  of  sundry  sorts,  ab  ecclesia  Scoticanadamnati  sunt. 
Yet  there  is  Christian  wisdom  in  the  recognition  of  the  doctrine 
that  vows  under  proper  limitations,  may  be  voluntarily  made  to 
God  in  way  of  thankfulness  for  mercies  received  ox  for  obtaining 
what  we  want,  or  to  bring  ourselves  thereby  into  closer  relation 
to  him  ;  and  that  whenever  thus  made,  such  vows  will  be 
acceptable  to  him.  It  is  carefully  said  (sec.  vii)  that  we  are  not  to 
vow  to  do  any  thing  that  is  forbidden  in  the  Word,  or  any  thing 
that  would  hinder  us  in  the  discharge  of  any  dutycommanded  in  the 
Word  :  and  further,  that  what  is  vowed  must  be  something  which 
is  within  our  own  power,  or  something  respecting  which  we  have  a 
Promise  of  gracious  ability  from  God.  The  obligation  in  the  case 
is  always  inward  and  personal :  neither  the  church  nor  the  state  has 
the  right  to  compel  any  one  to  make  or  to  execute  such  subjective 
pledges*  It  is  also  urged  f sec.  vi )  that  the  vow  must  be  made  not 
only  voluntarily  or  without  inward  or  outward  compulsion,  hx\x.out 
of  faith  and  conscience  of  duty — as  a  free  expression  of  Christian 
loyalty  and  love.  The  Augsburg  Confession  teaches  that  vows,  if 
made,  should  relate  to  what  is  possible, should  be  voluntary,  should 
be  made  sponte  et  consulto,  and  should  be  always  in  harmony 
with  divine  law.  Thus  limited,  vows  may  be  as  warrantable  now 
as  during  the  Hebraic  dispensation  or  in  the  first  Christian  cen- 
tury. In  this  sense  Calvin,  while  earnestly  protesting  against 
monastic  vows  and  those  who  make  them,  admits  (Inst.  B. 
IV  :  13),  that  particular  vows  may  be  made  with  a  biblical  war- 
rant, but  counsels  that  they  be  such  as  are  sober  and  of  short 
duration.  Certainly  such  vows  are  not  precluded  altogether  by 
the  fact  that  all  that  we  are  and  have  belongs  already  to  Christ, 
and  that  we  have  nothing  to  give  him  which  is  not  already  his 
owll — bought  with  the  incalculable  price  of  his  mediation  and 
sacrifice  in  our  behalf.     Such  a  view  would  detract  as  well  from 


584  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

the  significance  and  acceptableness  of  all  forms  of  sacrifice  as 
acts  of  worship,  and  all  direct  consecration  of  powers  or  time  or 
possessions  to  the  divine  service.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles 
(XIV)  do  indeed  declare  that  voluntary  works,  over  and  above 
the  divine  commandments,  cannot  be  taught  without  arrogance 
and  impiety,  since  by  them  men  declare  that  they  do  not  only 
render  to  God  as  much  as  they  are  bound  to  do,  but  that  they  do 
more  for  his  sake  than  of  bounden  duty  is  required.  So  the  West- 
minster Confession  (XVI  :  iv)  teaches  that  they  who  in  their  obe- 
dience attain  to  the  greatest  height  which  is  possible  in  this  life, 
are  so  far  from  being  able  to  supererogate  and  to  do  more  than 
God  requires,  as  that  they  fall  short  of  much  which  in  duty  they 
are  bound  to  do.  But  these  statements  were  clearly  aimed,  not 
at  truly  pious  vows  made  in  the  right  spirit,  such  as  we  are  now 
contemplating,  but  at  the  false  and  pernicious  theory  of  works 
of  supererogation — the  bonum  melius  of  Thomas  Aquinas — which 
Romanism  has  so  long  and  strenuously  maintained. 

The  subject  of  monastic  vows,  and  particularly  the  vow  of 
celibacy  and  chastity,  will  come  into  view  more  fully  in  connec- 
tion with  the  biblical  doctrine  of  marriage.  But  the  wide  variety 
of  such  vows,  including  complete  separation  from  the  world,  the 
surrendering  of  all  independent  rights  of  property,  the  breaking 
away  from  all  natural  and  domestic  relationships,  devotion  to 
certain  routines  of  religious  observance,  abstinence  from  food  and 
the  endurance  of  special  privations  in  body  and  person,  conse- 
cration to  some  special  form  of  religious  service  such  as  the  care 
of  the  sick,  missionary  labors  and  sacrifices  in  the  interest  of  the 
church, — all  this  wide  variety  of  vows  may  be  tested  by  the  gen- 
eral principles  just  defined.  It  would  certainly  be  a  serious  error 
to  pronounce  sweeping  condemnation  on  them  all  as  at  variance 
with  the  doctrine  and  temper  of  spiritual  Christianity.  It  cannot 
be  doubted  that,  in  the  instance  of  such  men  as  Pascal  and  his 
Port  Royalist  associates,  of  such  women  as  Madame  Guyon,  of 
whom  John  Wesley  said  that  much  pure  gold  was  mixed  with 
her  conventual  asceticisms,  and  that  we  may  search  many  cen- 
turies to  find  a  woman  who  was  such  a  pattern  of  true  holiness, — 
in  many  such  instances  the  vows  made,  the  devotion  and  conse- 
cration offered  to  God,  were  truly  and  lovingly  accepted  of  him. 
Yet  the  sad  fact  remains  that  though  justified  by  Rome  in  both 
doctrine  and  practice,  the  monastic  vow  was  even  in  the  earlier 
ages  a  fruitful  source  of  delusion  and  spiritual  degeneracy,  and  at 
the  date  of  the  Reformation  was  almost  chief  among  the  wrongs. 
the  corruptions,  the  unspeakable  mischiefs,  against  which  Zwingli 


MARRIAGE    DEFINED  :     ITS    WARRANT.  585 

and  Luther  and  Calvin  were  agreed  in  their  magnificent  pro- 
testations. We  indeed  need  little  more  than  appears  in  the 
Provincial  Letters  and  in  other  authentic  literature,  to  convince 
us  that  monasticism  with  its  vows  and  its  violations,  was  from 
first  to  last  in  fact,  if  not  in  theory,  a  cancerous  excrescence  upon 
historic  Christianity. 

In  taking  up  the  important  chapter  (XXIV)  which  treats  of 
Marriage  and  Divorce,  we  should  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  we 
are  still  contemplating  matters  which, 
like  the  oath,    have   certain   political        8-    Carriage,  its  founda- 

as  well  as  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  . .  y*      y" 

.  r  concubinage, 

relations.  For  while  marriage  is  pri- 
marily and  chiefly  an  ordinance  of  God,  and  while  the  Scriptures 
expressly  define  marriage,  and  lay  down  the  fundamental  law  re- 
specting the  divorcement  of  persons  once  united  in  marriage, 
such  is  the  constitution  of  human  society  that  all  civilized  states 
are  constrained  to  recognize  the  matter,  as  in  various  aspects  a 
legitimate  subject  of  both  civil  and  criminal  legislation?  Recog- 
nizing therefore  the  propriety  of  introducing  such  a  chapter  into 
the  Confession  just  at  this  point,  we  may  turn  first  to  consider 
marriage  itself  as  defined  in  the  first  four  sections  of  this  chapter, 
and  as  more  fully  presented  in  the  original  Directory  for  Worship, 
and  especially  in  the  American  emendation,  Ch.  XII.  The  sub- 
ject seems  to  have  elicited  considerable  interest  in  the  Assembly, 
particularly  in  connection  with  the  formulating  of  the  Directory  : 
whether  marriage  is  a  religious  or  a  civil  contract,  or  both, — 
whether  it  should  be  spoken  of  as  a  sacrament  or  act  of  worship, — 
whether  the  ceremony  should  be  performed  by  any  other  than  a 
minister, — whether  heathen  marriages  are  to  be  regarded  as 
true  marriages, — whether  marriages  should  always  be  solemnized 
in  a  church, — whether  certain  hours  or  seasons  should  be  desig- 
nated,— and  finally  whether  it  is  needful  that  all  these  matters 
should  be  specified  in  a  Directory  :  Minutes,  G-12. 

Using  the  term  to  describe,  not  the  ceremony  or  transaction, 
but  rather  the  state  of  matrimony  into  which  the  parties  are 
introduced  by  such  ceremony,  whether  under  ecclesiastical  or  civil 
warrant,  marriage  ma}'  be  defined  as  a  voluntary  union  of  one 
man  and  one  woman,  spirit  and  body,  in  a  covenant  and  relation 
as  enduring  as  life,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  nature  and  the 
ordinance  of  God.  To  use  a  current  legal  definition,  marriage  is 
a  contract  (or  relation)  in  which  a  man  and  a  woman  recipro- 
cally engage  to  live  with  each  other  during  their  joint  lives,  and 


586  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

to  discharge  toward  each  other  the  duties  imposed  by  law  on  the 
relation  of  husband  and  wife.  The  basis  for  such  union  lies 
partly  in  the  sexual  constitution  and  instinct  of  the  contracting 
parties,  but  mainly  in  their  intellectual  and  social  structure  and 
adaptations  each  to  the  other,  and  in  their  constitutional  capacity 
for  such  mutual  affection  as  can  be  experienced  in  no  other  rela- 
tionship of  life.  Marriage  is  thus  an  institution  founded  in  the 
nature  and  mutual  needs  of  the  parties,  God  creating  them  male 
and  female,  not  physically  alone,  but  esthetically  and  ethically 
also,  in  order  that  such  a  relation  might  be  established  between 
them,  primarily  for  their  mutual  happiness  and  development,  but 
also  for  the  continuation  of  the  race  through  their  union.  Mar- 
riage thus  contemplates  the  family  and  the  home  prospectively, 
the  birth  of  children  through  such  union  and  their  nurture  and 
education  within  the  household  ;  and  beyond  this  the  founding  of 
communities,  the  organization  of  tribes  and  of  states,  and  the  evo- 
lution of  humanity  along  the  lines  which  this  domestic  relationship 
prescribes.  Paley  describes  the  design  of  this  institution  as  being 
first  of  all  the  comfort  and  growth  and  bliss  of  the  persons  thus 
conjoined,  then  the  production  of  children  and  the  making  of 
suitable  provision  for  their  development  and  education  within  the 
home,  and  finally  the  peace  and  security  of  society  and  the  firmer 
establishing  of  all  government  and  of  social  and  moral  order  among 
men.  Kent  (Commentaries)  declares  that  marriage  has  its  foun- 
dation in  nature,  and  is  the  only  lawful  relation  by  which  Provi- 
dence has  permitted  the  continuance  of  the  human  race.  He 
adds  that  in  every  age  this  institution  has  had  a  propitious  influ- 
ence on  the  moral  improvement  and  happiness  of  mankind, — that 
it  is  one  of  the  chief  foundations  of  social  order,  and  that  we  may 
place  to  its  credit  a  great  share  of  the  blessings  which  flow  from 
refinement  of  manners,  the  education  of  children,  the  sense  of 
justice,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  liberal  arts. 

The  first  .section  of  this  chapter  affirms  in  brief  terms  that  mar- 
riage was  divinely  ordained  for  the  mutual  help  of  husband  and 
wife,  and  for  the  increase  of  mankind  with  a  legitimate  issue, 
and  the  increase  of  the  church  with  a  holy  seed, — what  Bushnell 
(Christian  Nurture)  happily  described  as  the  outpropagating 
power  of  the  Christian  stock — and  further  for  the  prevention  of 
such  uncleanness  and  such  consequent  degeneracy  physical  and 
moral  as  would  exist  in  human  society  if  there  were  no  such 
institution  among  men.  The  American  Directory  for  Worship 
speaks  at  length  of  the  particular  duties  which  are  incumbent 
on  those  who  enter  into  this  relation  : — a  high  esteem  and  mutual 


MARRIAGE  :     SANCTIONS    AND    LIMITATIONS.  587 

love  for  one  another,  bearing  with  their  several  infirmities  and 
weaknesses,  encouraging  one  another  under  the  various  ills  of  life, 
comforting  each  other  in  sickness,  in  honesty  and  industry  pro- 
viding for  their  mutual  support  in  temporal  things,  praying  for 
and  encouraging  one  another  in  things  which  pertain  to  God  and 
to  their  immortal  souls,  and  living  together  as  heirs  of  the  grace  of 
life.  The  Directory  adds  also  the  more  general  statement  that 
marriage  is  not  a  private  matter  merely,  but  is  rather  of  a  public 
nature  ;  that  God  himself  has  instituted  it  for  the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  mankind  ;  that  the  welfare  of  civil  society,  the  hap- 
piness of  families,  and  the  credit  of  religion,  are  deeply  interested 
or  involved  in  it  ;  and  therefore  that  it  is  proper  not  only  that 
the  church  should  sanction  it,  but  that  every  commonwealth  for 
the  good  of  society  should  make  laws  to  regulate  marriage — laws 
which,  it  is  added,  all  citizens  are  bound  to  obey.  The  Directory 
expresses  the  general  view  of  Protestantism  in  the  statement  that 
although  an  institution  of  such  special  sacredness,  marriage  is  not 
to  be  regarded  as  a  Christian  sacrament,  belonging  exclusively 
to  the  church  of  Christ,  but  is  a  relation  into  which  others  than 
believers  may  lawfully  enter,  and  one  whose  holy  obligations  rest 
alike  on  all  who  agree  to  such  covenant.  It  is  not  intended  by 
this  teaching  to  imply  that  marriage  has  lost  its  religious  quality 
and  is  become  a  civil  institution  solely  ;  for  among  the  services 
which  religion  has  conferred  on  the  race,  there  are  few  of  greater 
value  than  the  supernatural  sanctity  with  which  it  has  invested 
this  precious  ordinance.  In  the  debate  in  the  Assembly  on  the 
subject,  Henderson  held  that  marriage  though  not  a  sacrament, 
is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  casual  contract  merely,  but  rather  as  a 
covenant  of  God,  which  may  not  be  dissolved  by  the  mere  con- 
sent of  the  parties  :  Minutes,  6-12.  The  Roman  church  regards 
marriage  as  one  of  the  five  minor  sacraments,  declaring  that  the 
grace  which  perfects  natural  love,  which  confirms  marriage  as  an 
indissoluble  union,  and  sanctifies  the  married  in  their  actual  rela- 
tion, flows  down  upon  the  ordinance  directly  through  the  passion 
and  merit  of  Christ;  and  pronounces  its  anathema  on  all  who  say 
that  marriage  is  not  thus  one  of  the  seven  sacraments  of  the  evan- 
gelic law,  instituted  by  Christ  the  Lord  :  Syllabus  Errorum,  8. 

It  is  agreed  by  Protestants  and  Catholics  alike  that,  while  the 
ceremony  of  marriage  is  primarily  a  religious  act,  resting  for 
its  ultimate  validity  on  the  ordinance  of  God,  and  should  there- 
fore whenever  practicable  be  performed  under  the  sanction  of  the 
church,  it  is  also  a  civil  ceremonial,  properly  regulated  by  statu- 
tory legislation,  and  equally  valid  when  celebrated  in  due  form 


588  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

by  the  civil  magistrate.  In  some  countries,  where  differences  of 
faith  or  other  special  reasons  seem  to  require,  a  double  ceremony, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  may  be  celebrated  according  to  the  special 
prescripts  of  local  law.  The  limitations  as  to  relationship  within 
whose  boundaries  marriage  is  prohibited,  were  first  defined  in  the 
Levitic  code,  but  these  regulations  have  passed  without  essential 
change  into  the  legislation  of  nearly  all  Christian  lands,  and  now 
constitute  in  general  the  common  as  well  as  the  biblical  law  on 
the  subject.  Marriage,  it  is  said  in  the  third  section  of  this 
chapter,  ought  not  to  be  within  the  degrees  of  consanguinity  or 
affinity  forbidden  in  the  Word  :  it  is  justly  added  that  no  law  of 
man,  nor  any  consent  of  the  parties,  can  make  such  incestuous 
marriages  lawful.  The  ultimate  warrant  for  such  limitations  lies 
back  of  the  Levitical  law  itself,  and  is  found  in  the  nature  of  the 
relationships  prohibited,  and  still  more  deeply  in  the  constitution 
of  the  family,  and  in  certain  physical  conditions  which  are  in 
their  nature  and  effect  prohibitory.  The  only  question  under 
this  head  which  has  arisen  in  recent  times — the  question  whether 
a  man  may  lawfully  marry  the  sister  of  a  wife  deceased — ha3  gen- 
erally been  answered  in  the  negative  both  by  church  authority 
and  by  civil  enactment.  In  the  original  Confession,  as  accepted  in 
Great  Britain,  it  is  expressly  stated  that  neither  husband  nor  wife 
may  marry  any  kindred  of  a  wife  or  husband  deceased,  that  may 
be  nearer  to  them  in  blood  than  their  own  kindred  whom  they 
are  forbidden  to  marry.  But  this  rule  has  been  stricken  from  the 
American  Confession  (1887)  and  is  no  longer  prescriptive  law 
within  its  domain,  although  there  still  exists  an  extensive  senti- 
ment of  disapproval  of  such  marriages,  based  on  certain  possibili- 
ties of  domestic  and  social  harm  which  their  recognition  as  legal 
might  involve. 

It  should  be  added  here  that  in  addition  to  the  natural  limita- 
tions just  noted,  the  Confession  urges  a  moral  limitation  in  the 
advisory  declaration  that,  while  it  is  lawful  for  all  sorts  of  people 
to  marry  who  are  able  with  judgment  to  give  their  consent,  it  is 
the  duty  of  Christians  to  marry  only  in  the  Lord ;  and  the  term 
Christian,  is  defined  by  the  phrase,  such  as  are  godly,  and  by  the 
other  phrase,  so  suggestive  of  the  age  in  which  the  Confession 
was  written,  such  as  profess  the  true  Reformed  religion.  These 
persons  are  here  counselled  against  being  unequally  yoked  in 
marriage,  not  only  with  such  as  are  notoriously  wicked  in  their 
lives,  but  also  with  such  as  maintain  damnable  heresies  ;  and  it  is 
also  characteristic  of  the  times  and  of  the  temper  of  the  Assembly, 
that  the  latter  class  are  more    specifically  described  as  infidels, 


polyCtAmy  and  concubinac.k.  589 

papists  or  other  idolaters.  In  the  proposed  Re\Tision  it  was  sug- 
gested that  the  phrase,  damnable  heresies,  be  omitted,  and  that 
for  the  phrase,  papists  and  other  idolaters,  there  should  be  sub- 
stituted, adherents  of  false  religious, — a  statement  at  least  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  secure  all  the  practicable  ends  sought  by  such 
counsel.  Unquestionably  the  marriage  of  a  believer  with  one  who 
does  not  believe  in  religion,  and  especially  with  one  who  on  any 
ground  is  openly  opposed  to  the  faith  and  church  of  Christ,  is  a 
questionable  step,  and  may  sometimes  prove  to  be  a  disastrous 
mistake. 

Marriage  as  thus  defined  and  limited, — a  holy  vow,  covenant, 
sacramentum,  divinely  ordained — is  here  set  over  against  two 
deadly  sins,  polygamy  and  concubinage  in  whatever  form.  Polyg- 
amy and  its  occasional  counterpart  in  polyandry  are  crimes,  not 
only  against  the  law  of  Scripture  and  the  legislation  of  civilized 
countries  generally,  but  also  against  those  laws  of  nature  which 
call  for  the  union,  not  of  one  man  with  several  women  or  of  one 
woman  with  several  men  in  a  species  of  marriage,  but  of  one  man 
with  one  woman  only.  We  are  confronted  here  by  the  fact,  so  fre- 
quently recorded  in  the  Old  Testament,  that  such  unlawful  and 
unnatural  connections  existed  among  the  Hebrews,  as  it  also  ex- 
isted and  still  exists  extensively  in  the  heathen  world.  The  fact 
is  often  perplexing  and  painful  as  it  stands,  but  in  the  case  in 
question  its  darkness  is  relieved  on  one  side  by  the  obvious  and 
more  and  more  strenuous  commendation  of  monogamy  in  the  Old 
Testament  as  the  only  legitimate  law  for  mankind,  and  on  the 
other  by  the  clear  and  mandatory  requisitions  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  especially  by  the  teaching  of  our  L,ord  himself.  Uni- 
versal Christendom  will  agree  in  substance,  if  not  in  form,  with 
the  canon  of  the  Council  of  Trent :  If  any  one  saith  that  it  is 
lawful  for  Christians  to  have  several  wives  at  the  same  time,  and 
that  this  is  not  prohibited  by  any  divine  law,  let  him  be  anathema. 
Even  among  the  Hebrews  polygamy  proved  its  poisonous  qual- 
ity by  its  corrupting  and  degrading  effects — effects  faithfully 
recorded  in  the  earlier  Scriptures.  Among  pagan  peoples  it  has 
in  all  ages  shown  itself  hostile  in  essence  to  all  those  better 
influences  which  are  centered  in  every  home  where  one  man  and 
one  woman  dwell  together  in  sweet  content  amid  the  sanctities  of 
domestic  life.  The  common  law  of  nearly  all  civilized  countries 
pronounces  polygamy  not  only  an  offence  against  public  mor- 
ality, but  a  heinous  crime  against  the  state  :  see  decision  of 
the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court.  Nor  can  any  one  doubt  that  if  the 
institution  of  marriage  were  abolished,  and  polygamy  were  to 


590  CIVIL   RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

become  a  general  substitute,  not  only  the  destruction  of  home  but 
the  ruin  of  society  itself  would  follow.  It  is  certain  that  our 
human  life  in  this  age  has  no  foe  more  subtle,  no  enemy  more  to 
be  dreaded,  than  that  socialistic  anarchism  which  would  subvert 
human  government,  abolish  all  present  laws  and  institutions,  dis- 
solve among  others  the  bond  of  holy  wedlock,  and  thus  render 
society  a  burning  hell  of  selfishness  and  passion  and  unholy  lust. 

Concubinage  in  whatever  form  is  an  evil  equally  great — a  sin 
equally  dark  and  dreadful.  Here  again  we  are  confronted  by 
the  records  of  such  concubinage  among  the  patriarchs,  and  in  the 
later  periods  of  Jewish  history.  But  we  are  not  to  infer  that  God, 
even  in  those  infantile  eras  of  moral  development,  approved  what 
for  the  time  he  did  not  imperatively  prohibit.  It  may  be  that  he 
deemed  it  best  to  permit  the  experiment  for  a  season,  in  order 
that  the  lesson  of  abstinence  from  this  evil  might  be  more  thor- 
oughly learned  by  all  mankind.  It  is  not  wise  to  draw  im- 
aginary lines  here  by  way  of  justification,  between  polygamy  and 
concubinage  as  they  existed  among  the  chosen  people,  and  the 
same  evils  as  they  occurred  and  are  still  occurring  in  the  pagan 
world.  However  meliorated  these  offences  may  have  been  by  the 
presence  and  influence  of  a  better  religion,  and  however  thor- 
oughly they  were  by  degrees  eliminated  from  Jewish  life,  they 
could  never  have  been  anything  else  than  offences  in  the  eyes  of 
him  who  had  taught  Adam  to  say,  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave 
his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife,  and 
they  shall  be  one  flesh.  Concubinage,  even  under  the  most  help- 
ful restrictions  of  Hebrew  or  of  Roman  law,  could  never  be  made 
a  natural,  a  just,  a  permanent  or  a  holy  state.  It  is  painful  to 
be  obliged  to  confess  that  this  offence  did  not  die  out  wholly  under 
the  influence  of  early  Christianity.  As  late  as  the  fourth  century 
(Council  of  Toledo,  A.  D.  400)  while  married  believers  were  ex- 
communicated for  having  concubines,  unmarried  men  were  not 
condemned  for  like  indulgence.  Still  the  wrong  and  evil  of  such 
usage  cannot  be  questioned  under  the  Gospel  :  elements  of  lust 
and  degradation,  of  discord  and  misery,  lie  in  the  relation  where- 
soever found.  If  marriage,  as  enjoined  and  blessed  in  the  Bible, 
is  right  and  beneficent  and  happy,  concubinage  like  polygamy 
must  be  forever  wrong,  unholy  and  wretched. 

The  subject  of  celibacy,  or  of  unwedded  life,  especially  in  the 
interest  of  persona1  piety  or  of  service  within  the  church,  requires 
brief  consideration  at  this  point.  Isaac  Taylor  (Ancient  Chris- 
tianity) has  told  the  remarkable  story  of  the  growth  of  this 
opinion   and   usage   in   the   early   church,    especially   from   the 


CELIBACY.  591 

third  century  onward.  Abstinence  from  marriage  was  at  first 
supposed  to  be  commended  by  Christ  and  afterwards  more  dis- 
tinctly by  Paul,  as  an  essential  condi- 

f  ,.  ,  ,  if     •     4.1,  9'    Celibacy:  Papal  law: 

tion  of  higher  and  purer  life  in  the  protestant  condemnation, 
believer.  But  there  is  no  historic  evi- 
dence that  during  the  first  two  or  even  three  centuries  it  was  in  any 
way  enjoined,  even  upon  the  official  members  of  the  church.  It 
was  at  first  regarded  chiefly  as  a  privilege  which  here  and  there  a 
saint,  especially  among  the  clergy,  might  fitly  seek  to  gain  ;  but  at 
length  it  became,  and  during  the  long  centuries  before  the  Refor- 
mation continued  to  be  a  requirement  and  rule, — commended  as 
the  only  adequate  qualification  for  service  in  the  priesthood,  and 
enjoined  by  papal  rescripts  as  well  as  by  many  eminent  examples. 
Prohibition  of  marriage  as  being  an  unholy  state  for  those  who 
should  minister  at  the  altar,  and  including  by  degrees  all  the 
minor  clergy  as  well  as  the  bishops  and  the  higher  orders  of  priest- 
hood, followed  logically  until  in  theory  if  not  in  practice  celibacy 
became  for  those  in  such  positions,  and  finally  for  all  monks  and 
nuns  and  monastics  of  whatever  sort  or  grade,  the  imperative 
law.  That  law  was  indeed  often  violated  especially  in  the  dark 
ages  by  the  marriage  of  priests,  and  probably  still  more  fre- 
quently by  the  establishment  of  illicit  domestic  relations  ;  but  the 
ecclesiastical  requirement  grew  steadily  both  in  the  extent  of  its 
reach  and  in  its  imperativeness,  until  it  became,  as  it  still  is,  an 
essential  condition  of  acceptable  service  in  the  offices  of  the 
church.  It  was  also  believed  that  such  abstinence  from  marriage 
was  an  indispensable  requisite  to  the  attainment  of  special  holi- 
ness, and  that  even  social  fellowship  with  persons  of  the  other  sex 
was  incompatible  with  purity  of  heart.  It  is  said  that  for  twenty 
years  Loyola,  the  founder  of  the  order  of  Jesuits,  never  looked 
upon  the  face  of  woman.  Monks  and  nuns  in  all  the  various 
monastic  organizations  of  Rome  counted  it  their  duty  for  this 
reason  to  lead  in  like  manner  an  unwedded  life — secluded  from 
all  contact  with  the  opposite  sex.  And  the  Council  of  Trent  laid 
down  what  may  now  be  regarded  as  the  indissoluble  law  of  Ro- 
manism in  the  Canon  :  If  any  one  saith  that  the  marriage  state  is 
to  be  placed  above  the  state  of  virginity  or  of  celibacy,  and  that 
it  is  not  better  and  more  blessed  to  remain  in  virginity  or  in 
celibacy,  let  him  be  anathema.  Well  said  the  eloquent  Jeremy 
Taylor  :  This  was  no  law  of  God  :  it  was  against  the  rights  and 
against  the  necessities  of  nature  :  it  was  unnatural  and  unreason- 
able :  it  was  not  for  the  edification  of  the  church  :  it  was  no 
advantage  to  spiritual  life. 


592  CIVIL    RELATIONS    AND    DUTIES. 

Against  this  doctrine,  with  all  the  mischiefs  and  sins  involved 
in  it,  which  Wyclif  as  early  as  the  fourteenth  century  had  de- 
clared against  as  contrary  to  the  Christian  religion,  the  Reformers 
from  the  first  entered  most  indignant  protest.  Zwingli  cries  out, 
Pfui  der  Schande  !  I  know  of  no  greater  scandal  than  the  pro- 
hibition of  lawful  marriage  to  priests,  while  they  are  permitted 
for  money  to  have  concubines.  Luther,  following  the  example 
of  Zwingli,  indicated  his  view  by  breaking  his  monastic  vow  of 
continence,  and  marrying  Catherine  von  Bora, — a  .step  which  he 
took,  not  only  for  his  personal  comfort  amid  his  multiplied  labors 
and  struggles,  but  also — he  expressly  declared — as  a  testimony 
against  the  papal  law.  Calvin,  while  recognizing  virginity  as  a 
virtue  not  to  be  despised,  and  even  commending  it  in  certain  con- 
ditions on  the  authority  of  Christ  and  of  Paul,  as  he  supposed, 
affirmed  (Inst.  B.  IV  :  12)  that  the  interdiction  of  marriage  to 
priests  is  an  act  of  impious  tyranny,  not  only  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God,  but  at  variance  with  every  principle  of  justice  ;  men 
having  no  right  to  prohibit  what  the  Lord  hath  left  free,  espec- 
ially when  God  has  provided  in  his  Word,  that  liberty  in  this 
matter  should  not  be  invaded.  The  Augsburg  Confession  takes 
up  the  protest  in  most  vigorous  form,  affirming  that  God  hath 
commanded  to  honor  marriage, — that  in  all  good  commonwealths 
even  among  the  heathen,  law  hath  adorned  marriage  with  very 
great  honors, — that  impure  celibacy  brings  forth  very  many  offen- 
ces, adulteries  and  other  enormities, — that  in  the  early  church, 
under  the  divine  command,  marriage  was  allowed  and  approved 
to  priests  as  to  others, — that  vows  to  refrain  from  marriage  are 
unlawful  and  void, — and  that  it  is  great  cruelty  to  enforce  upon 
priests  the  obligation  of  perpetual  virginity.  The  second  Helvetic 
Confession  is  more  moderate  in  terms  but  equally  decisive  in  doc- 
trine. Marriage,  it  affirms  (XXIX)  was  instituted  by  God  who 
blessed  it  richly,  and  indissolubly  joined  man  and  woman  to  live 
together  in  intimate  love  and  harmony.  Yet  it  adds  that  those  who 
have  the  gift  of  celibacy  from  heaven,  so  as  to  be  pure  and  continent 
toto  animo,  may  serve  the  Lord  in  that  vocation  in  simplicity  and 
humility,  but  without  exalting  themselves  above  others.  The 
Saxon  Confession,  after  pronouncing  strongly  in  favor  of  wed- 
lock, declares  with  emphasis  that  the  laws  of  the  popes  concern- 
ing single  life,  like  the  Turkish  manner  (polygamy)  have  caused 
great  deformity  in  this  last  old  age  of  the  world. 

Without  referring  to  other  continental  creeds,  we  may  note  the 
considerate  doctrine  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XXXII)  that 
bishops,  priests  and  deacons  (the  three  orders  of  the  Anglican 


DIVORCE    DEFINED.  593 

church)  are  not  commanded  by  the  law  of  God  either  to  vow 
the  estate  of  single  life  or  to  abstain  from  marriage  :  therefore  it  is 
lawful  for  them,  as  for  all  other  Christian  men,  to  marry  at  their 
own  discretion,  as  they  shall  judge  the  same  to  serve  better  to 
godliness.  The  Westminster  Confession  goes  farther  (XXII  :  7) 
and  declares  that  popish  monastical  vows  of  perpetual  single  life, 
professed  poverty  and  regular  obedience — the  three  major  vows 
required  of  all  Roman  priests — are  so  far  from  being  degrees  of 
higher  perfection,  that  they  are  superstitious  and  sinful  snares 
in  which  no  Christian  ma}^  entangle  himself. — These  confes- 
sional affirmations  sufficiently  indicate  what  is  at  present  the  cur- 
rent doctrine  on  this  subject  among  the  Protestant  churches. 
It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  Greek  communions  generally,  while 
enjoining  celibacy  upon  their  bishops,  require  that  all  priests 
should  be  married  men  :  Lea,  Sacerdotal  Celibacy. 

Without  pausing  to  consider  either  the  argument  for  marriage 
from  Scripture,  such  as  appears  in  the  recorded  marriage  of  both 

priests  and  apostles,  and  in  the  gen- 

,  ,     .  .  10.  Divorce;  proper  grounds: 

eral  commendation  of  marriage  as  a     Qther  &Uegti  warrants. 

divinely  ordained  condition  within 

the  church  ;  or  the  strong  natural  presumption  in  favor  of  the 
married  state  as  being  in  general  most  conducive  to  health  and 
happiness,  growth  and  usefulness  ;  we  may  now  turn  to  consider 
the  second  main  topic  in  this  very  practical  chapter — the  topic  of 
Divorce,  or  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  contract  and  relation 
by  some  competent  authority.*  What  is  contemplated  here  is 
not  a  partial  divorce  or  separation  a  mensa  et  toro,  but  a  complete 
divorce — a  final  separation  a  vinculo.  Here  it  should  be  ob- 
served at  the  outset  that  no  voluntary  agreement  by  the  original 
parties,  or  any  mere  separation  one  from  the  other  however 
deliberate  or  prolonged,  can  legitimately  effect  such  dissolution. 
There  was  indeed  an  arbitrary  power  exercised  in  some  instan- 
ces by  husbands  during  the  patriarchal  period,  and  an  approach 
to  such  personal  assumption  among  the  Hebrews,  even  in  the  age 
of  Christ  ;  but  no  form  of  private  divorce  is  admissible  in  the 
Christian  dispensation.  In  the  language  of  the  sixth  section, 
the  persons  concerned  are  not  left  to  their  own  wills  and  dis- 
cretion in  the  case ;  and  the  reason  given  is  that  the  corruption 
of  man  is  so  great  that,  left  to  himself,  he  would  be  apt  to  study 

*It  is  a  fact  of  some  interest  that  the  two  sections  treating  of  this  sub- 
ject, and  also  the  clause  in  the  fourth  section  prescribing  the  limitations  of 
marriage,  were  stricken  out  by  Parliament,  when  the  Confession  was  for- 
mally presented  to  that  body  for  approval,  and  never  received  its  endorsement. 


594  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND    DUTIES. 

arguments  to  put  asunder  unduly  those  whom  God  hath  joined 
together  in  marriage.  A  public  and  orderly  course  of  proceeding 
is,  it  is  said,  to  be  observed  in  every  case  ;  the  parties  cannot  be 
freed  from  their  union  otherwise. 

In  the  absolute  sense,  God  alone  can  absolve  such  parties  from 
their  solemn  vows  or  promissory  oaths  made  in  his  presence,  or 
determine  upon  what  conditions  such  absolution  may  occur.    But  so 
far  as  the  parties  are  members  of  the  Christian  church,  that  organ- 
ization by  its  proper  representatives  and  in  its  own  prescribed  mode 
of  procedure,  may  act  as  judge  in  determining  whether  sufficient 
reasons  for  divorce  exist.     And  since  marriage  is  a  civil  contract 
also, — a  contract  in  which  the  interests  of  government  and  society 
are  involved  in  any  proposed  abrogation  of  a  covenant  which  the 
state  has  once  assisted  in  establishing, — the  civil  magistracy  may 
also  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  issue  joined,  and  may  even  become 
so  far  as  society  is  concerned  the  final  arbiter  in  the  case.     It 
should  be  observed  here  that  these  two  courts  of  adjudication 
may  not  agree  in  their  determinations,   and  must  be  in  large 
degree  independent  in  their  action.     The  church  cannot  annul  the 
civil  contract :  the  state  alone  can  dissolve  the  bond  which  the 
state  has  established.     The  church  cannot  dictate  law  in  the  case 
to  the  state,  or  require  the  civil  authorities  to  fall   in  with  its 
opinions  or  decisions.     Nor  can  the  state  compel  the  church  to 
accept  its  conclusions  respecting  the  validity  and  equity  of  a  civil 
divorcement,  or  require  the  church  to  follow  the  civil  verdict  with 
similar  action  within  its  own  sphere.    The  state  may  grant  divorce 
on  grounds  which  the  church  cannot  approve  or  endorse,  and  the 
parties  may  therefore  stand  as  divorced  in  the  eye  of  the  civil 
law,  while  in  the  judgment  of  the  church  they  are  still  married, 
and  are  sacredly  bound  to  fulfill  all  the  obligations  and  duties 
involved  in  the  married  state. 

The  inquiry  as  to  the  legitimate  grounds  for  divorce  is  there- 
fore one  of  most  serious  moment.  A  very  strong  presumption 
against  such  legitimacy  on  any  ground  is  derived  from  what  we 
have  already  learned  respecting  the  nature  and  sacredness  of  the 
marriage  relation  :  if  any  such  grounds  exist,  the  evidence  in 
their  favor  should  be  clear,  marked,  conclusive.  The  Confession 
names  one  ground  on  which  ecclesiastical  and  civil  courts  are  uni- 
versally agreed — the  fact  of  adultery  by  either  party,  not  merely 
alleged  but  duly  established.  Here  the  authority  of  the  seventh 
commandment,  regarded  not  merely  as  a  Jewish  law  but  as  a 
mandate  of  universal  obligation — a  mandate  recognized  in  essence 
even  among  pagan  peoples,   and   viewed    as    imperative  in  all 


LAWFUL,   AND    ILLICIT    DIVORCE.  595 

Christian  lands — must  be  accepted  as  sufficient  and  decisive.  In 
the  case  of  adultery  after  marriage,  it  is  declared  in  this  chapter  to 
be  lawful  for  the  innocent  party  to  sue  out  a  divorce,  before  a  civil 
or  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal,  or  both,  and  it  is  added  that  after  a 
divorcement  is  secured  on  this  ground,  the  innocent  party  may 
marry  another  as  if  the  offending  party  were  dead.  It  is  also 
said  that  adultery  or  fornication  committed  by  one  of  the  parties 
after  a  contract  or  engagement  of  marriage  has  been  formed, 
when  detected  before  marriage  has  actually  taken  place,  constitutes 
for  the  same  reason  sufficient  ground  for  annulling  such  contract 
or  engagement, — thus  releasing  altogether  the  innocent  party 
from  the  covenant  once  made.  It  should  be  added  that  the  course 
here  described  as  to  married  persons  is  not  compulsory  in  such  a 
sense  and  degree  that  the  separation  must  imperatively  take  place, 
or  that  the  court  concerned  must  by  some  form  of  coercion  com- 
pel such  separation.  For  it  is  possible  to  suppose  that,  flagrant 
as  the  offence  in  question  must  always  be,  there  may  still  be  con- 
siderations in  any  given  case  of  such  importance,  such  as  the 
necessities  of  dependent  children,  or  the  penitence  of  the  offender, 
or  certain  extenuating  circumstances  in  the  transaction,  as  would 
justify  the  condoning  of  the  offence,  and  the  forgiveness  of  the 
transgressor.  But  the  reason  here  named  is  always  sufficient  : 
adultery  as  an  act  is  itself  an  abrogation  of  the  sacred  contract 
binding  the  parties  together,  and  therefore  de  facto  and  de  jure 
it  works  a  dissolution  of  that  contract. 

A  second  ground  of  divorce  which  is  generally  recognized  by 
both  ecclesiastical  and  legal  tribunals  as  sufficient,  is  described  in 
section  sixth,  as  such  willful  desertion  as  can  ?io  way  be  reynedied 
by  the  church  or  the  civil  magistrate.  Here  serious  diversities  of 
judgment  exist  as  to  what  constitutes  willful  desertion  :  statute 
laws  and  court  decisions  vary  widely  ;  very  inadequate  emphasis 
is  sometimes  laid  upon  the  phrase  ;  the  absence  of  one  of  the 
parties  may  be  the  result  of  agreement  or  connivance,  or  merely 
a  shift  made  in  order  to  secure  liberty  to  form  a  second  matri- 
monial connection  ;  and  civil  tribunals  are  sometimes  grossly 
culpable  in  granting  decrees  of  divorce  on  this  general  ground, 
when  the  facts  in  sight  warrant  no  such  decision.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  but  just,  in  the  light  of  Scripture  and  in  the  judgment 
of  the  Christian  church  generally,  that  willful  desertion  in  the 
full  and  weighty  sense  of  that  phrase — the  voluntary  and  perma- 
nent abandonment  of  one  party  by  the  other,  involving  as  it  must 
the  continuous  failure  to  discharge  the  duties  once  acknowledged 
and  assumed  in  the  marriage  covenant — should  stand  by  the  side 


596  CIVIL   RELATIONS  AND   DUTIES. 

of  adultery  itself  as  a  reasonable  ground  of  divorcement.  The 
Assembly  during  the  discussion  on  this  subject  defined  its  own 
view  in  the  specialized  proposition  that,  if  either  of  the  married 
persons  forsake  their  yoke  fellow,  and  by  no  means  that  can  be 
used  by  the  party  forsaken  or  friends  or  magistrate  will  be  re- 
duced, after  sufficient  time,  set  down  by  the  magistrate  and  made 
known  to  the  party  that  so  desireth,  it  is  lawful  for  the  innocent 
party  to  marry  another  :  Minutes,  280.  Such  desertion  is  now 
recognized  as  in  fact  a  forcible  annulling  of  the  covenant  by  the 
absent  party,  and  is  even — as  it  has  been  described — a  species  of 
constructive  adultery,  for  which  the  innocent  party  thus  aban- 
doned has  an  inherent  right  to  all  the  relief  which  human  courts 
civil  or  ecclesiastical  can  equitably  give. 

Beyond  this  point  civil  and  ecclesiastical  opinion  and  usage 
vary  widely.     In  fact  the  Christian  church  admits  in  general  no 
other  legitimate  and  adequate  grounds  for  divorce  than  the  two 
just  named,  while  human  law  and  court  decisions  in  different 
states  and  countries  recognize  many  other  grounds  of  action,  some 
of  them  obviously  weak  and  insufficient:  absence  for  brief  periods, 
imprisonment  for  crime,  disagreement  in  domestic  policy,  diversity 
of  interest,  failure  to  provide,  incompatibility  of  temper,  sudden 
quarrel,  offensive  habits,  habitual  intemperance,  physical  impo- 
tency,   insanity,   cruelty  of    disposition,   harsh  treatment,   rude 
language,  and  a  multitude  of  other  relatively  trivial  and  inadequate 
reasons  or  excuses.     It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  in  Great  Britain 
and  in  other  countries  of  Europe,  and  especially  in  some  of  the 
United  States,  civil  divorcement  on  such  illicit  grounds  has  become 
prevalent  to  an  extent  that  is  not  only  unscriptural,  but  grossly 
immoral,  and  highly  injurious  in  many  ways  to  the  good  order  and 
welfare  of  society.     So  careful  and  just  an  authority  as  President 
Woolsey  (Divorce  and  Divorce  Legislation)  has  shown  conclu- 
sively that  the  divorce  laws  in  several  of  these  States  are  shame- 
fully lax  and  inadequate,  and  has  made  it  evident  to  all  candid 
minds   that   these   commonwealths   are   in   practical   danger   of 
becoming,  as  he  states  it,  teachers  and  propagators  of  low  views 
on  the  whole  subject  of  marriage.     In  support  of  this  statement 
he  has  cited  in  brief  the  downward  progress  in  legislation,  the 
rapid  multiplying  of  alleged  causes  for  divorce,   the  startling 
increase  in  the  ratio  of  divorces  to  marriages,  and  the  extensive 
degeneration  of  morals  and  the  vast  domestic  and  social  miseries 
consequent  upon  such  mischievous  legislation. 

While  President  Woolsey  has  clearly  shown  that  there  is  urgent 
reason  for  thorough  reform  in  both  law  and  practice  respecting 


DUTY    OF    THE    CHURCH.  597 

divorce,  he  has  also  wisely  said  that  the  leadership  in  such  reform 
pertains  of  right  to  the  Christian  church.     To  the  honor  of  Roman 
Catholicism  it  should  be  admitted  that,  as  a  result  partly  of   its 
dogma  that  marriage  is  one  of  the  appointed  sacraments  of  relig- 
ion, a  positive  gift  of  grace  and  consequently  in  its  nature  indis- 
soluble, and  partly  for  other  reasons,  the  church  of  Rome  holds 
high  ground,  higher  even  than  some  Protestant  communions,  on 
this  whole  subject.    The  Anglican  communion  both  in  Britain  and 
in  the  United  States  has  also  taken  important  action  in  defense  of 
the  biblical  rule,  and  in  protest  against  miscellaneous  divorcement. 
Increasing  interest  in  the  subject  and  a  growing  determination  to 
resist  the  loose  theories  and  looser  practice  current  within  the  civil 
sphere,  are  becoming  apparent  in  other  denominaitons.     Amer- 
ican Presbyterianism  has  repeatedly  expressed  through  its  highest 
judicatory  (Digest,  1898,  p.  99)  its  opposition  to  divorce  on  other 
than  biblical  grounds,  and  its  regret  at  the  prevalence  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  of  unscriptural  views  of  the  marriage  rela- 
tion, and  at  the  growing  disregard  of  the  obligations  imposed  by 
that  relation,  and  the  frequent  separations  and  divorces  for  slight 
and  unwarrantable  reasons.     What  is  needful  everywhere  in  both 
church  and  state  is  a  more  profound  and  effectual  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  marriage,  at  least  in  the  Christian  sense,  is  not  a 
contract  merely,  but  a  relationship,  founded  in  the  divine  ordi- 
nance and  in  the  human  constitution,  and  sanctified  by  the  deepest 
convictions  of    men   in   all    Christian   countries — a   relationship 
fraught  with  permanent  consequences  in  respect  to  temporal  inter- 
ests, especially  within  the  home,  and  in  the  care  and  training  of 
the  offspring  of  marriage,  and  therefore  dissoluble  only  when  it 
has  been  made  void  through  the  adulterous  life  of  one  of  the  par- 
ties, or  in  other  ways  worthy  of  equal  reprobation.     The  Christian 
Church  at  least  can  do  nothing  else  than  to  stand  firmly  on  the 
strong  foundation  of  Scripture,  approving  marriage  and  pronounc- 
ing upon  it,  wherever  worthily  entered  into,  its  holy  benediction; 
and  protesting  against  and  in  every  practicable  way  resisting  all 
forms  of  divorcement  which  are  in  letter  or  spirit  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God. 

It  is  not  possible  here  to  enter  into  the  discussion  of  many 
questions  which  may  arise  in  connection  with  this  subject.  It  is 
a  practical  inquiry  whether  separation  a  mensa  et  toro,  if  prolonged 
by  choice,  should  be  permitted  to  continue  without  interposition 
by  the  church, — whether  church  judicatories  should  acquiesce  in 
the  decisions  of  civil  courts  granting  divorce  on  other  than  biblical 
grounds, — whether  ecclesiastical  authority  should  be  exercised  in 


598  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND   DUTIES. 

such  cases  to  compel  obedience  to  the  obligations  of  the  marriage 
contract  or  to  punish  their  violation.  It  is  also  a  practical  question 
whether  a  person  divorced  by  the  act  of  the  other  party,  and  on 
other  than  biblical  grounds,  is  still  entitled  as  before  to  church 
privileges, — whether  such  person  is  at  liberty,  being  blameless,  to 
marry  again, — whether  the  offending  person  may  marry  after 
divorce  has  been  granted,  and  the  person  sinned  against  has  been 
set  free  from  the  marriage  vow, — whether  a  minister  may  officiate 
at  marriages  of  this  sort  or  countenance  them.  On  such  specific 
queries  there  is  considerable  variation  of  judgment  among  both 
individuals  and  churches.  It  is  probable  that  no  fixed  rule  can 
be  laid  down  which  would  equitably  meet  all  the  particular  cases 
occurring,  especially  in  view  of  the  wide  variety  of  opinion  and 
action  in  various  states  and  countries.  The  general  principles 
involved  are  sufficiently  clear,  and  the  mind  and  conscience  of  the 
common  Christianity  may  be  trusted  to  make  all  needful  applica- 
tion. 

At  the  close  of  this  survey  of  the  teachings  of  this  chapter, 
and  of  so  much  in  other  parts  of  the  Confession  and  in  the  subor- 
dinate Symbols  as  bears  upon  the  civil 

11.    Christianity  and  the        ,  ,.  ,  ,    ..        ,  w,.  ,.  , 

„.  .  ,  .    '  relations  and  duties  of  Christians  and 

State :  mutual  duties. 

of  the  church,  it  will  be  well  to  empha- 
size the  fact  that  during  the  long  period  since  these  Symbols  were 
written,  and  especially  in  our  own  country,  such  relations  and 
duties,  instead  of  declining  in  importance,  have  assumed  even 
greater  significance  and  were  never  more  monieutous  or  solemn 
than  now.  Though  we  are  not  called  to  struggle  as  the  divines 
of  Westminster  and  the  Independent  party  of  Milton  and  Crom- 
well struggled,  for  due  recognition  of  the  plain  truth  that  God 
alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience,  yet  true  liberty  of  conscience  is 
still  by  no  means  free  from  peril  in  new  and  perhaps  equally 
dangerous  forms,  and  must  therefore  be  asserted  and  defended 
with  an  earnestness  and  courage  in  no  degree  less  than  that 
which  led  some  of  these  men  to  prison  and  even  to  death  in  its 
behalf.  Though  the  state,  as  we  know  it  and  live  under  its 
aegis,  is  another  and  very  different  institution  from  the  England 
of  the  era  of  the  Long  Parliament,  yet  now  as  then  civil  gov- 
ernment is  to  be  regarded  as  an  ordinance  of  God  for  his  own 
glory  and  the  public  good,  and  as  such  has  an  unabated  right 
to  the  support  of  all  Christian  citizens,  even  when  it  wields 
the  power  of  the  sword  to  maintain  its  own  existence,  or  for  the 
defense  and  encouragement  of  the  good  and   the  punishment 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    STATE.  509 

of  them  that  do  evil  within  its  domain.  Though  we  arc  in 
no  apparent  danger  of  suffering  from  the  assumed  right  of  the 
state  to  dictate  systems  of  doctrine  or  forms  of  order  and  worship 
for  the  regulation  of  the  church,  or  on  the  other  hand  from  the 
effort  of  any  church  or  sect  to  exercise  jurisdiction  in  civil  affairs, 
yet  we  may  neither  forget  at  what  great  cost  the  present  balance 
and  adjustment  between  these  two  primal  institutions  of  human 
society  has  been  won,  nor  neglect  the  constant  and  the  inalienable 
duty  of  watchfulness  lest  what  we  possess  should  be  disturbed  or 
impaired  on  either  side.  Though  the  significance  of  the  oath  as 
a  test  of  loyalty  or  a  protest  against  tyranny,  or  as  a  sign  of  con- 
formity to  the  prescripts  of  an  established  church,  has  passed 
measurably  away,  yet  the  oath  as  an  attestation  in  the  presence  of 
God  to  the  truthfulness  of  our  testimony  and  our  word,  remains 
an  observance  of  inestimable  value,  and  one  which  ought  to  be 
required  and  exercised  as  a  religious  act.  The  pious  vow,  though 
no  longer  required  in  any  sacerdotal  sense,  is  still  a  privilege,  if 
not  a  duty,  laid  upon  the  heart  and  conscience  of  each  believer. 
So  marriage  is  as  sacred  a  covenant  and  relation  now  as  when 
these  Symbols  were  written,  and  is  even  more  exposed  to  the 
assaults  of  wicked  men  and  to  corrupt  social  usages,  and  must 
therefore  like  the  Sabbath  and  other  kindred  institutes  of  our  holy 
religion,  be  defended  and  preserved  by  every  resource  within  our 
reach, — the  law  of  Christ  determining  alike  our  view  of  it  and 
our  opposition  to  whatever  loose  principle  or  practice  may  seem 
to  be  subverting  it.  In  all  such  directions  it  is  our  duty  as 
Christian  men,  and  as  well  the  dut3'  of  the  Christian  church  of 
whatever  name,  to  stand  firmly  by  that  inheritance  of  liberty  and 
of  righteousness  within  the  civil  sphere  which  we  have  received 
from  a  devout  and  heroic  ancestry. 

The  general  connections  of  Christianity  and  the  Christian 
church,  with  civil  society  and  with  human  states,  were  never  .so 
intimate,  so  complex,  so  interesting  and  vital  as  now.  The  limi- 
tations imposed  by  these  studies  permit  only  the  briefest  allusion 
to  this  very  broad  and  practical  subject.  We  may  see  at  a  glance 
that  there  is  much  which  society  and  the  state  may  do,  and  ought 
to  do,  in  furtherance  of  our  holy  faith.  Civil  protection  and  civil 
support  may  justly  be  granted  to  the  Christian  church  in  all  avail- 
able ways,  such  as  the  guardianship  of  ecclesiastical  organizations 
in  the  exercise  of  their  legitimate  rights,  the  exemption  from 
taxation  of  property  devoted  to  the  cause  of  religion,  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Sabbath,  peaceable  assembling  for  religious  worship, 
the  enforcement  of  law  in  the  interest  of  piety  and  morality, 


600  CIVIL   RELATIONS   AND    DUTIES. 

the  requisition  of  the  oath  in  civil  tribunals,  the  prohibition 
of  blasphemy  and  profanity  as  injurious  to  the  moral  welfare 
of  society.  Civil  government  in  this  age  of  the  world  cannot 
regard  Christianity  and  atheism  with  equal  favor,  since  Chris- 
tianity is  always  the  sure  and  strong  ally  of  just  government, 
while  atheism  in  all  its  forms  tends  always  to  anarchy  and  to  the 
destruction  of  organized  society.  Regarded  simply  as  a  benefi- 
cent organization,  unselfishly  maintained  for  the  inculcation  of 
sound  morals,  the  enforcement  of  mutual  duties  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  mutual  welfare  of  men,  the  Christian  church  has  a 
claim  to  support  and  protection,  privilege  and  immunity,  which 
no  worthy  state  can  or  will  refuse  to  recognize. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  may  at  a  glance  discern  far  greater 
services  which  the  church  may  render  to  the  state  and  to  human 
society.  Our  holy  faith  is  more  and  more  perceived  to  be  the 
strongest,  most  pervasive  and  enduring  factor  in  the  elevation, 
the  support,  the  practical  direction  and  inspiration  of  human  gov- 
ernment. While  Christianity  has  its  own  sphere  and  functions 
with  which  the  state  may  not  intermeddle — a  sacred  imperium  in 
imperio  within  which  no  sovereign  but  Christ  may  rule — it  enters 
by  divine  design  and  authority  into  the  civil  and  social  sphere  at  a 
thousand  points  as  an  exalting  and  sanctifying  power,  affecting 
legislation,  influencing  judiciary,  animating  administration,  and 
in  multiplied  ways  lifting  the  state  and  society  into  nobler  quality 
and  a  worthier  and  more  beneficent  experience.  So  far  as  the 
present  world  is  concerned,  the  ultimate  aim  of  Christianity  as  a 
religion,  and  of  the  church  as  an  institution,  is  nothing  less  than 
the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  among  men,  as  the 
supreme  fact  in  human  life.  And  in  securing  that  transcendent 
end  it  is  the  mission  of  Christianity  and  the  church,  not  only  to 
renew  the  individual  man,  but  to  regenerate  human  society  also, — 
to  bring  all  governments,  states,  civilizations,  to  their  highest 
possible  level  by  bringing  them  into  due  subordination  to  that 
august  Kingdom  of  grace  which  is  the  final  antecedent  and  pre- 
cursor to  the  Kingdom  of  glory. 


LECTURE  TWELFTH— THE  CHURCH  OF  GOD. 

Church  Visible  and  Invisible  :  Communion  of  Saints  : 
Constitution  and  Membership  :  Officers  and  Govern- 
ment :  Denominations  :  Church  Councils  :  Presbyteri- 
anism  :    Headship  of  Christ  :    Church  Growth. 

C.  F.  Ch.  XXV:  XXVI:  XXX:  XXXI.  L,.  C.  62-65; 
190-192.  Form  of  Gov.  Ch.  I-III,  VIII.  Book  of  Disci- 
pline, Ch.  I.     Direct,  for  Worship,  Ch.  X-XI. 

Thus  far  in  these  studies  we  have  meditated  upon  our  Holy- 
Faith  as  it  has  revealed  itself  in  the  person  of  Christ  the  Savior, 
and  in  the  process  and  experience  of  personal  salvation  in  and 
through  him.  We  have  contemplated  the  Christian  man  as  sanc- 
tified through  grace  and  guided  by  the  Spirit  into  various  spheres 
of  duty  "and  sendee,  in  happy  obedience  to  the  divine  law.  But 
Christianity  is  in  its  nature  a  social  as  well  as  personal  religion; 
it  has  a  gracious  mission  to  mankind  as  associated  in  the  family 
and  the  state:  it  is  a  part  of  its  restorative  work  to  regenerate 
human  society,  and  to  bring  the  race  as  well  as  the  individual  into 
loyal  obedience  to  God  in  Christ.  And  the  agency  through  which 
chiefly  it  accomplishes  this  social  mission  and  work  is  the 
Church, — the  Church  as  an  essential  constituent  in  the  divine 
plan  of  salvation  from  the  first,  and  as  an  institution  enduring 
as  the  family,  more  permanent  and  more  vital  to  man  even 
than  the  state, — an  organism  supernaturally  fitted  to  do  a  work 
which  the  individual  Christian  could  never  do,  and  to  maintain 
the  honor  of  God  and  the  perpetuity  of  revealed  religion,  as  no 
other  instrumentality  could  possibly  maintain  them.  Here,  in  the 
possession  of  such  an  agency,  Christianity  manifests  its  incalcu- 
lable superiority  to  all  the  natural  faiths  of  the  world,  and  here, 
in  the  weighty  powers  vested  in  the  Church  and  in  the  grand 
commission  given  it,  may  be  read  the  assurance  that  Christianity 
shall  yet  become  the  universal  religion  of  mankind. 

The  prominence  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  held  in  the 
estimation  of  the  Westminster  divines  is  illustrated,  not  only  by 
the  fact  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  their  time  was  given  to 
the  subject  in  its  various  aspects,  but  by  the  special  fact  that  no 


602  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

less  than  seven  of  the  thirty-three  chapters  in  the  Confession,  and 
nearly  one  sixth  in  bulk  of  the  entire  formulary,  and  a  still  larger 
proportion  (if  worship  be  included)  in  the  two  Catechisms,  are 
devoted  to  its  exposition.  And  if  to  this  there  be  added  the  Form 
of  Government,  the  Directory  for  Worship,  and  the  Book  of  Dis- 
cipline, which  are  concerned  chiefly  with  the  constitution  and 
proper  administration  of  the  Church,  this  prominence  becomes 
still  more  apparent.  What  we  have  already  learned  respecting 
the  peculiar  position  of  the  Assembly,  as  the  representative  agent 
of  British  Presbyterianism  in  its  struggle  to  become  the  national 
Church  of  Britain,  will  sufficiently  explain  the  elaborateness  and 
the  emphasis  of  its  teaching  on  this  subject. — In  taking  up  the 
theme  thus  presented,  it  will  be  of  advantage  to  postpone  for 
future  consideration  the  chapters  (XXVII-XXIX,  and  part  of 
XXI)  which  treat  of  the  sacraments  and  means  of  grace  and  wor- 
ship, and  to  confine  attention  to  the  four  chapters  (XXV-VI  : 
XXX-XXXI)  which  bring  into  view  the  Church  itself,  its 
material,  organization,  and  authority  as  a  divine  institution. 

It  will  enhance  our  estimate  of  the  importance  of  the  doctrine 
thus  extensively  presented  in  the  Symbols,   if  we  glance  at  the 

prominence  given  to  the  Church,  in  the 
1.  Protestant  doctrine  of  ,  ,    .     .. 

..     _.       .      _„     -  ^ several  aspects  just  named,  in  the  sym- 

the  Chureh.    Papal  error :  r         j  >  j 

Signs  of  the  True  Church.      bohsm   of   the    Reformation    generally, 

The  Council  of  Trent  did  not  take  up 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  for  .specific  consideration,  but  con- 
tented itself  with  an  exposition  of  the  sacraments  major  and 
minor,  and  of  the  priestly  orders  and  the  hierarchy.  Yet  there  is 
assumed  throughout  its  decrees  and  canons  that  unbiblical  and 
corrupting  conception  of  the  Church  as  the  one  onty  inspired,  infal- 
lible, authoritative  representative  through  the  papacy,  of  Christ 
and  his  grace  among  men,  against  which  the  Reformers  one  and  all 
so  earnestly  protested.  What  the  papal  doctrine  was,  and  still 
is,  may  be  seen  in  the  Syllabus  Error um,  in  the  extensive  para- 
graphs (V-VI)  which  treat  of  the  Church  and  its  rights,  and  of 
its  relations  to  civil  society.  It  cannot  be  said  that  Protestant- 
ism, in  its  opposition  to  the  papal  dogma,  was  always  clear  or 
always  consistent  in  its  antithetic  teaching.  Numerous  questions 
arose  among  the  Reformers  in  regard  to  the  type~~of  "Church 
organization  which  should  be  substituted  for  that  of  Rome,  to  the 
jurisdiction  and  the  proper  prerogatives  of  such  organization,  to 
the  kind  and  measure  of  authority  vested  in  its  officers,  and  many 
other  associated  matters.  These  questions  could  not,  in  the  stress 
and  struggle  of  the  times,   be  answered  in  a  moment,  and  the 


PAPAL  AND  PROTESTANT  DOCTRINE.  G03 

Protestant  cause  suffered  incalculably  from  this  inability.  The 
criticisms  and  taunts  of  the  defenders  of  the  papal  dogma  could 
not  be  fully  met  by  a  Protestantism  divided  and  to  some  extent 
discordant  at  these  important  points.  Nor  indeed  have  divisions 
and  discord  ceased  wholly  even  to  this  hour.  The  problem  of 
the  Church  is  still  largely  an  unsolved  problem  ;  questions  of 
organization,  jurisdiction,  authority,  are  still  springing  up  on 
many  sides  to  agitate  Protestant  churches,  and  to  damage  those 
supreme  interests  of  spiritual  Christianity  which  these  churches 
together  represent. 

Still  the  creeds  of  the  Reformation,  both  Lutheran  and  Re- 
formed, abound  in  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  Protestantism  was 
from  the  beginning  profoundly  interested  in  the  doctrine.  The 
Augsburg  Confession  here,  as  at  so  many  other  points,  strikes 
the  note  to  which  the  subsequent  Confessions  respond,  in  its 
affirmation  (VII)  that  there  is  but  one  holy  Church  which  is  to 
continue  forever, — that  this  Church  is  the  congregation  of  saints 
or  of  believers, — and  that  it  may  be  known  by  the  fact  that  the 
Gospel  is  rightly  taught  or  preached  in  it,  and  the  Christian  sacra- 
ments are  rightly  administered.  Luther  in  his  Catechism  sub- 
stitutes the  word,  Christian,  for  the  historic  word,  catholic,  as 
it  appears  in  the  three  ancient  creeds,  but  affirms  in  general 
the  teaching  of  Augsburg.  The  Formula  of  Concord,  without 
attempting  a  direct  definition,  carries  the  same  general  doctrine 
throughout  its  discussion  of  certain  particular  truths,  such  as  the 
ceremonies  of  the  true  religion,  in  opposition  to  the  papacy  on  one 
side  and  to  anabaptism  and  kindred  heresies  on  the  other.  Zwiugli 
declares  that  the  truly  catholic  Church,  the  spouse  of  Christ,  is 
the  communion  of  such  as  are  saints,  and  with  democratic  fervor 
affirms  that  all  Christians  are  brethren  of  Christ,  and  therefore 
brethren  among  themselves,— meanwhile  insisting  earnestly  that 
the  hierarchy  of  Rome  has  no  warrant  whatever  in  holy  Scrip- 
ture. The  Theses  of  Berne,  a  minor  Swiss  creed  which  strongly 
illustrates  the  influence  of  Zwingli  and  other  Swiss  leaders,  de- 
clares that  the  holy  Christian  Church  is  born  of  the  Word  of  God, 
makes  no  laws  or  commandments  contrary  to  that  Word,  sets 
aside  all  merely  human  traditions,  and  listens  not  to  the  voice  of 
strangers.  The  First  Helvetic  Confession,  like  the  Formula  of 
Concord,  presents  no  formal  definition,  but  assumes  apparently 
the  correctness  of  the  general  Protestant  teaching  on  the  subject. 
But  the  Second  Helvetic  here  as  often  elsewhere  is  much  more 
specific  in  its  Article  (XVII)  on  the  Catholic  and  Holy  Church 
of  God  :  declaring  that  there  always  was,  is  now,  and  to  the  end 


604  THE    CHURCH    OF   GOD. 

of  time  shall  be,  a  Church  or  assembly  of  believers  called  and 
gathered  from  the  world,  who  know  and  worship  the  true  God  in 
Christ,  our  Savior,  and  by  faith  partake  of  all  the  benefits  freely 
offered  through  him, — that  there  needs  to  be  but  one  such  Church, 
catholic  or  universal,  spread  through  the  whole  earth  and  enduring 
through  all  ages, — that  this  Church  can  have  no  other  head  than 
Christ,  all  other  headship  such  as  that  of  Rome  being  a  tyran- 
nical usurpation, — and  that  this  one  Church  may  properly  be 
divided  into  particular  churches, — parties  and  divisions  that  are 
destructive  of  the  true  unity,  being  guarded  against;  God  also 
overruling  these  when  they  occur,  for  his  own  glory  and  for  the 
illustration  of  truth. 

It  is  hardly  needful  to  quote  the   teaching  of  the  later  conti- 
nental symbols  ;  the-French  and  the  Belgic  and  others  being  in 
substantial  harmony  with  the  doctrine  enunciated  in  the  Second 
Helvetic  creed,  or  scarcely  going  beyond  it.     The  interesting  fact 
may  be  mentioned  that  the  first  of  these,   while  affirming  that 
there  can  be  no  church  where  the  Word  of  God  is  not  received  and 
submitted  to,  and  on  this  ground  condemning  the  papal  assemblies, 
as  the  church  of  Rome  is  styled,  still  admits  (XXVIII)  that  some 
trace  of  the  true  church  is  left  in  the  papal  communion,  inasmuch 
as  the  virtue  and  substance  of  baptism  have  been  retained  in  it. 
The  Scotch  Confession  contains  two  somewhat  elaborate  articles 
(XVI  and  XVIII)  on  the  Kirk,  and  on  the  Notes  and  Signs  by 
which  the  true  Kirk  may  be  discerned  from  the  false, — articles  in 
connection  with  which  the  terrific  arraignment  and  condemnation 
of  the  church  of  Rome  in  the  Second  Confession,  or  National 
Covenant,  should  be  read  by  way  of  comment.     Three  of  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XIX-XXI)  discuss  the  doctrine,  and  with 
greater  coolness  and  discrimination  :  affirming  on  one  side  that 
the  visible  church  is  a  congregation  of  faithful  men  in  the  which 
the  pure  Word  of  God  is  preached,  and  the  sacraments  are  duly 
ministered,  in  all  those  things  that  are  requisite  to  the  same, — this 
church  having  authority  to  decree  other  rites  and  ceremonies:  but 
on  the  other  side  strongly  declaring  with  Saxon  positiveness  that, 
although  this  church  be  a  witness  and  a  keeper  of  Holy  Writ,  it 
may  not  ordain  any  thing  that  is  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God 
written,  or  decree  anything  beside  or  beyond  the  same  as  a  mat- 
ter of  belief  necessary  to  salvation — such  things  having  neither 
strength  nor  authority  unless  it  may  be  declared  that  they  be 
iaken  out  of  the  Holy  Scripture.* 

*Barclay  in  his  Apology  (Prop.  X  :  3)   representing  the  view  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  George  Fox,  omits  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  and  also 


MARKS    OF    THE    TRUE    CHURCH.  605 

On  the  general  question  suggested  by  this  survey  of  the  Prot- 
estant formularies,  as  to  the  signs  or  marks  by  which  the  true 
Church  may  be  distinguished  from  all  false  or  corrupted  organiz- 
ations claiming  that  name,  an  interesting  discussion  arose  during 
the  first  decade  of  the  Reformation  which  continued  through  the 
next  century,  and  which  in  modified  form  is  still  continued.  The 
papal  answer  included  four  visible  and  essential  elements, — apos- 
tolicity,  or  the  headship  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  oneness  and  in- 
fallibility in  faith,  authoritative  observance  of  the  sacraments, 
and  (secondarily)  a  geographic  center  and  an  ecumenical  juris- 
diction. Winer  (Comparative  View  of  Creeds)  states  that  the 
Romanists  define  the  Church  as  the  fellowship  of  those  baptized 
into  Christ, — a  fellowship  founded  upon  earth  by  Christ  under  his 
representative,  the  pope,  as  its  visible  head.  Bellarmine  gives 
the  three  notes,  true  profession  of  faith,  communion  in  the  sac- 
raments, and  submission  to  the  legitimate  pastor,  the  Roman 
pontiff.  In  this  view  the  Church  is  regarded  as  a  visible  society, 
having  certain  divine  attributes  and  prerogatives,  and  endowed 
with  saving  grace,  with  which  there  must  be  personal  union  in 
order  to  salvation.  It  is  therefore  externally,  visibly,  and  contin- 
uously, one  and  catholic  or  universal  as  the  world  in  its  dominion. 

Protestantism  on  the  other  hand  was  constrained  by  its  ex- 
tensive distribution  into  civic,  provincial,  national  churches 
throughout  northern  Europe  and  in  the  British  Isles  to  emphasize 
the  position  that  the  true  Church  is  indeed  one  but  invisible  as 
one,  and  that  all  these  visible  communions,  separated  by  many 
geographic  and  political  lines,  are  coequal  parts  of  that  one 
invisible  Church.  It  was  constrained  also  to  substitute  for  the 
notes  or  signs  emphasized  by  the  advocates  of  Rome  three  sim- 
ple but  indispensable  marks,  belief  in  the  Gospel,  preaching  of 
the  Word,  and  due  administration  of  the  sacraments.  The  quo- 
tations from  its  symbols  already  given  sufficiently  illustrate  the 
general  doctrine  in  which  all  were  agreed  :  wherever  these  three 
signs  appeared,  there  they  were  ready  to  recognize  a  true  church 
of  Christ.     The  Belgic  Confession  speaks  for  all  in  its  statement 

the  official  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  defines  the  Church  as  simply  a  com- 
pany of  persons  who  have  been  led  to  believe  the  principles  and  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  and  who  being  united  in  love  and  experience,  assemble  together 
to  wait  on  God  and  worship  him,  to  bear  testimony  for  the  truth,  and  to  in- 
struct and  care  for  one  another,  according  to  their  several  measures  and  attain- 
ments. In  wide  contrast  with  this  statement  is  the  formal  declaration  of 
Greek  Christianity  :  The  Church  is  a  divinely  instituted  community  of  men, 
united  by  the  orthodox  faith,  the  law  of  God,  the  hierarchy  and  the  sacra- 
ments. 


606  THE    CHURCH    OF   GOD. 

that  the  marks  by  which  the  true  Church  is  known  are  these  :  If 
the  pure  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  is  preached  therein,  if  it  main- 
tains the  pure  administration  of  the  sacraments  as  instituted  by 
Christ,  if  church  discipline  is  exercised  in  punishing  of  sin  :  in 
short,  if  all  things  are  managed  according  to  the  pure  Word  of 
God,  all  things  contrary  thereto  rejected,  and  Jesus  Christ  ac- 
knowledged as  the  only  Head  of  the  Church.  Though  there 
were  differences  among  the  Reformers  as  to  what  belief  in  the 
Gospel  signified  or  implied,  and  to  the  real  signification  of  the 
sacraments,  especially  that  of  the  holy  supper,  they  were  so  con- 
scious of  oneness  in  spiritual  experience  and  of  the  substantial 
oneness  of  the  great  interest  for  which  they  were  all  battling, 
that  they  were  read)'-  to  minimize  all  such  differences,  and  to  join 
hands  in  covenant  over  their  broader  and  deeper  agreements. 
Such  conscious  unity  was  on  one  side  a  natural  result  of  their 
strong  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  and  their 
uncompromising  acceptance  of  this  truth  as  the  foundation  of 
their  religious  hope  :  on  the  other  side  it  came  from  their  joint 
struggle  with  their  papal  adversaries,  and  from  the  firm  conviction 
that,  unless  they  could  thus  stand  together  on  the  basis  of  their 
united  connection  with  the  one  great  Church  Invisible,  they  and 
their  doctrine  must  soon  perish  together. 

Augustine  had  stated  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  God  as 
invisible,  as  comprising  the  people  of  God  throughout  all  nations, 
all  saints  being  joined  and  thereunto  numbered  who  lived  in  this 
world  even  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  so  believing  that  he  would 
come,  even  as  we  believe  that  he  hath  come.  But  it  was  Calvin  to 
whom  especially  Protestantism  owes  the  distinction  between  the 
Church  visible  and  the  Church  invisible,  with  which  the  "West- 
minster Confession  introduces  its  exposition  of  the  wrhole  subject. 
Calvin  defined  the  Church  (Inst.  B.  IV  :  1)  as  the  whole  multi- 
tude dispersed  all  over  the  world,  who  profess  to  worship  one 
God  and  Jesus  Christ,  who  are  initiated  into  his  faith  by  baptism, 
who  testify  their  unity  in  true  doctrine  and  charity  by  a  partici- 
pation of  the  sacred  supper,  who  consent  to  the  Word  of  the  L,ord, 
and  preserve  the  ministry  which  Christ  has  instituted  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preaching  it.  He  proceeds  to  say  that  in  this  universal 
Church  are  comprehended  particular  churches  distributed  ac- 
cording to  human  necessity  in  various  towns  and  villages,  and 
that  each  of  these  respectively  is  justly  distinguished  by  the  name 
and  authority  of  a  church.  He  emphasizes  over  and  over  the 
two  great  marks,  the  faithful  preaching  of  the  Word  and  the 
right  ministration  of  the  sacraments  ;  asserts  that  wherever  these 


THE   WESTMINSTER   STATEMENT.  607 

are,  the  fruits  of  true  piety  will  certainly  be  produced  ;  and  de- 
clares, doubtless  with  reference  to  the  diversities  of  opinion  then 
current  within  Protestant  circles,  that  no  society  in  which  these 
fruits  abound,    ought  ever  to  be  rejected  or  even  challenged, 
though  it  might  be  chargeable  with  many  faults.     He  exhorts  to 
patience  with    imperfections   and   considerateness   even   toward 
error,  warns  against  undue  zeal  for  righteousness  and  the  Dona- 
tistic  demand    for  complete  holiness  within    the    household  of 
faith,  and  avers  that  each  true  church  will  be  known  everywhere 
by  its  illustration  of  the  gentle  and  loving  temper  of  Christ  and 
of  Paul,  the  patient  apostle.     It  is  needless  to  describe  further 
his  position  and  teaching.      Those  who  are  accustomed  to  regard 
that  great  leader  of  the  Protestant  host  as  a  narrow  dogmatist, 
unwilling  to  yield  his  own  convictions  to  any  stress  of  argument  or 
airy  pressure  of  holy  charity,  might  gain  a  more  just  view  of  him 
if  they  would  but  read  with  care  and  candor  what  he  has  thus 
written.     If  the  lofty  conception  of  the  one  true  Church  of  Christ, 
catholic  and  invisible  in  form,  but  evermore  one  and  indivisible 
in  faith  and  life,  has  obtained  a  firm  foothold  among  Protestants, 
the  credit  is  due  first  of  all,  to  the  profound  sage  of  Geneva. 

The  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  in  the  Westmin- 
ster Symbols  (Chap.  XXV)  commences  with  two  important  defi- 
nitions.    The  first  is  a  definition  of  the 

..,,«,        ,         .....  ...        2.  Westminster  statement: 

invisible  Church,    which  is  also  called     Church invislble  and  vlsibie. 

the  catholic  or  universal  Church,  and 

which  consists  of  none  but  elect  and  regenerate  persons,  and  of 
all  the  regenerate,  who  through  all  the  past,  or  at  present,  or 
through  all  the  future,  have  been,  are,  or  shall  be  saved  through 
Christ,  and  of  all  these  conceived  of  as  gathered  into  one  body, 
real  though  invisible,  of  which  body  Christ  is  the  onty  and  the 
perpetual  head.  The  material  of  which  this  invisible  body  is 
composed,  consists  of  none  but  those  who,  in  the  language  of  the 
Larger  Catechism  (65-6)  enjoy  union  and  communion  with  Christ 
in  grace  and  glory.  Their  union  in  grace  is  said  to  lie  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  spiritually  and  mystically,  yet  really  and  insepara- 
bly joined  to  him  as  their  head  and  husband — a  conjunction  which 
is  said  to  be  formed  at  the  time  of  their  effectual  calling  and  con- 
version. The  language  carries  us  almost  to  the  verge  of  that  weird 
conception  of  a  mystical  union  of  natures — an  organic  unity  of 
will  and  constitution,  which  has  fascinated  a  certain  class  or  type 
of  minds  at  various  periods  in  the  development  of  spiritual  Chris- 
tianity. But  the  correction  to  that  error  appears  in  the  following 
chapter,  which  affirms  that  the  communion  that  saints  have  with 


608  THK    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

Christ  doth  not  make  them  in  a?iy  wise  Partakers  of  the  substance  of 
his  Godhead,  or  to  be  equal  with  him  in  an}-  respect, — a  fancy 
which  is  justly  pronounced  impious  and  blasphemous.  This  grac- 
ious communion  lies  rather,  it  is  said  (69)  in  their  justification 
and  adoption  and  sanctification,  and  in  all  those  selected  benefits 
which  come  upon  them  as  sharers  in  the  virtue  of  his  mediation. 
Thus  defined  and  limited,  the  invisible  Church  presents  itself  to 
our  view  as  the  grandest  conception  of  human  fellowship  in  one 
holy  organism  which  it  is  possible  for  the  mind  of  man  to  frame — 
an  organism  which  though  invisible  is  yet  more  real  and  potent 
than  the  strongest  earthly  empire,  and  which  extends  over  all 
lands  and  oceans,  and  finds  its  hallowed  material  on  every  conti- 
nent and  every  island  of  earth. 

The  second  definition  is  that  of  the  visible  Church,  also  viewed 
as  catholic  and  universal,  which  is  said  to  consist  of  all  those  who 
openly  profess  the  true  religion,  together  with  their  children, — 
not  a  national  church  like  the  Hebraic,  constituted  under  the 
Mosaic  law,  but  an  organization  which  knows  no  boundary  of  race 
or  country,  and  which  finds  its  membership  wherever  men  are 
ready  to  affirm  their  allegiance  to  Christ,  and  to  enter  into  organic 
union  with  his  avowed  followers.  The  qualification  for  such 
visible  membership  lies  not  in  any  natural  endowment  or  pecul- 
iarity but  in  the  voluntary  profession  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
the  public  covenant  to  live  in  obedience  to  the  Christian  rule.  It 
is  not  to  be  presumed  that  such  connection  is  always  the  same 
thing  as  membership  in  the  invisible  Church,  since  the  profession 
and  covenant  may  not  in  every  case  represent,  though  they  may 
be  presumed  generally  to  represent,  such  holy  and  blessed  union 
with  Christ  himself.  The  visible  Church,  as  thus  constituted 
of  professing  believers,  is  further  said  to  be  the  kingdom  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  this  world  :  no  other  conception  of  a  divine 
kingdom  established  or  to  be  established  in  the  world,  apart  from 
the  Church  visible  and  invisible,  or  consequent  upon  it,  is  men- 
tioned in  the  Symbols.  This  Church  is  also  called,  in  the 
phrase  of  Scripture,  the  house  and  family  of  God  on  earth — the 
brotherhood  of  believers.  As  such  it  is  entirely  oblivious  of  all 
those  distinctions  of  capacity,  endowment,  possessions,  position 
or  influence  among  men,  which  reveal  themselves  more  or  less 
prominently  in  all  the  natural  fellowships  and  unions  of  human 
life.  Within  its  sacred  circle  there  is  no  room  for  any  racial  or 
political  or  social  or  personal  differentiations.  Barbarian,  Scy- 
thian, bond  and  free,  male  and  female,  make  one  and  the  same 
profession,  and  in  virtue  of  that  one  profession  stand  together  on 


THE   CHURCH    VISIBLE.  609 

a  common .  level  as  to  mutual  right  and  privilege.  It  is  also 
noticeable  that  children  are  here  counted  as  members  of  the  visible 
Church  in  virtue,  not  of  their  own  personal  profession  which 
they  are  incompetent  to  make,  but  of  the  profession  and  cove- 
nant made  by  their  parents,  and  of  whose  privileges  they  are, 
under  the  law  of  nature  which  makes  the  family  organically  one, 
permitted  to  share.  This  feature  will  come  again  into  view,  in 
connection  with  the  matter  of  church  membership  and  of  infant 
baptism  :  here  it  is  needful  only  to  note  its  introduction. 

One  affirmation  in  this  definition  demands  special  notice, — the 
statement  that  outside  of  this  visible  Church  there  is  no  ordinary 
possibility  of  salvation.  Similar  statements,  in  some  cases  much 
less  guarded,  appear  in  several  of  the  earlier  symbols.  The  Augs- 
burg Conf.  declares  that  the  promise  of  salvation  is  not  given  to 
those  who  are  outside  of  the  church  of  Christ :  the  Second  Helv. 
that,  as  there  was  no  safety  outside  of  the  ark  of  Noah,  so  there 
is  none  outside  of  Christ,  and  those  who  wish  to  have  life  in  him 
must  not  live  in  separation  from  his  true  church  :  the  Belgic, 
quoting  from  Cyprian,  extra  ecclesiam  nulla  sit  salus  :  and  the 
Scotch  Conf :  Out  of  the  Kirk  there  is  neither  life  nor  eternal 
felicity.  In  the  light  of  such  sweeping  affirmations  the  phrase, 
no  ordinary  possibility,  seems  considerate  and  mild  indeed.  How 
strictly  is  such  a  proposition  to  be  construed?  There  have 
been  periods  in  history,  as  during  the  pagan  persecutions,  when 
the  visible  church,  in  the  sense  here  defined,  could  hardly  be 
said  to  have  had  an  existence,  and  when  a  public  profession  of 
faith  in  connection  with  that  church,  could  not  be  made.  It  is 
also  true  that  there  are  many  in  Christian  lands  who  have  never 
entered  the  visible  church  through  this  appointed  gateway,  but 
whom  Christ  nevertheless  counts  among  the  elect  members  of  the 
church  invisible.  Instances  sometimes  arise  in  fact  where  such 
public  profession,  if  not  entirely  impossible,  is  at  least  for  a  time 
impracticable  or  injudicious  ;  and  others  where  spiritual  ignorance 
or  some  misconception  of  duty  may  lead  a  real  believer  to  the 
neglect  of  that  open  profession  of  allegiance  which  our  L,ord  plaiuly 
requires.  Justly  construed,  the  clause  in  question  leaves  suffi- 
cient room  for  all  that  is  thus  extraordinary,  without  in  the  least 
compromising  or  lowering  the  force  of  the  divine  command.  The 
Catechism  indeed  (113)  places  making  profession  of  religion  in 
hypocrisy  or  for  sinister  ends,  among  the  sins  forbidden  in  the  sec- 
ond commandment  ;  and  also  (151)  classes  vows  and  promises 
and  engagements  to  God,  if  made  presumptuously  or  willfully, 
among  the  "offences  which   are  especially  heinous  in  his  sight. 


610  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

Yet  on  the  other  hand,  the  refusal  to  profess  religion,  not  merely 
in  the  way  of  formal  covenant  with  the  people  of  God  in  his 
visible  household,  but  no  less  in  all  other  ways  in  which  we  can 
show  forth  our  belief  in  his  grace  and  our  desire  to  obey  his  law 
and  be  called  by  his  name,  is  beyond  doubt  a  grievous  sin  in  his 
sight — a  sin  which  may  be  condoned  only  by  the  presence  of  ex- 
traordinary hindrance  or  of  circumstantial  impossibility.  Not  only 
Christ  but  his  organized  church  has  the  right  to  expect  such  pro- 
fession, and  even  in  his  name  to  demand  it,  as  a  duty,  clear,  per- 
sonal and  imperative  wherever  compliance  is  practicable. 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  these  descriptions  that  the  Church 
visible  and  the  Church  invisible  are  two  Churches  :  in  many  par- 
ticulars, as  in  their  common  headship,  their  regulative  law,  their 
inward  temper,  their  final  end  and  consummation,  they  are  one 
Church  manifesting  itself  in  these  differing  aspects  and  relations. 
Yet  neither  are  the  distinctions  in  the  case  to  be  overlooked.  The 
invisible  Church  extends  to  heaven  as  truly  as  to  the  present 
world,  and  reaches  through  all  time  past  and  future  as  well  as 
present  :  the  visible  Church  includes  in  its  scope  only  the  earth 
and  the  present  hour.  The  first  is  without  formal  organization, 
held  together  by  no  bond  but  the  bond  of  conscious  union  with 
Christ,  and  having  no  fellowship  except  that  which  is  purely 
spiritual :  the  second  is  an  organization,  as  palpable  and  distinct 
as  the  family  or  the  state  with  which  it  is  so  often  compared  in 
the  Pauline  letters.  The  membership  of  the  first  is  unknown  to 
men,  and  its  records  are  kept  in  heaven  only  :  the  membership 
of  the  second  is  enrolled  in  written  books,  and  the  names  and 
characters  are  more  or  less  fully  known  to  the  world.  The  first 
has  no  ministry  or  sacrament  or  ordinance  distinctively  :  to  the 
second,  in  the  laguage  of  the  third  section,  Christ  hath  given  the 
ministry,  oracles  and  ordinances  of  God,  for  the  gathering  and  per- 
fecting of  the  saints — gifts  which  are,  it  is  added,  to  be  continued 
io  the  end  of  the  world.  The  full  force  of  this  statement  can  be 
felt  only  when  we  come  to  examine  the  teaching  of  the  Symbols 
respecting  the  sacraments  and  means  of  grace,  and  the  Christian 
ministry  as  a  sacred  order,  created  and  maintained  for  the  benefit 
of  the  visible,  organized  church.  Yet  it  is  important  at  this  stage 
to  note  the  fact  that  this  church  is  not  only  an  organism  but  an 
institution — an  institution  permanently  established  on  the  earth 
by  divine  authority,  created  to  fulfill  an  appointed  purpose,  and 
divinely  equipped  with  all  the  agencies  and  provisions  needful  for 
tile  accomplishment  of  that  sublime  purpose. 

It  should  be  noted  further  that,  while   Protestantism  lifted  up 


ITS    MISSION    AND    EQUIPMENT.  611 

in  answer  to  the  Roman  challenge,  the  bright  conception  of  the 
Church  invisible  in  which  all  true  saints  have  membership,  and 
the  kindred  conception  of  the  Church  visible  in  which  all  partic- 
ular organizations  of  professed  disciples  have  a  legitimate  place, 
it  also  emphasized  as  strongly  as  Rome  the  truth  that  the  visible 
Church,  being  thus  one,  has  the  whole  earth  for  its  domain,  and 
as  an  institution  is  fully  competent  through  grace  to  proclaim  the 
Gospel  to  mankind,  and  to  lead  the  whole  race  of  man  into  obe- 
dience to  Christ.  In  other  words,  the  Reformers  repudiated  the 
assumptions  of  Catholicism  as  to  its  superior  equipment,  whether 
in  belief  or  liturgy  or  apostolicity,  for  the  accomplishing  of  these 
grand  ends,  and  claimed  for  themselves  the  possession  of  the  only 
instrumentalities  that  could  succeed  in  such  an  undertaking. 
The)'  believed  in  the  superior  effectiveness  of  the  sincere  and  in- 
telligent proclamation  of  the  Gospel  of  salvation  through  faith 
only  :  they  believed  that  the  administration  of  the  two  sacra- 
ments as  instituted  by  Christ,  in  the  simple  and  spiritual  way  he 
had  appointed,  would  have  greater  power  over  men  than  all  the 
gorgeous  show  of  the  Roman  mass  :  they  believed  that  the  min- 
istry as  appointed  by  him,  seconded  by  the  consecrated  service  of 
all  believers,  under  the  apostolic  rule  of  brotherhood,  would  con- 
stitute a  more  effective  spiritual  agency  than  the  Roman  hier- 
archy could  be.  In  a  word  they  believed  that  the  Christian 
Church,  just  as  they  had  been  taught  to  recognize  it  in  the  New 
Testament,  was  an  organization  better  equipped  in  every  particular 
than  that  which  was  represented  by  popes  and  cardinals  and  out- 
ward ceremonials  at  Rome.  This  Church  needed  no  geographic 
center  ;  its  circumference  was  wide  as  the  earth  and  as  compre- 
hensive as  that  humanity  for  whose  redemption  it  had,  as  the}' 
believed,  been  instituted  of  God.  And  the  history  of  Protestant- 
ism during  these  three  centuries,  notwithstanding  all  the  schisms 
that  have  weakened  it,  the  corruptions  that  have  crept  into  it, 
and  the  pitiful  lack  of  faith  and  charity  and  consecration  which 
has  so  largely  hindered  its  progress, — the  history  of  Protestantism 
during  this  long  period  of  testing  and  development  has  proved 
beyond  question  that  the  Reformers,  not  the  Council  of  Trent, 
were  right  in  their  conception  of  the  Church — one  and  catholic 
and  apostolic — the  living  Church  of  the  living  God. 

The  generic  conception  of  the  Church  thus  presented  in  Prot- 
estant symbolism,  and  especially  in  the  Westminster  formularies, 
suggests  at  this  point  the  underlying  question  whether  the  church 
%s  thus  described  is  merely  a  human  arrangement  devised  for 


612  THE   CHURCH   OF   GOD. 

the  furtherance  of  the  cause  of  religion,  or  is  an  original  and 
essential  feature  of  the  divine  plan  for  the  salvation  of  the  race 

through  the  Gospel.     It  suggests  also 
3.    The  Church  in  the  di-     the  further  question  whether,  if  the 
vine  plan :  its  evolution,  Pa-       ,        .   ,  ,  .       , 

triarchal,    Hebraic,    Chris-     church  be  such  an  origmal  and  essen" 
ian  tial  part  of  this  divine  plan,  it  was  first 

established  in  conjunction  with  the 
advent  of  Christ  and  the  pentecostal  dispensation  of  the  Spirit,  or 
existed  from  the  earliest  ages  ;  gradually  unfolding  itself  histor- 
ically in  the  world  as  the  scheme  of  redemption  was  progressively 
disclosed  from  the  original  promise  in  Eden,  on  through  the  patri- 
archal and  Hebraic  dispensations,  until  it  reached  its  culmination 
at  the  incarnation  and  Messiahship  of  our  Lord. 

No  intelligent  student  of  Scripture  can  suppose  that  the  Church 
is  a  human  institution  merely — a  device  of  man,  or  a  provision  of 
the  State,  as  Hobbes  affirmed,  invented  in  the  interest  of  religion 
and  as  a  help  toward  the  maintenance  of  good  order  in  human 
society.  The  New  Testament,  in  both  its  historic  and  its  precep- 
tive sections,  as  much  affirms  the  supernatural  quality  of  the 
church,  its  origin  in  the  divine  purpose,  its  superhuman  equip- 
ment and  provisions,  its  celestial  authority  and  its  divinely  or- 
dained mission  to  the  race, — as  much  as  it  affirms  either  the  divine 
authorship  of  the  Scriptures,  or  the  true  and  proper  divinity 
of  our  Lord  himself.  If  the  church  is  not  a  supernatural  crea- 
tion, Christianity  is  not  a  supernatural  faith.  It  may  be  said 
further,  that  the  church  though  supernatural  lies  constructively 
in  the  nature  of  man  as  a  religious  being,  just  as  the  family  lies 
constructively  in  his  domestic,  or  the  state  in  his  political  nature 
and  instincts.  For  it  is  not  more  true  that  the  domestic  instinct 
demands  the  family  as  its  legitimate  sphere  of  activity,  or  that 
the  political  instinct  requires  the  state  as  its  appointed  arena  of 
development,  than  it  is  that  the  religious  nature  needs  and  must 
have  the  church  as  the  domain  within  which  its  spiritual  energies 
may  find  appropriate  play,  and  through  which  its  noblest  spiritual 
growth  may  be  attained.  As  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures,  the  church 
has  the  appearance  of  having  been  divinely  devised  to  meet  this 
religious  need  ;  it  has  also  justified  itself  abundantly,  by  actual 
experiment,  as  an  indispensable  adjunct  to  the  right  development 
of  holy  character  both  in  the  individual  and  within  the  organized 
family  of  grace. 

It  may  be  suggested  further,  that  the  diffusion  and  perpetua- 
tion of  religion  in  the  world,  and  the  adequate  manifestation  of 
the  divine  grace  and  glory  among  men,  require  just  such  an 


CHURCH    IX    THE    DIVINE    PLAN.  613 

institution  and  agency.  Believers  die,  and  so  far  as  they  arc  con- 
cerned, apart  from  the  fading  memory  of  their  faith  and  their 
works,  religion  on  the  earth  dies  with  them.  Generations  of 
believers  perish  from  among  men,  and  their  religious  labors  and 
influence  in  like  .manner  rapidly  fade  away.  It  consequently 
becomes  indispensable  that  our  holy  faith  should  be  embodied  in 
an  enduring  institution  like  the  church — an  institution  which  has  a 
continuous  life,  and  which  therefore  can  maintain  permanent,  even 
indestructible  position  in  the  world.  While  the  church  thus  ex- 
ists, it  may  safely  be  prophesied  that  religion  will  survive  through 
the  ages.  The  church  is  also  by  its  own  nature  a  propagative  as 
well  as  preservative  agency,  specially  qualified  and  empowered  to 
spread  religion  abroad  in  the  world,  as  individual  effort  could 
never  diffuse  it.  Its  ordinances  and  worship,  its  creeds  and  testi- 
monies, its  associated  vitality,  its  capacities  for  aggressive  move- 
ment, all  fit  it  peculiarly  for  such  cosmic  spread  of  the  Gospel. 
And  furthermore,  God  is  glorified  among  men  in  and  by  his 
church  as  he  could  not  be  through  the'  agency  of  the  individual 
disciple,  or  even  of  the  sanctified  family.  The  testimony  of  the 
organized  church  to  his  Word,  to  his  law,  to  his  saving  grace  is 
more  diffusive  in  quality,  and  more  persuasive  and  potent  in 
effect.  There  is  an  added  strength,  a  reverberating  conclusiveness 
in  the  combination  of  so  many  concurrent  voices  within  this  gra- 
cious organism,  which  the  world  cannot  well  refrain  from  hearing. 
Thus  recognizing  the  Church  as  a  supernatural  institution, 
having  an  indispensable  office  and  service  in  conjunction  with 
Christianity  as  a  supernatural  religion,  we  are  prepared  to  con- 
sider in  brief  the  second  question  proposed, — whether  this  insti- 
tution was  first  established  by  Christ  during  his  Messiahship,  or 
may  rather  be  traced  backward  to  the  very  beginning  of  the 
scheme  of  redemption.  The  latter  is  unquestionably  the  biblical 
representation.  The  Second  Helvetic  Confession  justly  taught 
that,  as  God  willed  from  the  beginning  that  men  should  be  saved, 
so  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  the  church  existed  from  the 
beginning — there  having  been  always  a  more  or  less  visible  house- 
hold of  faith  among  men.  The  Westminster  Symbols  bring  out 
the  doctrine  more  distinctly,  though  in  somewhat  scattered  and 
fragmentary  statements.  In  the  chapter  (VIII)  on  Christ  as  the 
Mediator  it  is  affirmed  that  the  church  was  an  essential  feature  in 
the  divine  plan  of  grace  ;  God  the  Father  having  made  his  Son 
the  Head  and  Savior  of  this  church,  and  having  given  to  him  from 
all  eternity  a  people,  to  be  by  him  in  time  redeemed,  called,  justi- 
fied, sanctified  and  glorified.     In  the  chapter  now  specially  under 


614  THE    CHURCH    OF   GOD. 

notice  (XXV)  it  is  said  that  there  shall  be  always  a  church  on  earth 
to  worship  God  according  to  his  will, — a  proposition  which  im- 
plies that  tftere  was  always  such  a  church,  existing  from  the 
earliest  hour  when  that  will  began  to  be  made  known  to  men. 
In  the  opening  sentence  of  the  Confession  it  is  said  that  it  pleased 
the  Lord  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  to  reveal  him- 
self, and  to  declare  his  will  unto  his  church,  and  afterwards  for  the 
establishment  and  comfort  of  the  church  to  commit  the  same 
wholly  unto  writing — in  other  words,  to  provide  the  inspired 
Scriptures  for  its  guidance.  In  the  chapter  on  Providence  (V) 
it  is  declared  that  God  after  a  most  special  manner  taketh  care  of 
his  church,  and  disposeth  all  things  to  the  good  thereof  ;  and  in 
the  Larger  Catechism,  (63)  that  he  has  protected  and  preserved 
the  church  in  all  ages.  The  church  in  the  Hebraic  era  is  quaintly 
described  (Ch.  XIX)  as  a  church  tmderage — in  a  state  of  tutelage, 
under  ceremonial  laws  and  typical  ordinances,  all  prefiguring 
Christ  and  his  matured  church.  In  the  Form  of  Gov.  (Ch.  II),  it 
is  said  that  Christ  hath  erected  in  this  world  a  kingdom  which  is  his 
church,  and  in  the  Larger  Catechism  (54)  that  he  doth  at  all 
times  gather  and  defend  his  church  against  all  enemies. 

Turning  to  the  Bible  for  light,  we  discover  at  once  three  suc- 
cessive eras  or  dispensations  in  the  life  of  the  church,  related  to 
each  other  as  the  blade,  the  ear,  and  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,  in 
the  parable  of  our  Lord.  Of  these  the  first  is  the  patriarchal 
era,  ending  with  the  formation  of  the  Hebrew  state,  but  extend- 
ing backward,  not  merely  to  the  call  of  Abraham,  as  is  often 
affirmed,  but  to  the  ages  before  Abraham,  to  the  period  of  the 
flood,  and  further  still  to  the  very  dawn  of  the  religious  history 
of  the  race.  It  is  impracticable  here  to  detail  the  evidences  found 
in  Holy  Writ,  which  justify  the  conclusion  that,  as  there  were 
pious  households  on  the  earth  from  the  beginning,  so  the  church 
in  incipient  forms  lived  within  the  family,  generation  after  gen- 
eration, from  Adam  to  Noah,  from  Noah  to  Abraham.  During 
the  Abrahamic  period,  and  down  to  the  exodus  from  Egyptian 
bondage,  we  find  still  clearer  signs  that  this  supernatural  insti- 
tution was  taking  firmer  and  wider  root  in  the  earth,  though  it 
existed  mostly,  so  far  as  the  sacred  records  show  us,  within  the 
pious  household, — the  Sabbath  observed,  sacrifices  consecrated, 
divine  law  honored,  prayer  and  praise  offered,  God  adored  in  the 
families  of  Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  in  many  a  humble  home  among 
their  descendants,  living  as  slaves  and  exiles  far  from  their 
ancestral  land. 

Passing  into  the  second  or  Hebraic  era,  we  discover  at  once 


PATRIARCHAL,    HEBRAIC,    CHRISTIAN.  615 

various  evidences  of  the  existence  of  that  church  under  age,  as  the 
Confession  aptly  styles  it,  which  was  to  be  a  precursor  of  the  con- 
summated church  afterwards  organized  by  the  hand  of  the  incar- 
nated Mediator.  We  discern  at  this  point  a  marked  enlargement 
in  the  amount  and  quality  of  religious  truth  possessed,  a  broader 
and  more  definite  conception  of  divine  law  as  set  forth  in  the  Ten 
Commandments,  a  more  elaborate  and  significant  ritual,  together 
with  an  emphasized  obligation  to  observe  the  Sabbath  and  to 
count  the  tabernacle  or  sanctuary  a  sacred  place,  a  more  fully 
regulated  and  trained  priesthood,  and  further  endorsement  of  the 
churchly  as  well  as  national  seal  of  circumcision.  These  vast 
changes  were  sufficient  of  themselves  to  constitute  a  new  era,  a 
new  dispensation,  in  the  life  of  the  church  as  well  as  of  the  Hebrew 
state.  There  were  resemblances  enough  remaining  to  make  it 
obvious  that  this  was  not  another,  but  rather  an  evolved  and  ex- 
panded church, — adjusted  in  its  scope  and  appointments  to  the 
new  conditions  on  which  the  Jewish  nation  was  about  to  enter. 
The  church  and  the  state  still  remained  in  vital  intimacy,  as  the 
church  and  the  family  had  previously  existed,  and  God  still  ruled 
theoretically  in  both,  as  he  had  from  the  beginning  ruled  within 
the  pious  household.  Yet  a  remarkable  transition  was  intro- 
duced—a transition  which  was  continued  for  sixteen  centuries, 
with  many  successive  stages  and  developments,  through  the  sev- 
eral cycles  first  of  the  judges,  then  of  the  kings,  and  finally  of 
the  prophets,  until  the  fullness  of  the  time  when  a  still  grander 
transition  should  take  place. 

The  Christian  Church  is  never  to  be  contemplated  as  another 
and  independent  organization  :  such  a  conception  severs  at  a 
stroke  the  vital  ties  which  bind  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New 
into  living  unity,  robs  prophecy  of  all  significance,  and  renders 
the  divine  dealing  with  mankind  prior  to  the  incarnation  an  inex- 
plicable mystery.  The  transition  is  indeed  more  marked — the 
evolution  more  broad  and  impressive.  In  some  respects  the 
change  seems  also  as  silent  as  the  movement  from  early  dawn  to 
the  full  and  perfect  day.  Neither  our  L,ord  nor  his  apostles  were 
inclined  to  hasten  its  quiet  progress,  or  formally  to  set  it  up  at 
once  on  that  throne  of  cosmic  supremacy  which  it  was  destined 
to  occupy.  Yet  the  comprehensive  change  came,  as  an  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  himself.  The  types 
and  ceremonies  were  all  consummated  in  him,  and  therefore  cere- 
mony and  type  came  to  an  end.  He  being  the  universal  priest, 
having  in  himself  the  power  of  an  endless  life,  the  order  of  priest- 
hood was  forever  abolished.     The  Commandments  became  now  a 


616  THE    CHURCH    OP    GOD. 

spiritual  law,  filling  all  the  life  with  its  presence,  and  ruling  with 
holy  sway  through  all  the  soul.  The  old  national  lines  were 
obliterated,  and  the  church,  freed  from  its  connection  with  the 
Jewish  state,  became  the  church  of  humanity,  having  the  whole 
earth  as  its  predestined  domain.  Yet  all  that  rendered  either  the 
Abrahamic  or  the  Mosaic  church  valuable  as  modes  of  holy  living 
and  holy  culture  remained  :  the  points  of  identit3r  were  still  care- 
fully preserved  :  and  therefore  in  the  new  we  see  the  old  living 
again,  though  with  marvelous  additions  in  strength  and  beauty 
and  effectiveness. 

Such  briefly  stated  is  that  conception  of  the  Church  of  God  as 
originally  formed  in  the  divine  plan,  and  as  like  the  Gospel 
itself  progressively  unfolded  in  history,  which  the  Symbols  in 
rather  fragmentary  method  commend  to  our  belief.  No  other 
Protestant  formulary  contains  such  a  doctrine  in  anything  like 
equal  fullness.  The  careful  study  of  the  conception  as  thus  pre- 
sented cannot  fail  to  be  of  unspeakable  value  to  the  student  ; 
revealing  to  him  the  true  relationship  of  much  that  must  other- 
wise seem  disjointed  or  extraneous,  giving  new  meaning  to  the 
older  Scriptures  at  man}'  points,  and  binding  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New — the  complex  aggregate  of  type  and  ritual,  story  and 
psalm,  prophecy  and  praise,  law  and  doctrine,  hope  and  realiza- 
tion— into  a  superhuman  and  sublime  unity.  In  these  confes- 
sional studies  such  a  conception  is  well-nigh  indispensable  to  right 
or  appreciative  views  of  the  Christian  Church  as  we  have  seen  it 
described  in  the  Protestant  symbolism,  and  as  we  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  contemplate  it  hereafter  more  in  detail. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  consideration  of  the  particular  church 

as  a  representative  form  of   the  comprehensive  organism  now 

described,  it  will  be  well  to  pause  for  a 
4.    Communion  of  Saints:  .  .  ,  ..         c  ., 

.      .  moment  in  contemplation  or  the  sug- 

its  extent  and  nature.  r  ° 

gestive  chapter  (XXVI)  which  treats 

of  the  Communion  of  Saints — the  only  chapter  on  the  subject  iu 
the  whole  range  of  Christian  symbolism.  Although  the  Assem- 
bly, as  we  have  noted,  did  not  rise  in  fact  to  the  high  level  of  its 
own  teaching  at  this  point,  it  may  fairly  be  set  down  to  its  credit 
that  at  such  a  troublous  period  in  Protestant  history,  especially  in 
Britain,  it  should  have  drafted  a  chapter  so  full  of  the  holiest 
temper  of  Christian  catholicity.  The  phrase  doubtless  flowed  over 
from  the  Apostolic  Letters  into  the  earliest  of  the  creeds,  where  it 
took  its  place  beside  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  holy 
Catholic  Church,  and  the  three  important  tenets  that  follow  in  that 


COMMUNION    OF    SAINTS.  617 

creed,  as  one  of  the  fundamental  credenda  of  our  religion.  It  does 
not  appear  in  either  the  Niceue  or  the  Athanasian  symbol,  or  in 
the  current  form  of  the  earlier  creed  as  recited  by  the  Greek 
church.  It  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  merely  a  later  expansion 
of  the  antecedent  phrase,  the  holy  catholic  church;  or  as  pointing 
back  to  the  first  phrase  in  the  sentence,  I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Ghost;  or  as  an  echo  of  the  apostolic  benediction,  in  which  com- 
munion with  the  Holy  Ghost  is  associated  with  the  love  of  God, 
and  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  crowning  heritage 
and  blessing  of  believers.  It  was  doubtless  formulated  to  express 
an  additional  truth,  which  had  gradual^  made  its  way  into  the 
consciousness  and  heart  of  the  church,  during  its  long  eras  of 
fellowship  in  trial  and  persecution,  and  in  conflict  with  heresy  and 
unbelief.  Since  its  introduction,  probably  during  the  sixth  or 
seventh  century  (Schaff,  Creeds,  1 :  54)  it  has  been  recognized  by 
Protestants  universally,  though  with  variations  in  interpretation, 
as  one  of  the  fundamental,  and  in  some  aspects  specially  precious 
affirmations  of  our  holy  faith. 

Moehler  (Symbolism,  342)  interprets  the  phrase  as  referring  to 
the  union  subsisting  between  the  saints  on  earth  and  the  saints  in 
glory,  and  on  this  ground  justifies  the  dogma  of  the  intercession 
of  departed  saints  in  our  behalf,  and  affirms  the  duty  and  privilege 
of  venerating  or  worshiping  them,  and  invoking  their  aid  in  our 
endeavor  to  lead  Christian  lives.  Pearson  and  also  Leighton,  in 
their  expositions  of  the  Creed,  regard  the  phrase  as  affirming,  in 
the  language  of  the  former,  that  the  saints  of  God  living  in  the 
church  of  Christ  on  earth  are  in  communion  still  with  all  the  saints 
departed  out  of  this  life,  and  admitted  to  the  presence  of  God, — 
death  not  interrupting  the  spiritual  fellowship  already  established 
here,  in  virtue  of  the  mystical  unity  existing  between  all  believers 
and  Christ.  L,eighton  goes  still  further, — declaring  that  while 
the  saints  on  earth  enjoy  such  communion  one  with  another,  they 
are  also  one  city  and  one  family  with  all  those  who  have  died  in  the 
faith  and  fear  of  God,  and  who  in  their  state  of  glory  still  sym- 
pathize with  the  faithful  below,  assisting  and  comforting  and 
praying  for  them.  Pearson  also  regards  the  phrase  as  pointing 
likewise  to  the  communion  of  each  saint  with  the  Deity,  Father 
and  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  as  representing  a  species  of  union 
and  fellowship  maintained  also  with  all  the  holy  angels. 

Whether  it  be  or  be  not  true  that  the  saints  in  glory  are  still 
permitted  to  maintain  in  some  manner  inexplicable  to  us  a  species 
of  communion  with  the  saints  on  earth,  interceding  with  God  in 
their  behalf,  or  assisting  and  comforting  them  by  some  form  of 


618  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

interposition,  or  in  other  mysterious  ways  influencing  their  lives 
in  the  interest  of  holiness,  such  propositions  are  not  justified  by 
this  confessional  phrase.  The  chapter  we  are  considering  limits 
the  communion  in  question  simply  to  the  present  life, — saying 
nothing  as  to  the  possible  fellowship  of  saints  on  earth  with  the 
sanctified  in  heaven  or  with  the  holy  angels  or  with  God  or  the 
blessed  Trinity.  It  simply  affirms  that  in  virtue  of  the  mediation 
of  Christ,  and  of  the  personal  union  established  by  faith  with  him 
as  the  Head,  all  believers  are  in  love  tinited  one  to  a?wther,  and  have 
each  a  rightful  share  in  the  gifts  and  graces  of  all  the  rest,  and 
that  each  is  therefore  under  obligation  to  all  the  rest,  to  render 
unto  them  as  a  matter  of  spiritual  right  whatever  services  may 
co7iduce  to  their  mutual  good  both  in  the  inward  and  outward  man. 
In  the  L,arger  Catechism  (63)  such  communion  is  put  down  as  an 
inherent  feature  of  the  visible  church,  and  as  constituting  one  of 
the  special  privileges  enjoyed  by  those  who  are  in  connection  with 
the  organized  household  of  faith.  It  is  not  implied  in  this  defi- 
nition, as  some  have  claimed,  that  this  communion  requires  exact 
identity  of  belief,  or  exact  unity  in  experience,  or  exact  uniformity 
in  government  or  worship  or  sacrament;  union  in,  with  and 
through  Christ  as  the  Head  is  its  true  ground  and  source. 

The  chapter  proceeds  to  indicate  three  practical  directions  in 
which  such  communion  within  the  visible  Church  may  find 
expression  :  first,  in  community  in  the  worship  of  God, — such 
worship  being,  according  to  the  best  Protestant  conception,  not 
an  official  performance  by  the  priesthood  or  the  ministry,  but  a 
service  in  which  all  believers  may  share,  and  to  whose  highest 
usefulness  all  are  bound  to  contribute.  A  subsequent  chapter 
(XXIX)  speaks  particularly  of  the  sacramental  supper,  in  which 
believers  share  together,  as  a  special  bond  and  pledge  of  their 
communion  with  Christ,  as  well  as  with  each  other.  Secondly  : 
in  the  form  of  spiritual  services,  wherein  each  seeks  in  all  practi- 
cable ways  to  assist  the  rest  in  their  struggles  against  sin,  and  their 
efforts  after  holiness,— by  counsel,  by  example,  by  prayer  for  and 
with  them,  by  sympathy  in  their  griefs  and  temptations,  and  by 
brotherly  encouragement  helping  them  forward  as  fellow  pilgrims 
on  their  way  to  the  common  heaven.  No  Christian  can  rightly 
be  indifferent  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  humblest  or  weakest  of 
his  brethren  in  Christ  ;  passing  by  them  on  the  other  side  under 
whatever  impulse  of  pride  or  fear  or  selfishness,  while  he  pos- 
sesses the  spiritual  ability  to  aid  them  in  the  Christian  life.  And 
if,  through  his  neglect  of  the  culture  of  his  own  soul,  he  has 
failed  to  gain  such  spiritual  ability,  and  has  nothing  to  give  to 


THIS    COMMUNION   UNIVERSAL.  G19 

other  saints  iu  their  religious  need,  he  so  far  forth  even  forfeits  his 
own  claim  upon  such  communion  in  gifts  and  graces  as  they  in 
turn  may  become  able  to  confer. 

Thirdly  :  in  relieving  the  needs  of  the  saints  in  ouhvard  things, 
according  to  the  abilities  and  the  necessities  existing  in  the  case. 
It  is  carefully  said,  by  way  of  rebuke  to  a  current  error,  that  this 
communion  doth  not  take  away  or  infringe  the  title  or  property 
which  each  man  hath  in  his  own  goods  and  possessions.  The  re- 
markable scene  recorded  in  the  earlier  chapters  of  the  Book  of 
Acts  is  not  to  be  taken  as  a  rule  for  the  church  in  all  places  and 
times  :  community  of  goods  is  not  an  indispensable  condition  of 
saintly  communion,  nor  is  communism  in  any  form  a  legitimate 
feature  of  Christianity.  Macpherson  (Comm. )  says  justly  that  the 
communism  of  the  Jerusalem  church  was  only  temporary  ;  determ- 
ined by  local  circumstances,  and  suited  to  the  special  condition 
existing,  but  never  tried  again  even  in  the  apostolic  church. 
Yet  the  obligation  of  every  believer  to  do  all  that  he  is  able  toward 
relieving  the  necessities  of  his  brethren  within  the  visible  house- 
hold of  faith, — to  aid  them  in  their  rightful  undertakings,  to 
assist  them  in  their  losses,  to  minister  to  them  in  their  sickness 
or  their  poverty — is  one  which  belongs  to  the  very  essence  of  our 
religion,  and  from  which  no  one  can  claim  exemption  who  is  a 
true  disciple  of  Him  of  whom  it  was  prophetically  said  that  He 
took  our  infirmities  and  bore  our  sicknesses.  While  we  are  in- 
deed bound  to  practice  charity  toward  all  men,  in  all  the  varied 
forms  which  universal  brotherhood  may  require,  such  charity 
presents  its  highest  claim — as  Paul  taught  the  Corinthian  church 
— wherever  those  who  dwell  with  us  in  the  blessed  communion 
of  saintship  need  our  help,  whether  in  the  inward  or  the  outward 
man.  It  is  within  the  household  of  faith  that  Christian  love  finds 
its  sweetest,  noblest  manifestations. 

One  further  element  in  the  doctrine  presents  itself  in  the  decla- 
ration that  this  communion  is  to  be  extended,  so  far  as  God  gives 
opportunity,  unto  all  those  who  in  every  place  call  upon  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  a  legitimate 
expansion,  as  it  is  a  world-wide  application,  of  the  obligation  here 
defined.  Whatever  may  or  may  not  be  realized  as  yet  in  fact,  it 
still  is  true  in  principle  that  this  communion  of  saints,  contem- 
plated as  a  gracious  sentiment,  knows  no  boundaries  of  creed  or 
polity  or  worship — knows  no  geographic  or  other  outward  limita- 
tions. This  is  obvious  from  the  nature  of  the  sentiment,  and  from 
its  source  and  ground,  as  seen  in  the  underlying  union  of  every 
genuine  saint  with  Christ  himself.     Having  fellowship  with  him, 


620  THK    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

deriving  their  common  life  from  him,  engaged  alike  in  his 
one  great  vineyard,  all  saints  of  necessit)r  have  fellowship  one 
with  another — a  fellowship  as  wide  as  the  earth  and  enduring 
as  time .  This  is  indeed  an  ideal  conception :  we  nowhere 
see  such  communion  realized  in  fact.  Christian  catholicity  is 
still  the  exception  rather  than  the  practical  rule,  even  within 
the  most  spiritual  circles  of  believers.  We  are  compelled  rather 
to  confess  that  we  see  those  whom  we  regard  as  alike  disciples 
and  followers  of  Christ,  in  a  thousand  ways  breaking  away 
from  that  beautiful  unity  which  all  profess  when  they  recite  the 
ancient  creecL  Presbyteriauism  itself  has  never  been,  is  not  now, 
entirely  true  to  the  noble  doctrine  which  it  was  first  among  Prot- 
estant organizations  to  affirm.  It  is  indeed  to  the  credit  of  the 
Presbyterian  Alliance,  that  it  has  placed  in  the  preamble  of  its 
Constitution  the  statement  that,  in  forming  such  an  alliance  of 
Presbyterian  churches,  the  general  principle  maintained  and 
taught  in  the  Reformed  Confessions,  is  still  affirmed, — that  the 
Church  of  God  on  earth,  though  composed  of  many  members,  is 
one  body  in  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  which  body 
Christ  is  the  supreme  Head  and  the  Scriptures  are  alone  the  in- 
fallible Law.  Similar  movements  among  other  evangelical  com- 
munions toward  confederation  if  not  organic  union  on  the  basis 
of  such  recognized  spiritual  unity,  are  among  the  most  encour- 
aging signs  of  the  times.  Still  there  is  little  immediate  prospect 
that  anywhere  in  Protestant  circles,  and  certainly  not  within  the 
domain  of  Papacy,  the  prayer  of  our  common  Lord  that  all  who 
are  his  shall  be  one — one  in  such  impressive  sense  and  measure 
that  the  whole  wTorld  shall  perceive  it — will  receive  its  due  and 
blessed  accomplishment. 

The  question  whether  sects  or  denominations  may  rightfully 
exist  within  the  one  Church  of  God  on  earth  presses  itself  at  this 

point  upon  our  consideration.     It  is 
5.    Sects  and  denominations:  ..  v  -r, 

how  far  justified.  a  questlon  peculiar  to  Protestantism, 

and  one  which  the  advocates  of  the 
Papacy  have  persistently  urged  as  not  merely  a  problem  to  be 
solved,  but  also  a  palpable  proof  that  Protestantism  in  its  numer- 
ous varieties  is  a  schismatic  departure  from  the  biblical  ideal.  It 
is  also  a  question  of  less  significance  in  Protestant  countries  where 
state  churches  are  established,  with  consequent  uniformity  of  an 
external  or  formal  sort,  than  in  countries  like  our  own  where 
Protestant  sects  may  be  counted  by  scores,  each  characterized  by 
some  specific  peculiarities,  but  all  having  the  same  legal  standing, 
and  all  soliciting  adherence,   sometimes  with   manifestations  of 


SECTS    AND    DENOMINATIONS.  C'l 

partisan  zeal  which  are  quite  at  variance  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
brotherhood  of  all  believers.  As  it  thus  presents  itself,  the  ques- 
tion is  not  to  be  answered  by  assuming  that  any  one  among  these 
sects  alone  possesses  the  biblical  doctrine,  or  represents  the 
biblical  polity,  or  alone  offers  acceptable  worship,  or  observes  the 
sacraments  according  to  the  Scriptural  rule.  The  jus  divinum 
theory  in  whatever  form,  by  whatever  religious  body  urged,  no 
longer  commands  the  assent  either  of  Christian  scholarship,  or  of 
the  popular  judgment.  And  if  any  such  denomination  claims 
that  its  variety  of  worship  or  order  or  doctrine  conforms  more 
closely  than  those  of  any  other  to  the  teaching  and  the  usages 
recorded  in  the  Bible,  it  still  must  hold  even  this  claim  in  due 
subordination  to  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  communion  of 
saints  which  all  confess  together.  How  then,  under  such  condi- 
tions, can  these  denominational  segregations  be  justified? 

The  Form  of  Government  as  drafted  by  the  Assembly,  follow- 
ing the  state  church  theory,  affirmed  that  the  ordinary  way  of 
dividing  Christians  into  distinct  congregations,  and  the  way  most 
expedient  for  edification,  is  by  the  respective  bounds  of  their  dwell- 
ings,— this  being  pronounced  most  conducive  to  the  convenient 
use  of  the  ordinances,  and  most  helpful  in  the  discharge  of 
those  more  private  duties  which  Christians  as  brethren  owe  to  one 
another.  So  far  as  we  can  discover,  no  other  rule  than  that  of 
such  geographic  subdivision  was  recognized  in  the  apostolic 
church  :,  there  were  in  fact  no  Pauline  or  Petrine  or  Johannean 
churches  as  has  been  claimed,  distinguishable  from  each  other  by 
doctrinal  or  ecclesiastical  peculiarities.  This  geographic  law  is 
set  forth  in  the  American  Form  of  Gov.  also,  in  the  statement 
(Ch.  II)  that  as  the  immense  multitude  of  professing  believers 
with  their  children  cannot  meet  together  in  one  place,  to  hold  com- 
munion or  to  worship  God,  it  is  reasonable  and  warranted  by 
Scripture  example  that  they  should  be  divided  it/to  many  particular 
churches:  it  being  added,  however,  in  accordance  with  the  Presby- 
terian theory  of  church  polity,  that  it  is  expedient  and  agreeable 
to  Scripture,  and  the  practice  of  the  primitive  Christians,  that 
these  particular  churches  when  formed  should  be  associated 
together  organically,  and  be  governed  not  only  by  congregational, 
but  also  by  presbyterial  and  synodical  assemblies. 

But  a  more  radical  law  of  distribution  reveals  itself  in  main 
Protestant  lands,  and  especially  in  our  own,  in  the  wide  diversi- 
ties existing  as  to  polity,  to  doctrine,  and  to  worship,  including 
the  sacraments.  It  would  be  impracticable  here  to  describe  these 
diversities  in  detail.     There  are  in  general  three  differing  concep- 


622  THK    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

tions  of  church  government,  democratic  and  representative  and 
hierarchal,  with  many  varieties  of  combination, — three  main  types 
of  doctrine,  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  and  Arminian,  with  still 
more  numerous  varieties,  and  more  complex  combinations, — and 
at  least  two  generic  modes  of  worship,  the  liturgical  and  its  oppo- 
site, also  with  marked  variations  in  tendency  and  practice.  The 
advocates  of  these  all  agree  that  there  should  be  government 
and  doctrine  and  worship  within  the  Christian  church,  but  as  to 
the  form  of  government,  the  type  of  doctrine,  the  mode  of  wor- 
ship, there  are  wide,  sometimes  even  radical,  diversities  in  judg- 
ment and  usage.  The  causes  of  such  variation  may  be  easily 
traced.  They  are  not  to  be  found  altogether  or  mainly,  as  is 
sometimes  fancied,  in  unworth}*  incentives  merely, — such  as  an 
inordinate  zeal  of  opinion,  or  human  ambition,  or  the  passion  of 
party  bent  on  securing  supremacy.  They  lie  largely  in  tempera- 
ment and  taste,  in  early  education,  in  domestic  connections,  in 
philosophic  bias  or  training,  in  the  usages  of  surrounding  society, 
in  civil  government,  and  a  multitude  of  other  extraneous  influ- 
ences often  unconsciously  yet  decisively  affecting  judgment,  in- 
clination, preference.  Nor  is  it  an  error  to  suppose  that  there 
are  complex  and  antithetic  elements  in  Christianity  itself,  such 
as  its  mingled  democratic  and  monarchal  qualities,  which  furnish 
occasion  for  such  differing  conceptions  of  what  the  church  ought 
to  be  in  its  organization,  its  belief,  and  its  devotions.  The  signifi- 
cant fact  in  the  case  is  that  for  reasons  of  one  kind  and  another 
these  variations  have  existed  in  all  ages,  at  least  since  the  Refor- 
mation, and  so  far  as  we  can  see,  seem  likely  to  exist  for  ages 
to  come.     Are  they  intrinsically  schismatic  and  wrong  ? 

Milton  (True  Religion)  tersely  defines  schism  as  a  rent  or 
division  made  in  the  church  whenever  anybodj*  on  insufficient 
grounds  (such  as  the  name  of  place  or  a  person)  undertakes  to 
set  up  a  distinct  faith  or  government.  As  in  the  epistle  of  Paul  to 
the  Corinthian  saints,  the  term  is  generally  used  as  descrip- 
tive of  an}*  movement  to  produce  division  in  the  church  without 
adequate  cause.  Whenever  Christian  men  on  just  grounds  are 
constrained  to  withdraw  from  the  communion  or  jurisdiction  of 
any  church,  or  are  driven  out  by  the  action  of  an  unjust  or  a 
bigoted  majority,  they  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  schismatics. 
Real  schism  springs  from  other  sources,  and  is  actuated  by  a  very 
different  spirit  and  purpose.  The  schismatic  temper  may  and 
does  exist  in  wide  varieties  and  in  many  degrees  more  or  less  cul- 
pable,— such  as  factional  jealousy,  denominational  rivalry,  church 
oride  or  bigotry,   inordinate   claims  of  supremacy,   denying  the 


SCHISM    AND    SECTARIANISM.  623 

validity  of  the  ministry  or  sacraments  of  other  Christian  churches. 
And  wherever  devotion  to  a  specific  doctrine  or  polity  or  variety 
of  worship,  or  mode  of  administering  the  sacraments,  brings 
about  any  violation  of  the  cardinal  law  of  spiritual  unity — espec- 
ially where  the  sectarian  spirit,  concentrated  on  minor  issues, 
leads  to  the  multiplying  of  congregations  or  sects  without  ade- 
quate reason,  there  open  schism  appears  in  all  its  deformity,  and 
in  even*  such  manifestation  it  is  obviously  an  offence  against  the 
Church  catholic  and  a  crime  against  Christ  as  its  Head.  Nor 
should  it  ever  be  forgotten  that  there  is  always  serious  danger, 
especially  in  a  country  and  an  age  like  ours,  that  denominational 
zeal,  though  it  should  not  reach  the  point  of  sinful  schism,  maw 
if  not  sedulously  watched,  degenerate  into  a  narrow  and  aggres- 
sive sectarianism,  which  is  as  truly  as  positive  schism  at  variance 
with  the  biblical  rule  and  with  the  confessional  conception  of  the 
communion  of  saints. 

On  the  other  hand  it  should  be  admitted  that  the  denomina- 
tional spirit  may  not  only  exist  in  entire  harmony  with  that 
fundamental  conception,  but  may  even  become  an  efficient  incite- 
ment and  help  in  the  upbuilding,  through  the  joint  action  of  many 
churches  and  parties,  of  the  one  catholic  and  apostolic  Church. 
Intelligent  and  honest  segregation  on  the  basis  of  recognized  dif- 
ferences in  judgment  and  taste,  or  even  in  spiritual  sentiment  or 
experience,  may  not,  often  does  not,  involve  any  departure  from 
the  great  law  of  Christian  unit}-.  It  may  rather  be,  sometimes 
has  been,  the  case  that  this  primal  law  receives  most  impressive 
illustration  in  and  through  such  segregation.  Those  who  are 
thus  divided  on  the  basis  of  healthful  preference  for  doctrine  or 
order  or  worship,  may  still  be  all  the  more  conscious  of  the  blessed 
oneness  that  holds  them  in  unison  around  all  that  is  vitally  char- 
acteristic of  the  common  Christianity.  It  is  certainly  a  fact  of 
history  that  denominational  divisions,  with  the  special  activity 
and  spirit  of  sacrifice  which  they  tend  to  awaken,  and  through 
the  varieties  of  adaptation  in  sen-ice  which  they  develop,  have 
often  proved  of  signal  value  to  the  general  cause.  The  popular 
comparison  of  these  distributed  varieties  of  organized  Christianity 
to  the  divisions  of  an  army  moving  by  diverse  processes  and  under 
different  array  toward  a  common  consummation,  is  in  substance 
accurate  and  just.  Especially  is  this  true  in  an  irenic  age  like 
this,  when  the  temper  of  sect  is  so  obviously  dying  out,  when  the 
fundamental  doctrine  of  the  communion  of  saints  is  becoming  so 
widely  received  and  illustrated  in  experience,  and  when  spiritual 
Protestantism   is  realizing  more  and  more  that   interior    unity 


624  THE   CHURCH   OF   GOD. 

which  is  both  the  highest  evidence  of  its  divine  quality,  and  the 
best  assurance  of  its  ultimate  success  in  winning  the  world  for 
Christ. 

Descending  from  this  general  survey,  we  may  now  profitably 
turn  to  consider  in  several  aspects  the  particular  church  or  con- 
gregation of  avowed  believers, — de- 
6.    The  Particular    church:     nned  in  the  Form  of  Gov.  (Ch.  II  : 
Constitution  and  membership:     .   s  ■.  ..  .  ,  . 

infant  membership.  lv>    as  consisting  of  a   number  of 

professing  Christians,  with  their 
offspring,  voluntarily  associated  together  for  divine  worship  and 
godly  living,  agreeably  to  the  Scriptures,  and  submitting  to  a  cer- 
tain form  of  government.  Such  a  church  is  an  organized  section 
or  division  of  that  Church  Visible  which  is  defined  in  the  Larger 
Catechism  (62)  as  a  society  made  up  of  all  such  as  in  all  ages 
and  places  of  the  world  do  profess  the  true  religion  and  of  their 
children.  It  is  always,  first,  a  voluntary  association, — its  mem- 
bership being  brought  together  and  held  together,  not  by  any 
external  constraint  such  as  the  edict  of  the  state,  but  of  their  own 
free  election.  It  is  always,  secondly,  an  association  based  on 
the  principle  of  piety, — the  profession  of  such  piety  being  the 
only  condition  requisite  to  admission,  and  the  culture  of  piety,  or 
godly  living,  being  the  prime  reason  for  its  existence.  It  is 
always,  thirdly,  an  association  or  organization  rather  than  a  mere 
assemblage  of  believers — a  permanent  form  of  fellowship,  with 
such  a  degree  of  government  as  is  essential  to  its  perpetuity  and 
proper  efneiene}^,  so  far  as  the  ends  of  its  existence  are  concerned. 
It  is  always,  fourthly,  an  association  based  on  the  Scriptures  as 
both  furnishing  its  justifying  foundation  and  containing  the  law 
according  to  which  its  fellowship  and  its  activities  are  to  be  reg- 
ulated. It  is  always,  fifthly,  an  association  for  divine  worship  as 
well  as  godly  living — a  holy  organism  whose  central  function  it 
is  to  bear  testimony  to  the  truth  and  grace  of  God  as  made  known 
in  the  Gospel,  and  to  adore  and  glorif)*  him  before  men.  In  a 
word,  it  is  an  organization  of  those  who  profess  to  love  God,  and 
in  the  Christian  dispensation  of  those  who  profess  to  love  God  as 
revealed  in  Christ,  existing  permanently  under  some  prescribed 
constitution,  written  or  understood,  for  the  purpose  of  worshiping 
him,  and  of  spreading  abroad  the  saving  knowledge  of  him  in  the 
earth.  Such  was  in  substance  the  constitution  of  the  particular 
church,  even  while  it  existed  constructively  in  the  families  of  the 
patriarchs,  and  still  more  obviously  as  it  existed  within  the  shel- 
tering limitations  of  the  Hebrew  state  :  such  eminently  are  its 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP.  625 

material,  its  fundamental  principles,  its  bond  and  law  of  union, 
and  its  design  or  end  tinder  the  Gospel. 

The  question  of  membership  in  the  particular  church  is  one  of 
the  gravest  importance.  The  only  admissible  qualification  for 
such  membership,  according  to  the  general  judgment  of  evan- 
gelical Protestantism,  is  personal  piety  credibly  possessed  and 
avowed.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  recognized  basis  of  such 
membership  in  the  apostolic  church  was  an  open  and  authenti- 
cated belief  in  and  acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  appointed 
Messiah,  the  only  Redeemer  of  men  :  on  this  basis  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile, men  and  women  of  all  races,  classes,  conditions,  found  wel- 
come within  that  sacred  fold.  For  some  centuries  this  continued 
to  be  the  single  and  simple  qualification,  until  at  length  the 
severe  pressure  of  persecution  on  one  side  and  the  development 
of  worldliness  and  of  hierarchal  corruption  on  the  other  side,  led 
on  to  a  reduction  of  the  primitive  standard.  Connection  with 
the  church  by  degrees  became  formal  rather  than  spiritual ;  sub- 
mission to  priestly  rites  and  regulations  took  the  place  of  personal 
union  with  Christ ;  communicants  received  their  membership 
through  birth  or  through  proselytic  ceremony  rather  than  through 
faith.  Such  was  substantially  the  doctrine,  or  at  least  the  practice, 
of  the  papal  communion  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Reformation. 
The  spiritual  affirmation  of  Savonarola  that  the  true  church  is 
composed  only  of  those  who  are  united  in  the  bonds  of  love  and 
truth  by  the  indwelling  grace  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  kindred  teach- 
ing of  Wiclif  and  Huss  and  other  reformers  before  the  Reforma- 
tion, found  no  wide  acceptance  within  its  borders.  The  Professio 
Fidei  Tridentinae,  A.  D.  1564,  required  simply  a  declaration  of 
belief  in  the  Nicene  creed,  in  the  Scriptures  as  interpreted  by 
the  holy  mother  church,  in  the  seven  sacraments  as  administered 
by  the  Roman  priesthood,  in  the  teachings  of  the  Council  of 
Trent  concerning  original  sin  and  justification,  in  purgatory,  in 
the  veneration  of  images,  in  the  supreme  authority  of  the  church, 
and  a  cordial  acceptance  of  whatever  else  that  church  may 
declare  to  be  obligatory  as  a  matter  of  faith.  Conversion,  in  the 
Protestant  sense  of  that  term,  was  not  at  that  date  neither  has  it 
ever  since  been  a  condition  of  papal  church  membership  ;  in  fact 
such  membership,  formally  established,  is  regarded  as  rather  a 
condition  of  conversion,  and  of  the  attainment  and  culture  of 
those  graces  and  virtues  which  spring  up  as  celestial  fruits  within 
the  converted  soul. 

From  the  first  the  Protestant  churches,  though  often  affected 
injuriously  by  the  papal  practice,   and  often  entangled  by  their 


826  THE   CHURCH   OF   GOD. 

alliance  with  the  state,  strove  to  return  to  the  biblical  teaching 
and  the  apostolic  usage.  In  the  edition  of  1540,  the  Augsburg 
Confession  (Art.  VII)  describes  the  church  as  a  congregation  of 
the  members  of  Christ,  that  is,  saints  who  believe  and  obey  him, — 
though  it  meanwhile  admits  that  in  this  holy  congregation  there 
may  be  evil  men  and  hypocrites,  who  are  suffered  to  remain 
therein,  but  are  reserved  unto  the  final  judgment.  The  French 
Confession  (XXVII)  defines  the  church  as  the  company  of  the 
faithful,  who  agree  to  follow  the  Word  of  God  and  the  pure 
religion  which  it  teaches  ;  who  grow  in  grace  all  their  lives, 
believing  and  becoming  more  and  more  confirmed  in  the  fear  of 
God.  It  however  follows  the  older  symbol  in  adding  the  caution- 
ary statement  :  Nevertheless  we  do  not  deny  that  among  the 
faithful  there  may  be  hypocrites  and  reprobates,  but  their  wicked- 
ness cannot  destroy  the  title  (or  standing)  of  the  church.  Simi- 
lar language  might  be  quoted  from  other  symbols,  both  Lutheran 
and  Reformed,  giving  conclusive  proof  of  an  earnest  purpose 
among  Protestants  to  set  aside  the  Roman  ceremonialism  at  this 
point,  and  to  substitute  for  it  the  clear  and  simple  teaching  of  the 
New  Testament. 

Calvin  (Inst.  B.  IV  :  Ch.  I)  regards  all  those  persons  as 
entitled  to  church  membership  who  by  confession  of  faith,  regu- 
larity in  conduct  and  participation  in  the  sacraments,  do  truly 
acknowledge  God  and  Jesus  Christ.  He  pronounces  it  a  disgrace 
to  admit  unworthy  persons  to  the  communion,  and  counsels  the 
expulsion  of  those  who  are  openly  immoral ;  yet  urges  the  duty 
of  large  charity  in  forming  judgment  in  regard  to  such  persons, 
and  meanwhile  laments  the  infirmity  of  the  times  which — as  he 
■confesses — prevents  the  churches  often  from  due  exercise  of  dis- 
cipline, in  the  case  of  gross  offenders.  But  while  such  views  and 
teaching  were  current  in  early  Protestantism  from  the  first,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  its  usage  did  not  altogether  conform  to  its 
own  doctrine.  Connection  with  the  church  came  too  often  to 
fee  regarded  as  a  matter  of  inheritance  or  residence,  or  of  baptism 
or  outward  conformity  or  profession,  rather  than  as  a  matter  of 
gracious  experience,  springing  from  personal  faith  in  a  personal 
Savior.  That  this  lower  conception  has  widely  prevailed  in  sub- 
sequent periods,  even  down  to  our  own  age,  to  the  serious  detri- 
ment of  spiritual  religion,  is  a  painful  fact  of  history.  In  too 
many  Protestant  communions  the  church  is  still  viewed  chiefly 
as  a  visible  society,  whose  relationship  to  the  soul  is  mainly 
external  and  formal, — into  whose  association  one  may  be  intro- 
duced as  a  matter  of  locality  or  by  baptism  and  a  general  profession 


QUALIFICATIONS    FOR    MEMBERSHIP.  627 

of  adherence,  and  outward  conformity  to  whose  prescribed  rules 
is  all  that  is  requisite  to  acceptable  Christian  standing. 

The  name  of  Jonathan  Edwards  will  always  be  associated  with 
the  stricter  and  loftier  doctrine  of  church  membership  now  widely 
accepted  by  evangelical  Protestantism.  He  maintained  (Qualifi- 
cations for  Full  Communion)  that  the  profession  requisite  is  not 
a  mere  declaration  of  belief  in  the  Christian  religion,  but  an 
acknowledgment  of  repentance  and  faith  in  Christ  as  a  personal 
Savior, — that  such  acknowledgment  should  be  corroborated  by 
an  experience  and  life  such  as  true  repentance  and  true  faith  will 
induce, — that  the  profession  made  must  be  credible  in  the  esti- 
mate of  the  church  or  its  official  representatives, — and  that  it 
should  involve  on  the  part  of  the  professing  person  a  full  recog- 
nition of  the  duties  implied  in  such  connection,  and  an  agree- 
ment to  discharge  all  such  duties,  and  to  endeavor  in  every 
practicable  way  to  secure  to  the  church  all  those  spiritual  ends 
which  the  organization  was  established  to  subserve.  This  com- 
prehensive profession  is  under  his  view  in  all  ordinary  cases  to  be 
made  in  the  presence  of  the  church, — it  being  not  onty  a  covenant 
with  God  and  an  act  of  irrevocable  consecration  to  Christ  and  his 
cause,  but  also  in  a  subordinate  sense  a  covenant  with  the  church, 
in  which  sacred  obligations  are  implied  on  both  sides,  with  cor- 
responding right  and  privilege.  Among  those  who  hold  in  gen- 
eral the  Edwardean  view,  considerable  differences  of  opinion  still 
exist  as  to  the  degree  of  strictness  with  which  such  profession  is 
to  be  interpreted  and  enforced.  Some  authorities  have  maintained 
that  the  church  or  its  officers  acting  for  it  assume  no  responsi- 
bility for  the  sincerity  or  the  credibility  of  the  act.  It  is  indeed 
true  that  the  church  can  give  an  applicant  for  admission  no  guar- 
antee that  he  is  a  genuine  disciple  and  will  therefore  assuredly  be 
saved.  But  certainly  it  can  give  him,  and  at  such  a  critical  junc- 
ture in  his  spiritual  life  ought  to  give  him,  all  the  inspection  and 
the  counsel  and  the  protection  possible,  in  order  that  he  may  not 
through  negligence  on  its  part  fall  into  serious,  perhaps  irrepara- 
ble, mistake.  It  is  true  that  the  church  cannot  in  all  cases  pre- 
vent such  persons  from  acting  while  they  are  ignorant  of  their 
real  condition,  or  exclude  from  its  companionship  those  who 
finally  prove  to  be  hypocrites  at  heart.  Yet  it  certainly  is  bound 
by  the  tenderest  and  strongest  obligations  to  protect  both  itself 
and  its  true  membership  so  far  as  possible  from  all  such  illicit 
affiliations. 

It  is  matter  of  regret  that  so  few  traces  have  been  preserved  of 
the  debate  in  the  Assembly   (Minutes,   82-84)   on  the  gathering 


628  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

of  churches,  and  especially  on  the  qualifications  of  those  who 
should  be  received  into  the  church.  We  have  only  the  simple 
record  of  a  discussion  on  positive  signs  of  conversion,  and  a  state- 
ment that  the  omission  of  necessary  duties  is  as  truly  a  bar  to 
admission  as  the  committing  of  gross  sins.  In  a  subsequent 
debate,  more  prolonged  and  more  fully  reported,  (121)  on  the 
offences  that  should  exclude  a  church  member  from  the  com- 
munion, there  is  evidence  that  the  Assembly  took  high  and  safe 
ground, — applying  practically,  it  may  be,  the  searching  doctrine 
of  Calvin  just  quoted,  though  they  admit  the  impossibility,  by 
any  enumeration  of  sins,  of  making  a  catalogue  so  sufficient  as  to 
preserve  the  sacraments  pure.  Their  subsequent  conflict  with 
Parliament  respecting  disciplinable  offences,  such  as  might  prop- 
erly exclude  from  church  communion,  (435  se<j.)  clearly  shows 
the  development  in  their  minds  of  spiritual  and  searching  opin- 
ions on  the  whole  subject.  From  their  elevated  conception  of  the 
Christian  character,  and  their  profound  view  of  the  experience 
through  which  one  must  pass  in  attaining  such  character,  we 
may  justly  infer  that  their  list  of  positive  signs  of  conversion 
would  not  have  fallen  far  below  that  which  a  hundred  years  later 
Edwards  so  faithfully  set  forth. 

The  phrases,  their  off  spring ,  their  children,  in  the  definition  of 
the  particular  church,  start  an  interesting  query.  It  is  a  fact 
already  mentioned  that  the  primitive  Protestantism  counted  the 
children  of  believing  parents  as  constructively,  not  through  the 
right  of  baptism  but  by  birth,  members  in  the  household  of  faith . 
"This  was  not  merely  a  continuance  of  the  dogma  which  had  pre- 
vailed prior  to  the  Reformation,  and  which  Catholicism  still 
maintained.  It  sprang  rather  from  the  recognition  of  the  pious 
family  as  a  unit  according  to  the  Abrahamic  model,  and  from  the 
popular  conception  of  the  church  as  a  larger  family  in  which  the 
godly  household  might  in  its  entirety  have  a  welcome  place.  One 
evidence  of  this  appears  in  the  stress  laid  even  in  the  earliest 
creeds,  as  that  of  Augsburg  (IX),  on  infant  baptism  as  being  an 
offering  of  the  child  to  God,  and  its  reception  thereby  into 
his  gracious  favor, — it  being  generally  held  that  such  baptism  is 
even  necessary  to  its  salvation.  The  Saxon  Visitation  Articles 
(1592)  charged  it  upon  the  Calvinists  as  one  of  their  false  and 
erroneous  opinions,  that  the  infants  of  Christians  are  already 
holy  before  baptism  in  the  womb  of  the  mother,  and  even  in  the 
womb  of  the  mother  are  received  into  the  covenant  of  eternal 
life, — a  charge  which  is  justified  by  the  teaching,  for  example, 
of  both   the    Helvetic    Confessions,    that   the   kingdom   of   God 


INFANT    CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP.  629 

belongs  to  children,  and  that  they  are  in  covenant  with  God 
through  parental  faith,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  baptized.  The 
Heidelberg  Catechism  states  the  doctrine  still  more  fully,  affirming 
(74)  that  children  as  well  as  their  parents  belong  to  the  covenant 
and  people  of  God  ;  that  both  redemption  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
who  works  faith,  are  through  the  blood  of  Christ  promised  to 
them  no  less  than  to  their  parents  ;  and  that  they  are  by  baptism 
as  a  sign  of  the  covenant,  to  be  engrafted  into  the  Christian 
church,  and  thereby  distinguished  from  the  children  of  unbe- 
lievers. The  Catechisms  for  children  which  from  the  time  of 
Luther  sprang  up  so  abundantly  wherever  the  Reformation 
spread,  both  on  the  continent  and  in  Britain,  show  in  an  inter- 
esting way  how  fully  the  Protestant  churches  recognized  the  doc- 
trine of  infant  membership,  and  how  carefully  they  endeavored 
to  carry  out  the  doctrine  in  the  training  of  the  children  of  believ- 
ing parents  for  Christ  and  his  service. 

Nowhere  else  is  this  doctrine  enforced  so  positively  or  carried 
out  into  such  detail,  as  in  the  Westminster  standards.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  phrases  occurring  in  the  definition  of  the  particular 
church,  it  is  formally  taught  in  the  chapter  on  Baptism  (XXVIII) 
that  not  only  those  that  do  actually  profess  faith  in  and  obedi- 
ence unto  Christ,  but  also  the  infants  of  one  or  both  believing 
parents  are  to  be  baptized  ;  and  such  baptism  is  described  as 
a  sign  of  a  real  connection  with  the  visible  church.  In  the 
Larger  Catechism  (166)  it  is  declared  that  such  infants  are,  on 
account  of  parental  faith  and  obedience,  within  the  covenant  from 
birth,  and  therefore  are  to  be  baptized.  Such  children,  if  dying 
in  infancy,  are  said  (X  :  iii)  to  be  regenerated  and  saved  by 
Christ  through  the  Spirit,  who  worketh  when  and  where  and  how 
he  please th.  In  the  original  Directory  for  Worship,  and  in  the 
amended  American  Directory  also,  there  may  be  found  a  more 
extended  statement  not  merely  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  but 
of  the  underlying  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  family  in  grace  as 
truty  as  in  nature  ;  in  which  it  is  affirmed  that  the  children  of 
saints  are  Christians  (omitted  in  the  Amer.  Direct.),  and  are  fed- 
erally holy  before  baptism,  and  as  such  are  entitled  to  receive  the 
sacrament.  In  the  American  Book  of  Discipline  it  is  said  that 
such  children  are  not  only  to  be  baptized,  but  to  be  regarded 
as  under  the  care  of  the  church,  and  subject  to  its  government  ; 
and  that,  when  they  have  reached  proper  age,  they  are  under 
bond  to  perform  all  the  duties  of  church  members.  They  are  to 
be  taught  in  childhood  the  Catechism,  the  Apostles'  creed,  and 
the  Prayer  of  our  Lord  ;  also  to  abhor  sin  and  fear  God  and 


630  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

obey  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ;  and  when  they  have  reached  years 
of  discretion,  if  sufficiently  instructed,  and  blameless  in  conduct, 
they  are  after  due  examination  to  be  told  that  they  ought  to  par- 
take of  the  Christian  communion.  The  membership  of  such 
children  and  youth  must  however  be  regarded  at  the  outset  as 
constructive  and  conditional  only.  It  becomes  complete  in  reality 
only  when  at  suitable  age  they  make  public  profession  of  their 
faith,  and  take  their  places  voluntarily  within  the  church.  It 
needs  only  to  be  added  that  there  is  some  danger  that  this  very 
positive  doctrine  may  lead,  as  it  once  did  with  disastrous  conse- 
quences in  New  England,  to  an  undervaluation  of  that  personal 
experience  of  religion  on  which  Edwards  so  earnestly  and  justly 
insisted.  Without  conversion  and  the  Christian  life,  no  outward 
membership  can  ever  be  other  than  an  empty  and  pernicious  form. 

Section  third  of  this  chapter  declares  that  to  the  Visible  Church 
in  its  totality,   and  therefore  to  each  particular  church,    Christ 

hath  give7i  the  ministry  and  oracles  and 

7.  The  Particular  church:  ordinances  0f  God:  and  the  gracious 
its    endowment :    ministry,  .     .,  .    ,  ,  .     ,     «       , 

oracles,  ordinances.  purpose  in  this  bestowment  is  declared 

to  be  the  gathering  and  perfecting  of 
the  saints  in  this  life.  It  is  also  said  that  Christ  by  his  pres- 
ence and  Spirit,  according  to  his  promise,  doth  make  effectual 
thereunto  these  supernatural  gifts,  and  further  that  he  will  con- 
tinue them  unto  the  church  to  the  end  of  the  world.  The  first 
of  these  endowments  is  the  Christian  ministry — an  endowment  in 
some  respects  analogous  to  the  appointment  of  the  priesthood 
under  the  Hebraic  dispensation,  but  manifestly  in  other  aspects 
distinct  and  superior,  just  as  the  new  dispensation  surpassed  the 
old.  The  full  consideration  of  the  ministry  as  a  consecrated  order 
may  be  reserved  until  we  are  led  to  consider  the  church  itself  as 
an  organism  ;  but  it  may  well  be  noted  here  that  the  Christian 
ministry  is  not  a  human  profession  or  function  merely,  but  a  gift 
of  Christ  to  his  visible  church — a  gift  which  he  himself  selects, 
whose  fitness  and  sphere  he  determines,  and  which  bears  upon  it 
the  imprimatur  of  his  appointment.  In  the  Form  of  Govern- 
ment, (Ch.  IV.)  the  office  is  specifically  defined  as  first  in  the 
church,  both  for  dignity  and  usefulness :  the  particular  duties 
devolving  upon  him  who  holds  it  are  carefully  described,  his 
spiritual  equipment  and  authority  are  set  forth  in  the  terse  declar- 
ation that  he  is  the  messenger  of  God  and  angel  of  the  church. 

The  Christian  minister  as  thus  described  is  in  every  aspect  an 
official  of  higher  grade  than  the  Aaronic  priest,  endowed  for  a 
loftier  service  and  ministering  at  a  grander  altar.     He  does  not 


MINISTRY,    ORACLES,    ORDINANCES.  631 

receive  his  appointment  primarily  from  any  human  source:  he  is 
the  gift  of  Christ  immediately,  and  as  such  bears  with  him  super- 
natural credentials  stamped  upon  his  consecrated  personality,  and 
made  manifest  in  and  through  the  spiritual  services  he  is  appointed 
to  render.  The  organized  church  in  a  secondary  sense  judges  of 
his  qualifications  for  the  office,  and  grants  him  its  approval  in  the 
exercise  of  his  ministerial  functions  within  certain  prescribed 
spheres.  But  his  commission  comes  primarily  not  from  the 
church  but  from  Christ,  the  Master,  whose  authorized  embassador 
he  becomes  through  the  inward  call  of  the  Spirit  and  the  out- 
ward call  of  providence.  This  was  the  lofty  conception  of  Prot- 
estantism almost  universally,  in  contrast  with  the  Roman  notion  of 
a  priestly  order,  wholly  above  the  church.  The  Council  of  Trent 
had  affirmed  that  there  is  in  the  Christian  church  a  new,  visible 
and  external  priesthood,  translated  from  Judaism  and  instituted 
by  Christ;  and  that  to  the  apostles  and  to  their  successors  in  this 
priesthood  as  an  independent  body,  had  been  delivered  the  power 
of  consecrating,  offering  and  administering  his  body  and  blood, 
and  also  of  forgiving  and  of  retaining  sins.  Against  this  dogma 
Zwingli  protested  in  the  earnest  declaration  (62:63)  that  Scrip- 
ture recognizes  no  priests  or  presbyters  but  such  as  are  conformed 
to  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  they  are  the  only  true  ministers 
who  preach  that  Word,  obey  the  Scriptures,  and  serve  the  church 
in  necessary  things  according  to  the  divine  order.  The  First 
Helvetic  Conf.  (XVI  :  XIX)  defines  in  detail  the  functions  of 
the  Christian  minister,  gives  him  the  title  of  pastor  as  distin- 
guished from  priest,  and  repudiates  earnestly  the  papal  notion  of 
a  priestly  order.  Similar  declarations  appear  in  other  Protestant 
formularies.  Calvin  quotes  against  the  hierarchal  theory  the 
remark  of  Cyprian,  that  a  priest  should  be  elected  publicly  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  people,  and  should  be  approved  as  a  worthy 
and  fit  person  by  the  public  judgment  and  testimony.  He  also 
devotes  an  entire  chapter  in  the  Institutes  (Book  IV  :  3)  to  a 
description  of  the  Protestant  minister  as  distinct  from  the  papal 
priest,  setting  forth  in  detail  his  duties  and  prerogatives,  and  elo- 
quently exalting  the  office  as  one  of  divine  appointment  and  of 
very  special  dignity  and  worth. 

Two  correlated  gifts  bestowed  by  Christ  upon  his  Visible 
Church  in  all  its  branches  are  indicated  in  this  section  by  the 
terms,  oracles  and  ordmances.  The  subject  of  the  Christian  ordi- 
nances, as  distinct  from  the  ceremonials  of  Mosaism  or  of  Rome, 
may  best  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  sacraments  and 
worship  appointed  by  our  Lord  for  the  edification  of  his  organized 


632  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

people.  The  term,  orac/c,  obviously  refers  to  the  inspired  Scrip- 
tures as  being  or  containing  that  Word  of  God,  which  according 
to  Zwingli  it  was  the  primary  and  chief  office  of  the  Christian 
minister  to  proclaim  to  men.  The  term,  though  pagan  in  origin, 
was  used  by  both  Paul  and  Peter,  and  by  the  authors  of  Hebrews 
and  Acts  also,  in  the  loftier  sense  just  described — those  Logia  of 
Deity,  which  especially  constitute  the  Gospel  as  a  message  of 
mercy  to  mankind.  These  Holy  Scriptures  manifestly  are  the 
first  and  in  some  sense  the  chief  among  those  precious  ordinances 
with  which  every  true  church  is  divinely  endowed.  Two  things 
should  be  specially  noted  here:  first,  that  the  Bible  is  represented 
in  this  chapter,  and  in  many  ways  throughout  the  Symbols,  as 
given  not  to  the  priesthood  as  an  exclusive  bestowment  or  trust, 
but  to  the  church  as  a  body,  to  be  studied,  cherished,  believed  and 
embraced  by  every  member,  in  the  exercise  of  intelligent  and  con- 
scientious judgment,  and  under  a  supreme  sense  of  accountability 
to  God  for  the  use  made  of  this  supernatural  communication. 
This  is  in  harmony  with  the  grand  affirmation  of  the  first  chapter 
that  all  the  people  of  God  have  right  unto  and  interest  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  are  commanded  in  the  fear  of  God  to  read  and  search 
them  .  .  .  that,  the  Word  of  God  dwelling  plentifully  in  all,  they 
may  worship  him  in  an  acceptable  manner,  and  through  patience 
and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  may  have  hope.  In  the  Directory 
for  Worship  (Chap.  Ill)  it  is  further  enjoined  that  the  Scriptures 
shall  be  publicly  read,  from  the  most  approved  translation,  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  that  all  may  hear  and  understand. 

The  Directory  brings  out,  secondly  (VII),  the  correlative  truth 
already  suggested,  that  the  Christian  ministry  is  before  and  above 
all  else  a  ministry  of  the  Word, — not  a  priestly  function  to  be 
exercised,  as  the  Council  of  Trent  had  declared,  in  administering 
the  sacraments  and  in  pardoning  sin  or  pronouncing  guilt,  but  a 
gracious  schoolmastership  qualified  to  explain  and  commend  the 
teachings  of  the  Bible,  and  set  apart  for  this  educational  and  edi- 
fying service.  Christ  in  fact  gives  the  holy  oracles,  the  divine 
Logia,  first  of  all,  and  then  appoints  the  ministry  as  his  messen- 
gers to  bring  these  oracles  to  the  knowledge  and  experience  of  the 
saints  and  of  all  who  consent  to  hear  the  message.  And  herein 
spiritual  Christianity  both  manifests  its  supernatural  quality,  and 
reveals  the  secret  of  its  matchless  power.  A  sacred  book  such 
as  the  Bible,  an  appointed  order  of  teachers  fitted  to  expound  it, 
and  an  appropriate  time  and  place  and  opportunity  for  its  expo- 
sition such  as  the  sanctuary  and  the  church  afford, — these  are 
things  which  forever  differentiate  spiritual  Christianity  both  from 


EFFECTUAL   THROUGH    THE   SPIRIT.  633 

papal  formalisms  and  from  all  false  faiths,  and  conclusively  prove 
it  to  be,  as  the  section  teaches,  a  gift  of  God  unto  men. 

As  these  endowments  are  supernatural  in  origin  and  quality, 
they  are  also  said  to  be  supernaturally  sustained  and  empowered, — 
the  presence  of  Christ  and  his  Spirit  making  them  effectual,  in  the 
accomplishment  of  their  predestined  purpose.  There  is  indeed  a 
certain  degree  of  power  to  produce  spiritual  results  resident  in  the 
ordinances  and  in  the  ministry,  contemplated  as  persuasive  agen- 
cies, and  eminently,  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  observe,  in  the 
lively  oracles,  the  inspired  and  authoritative  Word.  But  what 
could  the  Christian  ordinances  accomplish,  if  the  divine  Spirit  did 
not  reside  in  them,  and  through  them  influence  the  minds  and 
lives  of  men  ?  What  success  could  Christian  ministers  hope  to 
secure  in  the  line  either  of  converting  unregenerate  souls  or  of 
edifying  the  saints,  if  that  Spirit  were  not  dwelling  in  them  as  an 
illuminating,  guiding,  energizing  agency,  and  if  the  present  Christ 
were  not  with  them  according  to  his  gracious  promise?  And 
what  saving  issues  could  be  expected  even  from  the  potent  truths 
of  Scripture,  with  all  their  convincing  and  convicting  power,  were 
it  not  for  the  supernatural  influences  flowing  into  and  through 
them,  and  rendering  them  mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of  the 
strongholds,  the  dreadful  barriers,  of  sin  and  unbelief  ?  We  may 
well  believe  that  the  Christ  who  gave  these  agencies,  dwells  also 
in  them  continually,  and  that  the  Spirit  who  prepared  the  Word, 
and  who  called  the  ministry  to  the  task  of  proclaiming  it,  never 
leaves  that  Word  to  work  out  its  results  independently,  or  forsakes 
his  chosen  agents  when  in  the  name  of  Christ  they  proclaim  it  as  a 
divine  message  to  man.  Supernatural  in  origin  and  quality,  these 
instrumentalities  are  to  be  recognized  as  also  supernaturally  sus- 
tained and  supernaturally  empowered  in  all  their  operations,  and 
are  thus  made  effectual,  as  the  section  teaches,  in  the  great  process 
of  salvation. 

The  chief  end  or  purpose  of  this  threefold  endowment  has 
already  been  mentioned.  It  is  first  the  gathering,  and  then  the 
perfecting  of  those  who  are  united  together  within  the  visible 
church.  The  question  has  been  discussed  whether  a  church  which 
has  no  minister,  is  indeed  in  the  biblical  sense,  a  church.  Pre- 
sumably such  an  organization  may  exist,  at  least  for  a  period, 
though  it  could  not  prosper,  without  a  commissioned  minister. 
But  it  is  even  more  obvious  that  no  church  can  be  gathered,  can  be 
organized  into  visible  form,  without  the  ordinances  and  the  holy 
oracles  which  are  such  characteristic  features  of  spiritual  Chris- 
tianity.    The  inspired  Word  is  an  indispensable  instrumentality, 


634  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

the  appointed  ordinances  are  indispensable  factors,  and  it  is 
through  these  as  well  as  by  the  ministry  that  the  saints,  in  the 
language  of  the  section,  are  gathered,  grouped,  constituted  into 
one  family  of  grace,  and  through  these  that  those  who  are  thus 
brought  together,  are  instructed,  strengthened,  perfected  in  the 
divine  life.  Even  those  who  reject  the  doctrine  of  an  ordained 
ministry,  or  of  prescribed  sacraments,  or  other  kindred  observ- 
ances as  constituents  of  the  church,  still  cling  to  the  Word  and  to 
the  ordained  means  of  grace  as  furnishing  not  only  the  justifying 
reason  for  their  fellowship,  but  also  the  source  and  spring  of  their 
growth  and  their  perfection  in  the  Christian  life. 

Another  element  in  the  conception  of  the  particular  church  lies 
in  the  idea  of  organization.     As  we  have  already  seen,  a  church 

must  be  something  more  than  a  tem- 
8.    The  particular  church,  .  ,. 

itsorganizatiomchurchgoy-  porary  or  even  a  permanent  association 
eminent.  °f  believers:  some  appropriate  law  or 

bond  of  union  is  requisite  as  the  essen- 
tial basis  of  such  association.  There  must  be  not  only  piety  as  the 
animating  life  of  the  organism  ;  there  must  also  be  constitutional 
rules,  resting  on  just  foundations  and  regulating  that  life  in  all  its 
varied  manifestations.  This  is  implied  in  the  two  or  three  re- 
markable metaphors  by  which  the  church  is  described  in  the  New 
Testament.  Whether  it  be  contemplated  as  a  living  body,  or  as  a 
family,  or  as  a  state,  organization  always  appears  as  one  of  its 
primal  characteristics.  A  church  without  constitutional  regimen 
of  some  fitting  type  would  be  wholly  incompetent  to  perform 
those  services  for  the  securing  of  which  the  church  was  divinely 
established.  We  are  not  concerned  just  now  with  questions  re- 
specting this  or  that  actual  or  possible  form  of  such  organization : 
the  generic  fact  is  all  that  needs  to  be  emphasized.  In  chapter 
XXX,  which  treats  specifically  of  Church  Censures,  it  is  said  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  as  king  and  head  of  his  church  hath  therein 
appointed  a  government  in  the  hands  of  church  officers  ;  and  there 
is  added  the  phrase,  very  suggestive  of  the  conflicts  of  the  age, 
distinct  from  the  civil  -magistrate.  While  the  Assembly  was  will- 
ing, as  we  have  seen,  to  invoke  the  help  of  the  civil  magistracy  in 
the  enforcement  of  church  authority,  even  to  the  extent  of  impris- 
oning or  otherwise  punishing  those  whom  the  chuch  condemned  as 
heretical,  it  was  far  from  willing  that  such  magistracy  should 
attempt  to  administer  government  within  the  church  itself.  It 
was  led  therefore  to  emphasize  the  fundamental  proposition  that 
the  church  should  elect  its  own  officers,  prescribe  their  several 
spheres,  and  empower  them  to  exercise  adequate  authority  within 


CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  G35 

its  domain.  In  this  view  it  was  led  also  to  define  the"  various 
offices  that  should  be  instituted  in  the  church,  to  construct  a 
specific  form  of  administration  for  the  guidance  of  church  officers, 
and  to  provide  for  a  series  of  ecclesiastical  assemblies,  above  the 
particular  church,  in  which  supreme  power  within  the  religious 
sphere  should  be  vested. 

The  Form  of  Government,  as  drafted  by  the  Assembly,  affirms 
that  the  officers  which  Christ  hath  appointed  are,  some  extraordi- 
nary, as  apostles,  evangelists  and  prophets,  which  are  ceased; 
others  ordinary  and  perpetual,  as  pastors,  teachers,  and  other 
church  governors,  and  deacons.  In  the  American  Form  it  is 
simply  said  that,  while  our  Lord  at  first  collected  and  formed  his 
church  by  the  mission  of  men  endued  with  miraculous  gifts  which 
have  long  since  ceased,  the  ordinary  and  perpetual  officers  in  the 
church  are  bishops  or  pastors,  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
usually  styled  ruling  elders,  and  deacons.  In  both  drafts  we 
find  the  same  careful  exclusion  of  the  dogma  of  apostolic  succes- 
sion, and  of  the  prophetical  and  evangelistic  orders.  It  is 
declared  that  the  reason  for  the  existence  of  such  extraordinary 
offices  has  passed  away,  and  that  the  supernatural  enduement 
which  qualified  certain  chosen  men  at  first  to  hold  offices  of  this 
type,  has  also  passed  away.  The  papal  claim  of  a  transmissible 
apostolate,  and  the  kindred  claim  of  prelatic  succession,  was  thus 
absolutely  rejected.  That  claim  in  whatever  form  has  now  come 
to  be  regarded  generally  as  invalid,  not  merely  on  the  ground 
named,  that  miraculous  gifts  are  no  longer  conferred  upon  men, 
but  on  the  further  ground  that  none  could  properly  be  regarded 
as  apostles  but  those  who,  in  the  phrase  of  Luke,  had  companied 
with  the  Lord  Jesus  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  min- 
istry, or  those  who,  in  the  phrase  of  Paul,  had  seen  the  Lord 
through  some  personal  manifestation  such  as  had  been  granted  to 
him  on  the  road  to  Damascus.  The  prophetical  office  had  also,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  Assembly,  terminated  in  like  manner,  inas- 
much as  this  way  of  reveali?ig  the  divine  will  to  the  church  had  now 
manifestly  ceased.  The  office  of  the  evangelist  also,  which  con- 
sisted in  bearing  testimony  to  Christ  and  his  resurrection,  and  in 
proclaiming  to  the  outlying  world  the  Gospel  of  salvation  through 
him,  possibly  with  miraculous  attestations  or  other  charismatic 
manifestations,  had  also  completed  its  usefulness — at  least  in 
the  form  which  the  term  as  used  in  the  New  Testament  suggests. 
These,  in  the  language  of  the  original  Symbol,  were  all  extraordi- 
nary :  having  accomplished  their  peculiar  mission  during  the 
apostolic  century,  they  had  ceased  to  appear,  and  were  never,  it 


636  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

is  implied,  to  be  reproduced.  They  were  no  more  essential  to  the 
propagation  of  religion  in  the  earth,  or  to  the  proper  organization 
of  the  visible  church  as  the  divine  agent  in  such  propagation, 
than  would  have  been  the  continuous  life  and  teaching  and  mes- 
siahship,  century  after  century,  of  Him  of  whom  the  apostles  and 
evangelists  and  prophets  were  the  primitive  and  the  supernat- 
urally  endowed  witnesses.  The  visible  church  has  existed  through 
the  ages  without  their  special  aid,  and  probably  is  stronger  and 
broader  and  more  commanding  in  its  influence,  than  it  would  have 
been,  had  prophets  still  foretold  the  future,  or  evangelists  had 
testified  preternaturally,  or  apostles  had  been  preserved  alive  to 
tell  the  wondrous  story  of  the  Savior  and  the  Cross. 

Still  it  is  obvious  that  what  are  here  called  ordinary  and  per- 
petual offices  and  officers  are  necessary ,  and  will  continue  through 
the  ages  to  be  necessary  to  the  proper  organization  of  the  church, 
and  to  the  adequate  administration  of  its  affairs,  both  internal 
and  external.  This  necessity  is  clearly  fundamental,  whatever 
may  be  the  judgment  of  this  or  that  Christian  body  as  to  the  best 
way  of  supplying  such  need.  In  the  original  Form  of  Gov.  it  is 
affirmed  that  as  the  apostles  exercised  government  at  the  first,  so 
Christ  hath  continually  furnished  some  in  his  church  wiihgi/ts 
of  government,  and  with  commission  to  execute  the  same  when 
called  thereunto  ;  and  it  is  added,  that  it  is  lawful  and  agreeable 
to  the  Word  of  God,  that  such  government  should  assume  the 
Presbyterian  type.  In  the  amended  American  Form  it  is  said  to 
be  expedient  and  agreeable  to  Scripture  and  the  practice  of  the  prim- 
itive Christians,  not  only  that  government  should  exist  in  some  cer- 
tain form,  but  also  that  this  particular  type  of  government  should 
be  established  in  the  church.  It  is  added,  however,  in  terms  that 
cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  :  In  full  consistency  with  this 
belief,  we  embrace  in  the  spirit  of  charity  those  Christians  who 
differ  from  us  in  opinion  or  in  practice  on  these  subjects.  It  was 
natural  and  in  a  degree  politic  that  the  Assembly  in  Westminster, 
speaking  in  the  presence  of  Episcopacy  on  one  side  and  of  a  rising 
Independency  on  the  other,  should  claim  no  more  than  is  con- 
tained in  their  adopted  Form,  though  it  is  certain  from  the  long 
and  earnest  debates  that  many,  probably  a  large  majority  of  the 
members,  clung  to  the  tenet  of  a  jure  divino  Presby teriauism , 
and  in  their  hearts  rejected  all  churches  otherwise  organized.  It 
is  also  probable  that  similar  motives  influenced  the  first  Ameri- 
can Assembly  when,  speaking  in  the  presence  of  a  wide  variety 
of  denominations,  organized  in  ways  more  or  less  unlike  their 
own,  they  adopted   the  pacific  language  just  quoted, — affirming 


PRACTICAL    ENDS   TO    BE    SOUGHT.  637 

on  one  side  quite  as  strongly  as  the  divines  of  Westminster,  that 
Presbyterianism  was  agreeable,  even  specially  agreeable,  to  Scrip- 
ture and  to  the  practice  of  the  primitive  Christians,  while  on  the 
other  side  recognizing  full  liberty  of  opinion  and  of  usage  as  to 
the  whole  matter,  and  the  obligation  of  comprehensive  charity 
toward  all  who  might  differ.  Whatever  may  be  true  of  individual 
minds,  or  of  this  or  that  particular  organization,  American  Pres- 
byterianism has  never  been  committed  to  the  jure  divino  theory, 
or  affirmed  that  churches  formed  on  the  Independent  or  on  the 
Episcopal  model,  or  on  some  interblending  and  modification  of 
either  of  these  general  types,  are  not  true  and  worthy  churches  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Adverting  to  the  generic  conception  of  the  church  as  an  organ- 
ization, we  may  note  the  vital  fact  that,  whatever  may  be  the 
preferred  form  of  such  organization,  the  practical  ends  to  be  sought 
are  always  essentially  the  same.  These  practical  ends  are  three 
in  number, — instruction,  government  distinctively  speaking,  and 
charitable  administration.  Wherever  and  however  these  ends 
are  secured,  through  adequate  official  instrumentalities,  all  the 
chief  needs  of  the  church  as  an  organism  are  substantially  met. 
While  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  extensive  differences  of  judgment 
and  usage  have  arisen,  and  still  exist,  as  to  the  most  effectual 
way  of  providing  for  this  threefold  necessity,  it  is  yet  pleasant  to 
note  that,  amid  all  such  differences,  there  is  much  more  of  prac- 
tical agreement  than  is  commonly  supposed.  That  the  primal 
end  of  instruction  can  be  best  secured  through  the  agency  of  a 
duly  trained  and  ordained  ministry,  is  now  almost  universally 
believed,  however  great  the  variety  of  opinion  respecting  the  mode 
of  providing  such  a  ministry,  or  the  proper  functions  of  the  min- 
isterial office.  That  the  church  should  be  duly  governed  by  some 
authority,  acting  in  and  for  the  body,  is  now  regarded  by  all 
alike  as  appropriate  and  indispensable,  whether  those  who  rule 
shall  bear  the  name  of  elder  or  some  other  title,  or  shall  hold  office 
in  the  Presbyterian  mode  or  some  other, — the  end  in  view  being 
gained  in  substance,  notwithstanding  all  variations  in  name  or 
method  or  comparative  official  responsibility.  That  the  char- 
itable ministrations  of  the  church  to  needy  saints,  and  to  others 
undr  r  its  care  or  within  its  reach,  should  be  carried  on  through 
the  diaconate,  as  in  the  church  at  Jerusalem,  or  through  some 
corresponding  agency  qualified  and  chosen  for  that  delicate  task, 
is  almost  universally  recognized,  although  here  also  we  are  con- 
fronted by  wide  varieties  in  mode  and  usage.  The  broad  fact, 
underlying  all  variations,  is  that  when  due  provision  has  been 


638  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

made,  in  whatever  appropriate  way,  for  adequate  religious  instruc- 
tion, for  orderly  and  effective  government  and  discipline,  and 
for  beneficent  administration  such  as  Christian  charity  demands, 
an}-  church  may  regard  itself  as  adequately  organized  alike  for 
interior  efficiency  and  for  outward  activity  and  growth. 

One  other  feature  remains  to  be  considered  before  we  pass  from 
the  study  of  the  particular  church  to  the  contemplation  of  the 

various  forms  of  larger  ecclesiastical 

9.  The  particular  church  ;  organization  .  it  is  what  is  described 
Power  of  the   keys;  Discip-     .   °  .      _      .    t  J7      L  .  .. 

Hne>  in  the  Symbols  as   the  pozver  of  the 

keys,  involving  especially  the  right  to 
exercise  discipline.  The  phrase  has  its  origin  in  the  declaration 
of  our  Lord,  first  to  Peter  and  afterward  to  all  the  Apostles  col- 
lectively, as  to  their  authority  to  bind  and  to  loose,  to  convict  of 
sin  or  to  remit  sin  as  his  representatives.  Hooker  (Eccl.  Polity) 
interprets  this  declaration  as  follows  :  Our  Lord  and  Savior 
giveth  his  apostles  regimen  in  general  over  his  church  ;  for  they 
that  have  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  are  thereby  signi- 
fied to  be  stewards  of  the  house  of  God,  under  whom  they  guide, 
command,  judge  and  correct  his  family.  This  would  seem  to 
imply  that  such  official  stewardship  was  to  be  in  a  measure  inde- 
pendent of  the  church  thus  guided  and  commanded.  It  is  a 
familiar  fact  that  the  entire  papal  system  of  government  rests  on 
the  more  positive  assumption  that  this  power  of  the  keys  is  in  no 
sense  the  prerogative  of  the  church,  but  belongs  to  the  priests- 
orders  exclusively.  It  is  claimed  that  this  type  of  authority  was 
transmissible  from  the  apostles  directly  to  other  hands  ;  that  they 
did  actually  choose  and  ordain  successors  for  this  function  ;  and 
especially  that  Peter  transferred  this  among  other  prerogatives 
to  his  successors  in  the  Roman  see.  The  church  consequently 
has  no  right  of  itself  to  determine  what  terms  of  admission  into 
it  shall  be  prescribed,  or  who  shall  be  connected  with  it,  or  what 
shall  be  done  with  unworthy  members  within  its  fold  :  Council 
of  Trent,  Session  XXXII. 

It  has  sometimes  been  affirmed  that  the  authority  to  bind  and 
to  loose,  thus  conferred  by  our  L,ord  upon  the  apostles,  was  a 
part  of  their  peculiar  investiture  as  a  body  of  inspired  men  chosen 
to  be  leaders  in  his  developing  church — a  qualification  therefore 
which,  like  the  power  to  work  miracles  or  to  speak  in  unknown 
tongues,  was  incapable  of  transmission.  But  Protestantism  gen- 
erally has  held  that  Peter  and  afterwards  the  entire  apostolic  col- 
lege were  thus  addressed  by  Christ  representatively,  and  that 
the  authority  in  the  case  was  in  fact  conferred  not  on  themselves 


POWKR    OF    THU    KEYS.  039 

personally,  but  through  them  on  the  church  to  whose  construc- 
tion and  guidance  their  lives  were  to  be  devoted.  Protestants 
claim  this  prerogative  for  the  church  as  an  organism,  and  by  con- 
sequence repudiate  absolutely  the  papal  assumption  of  priestly 
supremacy.  It  is  not  clear,  however,  that  either  the  Lutheran 
or  the  Reformed  communions  at  first  carried  the  proposition  out 
to  its  full  extent :  at  least,  in  some  of  their  formularies  it  seems 
to  be  suggested  that  the  power  of  the  keys  was  to  be  held  and 
wielded,  not  so  much  by  the  church  at  large,  as  by  those  called 
to  office  therein.  The  first  Helvetic  Conf.  (XIX)  speaks  of 
pastors  and  teachers  who  legitimately  use  this  power  within  the 
visible  church  ;  and  the  second  Helvetic  declares  that  the  keys 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  out  of  which  the  papists  forged  swords, 
scepters  and  crowns,  are  given  to  all  legitimate  ministers,  together 
with  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  Yet  these  Confessions,  and 
the  Belgic  and  some  others,  furnish  at  least  a  partial  corrective 
in  their  emphatic  statement,  that  all  church  officers  must  be  duly 
chosen  by  the  membership — a  requistion  which  of  necessity  would 
render  their  authority  representative  and  official  rather  than 
personal. 

In  the  American  Form  of  Gov.  this  right  of  the  church  to 
choose  those  who  should  rule,  is  strongly  affirmed, — with  its 
legitimate  consequence  in  their  full  accountability  to  the  church 
electing  them,  for  the  manner  in  which  their  executive  duties 
are  discharged.  In  the  introductory  chapter  of  this  Form  it  is 
expressly  stated  that  our  Savior  for  the  edification  of  his  visible 
church,  hath  appointed  officers  ...  to  exercise  discipline  for 
the  preservation  of  both  truth  and  duty  ;  and  that  it  is  incum- 
bent upon  these  officers,  and  tipon  the  whole  church  in  whose  name 
they  act,  to  censure  or  cast  out  the  erroneous  and  scandalous.  It 
is  also  said  (Ch.  VIII)  that  the  power  vested  in  such  officers  by 
the  church  is  wholly  moral  or  spiritual  as  well  as  delegated,  and 
is  ministerial  and  declarative  only.  In  the  debate  on  church 
government,  in  the  Westminster  Assembly,  it  was  strongly 
declared  (Minutes,  242)  that  such  government  is  not  civil  but 
spiritual,  not  original  but  derivative,  not  supreme  but  subordi- 
nate to  Christ,  not  lordly  but  ministerial,  not  arbitrary  but  lim- 
ited by  Scripture.  It  is  under  these  limitations,  which  are  seen 
at  once  to  be  essential  to  the  proper  autonomy  of  the  church, 
that  the  sweeping  clause  of  the  Confession  (Ch.  XXX  :  ii)  is  to 
be  interpreted,  which  declares  that  to  these  officers  the  keys  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  are  committed,  by  virtue  whereof  they 
have  power  respectively  to  retain  and  remit  sin,   to  shut  that 


640  THE    CHURCH    OF   GOD. 

kingdom  against  the  impenitent  both  by  the  Word  and  censures, 
and  to  open  it  unto  penitent  sinners  by  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel, 
and  by  absolution  from  censures.  Taken  by  itself,  apart  from 
the  meliorating  statements  just  quoted,  this  section  would  seem 
to  confer  on  church  officials  as  a  body  much  of  the  jurisdiction, 
original  and  irresponsible,  that  had  been  claimed  by  the  Triden- 
tine  Council  for  the  papal  hierarchy. 

Among  the  forms  in  which  the  power  of  the  keys  thus  vested 
in  the  particular  church  may  be  exercised  are,  first,  the  determ- 
ination under  the  rule  of  Scripture  of  the  terms  and  method  of 
admission  to  its  fellowship  ;  secondly,  the  right  to  make  and  en- 
force whatever  laws  and  regulations  are  found  to  be  essential  to 
its  harmony  and  growth,  and  to  the  full  discharge  of  all  its  func- 
tions as  a  religious  organism  ;  thirdly,  the  further  right  to  exer- 
cise discipline  upon  unfaithful  or  unworthy  members  in  whatever 
ways  may  be  deemed  essential  and  in  harmony  with  Scripture  ; 
and  fourthly,  the  right  to  purify  itself  whenever  it  is  needful,  by 
the  expulsion  of  errorists  or  of  grossly  wicked  persons.  These 
processes,  and  whatever  others  may  be  essential  to  its  develop- 
ment and  efficiency  as  a  branch  of  the  church  of  Christ,  every 
organized  household  of  faith  may  legitimately  carry  out,  by 
virtue  of  the  authority  divinely  conferred  upon  it.  It  may  in- 
deed, and  under  the  Presbyterian  system  does,  intrust  the  exer- 
cise of  this  right  to  men  officially  chosen  as  its  representatives,  in 
order  to  secure  more  effectively  thereby  the  desired  end  :  under 
that  system  it  may  also  be  conjoined  with  other  particular 
churches  in  order  to  gain  this  end  still  more  effectively  ;  but  it 
may  never  surrender  its  divinely  conferred  autonomy  to  any 
human  authority  whatsoever,  civil  or  ecclesiastical.  The  keys  of 
the  kingdom  have  been  placed  by  the  Head  of  the  Church  in  its 
hands,  and  for  the  use  of  the  potestas  clavium  in  whatever  direc- 
tion it  is  immediately  responsible  to  him  and  to  him  only. 

The  American  Book  of  Discipline  defines  church  discipline  dis- 
tinctively as  the  exercise  of  that  authority  and  the  application  of 
that  system  of  laws  which  Christ  has  appointed  in  his  church.  It 
also  describes  the  ends  to  be  sought  in  such  discipline,  as  the 
promotion  of  the  purity  and  edification  of  the  body,  and  the 
spiritual  good  of  offenders  against  its  authority,  and  also  the  vin- 
dication of  the  honor  of  Christ  and  the  Christian  religion.  Milton 
in  his  Treatise  on  Church  Government  highly  extols  such  disci- 
pline, affirming  that,  when  rightly  administered,  it  assumes  the 
very  shape  and  image  of  virtue.  The  scope  of  church  discipline 
is  very  broad.     The  Symbol  affirms  that  whatever  in  the  doctrine 


CHURCH    CENSURES.  (ill 

or  principles  or  practice  of  any  member  or  officer  is  contrary  to 
the  Word  of  God,  or  whatever  may  tempt  others  to  sin,  or  may 
mar  their  edification  as  believers,  should  be  regarded  as  a  disci- 
plinable offence.  Yet  on  the  other  hand,  it  enjoins  that  such 
discipline  must  in  all  cases  be  exercised  with  special  prudence  and 
discretion,  and  should  assume  a  judicial  and  punitive  form  only 
when  clearly  demanded  by  Scripture,  or  by  the  practice  or  teach- 
ing of  the  church  founded  on  the  Scriptures.  It  is  not  needful 
here  to  enter  into  detailed  account  of  the  prescribed  processes  by 
which  such  discipline  is  carried  out  in  the  Presbyterian  mode:  see 
Digest,  1898,  p.  604,  seq. 

From  this  general  definition  of  church  discipline  in  its  nature 
and  processes  and  aims,  we  naturally  pass  to  consider  the 
chapter  in  the  Confession  (XXX)  which  treats  specifically  of 
Church  Censures.  The  term  signifies  some  form  of  penalty  pro- 
nounced on  those  who  have  been  found  guilty  under  due  ecclesi- 
astical procedure.  The  right  to  inflict  such  censure  on  just 
occasion  is  a  necessary  corollary  from  the  right  to  exercise  discip- 
line. Such  right  was  recognized  everywhere  in  Protestantism, 
from  the  beginning.  The  Belgic  Conf.  declared  (XXX  :  XXXII) 
that  church  government  is  divinely  instituted,  not  only  that  in 
this  way  the  true  religion  may  be  preserved  and  the  true  doctrine 
everywhere  propagated,  but  also  that  transgressors  may  be  pun- 
ished and  restrained  by  spiritual  means.  For  this  purpose  even 
excommunication  is  requisite,  it  is  said,  with  the  several  cir- 
cumstances belonging  to  it,  according  to  the  Word  of  God.  The 
Irish  Articles,  in  language  which  applies  to  private  members  as 
well  as  to  ministers,  teaches  (70)  that  it  appertaineth  to  the  discip- 
line of  the  church  that  inquiry  be  made  of  evil  ministers,  and 
that  they  be  accused  by  those  that  have  knowledge  of  their 
offences,  and  finally,  being  found  guilty,  by  just  judgment  be 
deposed.  But  no  antecedent  formulary  contains  so  full  and  prac- 
tical a  statement  of  the  whole  subject  as  the  chapter  now  under 
consideration,  especially  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  prac- 
tical chapter  in  the  American  Directory  for  Worship  ( XI )  on  the 
Mode  of  Inflicting  and  Removing  Censures  :  Digest,  1898,  Ch.  XI. 

The  ends  to  be  sought  in  the  infliction  of  censures  are  named 
in  section  second  of  the  chapter,  as  the  reclaiming  of  the  offending 
brother,  the  deterring  of  others  from  like  offences,  the  purging 
out  of  the  infectious  leaven  of  evil  from  the  church,  the  vindica- 
tion of  the  honor  of  Christ  and  of  the  profession  of  his  Gospel , 
and  the  prevention  of  that  wrath  of  God  which  might  justly  fall 
upon  his  church,   if  it  should  suffer  his  covenant  and  the  seals 


642  THE   CHURCH   OF   GOD. 

thereof  to  be  profaned  by  notorious  and  obstinate  offenders. 
Three  forms  or  grades  of  censure  are  described  in  the  following 
section,  admonition  private  or  public  by  the  church  or  its  repre- 
sentatives, suspension  for  a  season  from  the  holy  communion  or 
from  all  church  privileges,  and  finally,  formal  excommunication 
from  the  household  of  faith, — the  grade  of  penalty  being  deter- 
mined in  each  case  by  the  nature  of  the  crime  and  the  proved 
demerit  of  the  person  arraigned.  The  mode  of  administering  such 
punishment  is  left  to  the  officers  of  the  church  acting  in  its  behalf, — 
the  object  in  view  being  edification  rather  than  destruction,  the 
spirit  one  of  brotherly  tenderness  and  Christian  meekness,  and 
the  process  marked  by  great  solemnity  as  well  as  love,  in  the 
hope  that  the  delinquent  may  be  impressed  with  a  sense  of  his 
sin  and  haply  be  brought  to  repentance.  No  civil  penalties  are  to 
be  imposed  :  fine  or  imprisonment  may  not  be  inflicted  :  social 
standing  may  not  be  impaired,  excepting  so  far  as  exclusion  from 
church  fellowship  may  reach.  The  entire  process,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  American  Form,  is  ministerial  and  declarative  only. 
It  may  be  profitable  to  add  that  admonition  does  not  effect  the 
membership  of  the  admonished  party  ;  that  suspension  from  the 
communion  or  other  church  privileges  is  designed  to  be  tempo- 
rary rather  than  permanent ;  and  that  the  Directory  makes 
provision  for  the  orderly  removal  even  of  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication, and  for  the  restoration  of  the  offender  to  fellowship 
npon  satisfactory  evidence  of  repentance  and  a  purpose  to  lead  a 
Christian  life. 

The  particular  church  having  been  considered  as  to  its  consti- 
tution and  membership,  its  endowment  with  an  elect  ministry  and 

with  the  divine  oracles  and  ordinances, 
10.   Ecclesiastical  organi-    jts  government  and  its  right  to  exercise 
zations:   Synods  and  Coun-    Spline  and  to  hold  for  itself  the 
cils:  constitution  and  object.  v    „    ,     ,         ,  ,      . 

power  of  the  keys  by  the  authority  or 

Christ  and  in  full  accountability  to  him  only,  it  is  now  incumbent  to 
inquire  further  whether  and  how  particular  churches  may  be  fitly 
associated  or  conjoined  in  some  larger  form  of  ecclesiastical  organ- 
ization. Certainly  it  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  genius  of  Chris- 
tianity, or  with  the  doctrine  of  the  communion  of  saints,  that  every 
such  church  should  stand  altogether  by  itself,  recognizing  in  no 
definite  way  the  sacred  relationship  which  it  sustains  toward  every 
other  particular  church  wdiich  constitutes  together  with  it  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  one  body  of  Christ.  Absolute  independency  cannot 
justify  itself  in  the  presence  of  the    plain   and  tender  Pauline 


SYNODS    AND   COUNCILS. 


043 


teaching  as  to  that  body.  The  same  sense  of  affiliation  which 
draws  individual  Christians  together  within  any  single  household 
of  faith,  and  the  same  divine  law  which  not  only  commends  but 
requires  such  fellowship,  are  no  less  applicable  or  effective  in  the 
case  of  churches.  And  it  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  this 
truth  that  the  Protestant  churches  throughout  northern  Europe 
from  the  beginning  sought  such  affiliation  and  placed  themselves 
so  far  as  possible  under  this  comprehensive  law.  Civic  and  pro- 
vincial and  national  boundaries,  diversities  of  language  and  the 
prejudice  of  race  and  other  like  influences  stood  in  the  way  of 
that  close  fellowship,  that  practical  and  even  organic  unity,  which 
many  of  the  Protestant  leaders  both  continental  and  insular 
strongly  desired.  Yet  the  doctrine  of  the  church  invisible  as  one, 
and  of  all  visible  churches  as  constituent  parts  of  that  one  invisible 
church,  was  at  no  time  merely  a  theological  tenet :  it  was  also  a 
living  conviction  and  force  tending  steadily  toward  the  consolida- 
tion and  unifying,  so  far  as  this  was  practicable,  of  all  who  rejoiced 
together  under  the  Protestant  name. 

The  chapter  (XXXI)  in  the  Confession  which  treats  Of  Synods 
and  Councils  may  be  taken  as  a  marked  illustration  of  this  ten- 
dency, though  it  was  by  no  means  the  first  illustration.  The 
Second  Helvetic  Conf .  (XVIII)  had  declared  that  proper  control 
and  discipline  should  be  exercised  over  the  doctrine  and  conduct  of 
ministers  in  or  by  synods  ;  and  also  that  general  or  ecumenical 
councils  are  not  to  be  disapproved,  if  they  are  conducted  accord- 
ing to  the  apostolic  example,  for  the  welfare  and  not  for  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  church.  The  Scotch  Conf.  also  had  an  extended 
Article  (XX)  on  the  subject,  protesting  on  one  hand  against  the 
assumption  that  such  councils  may  not  err  in  opinion  or  be  guilty 
of  grievous  wrong  in  practice,  but  on  the  other  affirming  their 
value  for  the  confutation  of  heresies  and  the  more  public  profes- 
sion of  the  common  faith,  and  also  in  establishing  good  policy 
and  just  order  within  the  church.  One  of  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  (XXI)  which  was  omitted  in  the  American  edition  of 
1801,  but  has  been  restored  with  some  modifications  by  the 
Reformed  Episcopal  communion,  recognized  the  propriety  and 
authority  of  such  general  councils,  but  like  the  Scotch  Confession 
warned  against  the  abuses  to  which,  as  the  history  of  the  councils 
of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  had  shown,  such  bodies 
were  always  exposed.  A  cautionary  statement  of  the  same  tenor 
appears  in  the  Irish  Articles  :  76-79.  But  the  completest  teaching 
on  the  subject  is  fonnd  in  the  chapter  just  named,  in  the  broad 
proposition  that  for  the  better  government  and  further  edification 


644  THE   CHURCH   OF   GOD. 

of  the  church  there  ought  to  be  such  assemblies  as  are  commonly- 
called  synods  or  councils :  and  further  that  it  belongeth  to  the 
rulers  of  the  particular  churches  to  appoint  such  assemblies, 
and  to  convene  together  in  them  as  often  as  they  shall  judge  it 
expedient  for  the  good  of  the  church.  This  is  the  American  form  of 
the  section  :  but  in  the  original  form  it  was  declared  that  civil 
magistrates  also  may  lawfully  call  such  synods  ;  and  that,  in  case 
the  magistrates  are  open  enemies  to  the  church,  the  ministers 
themselves,  with  other  fit  persons  delegated  by  the  churches,  may 
meet  in  this  way.  The  reason  for  the  original  form  as  adopted 
and  presented  to  Parliament  by  the  Assembly,  and  likewise  the 
reason  for  the  American  modification,  precluding  the  civil  magis- 
tracy from  all  share  in  the  convening  or  control  of  such  councils, 
will  be  at  once  apparent. 

The  sphere  within  which  such  ecclesiastical  assemblies  are  to 
act,  and  the  specific  duties  which  may  devolve  upon  them,  are 
concisely  given  in  the  second  section  ; — to  determine  controver- 
sies of  faith  and  questions  of  conscience,  to  give  directions  for  the 
better  ordering  of  the  worship  and  government  of  the  churches, 
and  to  correct  all  wrong  in  church  discipline.  A  more  specific 
account  of  these  duties  appears  in  those  chapters  (X-XII)  in  the 
American  Form  of  Gov.  which  define  largely  the  spheres  and 
functions  of  the  several  judicatories  in  the  Presbyterian  organism. 
What  is  just  here  to  be  noted  is  the  fact  that,  whatever  may  be 
the  arrangement  for  such  larger  assemblages  in  this  or  that  Chris- 
tian communion,  and  whether  they  are  held  but  occasionally  or 
are  provided  for  as  permanent  factors  in  the  organization  of  any 
such  communion,  their  function  has  always  been  substantially 
the  same,  even  from  the  earliest  ages.  Tertullian,  writing  during 
the  second  century,  tells  us  that  in  his  day  councils  of  all  the 
churches  were  held  in  certain  localities  throughout  Greece  (and 
doubtless  elsewhere)  whereat  matters  of  deeper  moment  were 
treated  in  common,  and  the  presence  or  representation  of  all 
bearing  the  Christian  name  was  celebrated  with  much  veneration. 
The  history  of  similar  assemblages  through  nearly  all  the  centu- 
ries succeeding  down  to  the  era  of  Constance  and  Basle,  consti- 
tutes in  fact  a  large  part  of  the  history  of  Christianity.  It  has 
well  been  said  that  such  councils  have  almost  always  been  impor- 
tant centers  of  development  with  respect  alike  to  the  doctrine, 
the  liturgy  or  worship,  and  the  constitution  of  the  church.  Two 
practical  rules,  whose  importance  had  been  tested  again  and 
again  in  the  antecedent  experience  of  both  Romanism  and  Protest- 
antism, were  laid  down  by  the  Assembly  in  the  subsequent  sections 


COUNCILS  :     VALUES    AND    DANGERS.  G4"> 

of  this  chapter:  first,  that  such  councils  should  never  interfere 
in  civil  affairs  except  under  certain  specified  conditions,  but  rather 
should  confine  their  attention  exclusively  to  what  is  ecclesiastical, 
or  what  relates  to  the  government  or  edification  of  the  church  ; 
and  secondly  that,  inasmuch  as  all  such  councils  are  liable  to 
error,  as  many  of  them  have  erred,  their  decisions  are  not  to  be 
regarded  as  final  or  infallible  rules  in  either  faith  or  practice,  but 
are  simply  to  be  used  as  helps  in  personal  belief  or  duty  so  far  as 
they  are  seen  to  conform  to  the  Word  of  God.  The  first  of  these 
practical  rules  is  of  special  significance  as  having  been  the  occa- 
sion of  various  divisions  in  Britain,  and  of  at  least  one  such  disas- 
trous division  in  American  Presbyterianism.  The  second  contains 
a  caution  emphasized  by  many  instances  in  Protestant  history, 
and  worthy  to  be  borne  always  in  mind  alike  by  all  such  denom- 
inational assemblages  and  by  those  who  are  brought  in  any 
manner  under  their  jurisdiction.  For  it  may  well  be  questioned 
whether,  valuable  as  such  councils  have  again  and  again  proved 
themselves  in  their  relation  to  the  better  government  and  edification 
of  the  church,  Christendom  has  ever  contained  within  its  bosom  a 
more  explosive  or  disintegrating  element.  Even  the  venerable 
Assembly  of  Westminster,  as  we  have  had  occasion  more  than 
once  to  note,  may  serve  in  some  degree  to  illustrate  this  universal 
danger.  There  is  great  practical  wisdom  in  the  statement  of  the 
Amer.  Form  of  Gov.  (Ch.  I :  vii)  that  there  is  much  greater 
danger  from  the  usurped  claim  of  making  laws  than  from  the 
right  of  judging  upon  laws  already  made  and  common  to  all  who 
profess  the  Gospel, — although  this  right,  as  necessity  requires  in 
the  present  state,  be  lodged  with  fallible  men. 

Such  ecclesiastical  assemblages,  by  whatever  name  they  are 
styled,  may  be  widely  varied  in  their  origin,  in  their  constituents, 
in  their  duration,  and  their  relation  to  the  form  and  life  of  the 
communions  which  they  represent.  It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  the 
great  ecumenical  councils  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  were 
convened  by  imperial  authority,  and  that  many  of  the  Protestant 
councils,  as  the  Synod  of  Dort,  had  a  similar  origin.  The  West- 
minster Assembly,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  creation  of  the 
English  Parliament  primarily.  Other  conciliar  bodies,  like  the 
Council  of  Trent,  have  been  called  into  being  by  papal  authority 
acting  in  entire  independence  of  both  state  and  church.  Under 
the  prelatic  system  such  councils  or  convocations,  consisting  of 
the  clergy,  may  in  like  manner  be  summoned  by  episcopal  authority 
under  certain  prescribed  conditions.  Congregationalism  provides 
icr  local  councils  to  consider  particular  issues  or  transact  some 


646  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

specified  business,  and  to  some  extent  for  assemblages  of  a  more 
comprehensive  or  ecumenical  character.  In  the  Presbyterian 
Form  of  Gov.  provision  is  made  (Ch.  VIII)  for  several  classes 
of  such  conciliar  bodies,  presbyterial  and  synodical,  culminating 
in  the  General  Assembly  as  the  supreme  judicatory  of  the  church. 
It  is  hardly  needful  to  add  that  such  councils  however  organized 
may  differ  as  to  their  constituency,  either  including  the  clergy, 
higher  or  lower,  apart  from  the  membership,  or  the  clergy  and  laity 
united  under  certain  conditions  and  in  some  fixed  ratio  of  repre- 
sentation ;  that  they  may  also  be  convened  but  once,  for  certain 
special  reasons,  and  then  terminate  their  existence  finally,  or  be 
permanently  organized  with  a  view  to  the  better  securing  of 
results  such  as  only  a  continuous  existence  can  adequately  secure  ; 
and  also,  that  they  may  differ  widely  in  the  character  of  their 
deliberations,  in  the  significance  and  authoritativeness  of  their 
actions,  and  in  their  relations  to  the  general  life  of  the  church  or 
churches  which  they  represent. 

This  general  survey  of  Synods  and  Councils,  in  their  nature  and 
their  relations  to  the  organic  life  of  the  church  visible,  naturally 

leads  on  to  a  more  specific  considera- 

ll.    The  Presbyterian  Sys-     ..         ,  .-.    _     «    f   .  . 

tern;  Its  elements  and  values.       tlon  of  the  Presbyterian  system  of 

church  organization,  as  set  forth 
partly  in  the  Confession,  but  chiefly  in  the  Form  of  Government  and 
in  the  American  Book  of  Discipline.  The  essential  features  of  this 
mode  of  organization  are,  first,  that  the  right  of  government  in  the 
particular  church  is  vested,  not  in  the  ministry  as  an  order  above 
the  church,  but  in  the  membership  as  a  body  ;  secondly,  that  this 
body  shall  govern  itself  representatively,  through  the  election  of 
competent  persons  chosen  by  the  church  to  exercise  such  govern- 
ment in  conjunction  with  its  elect  ministry — such  representatives 
acting  under  a  fixed  code  of  procedure,  and  wielding  only  a  dele- 
gated and  declarative  authority  ;  thirdly,  that  in  order  to  secure 
mutual  counsel  and  assistance,  to  preserve  soundness  of  doctrine 
and  regularity  of  discipline,  and  to  enter  into  common  measures 
for  preventing  error  and  immorality  and  promoting  knowledge 
and  religion,  (Form  of  Gov.  Ch.  X)  these  separate  congrega- 
tions or  churches  shall  be  permanently  associated  together  within 
a  given  territory  as  a  presbytery,  or  within  a  larger  region  as  a 
synod,  or  more  comprehensively  still  as  a  general  assembly  includ- 
ing and  representing  the  whole  Church  in  a  given  province  or 
country  ;  and  fourthly,  that  in  order  to  the  existence  and  useful- 
ness of  such  a  series  of  judicatories,  there  must  be  an  established 
constitution  or  code  of  laws,  containing  all  needful  definitions  or 


THE   PRESBYTERIAN    POLITY.  G47 

limitations  of  respective  prerogative  and  duty,  and  controlling  the 
activities  of  the  united  body  in  such  ways  as  shall  best  protect 
the  rights  of  each  individual  church  and  member,  and  at  the 
same  time  promote  also  the  prosperity  and  honor  of  the  entire 
Church  as  thus  organized  and  unified.  In  an  authoritative  Note 
appended  to  the  Form  of  Gov.  Ch.  XII,  we  learn  what  were 
regarded  by  the  first  American  Assembly  as  the  radical  principles 
involved  in  such  organization.  These  principles,  briefly  stated, 
are,  first,  that  the  several  different  congregations  (or  particular 
churches)  taken  collectively  constitute  in  reality  one  Church  : 
secondly,  that  a  larger  part  of  this  Church,  or  a  representation  of 
it,  shall  oversee  and  govern  each  smaller  part  and  be  empowered 
to  determine  matters  of  controversy  which  may  arise  therein  : 
thirdly,  that  a  representation  of  the  whole  shall  within  prescribed 
limits  rule  and  determine  in  regard  to  every  part  and  to  all  the 
parts  as  united  : — and  fourthly,  that  all  appeals  (or  other  judicial 
questions  or  matters  of  common  interest)  may  be  carried  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher  judicatories,  until  they  are  decided  at  last 
by  the  collected  wisdom  and  united  voice  of  the  whole  Church  : 
Digest,  1898,  p.  259,  seq. 

In  justifying  an  ecclesiastical  organism  so  elaborate  and  com- 
plex as  this,  it  is  not  needful  to  claim  that  this  type  of  church 
government  in  its  varied  details  is  defined  clearly  and  exactly  in  the 
New  Testament.  We  may  indeed  set  aside  as  without  adequate 
historic  support  the  rationalistic  hypothesis  of  Baur  and  his 
successors,  European  and  American,  that  no  definite  form  of  gov- 
ernment existed  in  the  primitive  church.  But  it  is  clear  on  the 
other  hand  that  no  exact  and  exclusive  form,  adjusted  to  the  needs 
of  the  church  in  all  lands  and  ages,  and  divinely  prescribed  as 
such,  can  be  found  in  Scripture.  Such  a  discovery  has  often 
been  claimed  in  Protestant  circles,  as  it  is  imperatively  affirmed 
by  Rome.  Episcopacy  early  asserted  for  itself,  still  in  some 
degree  asserts,  such  exclusive  biblical  warrant.  The  Cambridge 
Platform  declared,  in  the  interest  of  Independency,  that  all  the 
parts  of  church  government  are  so  exactly  described  in  the  Word 
of  God,  that  it  is  not  the  province  of  man  to  add  or  diminish  or 
alter  anything  in  the  least  measure  therein.  The  Westminster 
Assembly,  or  at  least  the  large  majority  of  its  members,  affirmed 
no  less  strongly  the  explicit  warrant  in  Scripture  for  the  Presby- 
terian system  as  set  forth  in  its  formularies.  But  this  was  not  the 
universal  jndgment,  even  in  that  age.  As  far  back  as  the  Scotch 
Confession,  another  view  presents  itself  in  the  fraternal  (XX) 
statement  :    Not    that    we    think    that   any    policy    or   order   in 


(148  THE    CHURCH    OF   GOD. 

ceremonies  can  be  appointed  for  all  ages,  times  and  places.  The 
American  Synod,  from  which  sprang  the  first  General  Assembly, 
said  expressly  :  We  do  not  believe  that  God  has  been  pleased 
so  to  reveal  and  enjoin  every  minute  circumstance  of  ecclesi- 
astical government  and  discipline,  as  not  to  leave  room  for  ortho- 
dox churches  of  Christ  in  these  minutiae  to  differ  with  charity 
from  one  another.  On  this  wiser  basis,  it  is  simply  to  be  main- 
tained that  Presbyterianism  exists  by  divine  right,  but  not  by 
sole  or  exclusive  right,  as  a  mode  of  government  agreeable  to 
Scripture. 

It  would  be  vain  to  attempt  in  these  studies  a  presentation, 
even  in  the  most  meager  outline,  of  the  specific  evidences  on  which 
this  claim  of  scripturalness  is  based.  The  various  proofs  adduced 
in  the  American  Form  of  Gov.  and  still  more  extensively  in  the 
original  Form, , are  certainly  sufficient  to  establish,  if  not  an  ex- 
clusive jure  divino  authority,  still  a  substantial  warrant  for  the 
Presbyterian  system  as  justified  for  substance  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. There  is  distinct  evidence  for  the  belief  that  many  of  the 
earliest  Christian  churches  were  in  fact,  as  Whateley  (Kingdom 
of  Christ)  suggests,  simply  synagogues  of  converted  persons,  pro- 
vided already  with  a  body  of  officials  styled  elders,  or  elders  of 
the  people  ;  and  that  in  such  cases  the  apostles,  as  he  says, 
would  merely  introduce  whatever  added  regulations  might  be 
requisite  in  conjunction  with  the  new  faith,  leaving  the  machinery 
of  administration  substantially  unchanged, — the  membership  be- 
ing thus  by  training  Presbyterians  before  they  became  Christians. 

Starting  from  this  Hebraic  germ,  it  is  natural  to  infer  from  the 
biblical  statements  that,  wherever  converts  were  subsequently 
won  from  Judaism  in  Western  Asia  or  in  Eastern  Europe,  pro- 
vision was  made  for  administration  of  this  type  by  Paul,  and  by 
Timothy  and  Titus  and  others  engaged  primarily  in  the  task  of 
winning  disciples  among  their  Jewish  brethren,  and  of  organizing 
them  when  thus  converted,  into  Christian  churches.  Nor  is  it 
unreasonable  to  believe,  on  the  basis  of  facts  recorded  in  Scrip- 
ture, that  this  mode  was  accepted  and  established  among  Gentile 
converts  also,  wherever  the  Gospel  found  footing,  as  in  Corinth 
and  Rome, — though  doubtless  modified  at  some  points  by  the 
strong  influence  of  Roman  government  and  Roman  usage.  That 
exact  uniformity  prevailed,  resting  on  explicit  divine  authority 
and  rigorously  enforced  everywhere  as  such,  cannot  be  shown 
from  Scripture,  neither  can  it  be  justified  on  rational  grounds  by 
any  who  take  fully  into  account  all  the  circumstances  and  condi- 
tions in  the  case.     But  that  churches  substantially  Presbyterian, 


PROTESTANT   POLITIES  :     POINTS   OF   AGREEMENT.  649 

and  in  course  of  time  larger  organizations  of  the  same  type,  did 
actually  spring  into  being,  first  on  Jewish  then  on  Gentile  soil,  is 
a  fact  at  least  strongly  suggested  in  the  inspired  records  of  the 
apostolic  century,  and  certainly  justified  by  ample  evidences 
during  the  subsequent  century  or  two,  before  imperialism  in  any 
form  had  struck  its  cancerous  roots  into  the  organic  body  of  Christ : 
Banuerman,  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the  Church. 

Passing  through  the  long  and  dark  period  of  papal  absolutism, 
and  ascending  to  the  brighter  era  of  the  Reformation,  we  discover 
gradually  rising  into  view  in  Protestant  lands  and  especially  in 
Great  Britain,  three  general  types  of  church  administration,  the 
Episcopal,  the  Independent,  and  the  Presbyterian, — all  proposing 
themselves  as  legitimate  substitutes  for  that  hierarchal  despotism 
against  which  all  Protestants  were  earnestly  arrayed,  and  each 
claiming  for  itself  exclusive  biblical  warrant,  even  to  the  extent 
of  challenging  at  times  the  right  of  churches  otherwise  organized 
to  bear  the  name  of  Christian.  We  are  well  aware  that  some  of 
the  most  injurious  discords  of  Protestantism  originated  around 
this  ecclesiastical  issue:  while  this  conflict  of  polities  continued, 
it  was  impossible  for  the  Protestant  cause  to  reach  its  highest 
measure  of  vigor  or  to  gain  the  largest  success.  The  various 
phases  of  that  intestine  conflict  need  not  be  portrayed,  as  it  went 
on  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  and  was  con- 
tinued, though  with  lessening  bitterness,  into  the  nineteenth 
century.  It  was  only  as  men  came  to  see  at  length  that  in  fact 
Christian  churches  could  live  and  prosper  and  do  valuable  work 
for  Christ  and  his  cause  under  either  of  these  types  of  adminis- 
tration in  their  several  varieties,  and  under  all  of  these  in  similar 
measure,  that  the  dogma  of  a  divine  right  inhering  exclusively  in 
either,  gradually  faded  away.  And  it  surely  is  one  of  the  grandest 
facts  of  our  time,  that  the  point  has  now  been  reached  substantially 
where  each  of  these  types  may  be  regarded  and  cherished  as  Chris- 
tian, and  where  their  profound  points  of  agreement,  as  well  as  the 
elements  of  difference,  may  be  freely  and  happily  recognized. 

All  alike  hold  to  the  generic  doctrine  of  the  church  as  a  divine 
institution,  appointed  of  God  for  a  sublime  work  and  career  in 
the  world,  and  endowed  by  him  with  a  supernatural,  a  gracious, 
a  truly  cosmic  mission  to  humanity.  All  are  agreed  as  to  the 
essential  nature  of  that  mission,  as  being  a  proclamation  of  grace 
and  salvation  through  a  divine  Mediator,  and  by  means  of  the 
supernatural  Word  concerning  him  and  his  mediatorial  relations 
to  our  fallen  race.  All  are  agreed  as  to  the  headship  of  Christ  in 
his  church,  to  the  supremacy  of  the  divine  law,  to  the  obligation 


650  THE   CHURCH   OF   GOD. 

to  observe  the  sacraments,  to  the  fact  of  the  divine  ordinances 
such  as  the  Sabbath,  and  to  the  duty  and  privilege  of  worship, 
in  whatever  variety  of  mode.  It  would  be  needless  here  to  detail 
all  those  forms  of  agreement  in  doctrine,  in  practice  and  in  ex- 
perience, by  which  the  various  branches  of  Protestantism  are  in 
fact  as  truly  one  as  if  they  were,  like  Rome,  one  outward  and 
visible  organism.  It  is  enough  for  us  now  to  note  that  these 
agreements,  doctrinal,  practical  and  experimental,  are  infinitely 
more  fundamental,  more  weighty  and  more  precious,  than  are  the 
ecclesiastical  technics  in  which  the  Protestant  bodies  still  differ. 

It  is  especially  imperative  upon  us  as  Presbyterians  to  note  and 
study  well  these  important  points  of  agreement  as  well  as  those 
of  difference  between  our  preferred  type  of  polity  and  all  others 
existing  side  by  side  with  it  in  the  broad  Protestant  domain. 
Presbyterianism  agrees,  for  example,  with  strict  Independency  in 
affirming  the  parity  of  the  ministry,  the  biblical  warrant  for  the 
diaconate  as  an  administrative  agency,  and  the  right  of  each 
church  to  rule  itself  under  the  supreme  jurisdiction  of  Christ.  It 
agrees  with  modified  Independency,  or  Congregationalism,  in 
recognizing  the  proper  affiliation  of  contiguous  churches  of  like 
belief,  and  the  importance  of  practical  fellowship  in  some  form 
among  these  several  households  of  faith.  It  agrees  with  Episco- 
pacy in  upholding  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  whole  church 
of  Christ,  and  exalting  the  ministry  as  a  divine  office  and  order 
within  that  church,  though  granting  to  it  no  independent  prerog- 
ative or  power.  It  agrees  still  more  obviously  in  both  usage  and 
spirit  with  that  modified  Episcopacy  which,  under  the  name  of 
Methodism,  has  proved  itself  one  of  the  most  effective  as  well  as 
popular  varieties  of  church  administration  in  these  later  times. 
It  agrees  also  with  Lutheranism  in  its  consistorial  organization  as 
composed  of  both  ministers  and  laymen,  and  in  its  episcopal  super - 
intendency  of  ministers  and  churches,  though  without  the  formal 
office  of  the  bishopric  as  existing  in  some  Lutheran  communities. 
It  agrees  in  general  with  the  democratic  or  popular  rather  than 
the  sacerdotal  conception  of  church  government,  yet  appropriates 
and  embodies  some  desirable  features  which  that  conception  in  its 
better  varieties  represents.  In  general  it  occupies  an  intermediate 
position  between  antithetic  polities,  borrowing  from  these  some 
valuable  elements,  yet  possessing  some  good  qualities  which  they 
do  not  so  well  exhibit.  While  it  has  some  obvious  defects  and 
liabilities,  and  while  it  may  be  so  administered  as  to  become  an 
injury  rather  than  a  benefit,  and  even  an  instrument  of  tyranny, 
;t   fairly   deserves   the   encomium    pronounced    upon   it  by   an 


HEADSHIP   OF    CHRIST.  G51 

American  commentator  (Beattie,  Presbyterian  Standards),  as 
securing  well  corporate  unity,  orderly  procedure,  individual  free- 
dom and  justice  to  all  sacred  interests:  also  as  providing  for  the 
harmonious  balance  and  consistent  operation  of  all  these  factors, 
in  such  ways  as  to  make  it  the  symbol  of  both  law  and  liberty, 
order  and  organization. 

In  meditating  on  the  generic  conception  of  the  Church  Visible 

as  presented  in  this  interesting  chapter,   it  is  important  to  bear 

steadily  in  mind  the  two  grand  facts 

which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  worthy        !  2'    HeadsniP  of  Christ  in 
.       ,  ,,      ,      ,  ,.        .    the  church:   Supremacy  of 

church  government,   the  headship  of     ^  Scriptures> 

Christ  and  the  supreme  authority  of 

the  inspired  Word — the  heavenly  Ruler  and  his  sovereign  law. 
This  is  not  that  generic  headship  which  is  theologically  ascribed 
to  Christ,  in  contrast  with  the  headship  of  Adam — a  headship 
over  our  redeemed  humanity,  but  rather  that  more  specific  rela- 
tion which  he  sustains  toward  his  organized  people.  In  the 
chapter  on  Christ  as  Mediator,  we  were  taught  that  God  gave 
him  even  from  eternity  a  people  to  be  his  seed,  and  made  him  to 
be  the  Head  and  Savior  of  his  church.  In  the  present  chapter  it 
is  said  that  there  is  no  other  head  of  the  church  but  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  Larger  Catechism  (52-54)  he  is  declared 
to  fill  this  high  place  for  the  justification  of  his  people,  and  to 
gather  and  defend  his  church,  subdue  its  enemies,  and  accomplish 
all  the  glorious  ends  which  such  headship  involves.  The  Form 
of  Government  affirms  that,  being  now  himself  exalted  above  all 
principality  and  power,  he  hath  erected  in  this  world  a  kingdom 
which  is  his  church,  and  that  as  its  head  he  has  appointed  officers 
for  the  edification  of  the  visible  church  which  is  his  body.  The 
American  Book  of  Discipline  starts  out  with  the  cardinal  propo- 
sition, that  Christ  as  its  Lord  and  King  has  appointed  a  system  of 
laws  in  and  for  his  church  universal ;  and  then  proceeds  to  unfold 
that  system  as  resting  in  substance,  though  not  in  every  detail, 
on  his  authority  alone. 

The  doctrine  makes  its  appearance  frequently  in  the  earlier 
creeds.  The  Second  Helvetic  Confession  (XVII),  the  French 
Conf.  and  the  Scotch  Conf.  also,  declare  the  church  to  be  always 
the  body  and  spouse  of  Christ  Jesus,  who  is  its  divine  Head.  It 
was  not  only  natural  but  imperative  that  the  Reformers,  repudi- 
ating the  claim  of  the  hierarchy  to  jurisdiction  over  the  household 
of  faith,  should  fix  their  eyes  solely  on  Him  who  was  not  only  the 
tustifier  of  them  that  believe,  but  also  King  and  Lord  over  them 


652  THK    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

both  individually  and  collectively.  To  him  alone  could  they  turn, 
not  merely  for  providential  protection  from  their  enemies,  and 
for  guidance  amid  their  difficult  labors  and  struggles,  but  also  for 
government — for  a  divine  and  gracious  sovereignty  that  should 
control  alike  their  activities  and  their  lives.  And  certainly  none 
among  the  earlier  Reformers  had  greater  occasion  to  affirm  this 
truth  and  to  build  their  faith  upon  it,  than  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly, amid  all  the  perplexities  political  as  well  as  spiritual  which 
were  besetting  them  in  the  endeavor  to  do  the  work  to  which,  as 
they  believed,  the  great  Head  of  the  church  had  appointed  them. 
As  we  read  the  history  of  that  burdened  and  troubled  age,  when 
the  British  Isles  were  agitated  from  border  to  border,  and  the 
hearts  of  many  were  trembling  lest  the  church  and  religion  should 
utterly  perish  amid  the  convulsions  of  the  times,  we  can  compre- 
hend in  a  measure  the  peculiar  force  of  their  earnest  declaration, 
which  even  now  sounds  like  a  battle  cry:  There  is  no  other  head 
of  the  church  but  the  L,ord  Jesus  Christ . 

Other  aspects  of  his  comprehensive  sovereignty  have  already 
been  considered  in  the  examination  of  his  kingly  office,  regarded 
as  a  part  of  his  Mediatorship.  Contemplating  this  special  sover- 
eignty, wielded  by  him  within  and  over  his  visible  church,  we 
discover  that  it  rests,  first  of  all,  on  what  Christ  himself  is  as  the 
Son  of  God  and  our  Immanuel,  vested  personally  with  all  the 
inherent  rights  of  Deity;  secondly,  on  his  possession  of  all  those 
qualities  and  endowments  which  fit  him  to  exercise  such  absolute 
dominion  over  his  chosen  people;  thirdly,  on  the  fact  that  he  has 
himself  created  and  organized  the  church,  and  has  set  it  up  before 
the  world  as  his  constituted  representative  and  his  visible  king- 
dom ;  fourthly,  on  his  equipment  of  the  church  with  all  the 
appointments,  ordinances,  qualifications  requisite  to  its  becoming 
such  a  kingdom,  and  thus  acting  representatively  for  him  before 
the  eyes  of  men  ;  and  fifthly,  on  the  final  fact  that  the  church 
could  neither  accomplish  its  mission  nor  even  continue  to  exist, 
if  Christ  had  not  thus  actually  seated  himself  on  the  throne  in  the 
presence  of  all  his  adoring  people.  On  such  grounds  Protestant- 
ism has  universally  held  for  substance  the  doctrine  of  the  Symbols 
as  here  presented.  In  the  presence  of  this  sublime  headship,  all 
types  of  Erastianism,  which  regard  the  church  as  subject  to  the 
civil  power,  its  laws  and  officers  and  administration  as  amenable 
to  the  state,  and  its  membership  as  made  up  of  those  who  are  sub- 
jects or  citizens  within  the  state,  fade  away  as  foggy  exhalations 
vanish  before  the  rising  sun.  The  fact  that  there  has  been  among 
Presbyterians  no  swerving  from  this  high  conception  in  recent 


bible  the  supreme  law.  653 

times,  is  illustrated  in  the  Articles  of  the  English  Presbyterian 
Synod,  which  affirm  that  Christ  is  the  sole  head  of  his  church, 
that  all  its  powers  and  prerogatives  are  derived  from  him,  and  that 
all  its  functions,  such  as  worship,  teaching,  government,  are  to  be 
administered  according  to  his  will,  and  subject  to  his  authority 
alone. 

In  conjunction  with  this  gracious  headship  there  should  be 
emphasized  the  other  cardinal  fact,  that  the  Bible  is  the  only  con- 
stitution, the  only  authoritative  law  and  rule,  within  the  Christian 
church.  It  is  no  more  manifest  that  no  other  Head  or  Lord  is 
needed,  than  that  no  other  book  of  government  is  needful  to  the 
existence  and  efficiency  of  that  spiritual  organism.  It  is  true 
that  in  all  ages,  and  perhaps  especially  in  this,  the  visible  church 
requires  a  body  of  practical  precepts,  ordinances,  statutes,  usages, 
more  or  less  extended  and  definite,  in  order  to  its  proper  effective- 
ness as  an  organization.  Yet  it  is  also  true  that  no  regulative 
enactment  may  properly  be  established  in  that  church  which  is 
not  in  harmony  with  the  general  law  laid  down  in  the  Scripture 
itself :  whatever  rule  or  custom  is  found  to  be  contrary  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Divine  Word  is,  ipso  facto,  null  and  void.  To 
the  L,aw  and  to  the  Testimony,  over  against  all  merely  human 
injunctions,  must  the  final  appeal  be  always  made,  on  the  ground, 
first,  that  the  Scriptures  are  inspired,  and  are  therefore  infallible 
in  their  requisitions  ;  secondly  that  they  constitute  in  all  cases  a 
clear  and  adequate  guide  for  the  regulation  of  church  life  ;  thirdly, 
that  the  Head  of  the  church  has  himself  stamped  them  with  his 
personal  seal  as  being  the  one  and  only  constitution  for  his  organ- 
ized people  ;  and  fourthly,  that  in  no  other  way  can  the  church 
be  preserved  from  the  invasion  of  human  ordinances  claiming 
divine  warrant,  be  protected  from  internal  discords  and  disrup- 
tions, and  be  happily  instructed  in  all  that  pertains  either  to  its 
inward  life  or  to  its  outward  efficiency  and  influence. 

The  Bible  is  thus  not  only,  as  is  often  said,  the  religion  of 
Protestants ;  it  is  also  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  church,  its 
inspired  constitution  and  its  only  code  of  laws.  Under  the 
Hebraic  dispensation  God  was  wont  to  reveal  his  will  to  his  people 
by  miraculous  manifestations,  such  as  the  Shekinah  or  the  myste- 
rious Urim  and  Thummim,  but  in  the  Christian  dispensation 
miracles  are  no  longer  needful ;  the  written  Word,  clear,  pure, 
divinely  endorsed,  is  sufficient.  Cunningham  (Hist.  Theol.) 
lays  down  the  broad  and  unquestionable  proposition,  that  God 
fitted  and  intended  his  Word  to  be  the  full  and  adequate  guide 
to  his  church  in  the  execution  of  all   its  functions  and  in  the 


654  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

discharge  of  all  its  duties.  The  church  may  indeed  define  the 
provisions  of  Scripture,  and  may  indicate  specific  applications  of 
its  general  principles,  but  it  may  add  nothing  thereto  by  way  of 
authoritative  legislation.  In  the  opening  chapter  of  the  Confes- 
sion it  is  emphatically  said  that,  while  some  things  may  be  ordered 
by  the  light  of  nature  and  Christian  prudence,  yet  these  must  be 
in  harmony  with  the  general  rules  of  Scripture,  which  are  always 
to  be  observed.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  indeed  to  be  invoked  as  an 
authoritative  guide  in  the  understanding  of  this  divine  rule,  but 
the  Spirit  commends  only  what  the  Word  has  first  spoken,  and 
the  utterance  of  the  Word  is  always  the  utterance  of  Christ. 

We  stand  here  on  the  confines  of  what,  from  the  very  begin- 
nings of  Protestantism,  has  been  a  region  of  positive,  sometimes 
rancorous,  intestinal  controversy.  Around  the  doctrine  of  the 
headship  of  Christ  arose  the  issues  which  led  to  the  outbreak  of 
the  anabaptist  heresies,  and  to  the  civil  wars  which  deluged  Ger- 
many with  fratricidal  blood.  Around  that  doctrine,  especially  as 
related  to  the  asserted  authority  of  the  civil  magistracy  within 
the  religious  sphere,  sprang  up  much  of  the  bitter  struggle  be- 
tween ecclesiastical  schools  and  parties  in  England,  and  man}r  of 
the  battles  and  disruptions  in  Scottish  Presbyterianism.  It  can 
hardly  be  said  that  European  Protestantism  has  even  yet  been 
able  to  draw  satisfactory  lines  of  jurisdiction  between  the  king- 
doms of  this  world  and  that  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  all  true 
disciples  regard  and  extol  as  forever  supreme  in  its  authority  over 
the  household  of  faith.  The  divines  of  Westminster  came  nearer 
than  any  of  their  predecessors  to  the  solution  of  this  complicate 
problem,  and  their  high  doctrine  may  be  fairly  regarded  as  a  close 
approach  to  the  full  and  pure  ideal.  Yet  we  have  had  occasion 
to  see  how  far  short  they  themselves  fell  in  the  application  of 
their  doctrine  ;  and  the  history  of  more  recent  Presbyterianism, 
American  as  well  as  British,  shows  too  plainly  that  the  ideal  which 
they  portrayed  has  not  even  yet  been  reached  in  practice.  Similar 
conflicts  which  cannot  here  be  named,  have  arisen  in  many  quar- 
ters respecting  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  teaching  as  to  the 
church,  and  especially  respecting  the  manner  and  extent  of  the 
application  of  biblical  principles  to  church  life.  The  various 
branches  of  Protestantism  are  as  yet  very  far  from  being  agreed, 
or  even  thoroughly  tolerant  with  one  another,  at  this  point.  Still 
the  fundamental  fact  remains  that,  as  all  recognize  the  headship 
of  Christ  as  the  heavenly  ruler,  so  his  Word  must  be  accepted 
universally  as  the  sufficient  and  the  supreme  law.  In  the  more 
faithful  study  and  wiser  use  of  that  Word,  and  thus  alone,  can 


PURITY   Ol-    THE   CHURCH.  655 

be  found  the  quieting  of  all  discussions,   the  solution  of  every 

problem,  the  end  of  ecclesiastical  conflict. 

In  the  presence  of  the  elevated  and  spiritual  conception  of  the 

Church  thus  far  presented  in  the  Symbols,  it  seems  strange  to  come 

upon   the   startling   proposition   in 

the  fifth  section  of  this  chapter  that,        13«    Purity  of  the  Church: 

the  purest  churches  under  heaven  are     ..  .  .         •      P     P   ~ 

\  Ity  condemned. 

subject  both  to  mixture  and  error, — 

followed  by  the  still  more  startling  statement  that  some  churches 
have  so  degenerated  as  to  become  no  churches  of  Christ  but  syna- 
gogues of  Satan.  The  first  of  these  clauses  carries  us  back  to  the 
controversies  of  the  early  Church,  such  as  the  schisms  of  Felicis- 
simus  and  Novatian,  and  the  long  struggle  between  Augustine 
and  the  Donatists  respecting  the  proper  qualifications  for  church 
membership.  It  recalls  to  mind  the  conflicts  of  the  sixteenth 
century  between  Luther  and  Calvin  on  one  side,  and  the  Anabap- 
tists and  other  similar  errorists  bearing  the  Protestant  name.  It 
reminds  us  also  of  the  struggles  between  the  various  ecclesias- 
tical parties  in  England,  the  confused  intermingling  of  theory 
and  practice  respecting  church  membership,  the  distraction  among 
the  diverse  parties  in  the  Assembly  itself.  That  there  was  a 
strange  amount  of  mixture  upon  mixture  in  British  Protestantism, 
was  a  fact  which  the  Assembly  could  not  fail  to  acknowledge  : 
that  there  was  also  something  of  error  incorporated  in  the  doc- 
trines, and  still  more  palpably  embodied  in  the  living  of  the 
various  sects  and  denominations  in  Britain,  was  a  fact  even 
more  obvious  to  their  view.  The  divines  of  the  Assembly  did 
not  claim  exemption  from  such  mixture  and  such  error  even 
among  themselves  whether  as  individuals  or  as  a  body,  as  we 
may  easily  learn  from  their  records.  They  also  knew  well  what 
had  been  the  painful  history  of  the  Christian  church  as  to  the 
commingling  of  good  fish  and  bad  fish  in  the  net,  the  inextri- 
cable blending  of  wheat  and  tares  in  the  field  of  grace,  even  from 
the  days  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  They  knew  how  constantly, 
although  in  theory  the  church  was  composed  of  none  but  saints, 
evil  men  and  evil  influences  had  made  their  wray  into  it,  and  had 
corrupted  alike  its  purity  and  its  efficiency.  And  therefore  in 
describing  the  church  visible,  as  distinct  from  the  church  invis- 
ible, they  were  constrained  in  all  honesty  to  say  for  their  own 
communion  as  for  others :  The  purest  churches  under  heaven 
are  stibject  both  to  mixture  arid  error. 

But  the  acknowledged  imperfections  of  the  various  Protestant 
bodies  in  Europe,  serious  as  some  of  these  were,  would  not  have 


656  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

justified  the  further  affirmation  of  the  Assembly,  that  some 
churches  have  so  degenerated  as  to  become  no  churches  of  Christ  but 
synagogues  of  Satan.  There  could  have  been  but  one  ecclesias- 
tical organization  to  which  such  language  could  apply — the 
corrupted  church  of  Rome,  which  not  many  decades  before  had 
obtained  sway  in  England  under  Mary,  and  had  then  made  mani- 
fest before  the  eyes  of  all  its  dreadful  degeneracy,  if  not  its 
apostacy  from  the  apostolic  model.  As  they  had  read  the  story 
of  its  persecutions,  its  formalism,  and  its  lack  of  religious  vitality — 
as  they  had  traced  the  records  of  its  ambitious  attempts  to  rule 
the  British  Isles  in  the  interest  of  the  papacy,  even  by  methods 
wholly  inconsistent  with  the  principles  and  temper  of  true  Chris- 
tianity, they  had  been  led  to  regard  it  as  no  church  of  Christ  and 
even  to  pronounce  it,  in  the  solemn  language  of  the  Apocalypse,  a 
synagogue  of  Satan.  The  earlier  Reformers  had  not  hesitated  to 
employ  such  language,  and  even  to  claim  that  it  was  the  Roman 
church  specificalty  which  the  ascended  Savior  had  in  mind  when 
addressing  his  messages  to  the  seven  churches  of  western  Asia. 
Those  who  have  read  the  terrible  arraignment  of  that  church  in 
the  Institutes  of  Calvin,  or  the  impetuous  and  sweeping  con- 
demnation of  it  in  the  National  Covenant  of  the  Kirk  of  Scot- 
land, will  comprehend  the  full  significance  of  the  language  here 
employed. 

The  question  whether  the  church  of  Rome  is  a  part  of  the 
visible  Church  of  Christ  on  earth,  or  is  to  be  utterly  cast  out  as  a 
veritable  synagogue  of  Satan,  can  be  best  considered  in  the  light 
of  the  following  Section  (vi)  which  affirms  that  the  pope  of  Rome 
cannot  in  any  sense  be  regarded  as  the  head  of  the  church,  but  is 
rather  to  be  condemned  as  that  antichrist,  that  man  of  sin  and  son  of 
perdition,  that  exalteth  himself  in  the  ehurch  against  Christ  and  all 
that  is  called  God.  If  the  arraignment  of  the  Roman  communion 
by  Calvin  be  justly  described  as  terrible,  a  hundred  fold  more 
terrible  is  his  scholarly,  profound  and  merciless  impeachment  of 
the  papacy  (Inst.  B.  IV  :  5-11)  as  a  mode  of  church  govern- 
ment, and  of  the  irreligious  men  who  in  the  era  of  the  Reforma- 
tion and  before  had  filled  the  papal  chair.  He  charges  the  papacy 
with  entirely  subverting  the  ancient  type  of  church  government, 
with  asserting  a  primacy  to  which  it  was  not  entitled,  with  an 
assumption  of  power  which  is  destructive  of  liberty  within  the 
church,  with  corrupting  purity  of  doctrine  and  introducing  licen- 
tious perversions  of  the  truth,  with  tyrannizing  over  both  the 
souls  and  the  bodies  of  men,  and  with  assuming  an  abusive  juris- 
diction in  civil  spheres  wholly  unwarranted  by  Scripture  or  by 


PAPACY.  ().r>7 

the  rule  and  usage  of  ancient  Christianity.  Luther  and  Zwingli 
had  denounced  the  reigning  popes,  exposed  the  priestly  orders, 
condemned  unsparingly  the  men  and  parties  who  upheld  the  papal 
assumptions,  pronounced  the  papal  communion  corrupt  in  capitc 
et  membris,  and  on  this  side  had  dealt  blows  upon  the  papacy  as 
a  polit)'  which  it  was  well  nigh  impossible  to  resist.  But  it  was 
left  to  Calvin,  with  an  invective  even  more  intense,  but  in  more 
logical  form  and  with  an  irresistible  force  of  argument,  to  attack 
the  papacy  as  a  S3'stem,  and  to  prove  at  least  to  all  the  Protestant 
world  that,  however  the  Christian  church  might  be  governed,  it 
could  never  accept  the  domination  of  Rome,  except  at  the  cost  of 
spiritual  destruction.  Two  centuries  may  have  led  to  some  modi- 
fication of  his  reasonings,  but  have  in  no  degree  impaired  the 
substance  or  the  energy  of  his  mighty  argument.  The  West- 
minster divines  accepted  it  as  it  stood,  and  formulated  their  doc- 
trine accordingly, — doubtless  stimulated  by  the  aggressions  of 
the  papacy  upon  both  the  civil  and  the  religious  institutions  of 
their  own  country;  and  therefore  while  simply  suggesting  that  the 
Roman  communion  was  very  far  corrupted  and  might  possibly 
be  a  synagogue  of  Satan  in  the  apocalyptic  sense,  they  openly 
declared  the  pope  to  be  antichrist,  and  even  the  man  of  sin  and 
son  of  perdition  condemned  in  Holy  Writ. 

Protestantism  since  that  day  has  often  applied  these  fearful 
phrases  not  merely  to  the  papacy  as  a  system,  but  to  the  men 
who  from  time  to  time  have  filled  the  papal  chair.  But  as  in  the 
days  of  John  there  were  many  antichrists,  so  now  there  are  many 
forms  of  error  or  unbelief,  both  personal  and  impersonal,  to  which 
that  fearful  term  might  properly  be  applied.  There  are  also  now, 
as  there  have  been  in  all  the  Christian  centuries,  many  men  of 
sin,  many  sons  of  perdition,  such  as  those  to  whom  Paul  referred 
when  he  both  warned  the  Thessalonian  brethren  against  their 
influence,  and  comforted  them  by  the  assurance  that  the  sway  of 
such  representatives  of  evil  must  be  brief.  To  apply  these  terms 
exclusively  to  the  papacy  or  to  this  or  that  pope  personally,  as  if 
such  special  application  was  intended  by  the  apostle,  must  be 
regarded  as  a  departure  from  sound  exegesis,  and  as  well  from 
Christian  charity.  That  there  are  no  other  antichrists  or  men  of 
sin  or  sons  of  perdition  than  are  to  be  found  within  the  Roman 
communion,  is  incredible  :  that  there  have  been  good,  devout, 
Christian  popes,  it  is  certainly  no  undue  stretch  of  charity  to 
affirm.  That  all  enemies  to  spiritual  Christianity  such  as  the 
apostle  so  tersely  describes,  will  in  due  time  be  taken  out  of  the 
way  and  destroyed,  all  Christian  minds  will  rejoice  to  believe. 


658  THR    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

Respecting  the  papacy  as  a  system  of  church  government,  there 
can  be  but  one  judgment  among  thoughtful  Protestants  in  this 
age.  Its  assumption  of  the  right  to  rule  over  the  church  as  the 
successor  and  representative  of  the  apostolic  college,  its  asserted 
supremacy  as  a  hierarchal  organism,  its  presumptuous  dictation 
of  doctrine  and  affirmation  of  infallibility  in  judgment  respecting 
spiritual  truth,  its  haughty  sacerdotalism  and  pretentious  display, 
and  many  other  characteristic  elements,  conspire  to  prove  it  rad- 
ically at  variance  with  the  teaching  and  temper  of  Christianity. 
We  have  already  had  occasion  to  note  the  emphasis  with  which 
the  Westminster  divines  declared  that  the  pope  possessed  no 
rightful  power  or  jurisdiction  over  men  within  the  civil  sphere. 
But  it  is  incomparably  more  important  to  reject  absolutely  his 
claim  to  power  or  jurisdiction  within  the  religious  sphere.  The 
church  is  indeed  in  one  sense  a  sovereignty  more  imperial  than 
that  of  any  political  state  ;  but  there  is  no  other  head,  no  other 
sovereign  within  that  holy  dominion,  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
While  therefore  we  may  set  aside  the  exegesis  which  applies  to 
the  pope  as  a  person  the  strong  terms  of  condemnation  just 
alluded  to,  we  may  as  Protestants  adopt  without  hesitancy  the 
modified  and  temperate  language  of  the  recently  proposed  Re- 
vision of  the  Confession  :  The  claim  of  the  pope  of  Rome  or  of 
any  other  human  authority,  to  be  the  vicar  of  Christ  and  the 
head  of  the  Church  universal,  is  without  warrant  in  Scripture  or 
in  fact,  and  is  a  usurpation  dishonoring  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

The  question  whether  the  Roman  church,  though  thus  un- 
scripturally  governed,  is  after  all  a  Christian  church,  must  be 
answered  affirmatively.  It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  the 
French  Confession,  written  under  the  influence  of  Calvin,  declared 
its  belief  that  some  trace  of  the  true  Church  remained  in  the 
papal  communion,  inasmuch  as  the  virtue  and  substance  of  bap- 
tism survived  in  it.  Calvin  himself  went  farther  than  this, 
affirming  that  there  are  true  churches  within  that  communion, 
notwithstanding  the  papal  domination  over  them.  The  pope  has 
profaned  them,  he  says,  by  sacrilegious  impiety,  afflicted  them 
by  cruel  despotism,  corrupted  and  almost  terminated  their  exist- 
ence by  false  and  pernicious  doctrines  like  poisonous  potions.  In 
such  churches,  he  adds,  Christ  lies  half  buried,  the  Gospel  is 
suppressed,  piety  exterminated,  and  the  worship  of  God  almost 
abolished.  Yet,  he  concludes,  these  are  churches,  inasmuch  as 
God  has  wonderfully  preserved  among  them  a  remnant  of  his 
people,  though  miserably  dispersed  and  dejected,  and  as  there  still 
remain  some  marks  of  the  church,  especially  those  the  efficacy  of 


THE    CHURCH    OF    ROME.  059 

which  neither  the  craft  of  the  devil  nor  the  malice  of  men  can 
ever  destroy.  It  can  hardly  be  claimed  that  this  wise  judgment 
of  Calvin  met  universal  acceptance  in  Protestant  circles.  In  some 
instances  at  least,  the  definition  of  the  true  church  was  so  shaped 
in  the  creeds  as  to  exclude  the  church  of  Rome,  if  not  formally 
at  least  by  implication.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  are  content  with  saying  (XIX),  that  the  church  of 
Rome  hath  erred,  not  only  in  their  living  and  manner  of  ceremo- 
nies, but  also  in  matters  of  faith.  The  Irish  Articles  (79) 
denounce  the  papal  rule  as  a  usurped  power,  contrary  to  the 
Scriptures  and  Word  of  God,  and  contrary  to  the  example  of  the 
primitive  church,  but  pronounce  no  condemnation  on  the  Roman 
church  itself. 

If  we  may  judge  from  the  tenor  of  the  debates  as  recorded, 
and  from  the  general  temper  of  the  Assembly  toward  Romanism 
as  it  was  seeking  to  become  again  dominant  in  England,  it  seems 
natural  to  infer  that  the  Westminster  Assembly,  had  it  spoken, 
would  have  expressed  the  severer  view — would  have  said  explicitly 
that  the  Roman  church  had  so  far  degenerated  as  to  be  no  longer 
a  church  of  Christ  but  rather  a  synagogue  of  Satan.  And  prob- 
ably this  opinion  still  extensively  prevails  among  the  adherents  of 
the  Confession,  as  in  other  Protestant  circles.  Still  the  judg- 
ment of  Calvin  will  justify  itself  on  close  examination,  not  merely 
on  the  specific  basis  named  by  him  or  by  the  French  Conf .  but 
on  the  still  broader  ground  that  there  is  much  in  the  creed  of 
Rome,  and  much  also  in  the  religious  experience  of  many  Roman- 
ists, which  justifies  the  recognition  of  that  church,  though  greatly 
profaned,  afflicted,  corrupted,  poisoned,  dejected  and  despised — 
to  use  his  intense  expressions — as  a  true  branch  of  the  one  holy, 
catholic  and  apostolic  Church  of  Christ.  Holding  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  three  ancient  creeds  as  to  God  and  the  Trinity,  to  Christ 
as  incarnate  Deity,  to  the  Scriptures  as  a  divine  revelation  and  law 
for  the  guidance  of  men,  to  the  primal  facts  of  sin  and  guilt,  and 
the  possibility  of  redemption  in  and  through  Christ  as  the  ulti- 
mate source,  and  to  the  two  great  sacraments  on  which  Chris- 
tianity is  so  largely  founded,  that  church  may  at  least  claim  a 
considerable  degree  of  recognition  from  the  representatives  of 
evangelical  belief.  As  we  may  condemn  the  papacy  as  a  system 
of  government  without  denouncing  the  ruling  pope  as  antichrist, 
so  we  may  condemn  the  many  and  serious,  almost  raortiferous, 
errors  of  Rome,  and  yet  believe  that-  there  are  churches  within 
that  communion  where,  though  Christ  be  half  buried,  the  Gospel 
suppressed,  and  the  worship  of  God  almost  abolished,   he  has 


660  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

still  preserved  therein  a  holy  seed— a  seed  that  may  hereafter 
spring  up  in  the  bloom  of  another  Reformation,  and  bring  forth 
in  the  ages  to  come  another  grand  harvest  to  his  eternal  glory. 

Before  we  close  these  studies  respecting  the  Church  Visible  as 
a  divine  organism,  we  may  fitly  pause  for  a  moment  to  consider 

the  future  of  this  remarkable  institu- 

14.    Future  of  the  Chris-     tion      Is  the  Christian  church  as  here 
tian  Church:  its  permanence:     ,  -      ,  V1     .,     „  ,  .      ,    ,       ,,     TT 
laws  of  church  growth.  defined'  llke  the  Patriarchal  or  the  He- 

braic,  to  give  way  in  time  to  some  other 
supernatural  organization  and,  like  these  preliminary  churches, 
to  live  only  as  a  tributary  element  flowing  silently  into  the  com- 
position and  life  of  some  future  institution,  still  grander  in  endow- 
ment and  more  glorious  in  mission  ?  Is  it  ultimately  to  perish 
from  among  men  as  light  and  knowledge  are  increased, — the  race 
having  outgrown  the  need  of  its  gracious  disciplines  and  there- 
fore setting  it  aside,  just  as  progressing  civilization  has  sup- 
planted the  primitive  barbarisms  of  the  world  ?  Is  it  not  rather 
to  grow  on  and  upward,  retaining  all  its  present  qualities  but 
developing  with  the  ages,  until  it  becomes  the  central,  most  dis- 
tinctive and  grandest  institution  of  humanity — the  church  uni- 
versal, apostolic  in  origin  and  purpose  and  doctrine,  and  catholic 
in  faith  and  spirit,  in  the  highest  sense  and  measure  described  in 
the  Pauline  letters  ?  And  if  it  is  thus  to  become  permanent  and 
grow  into  perfection,  under  what  laws  and  by  what  processes 
shall  this  sublime  result  be  brought  to  pass  ? 

The  question  respecting  a  millennium  to  come  to  the  human 
race,  as  the  issue  of  its  long  period  of  experience  and  develop- 
ment under  the  action  of  grace,  and  respecting  also  the  second 
coming  of  our  Lord  in  conjunction  with  such  millennium,  may 
best  be  considered  in  full  under  the  general  head  of  Eschatology, 
as  presented  in  the  two  closing  chapters  of  the  Confession  and 
elsewhere.  It  will  be  sufficient  here  to  note  the  fact  that  the 
Symbols  nowhere  propose  any  other  issue  than  the  continuous 
growth  of  the  Christian  church  during  the  ages  to  come,  through 
the  agency  of  the  same  divine  forces,  and  essentially  by  the  same 
methods  which  are  now  employed,  until  it  shall  triumph  over  all 
obstacles,  put  to  silence  all  unbelief,  overcome  all  irreligion  and 
all  false  religions,  and  become  in  fact  the  one  enduring  institu- 
tion of  our  humanity — the  one  Church  of  God,  including  among 
its  adherents  generically  all  the  tribes  and  races  of  men.  This 
certainly  was  the  conviction  and  expectation  of  the  Reformers 
s:enerall3', — narrowed  indeed  by  their  very  defective  conceptions 


FUTURE   OF   THE   CHURCH.  661 

of  the  great  work  of  Christian  missions,  yet  held  steadfastly 
before  them  as  a  revealed  promise  and  hope.  One  interesting  illus- 
tration of  this  appears  where  perhaps  we  might  least  expect  it,  in 
the  canons  of  the  controversial  Synod  of  Dort,  in  the  broad  decla- 
ration that  the  promise  of  everlasting  life  through  grace  and  the 
command  to  repent  and  believe,  ought  to  be  declared  and 
published  to  all  nations. 

The  belief  of  the  divines  of  Westminster  is  very  clearly  indi- 
cated in  the  catechetic  answers  (189-196)  appended  to  the  several 
petitions  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  especially  to  the  second  peti- 
tion, Thy  Kingdom  Come.  We  are  taught  in  this  petition  to  pray 
that  the  kingdom  of  sin  and  Satan  may  be  destroyed,  and  the 
Gospel  propagated  throughout  the  world, — that  the  Jews  may  be 
converted  as  a  race,  and  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  brought  in, — 
that  to  this  end,  the  church  may  be  furnished  with  officers  and 
ordinances,  purged  from  corruption,  qualified  to  proclaim  and  dis- 
pense the  true  religion,  and  be  made  effectual  both  in  converting 
sinners  and  edifying  the  saints, — that  Christ  may  by  these  means 
hasten  the  time  of  his  second  coming,  and  may  be  pleased  so  \o 
exercise  the  kingdom  of  his  power  in  all  the  world  as  may  best 
conduce  to  these  glorious  ends.  Nor  are  these  strong  statements 
to  be  regarded  as  unique.  What  is  said  in  the  Confession  respect- 
ing the  functions  of  Christ  as  Mediator  and  King,  respecting  the 
nature  and  aim  of  the  Gospel  as  a  scheme  of  saving  truth,  respect- 
ing the  influence  and  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  conjunction 
with  the  Gospel,  and  respecting  also  the  obligation  of  believers 
to  make  the  plan  of  salvation  known  to  all  men,  implies  just  such 
a  consummation  as  is  depicted  in  the  Catechism.  In  the  original 
Directory  for  Worship  also,  we  are  instructed  to  pray  specifically 
for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  and  Kingdom  of  Christ  among 
all  nations,  for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  and  the  fullness  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  for  the  fall  of  antichrist  and  the  hastening  of  the 
second  coming  of  our  Lord.  In  the  beneficent  provisions  of  more 
recent  Presbyterianisrn,  both  British  and  American,  for  missions 
domestic  and  foreign  and  for  other  forms  of  evangelistic  effort, 
and  in  the  prayers  and  gifts  and  activities  of  the  living  churches 
bearing  that  name  wherever  planted,  we  have  conclusive  proof 
that  the  clear  doctrine  of  the  Symbols  on  this  general  subject  has 
been  neither  misapprehended  nor  ignored.  Presbyterianism  by 
its  very  nature  as  well  as  by  its  ancestral  training  is  everywhere 
a  propagative  agency,  believing  heartily  in  the  possible  and  the 
oromised  conversion  of  the  world  to  Christ,  and  consecrating 
tse*f  freely  to  this  sublime  end. 


G62  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

Accepting  this  conclusion  on  confessional  as  well  as  biblical 
authority,  we  are  led  directly  to  the  more  specific  inquiry  respect- 
ing the  processes  requisite  to  this  growth  toward  universality, 
the  forces  to  be  engaged  in  it,  and  the  laws  and  methods  by 
which  it  is  to  be  carried  on  unto  the  promised  consummation.  It 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  growth  will  occur  without  regula- 
tive law  or  any  recognizable  process.  A  tree  unfolding  into 
beauty  and  maturity,  a  temple  rising  to  completeness  by  continu- 
ous accretions,  a  human  body  passing  from  an  infantile  to  a 
matured  condition,  a  household  inwardly  evolved  by  progressive 
births,  a  state  or  kingdom  developed  by  constitutional  methods 
through  the  will  and  efforts  of  its  citizens  or  subjects, — these  are 
the  illustrations  employed  in  Scripture  to  describe  the  growth  of 
the  Christian  church,  and  each  and  all  of  them  imply  a  plan 
unfolding  itself,  a  procedure  according  to  effective  laws.  Nor  is 
this  development  to  come  to  pass  under  the  action  of  human  rules 
and  human  agencies  only  ;  its  holy  development  and  its  beautiful 
maturing  are  divinely  ordered  and  divinely  produced.  Two  pri- 
mary and  comprehensive  laws  of  church  growth  may  here  be 
briefly  noted: 

First :  the  interior  law  of  growth  by  what  may  be  described  as 
spiritual  propagation.  Luther  said  that  God  has  three  times  intro- 
duced his  scheme  of  grace  through  a  single  family, — as  if  one 
such  household,  thoroughly  sanctified  by  the  indwelling  presence 
of  religion,  would  become  an  expanding  germ  through  whose 
holy  vitalities  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed. 
Bushnell  (Christian  Nurture)  describes  God  as  from  the  first 
looking  for  a  godly  seed,  and  inserting  such  laws  of  population 
that  piety  itself  shall  finally  overpopulate  the  world.  It  is  an 
obvious  fact  of  history  that  the  pious  household  has  been  richly 
blessed  of  God  as  the  primary  agency  utilized  by  him  in  extend- 
ing the  sphere  and  the  influence  of  piety  among  men.  But  every 
Christian  church  is  thus  a  holy  family,  a  propagative  agency  in 
the  interest  of  religion ,  first  inheriting  grace  and  then  in  turn  by 
various  processes  diffusing  and  perpetuating  that  grace  in  the 
world.  In  other  words,  every  church  is  divinely  set  upon  the 
task  of  providing  for  its  own  permanence  and  expansion,  by  the 
training  within  its  hallowed  circle  of  generation  after  generation 
of  disciples.  It  was  by  this  process  chiefly,  that  the  Abrahamic 
was  expanded  into  the  Jewish,  and  this  in  turn  into  the  Christian 
church.  It  has  been  largely  by  this  method  that  the  apostolic 
church  has  become  the  church  of  humanity, — already  represented 
by  tens  of  thousands  of  particular  churches  inheriting  its  mission 


CHURCH    GROWTH  :     INTERIOR    ENLARGEMENT.  663 

and  spirit,  and  continuing  the  same  gracious  method  of  propaga- 
tion throughout  the  earth. 

We  are  already   familiar  with   the   fact   that   the  church  of 
Rome  has  availed  itself  largely,    though  in  a  gross  form,  of  this 
cardinal  principle  of  interior  development,   and  has  secured  its 
increase,    especially   since   the   Reformation,    not   by  accessions 
from  Protestantism  or  any  outward  source,  but  rather  by  the 
careful  infolding  within  its  broadening  area  of  each  new  genera- 
tion of  membership.     It  has  claimed  as  its  own  every  child  born 
within  its  communion  and  on  which  its  baptismal  consecration 
has  been  bestowed,  and  in  this  way  chiefly  has  continued  the  suc- 
cession of  its  adherents  age  after  age.     We  also  know  as  a  matter 
of  history  that  the  churches  of  the  Reformation  grew  at  first 
and  expected  to  grow  by  this  interior  process  chiefly, — increasing 
not  so  much  by  captures  from  Romanism  or  from  the  unbelieving 
world,  as  by  the  training  of  successive  generations  of  children  in 
the  experience  and  inheritance  of  grace.     The  numerous  Cate- 
chisms, from  those  of  L,uther  and  Heidelberg  down  to  those  of 
Westminster,  and  the  almost  universal  practice  of  catechetical 
instruction  both  in  the  family  and  in  the  congregation,  are  striking 
evidences  of  this  general  fact.     One  of  the  most  interesting  debates 
in  the  Assembly   (Minutes,   91-95)  related  to  the  best  mode  of 
what  Reynolds  happily  described  as  ingenerating  knowledge  in  the 
young  through  catechetic  discipline.     It  is  also  obvious  histor- 
ically that  those  branches  of  Protestantism  which  have  adhered 
closely  to  this  method  of  increase,  have  attained  the  largest  growth 
and  secured  the  broadest  religious  influence.     It  must  be  con- 
fessed, however,  that  in  some  Protestant  communions,  as  in  the 
the  church  of  Rome,  this  interior  law  has  wrought  injurious  as 
well  as  beneficial  results, — specially  through  the  ignoring  of  the 
fundamental  truth,  that  complete  or  absolute  connection  with  the 
church  of  Christ  is  possible  only  through  actual,  personal  repent- 
ance and  faith  in  Christ  himself.     To  increase  the  church  by 
outward  processes  only,   such  as  baptism  or  confirmation,  or  to 
require  only  compliance  with  certain  external  conditions  or  pro- 
fessions, will  inevitably  weaken  rather  than  strengthen  it.     Just 
at  this  point  a  Judaising  formalism  has  worked  and  is  still  work- 
ing serious  injury  to  Protestant  Christianity.     It  should  ever  be 
counted  a  fundamental  proposition,  that  saving  faith  in  Christ  is 
after  all  the  sole,  universal,   essential  and  perpetual  condition  of 
complete  church  membership, — as  truly  for  the  child  nurtured 
within  the  household  of  faith,  as  for  the  adult  transgressor  brought 
m,  convicted  and  penitent,  as  a  capture  from  the  sinful  world. 


664  THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

Second  :  The  exterior  law  of  growth  by  spiritual  conquest. 
Here  we  contemplate  the  church,  not  as  a  divine  household  devel- 
oping and  multiplying  from  within,  but  rather  as  a  grand  mis- 
sionary agenc3',  sent  forth  to  win  and  possess  the  entire  world  of 
mankind  for  Christ.  We  have  already  noted  the  fact  that  such 
a  conception  of  its  mission  was  cherished  though  dimly  in  the 
earlier  days  of  Protestantism.  It  is  known,  for  illustration,  that 
Erasmus  and  some  others  advocated  openly  the  sending  of  the 
Gospel  to  the  Mohammedans  and  to  the  heathen  world  generally. 
Luther  and  his  immediate  disciples  evinced,  so  far  as  we  know, 
but  little  practical  interest  in  such  missionary  effort.  As  early 
as  1556,  Calvin  and  the  Genevan  church  undertook,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Admiral  Coligny,  to  establish  a  mission  on  the  coast  of 
Brazil ;  and  three  years  later  Gustavus  Vasa  sent  missionaries  to 
Lapland.  Yet,  when  we  remember  that  Ignatius  Loyola,  the 
founder  of  the  order  of  Jesuits,  was  a  contemporary  of  Luther,  and 
that  the  scheme  of  church  propagandism  which  he  introduced  had 
been  carried  out  by  Francis  Xavier  as  a  missionary  to  southern 
India  and  to  China  and  far  Japan  twelve  years  before  Calvin  died, 
it  seems  strange  that  the  Protestant  organizations  should  have 
thought  and  done  so  little  during  the  sixteenth  century  toward 
the  carrying,  not  of  a  formalized  church  and  a  ceremonial  Chris- 
tianity, but  of  the  gospel  of  faith  in  Christ  alone,  to  the  outlying 
heathen  world.  It  was  doubtless  their  vital  struggle  for  life 
against  papal  aggressions,  their  strenuous  effort  for  support  and 
extension  of  territory  through  the  civil  power,  their  disputations 
over  doctrine  and  polity,  their  lack  of  anything  resembling  the 
organized  unity  of  Rome,  and  other  like  causes,  that  kept  them 
from  being  as  much  as  their  fundamental  principles  would  natu- 
rally have  led  them  to  be,  missionary  organizations,  praying  and 
laboring  and  making  sacrifices  for  the  conversion  of  the  whole 
race  of  mankind.* 

*It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  positive  and  practical  interest  in  foreign 
missions  began  to  be  felt  in  Britain  as  early  at  least  as  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  Charter  granted  by  James  I.  to  the  Virginia 
Colony  in  160G,  and  also  that  conferred  by  Charles  I.  twenty  years  later  on 
the  Massachusetts  Colony,  contained  explicit  instructions  in  respect  to  mis- 
sionary labor  among  the  Indian  tribes.  It  is  a  specially  interesting  fact, 
that  one  among  the  reasons  urged  for  the  convening  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  was,  that  the  means  of  propagating  the  Gospel  and  kingdom  of 
Christ  toward  those  that  are  yet  in  darkness  might  be  agreed  upon.  During 
the  year  preceding  the  convocation  of  the  Assembly,  a  petition  was  presented 
to  Parliament,  signed  by  a  large  number  of  English  and  Scotch  divines, 
praying  that  steps  might  be  taken  for  the  propagation  of  the  Christian  faith 


CHURCH    GROWTH:     GROWTH    BY    CONQUEST.  665 

Nearly  all  branches  of  Protestantism  are  now  agreed  that  every 
Christian  church  is,  by  virtue  of  its  distinctive  faith  and  structure 
as  Protestant,  a  missionary  agency  no  less  than  a  regenerate 
family, — designed  and  fitted  as  such  to  grow  by  drawing  into  its 
circle  those  that  are  without,  as  well  as  by  training  unto  holiness 
those  who  are  within  its  sacred  enclosure.  And  in  like  manner, 
every  division  of  Protestantism  has  learned  or  is  learning  to 
regard  itself  as  a  missionary  organization,  qualified  and  commis- 
sioned for  the  same  holy  object  on  a  more  extensive  scale.  The 
world  is,  in  the  stirring  phrase  of  Wesley,  its  parish,  and  the 
entire  race  of  all  conditions  or  classes  or  types  are  the  proper 
subjects  of  its  beneficent  thoughts  and  efforts.  This  obligation  is 
expressly  laid  upon  the  Christian  church  by  its  exalted  Head, 
and  is  wrought  into  its  very  constitution  in  a  sense  so  vital  that,  if 
it  should  cease  to  engage  itself  in  this  work,  it  would  inevitably 
pass  into  a  condition  of  collapse  or  of  death.  Romanism  may  devote 
itself  to  the  upbuilding  of  a  hierarchal  organism  and  a  formalized 
semblance  of  Christianity  :  Liberalism  may  in  its  pride  assume  a 
lofty  indifference  to  the  claims  of  degraded  heathendom  :  Unbelief 
may  scoff  at  the  dream  of  bringing  our  fallen  race  back  to  purity 
and  to  God  through  such  an  instrumentality  as  the  Gospel.     But 

in  America  and  the  West  Indies.  There  is  no  record  in  the  Minutes  of  any 
direct  action  by  the  Assembly  in  the  matter,  but  there  are  many  evidences 
of  its  profound  faith  and  interest  in  the  conversion  of  theworld  to  Chris- 
tianity. It  is  suggestive  that  the  earliest  missionary  society  in  Britain  was 
established  by  act  of  the  Long  Parliament  in  1649,  while  the  Assembly  was 
still  in  session,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  preaching  the  Gospel  among  the 
Indian  tribes  of  New  England,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  schools  for  the 
education  of  Indian  children  ;— collections  to  be  taken  by  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment throughout  England  and  Wales  for  the  proper  founding,  as  was  said, 
of  so  pious  and  great  an  undertaking. 

Perhaps  the  earliest  recorded  instance  of  ecclesiastical  action  among  Prot- 
estants on  the  continent,  in  the  interest  of  missions  to  the  pagan  world, 
appears  in  the  PosT-ACTA  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  addressed  in  1619,  to  the 
Lords,  the  States  General  of  the  Provinces  of  the  United  Netherlands,  in 
these  terms  : 

Seeing  that  all  true  Christians  are  assuredly  bound  by  the  loving  desire 
which  they  ought  to  feel  for  the  salvation  of  their  neighbor,  and  by  zeal  for 
the  extension  of  the  glory  of  God  amongst  mankind,  to  use  all  available 
means  for  accomplishing  this  end  ;  and  seeing  that  God  has  opened  up  a 
way  for  us  in  these  lands  to  various  distant  lands  in  India  and  elsewhere, 
which  are  utterly  destitute  of  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  the  said 
Synod  humbly  petitions  that  your  High  Mightinesses  would  be  pleased  with 
Christian  zeal  to  recall  to  mind  this  sacred  obligation,  and  to  give  it  your 
earnest  and  practical  consideration,  and  for  this  end  to  order  and  arrange 
such  means  as  shall  be  useful  and  most  suitable  for  the  propagation  of  the 
Holy  Gospel  in  the  lands  in  Question. 


666  THE   CHURCH   OF   GOD. 

evangelical  Protestantism  universally  cherishes  a  higher  aim — is 
conscious  of  a  grander  mission  to  the  race.  Growth  by  spiritual 
conquest  is  its  constant  and  universal  law.  And  certainly  it  may 
be  anticipated  that  growth  by  this  process  as  well  as  by  inward 
expansion  will  become  more  and  more  marked,  more  and  more 
effectual,  as  the  world  moves  on  toward  the  consummation  pre- 
dicted for  it  in  Scripture  and  in  the  Symbols.  No  other  instru- 
mentality or  influence  can  rival  or  supersede  the  Christian  church 
in  this  cosmic  mission.  If  religion  is  indeed  to  be  propagated 
throughout  the  world  now  pagan, —  if  the  Jews  now  so  averse  are 
to  be  brought  into  obedience  to  Christ, — if  the  fullness  of  the 
Gentiles  are  to  flock  unto  him  as  doves  to  their  windows, — if  the 
kingdom  of  sin  and  Satan  is  indeed  to  be  destroyed  and  the  kingdom 
of  God  advanced  and  made  supreme  on  the  earth,  it  is  the  Church 
of  Christ  with  its  dauntless  faith,  its  consecrated  zeal,  its  willing 
and  generous  effort  and  sacrifice, — the  Church  of  Christ,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  all  social  or  civil  agencies,  and  from  all  that 
merely  secular  civilization  can  accomplish,  that  must  bring  to 
pass  these  glorious  results.  And  on  the  other  hand  it  is  safe  to 
prophesy  that  when  evangelical  Protestantism  learns  to  recog- 
nize cordially  those  things  which  all  Protestants  hold  as  really 
essential  in  doctrine  and  polity  and  worship, — when  not  only 
toleration  but  loving  consent  is  granted  to  whatever  is  not  thus 
essential, — when  all  selfish  or  schismatic  rivalry  and  faction  are 
put  away,  and  charity  in  its  broadest  form  is  cherished  alike  by 
all, — and  when  all  are  engaged  together  in  the  holy  task  of  pro- 
claiming the  one  Christ  to  all  the  world,  the  redemption  of  our 
lost  race  will  surely  follow. 


LECTURE  THIRTEENTH— SACRAMENTS,  ORDI- 
NANCES, WORSHIP. 

Sacraments  :  Baptism,  Lord's  Supper  :  Ordinances  : 
Sabbath,  Sanctuary,  Means  of  Grace,  Ministry  :  Wor- 
ship :  Preaching  and  Hearing,  Praise,  Prayer  :  Ritual 
and  Liturgy. 

C.  F.  Ch.  XXI :  XXVII-XXIX.  L.  C.  154-196.  S.  C. 
88-107.  Form  of  Gov.  Ch.  IV  :  XIV-XV.  Direct,  for  Wor- 
ship, Ch.  III-X  :  XII-XV. 

In  the  presentation  of  the  clear  and  strong  doctrine  of  the 
Symbols  respecting  the  Church  of  God  on  earth,  it  has  seemed 
expedient  to  reserve  for  separate  consideration  certain  elements  or 
features  by  which  that  Church  is  still  more  decisively  differen- 
tiated from  all  other  organizations, — its  peculiar  sacraments,  its 
associated  ordinances,  and  its  characteristic  worship.  For  several 
reasons  these  three  subjects  in  their  various  ramifications  com- 
mand at  once  the  special  attention  and  interest  of  the  student  of 
Christian  symbolism.  It  was  within  this  department  of  doctrine 
and  duty  that  some  of  the  earliest  questions  at  issue  between  the 
Roman  communion  and  the  primitive  Reformers  originated.  It 
was  within  this  territory  that  the  Reformers  came  upon  those  pri- 
mary disagreements  among  themselves  which  in  their  development 
led  to  the  division  of  Protestantism  into  parties  and  sections,  more 
or  less  diverse  if  not  antagonistic.  It  is  within  this  specific  domain 
that  the  Protestant  churches  both  Lutheran  and  Reformed  have 
had  since  the  Reformation,  and  are  still  having,  some  of  their  most 
exciting  and  injurious  issues,  and  it  is  within  this  ecclesiastical 
area  that  some  of  the  most  important  adjustments  must  be 
secured,  some  of  the  most  profound  harmonies  be  sounded,  if 
Protestantism  is  ever  so  far  unified  as  to  be  duly  prepared  and 
endowed  for  its  signal  mission  to  the  race.  One  impressive  illus- 
tration of  the  significance  of  the  topics  thus  introduced  appears — as 
we  shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  note — in  the  prominence  given 
to  them  in  the  various  Protestant  formularies,  from  the  creed 
of  Augsburg  and  the  Catechism  of  Luther  down  to  the  Catechisms 
and  Confession  of  Westminster.  Four  entire  chapters  in  the  Con- 
fession, and  an  equal  proportion  in  both  Catechisms,  and  nine 


688  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

mapters  in  the  Directory  for  Worship,  with  numerous  references 
elsewhere,  show  how  special  was  the  emphasis  laid  on  these  topics 
by  the  Assembly. 

Taking  up  the  first  of  the  three  general  subjects  named,  the 
Christian  Sacraments,  we  turn  at  once  to  the  elaborate  chapter 

(XXVII)    in  the  Confession,  setting 
1.    The  Christian   Sacra-     .    ^   ..       .  ,  ,    ..        ,      .., 

4.   .  .  forth  the  doctrine  in  detail  and  with 

mcnts :  their  nature  and  au- 
thority:  the  papal  error,  marked  precision.  In  successive  sec- 
tions^ this  chapter  defines  these  sacra- 
ments, indicates  with  fullness  their  nature  and  warrant,  describes 
their  spiritual  efficacy  and  values,  names  the  proper  agency  in 
their  administration,  and  defines  their  number  and  their  historic 
relation  to  the  kindred  sacraments  appointed  under  the  Hebraic 
dispensation.  Similar  definitions  of  the  sacraments,  more  or  less 
full,  are  found  in  most  of  the  earlier  creeds  :  not  only  the 
Lutheran  but  also  the  two  Helvetic,  the  French  and  Belgic,  and 
the  Scotch  Confessions.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  (66)  affirms 
in  practical  terms  that  the  sacraments  are  visible,  holy  signs  and 
seals  appointed  of  God  for  this  end,  that  by  the  use  thereof  he 
may  the  more  fully  declare  and  seal  unto  us  the  promise  of  the 
Gospel.  The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  (XXV)  say  that  the  sacra- 
ments ordained  of  Christ  be  not  only  tokens  and  badges  of  the 
Christian  profession,  but  are  sure  witnesses  and  effectual  signs  of 
grace  and  of  the  good  will  of  God  toward  us,  by  the  which  he 
doth  work  invisibly  in  us,  and  doth  not  only  quicken  but  also 
strengthen  and  confirm  our  faith  in  him.  It  will  be  evident  to 
the  student  of  these  antecedent  formularies  that  the  Westminster 
divines  compiled  their  doctrine  from  them  all,  selecting  what  was 
best  in  each  and  omitting  what  seemed  doubtful  or  unimportant. 
Their  own  admirable  definition  appears  first  more  fully  in  the 
Confession,  but  in  briefer  form  in  both  of  the  Catechisms  :  Sacra- 
ments are  holy  signs  and  seals  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  immediately 
instituted  by  God  to  represent  Christ  and  his  benefits,  and  to  con- 
firm our  interest  in  him  ;  as  also  to  put  a  visible  difference 
between  those  that  belong  unto  the  church,  and  the  rest  of  the 
world  ;  and  solemnly  to  engage  them  to  the  service  of  God  in 
Christ,  according  to  his  Word.  In  the  Catechisms  it  is  said  that 
the  sacraments  are  instituted  by  Christ  himself,  and  the  objects 
sought  in  them  are  described,  particular^  in  the  Larger  Catechism, 
somewhat  more  specifically,  though  with  no  essential  variation. 
Taken  together,  these  statements  present  the  most  full  and  elabo- 
rate and  at  the  same  time  the  least  challengeable  definition  which 
Protestantism  even  down  to  our  own  time  has  furnished. 


i 

SACRAMENTS  :     NATURE    AND    AUTHORITY.  669 

The  underlying  ground  and  reason  for  the  Christian  sacraments 
must  be  found  in  their  unique  relation  to  the  redemptive  scheme. 
They  were  not  instituted  simply  in  view  of  the  fact  that  we 
naturally  discern  spiritual  things  most  easily  through  the  medium 
of  such  visible  representations.  They  have  their  occasion  and 
need  in  human  sinfulness,  and  in  the  spiritual  blindness  which 
such  sinfulness  induces.  They  rest,  in  a  word,  on  the  same  basis 
as  the  incarnation.  Their  great  primary  purpose  is  to  exhibit  in 
visible  and  significant  form  the  blessings  bestowed  through  the 
mediation  of  Christ  upon  all  who  truly  believe  in  him.  And  this 
exhibition  is  made  in  order  to  confirm  the  faith  of  believers,  to 
give  them  greater  assurance  respecting  their  personal  salvation, 
and  to  strengthen  them  in  their  Christian  graces  and  in  the  dis- 
charge of  all  their  duties  toward  the  Savior  and  toward  one 
another  as  members  together  of  his  spiritual  household.  On  this 
ground  these  ordinances  are  directly  associated  with  the  Word 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  and  with  the  other  ordained  means  of  grace, 
as  important  if  not  indispensable  helps  in  the  Christian  life.  In 
connection  with  this  primary  purpose  several  others  are  here  sug- 
gested, such  as  the  pledge  or  covenant  of  consecration  to  the 
divine  service  which  the  recipient  is  supposed  to  make  in  the 
sacrament,  the  bond  of  union  thus  established  between  those  who 
share  together  in  these  benefits,  and  the  closer  unification  of  the 
church  as  an  organism  in  and  through  the  gracious  discipline 
herein  afforded.  It  is  also  an  important  service  rendered  by  the 
sacraments  as  being,  in  the  language  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles, 
tokens  and  badges  of  the  Christian  profession, — visibly  distin- 
guishing Christians  from  those  that  are  without,  and  making  more 
broad  and  distinct  the  lines  that  separate  the  church  from  the 
world.  Augustine  has  well  said  that  men  cannot  be  united  in  any 
profession  of  religion,  whether  true  or  false,  unless  they  are  con- 
nected by  some  communion  of  visible  signs  or  sacraments. 

The  declaration  that  the  sacraments  are  immediately  instituted 
by  God  to  represent  Christ,  as  stated  in  the  Confession,  or  are 
instituted  by  Christ  in  his  Church,  as  the  Catechism  states  it,  is 
intended  to  bring  out  the  radical  difference  between  the  Protes- 
tant and  the  Roman  view  of  these  sacred  ordinances.  Protes- 
tantism and  Romanism  are  substantially  agreed  on  certain 
points, — that  the  sacraments  belong  by  divine  appointment  not 
to  the  individual  believer  but  to  the  church,  and  to  the  Christian 
church  as  distinct  from  the  Jewish, — that  they  are  in  some  sense 
symbolic,  designed  to  be  visible  signs  of  certain  spiritual  truths, — 
and  that  there  is  a  divinely  instituted  connection  between  the 


670  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

outward  sign  and  the  invisible  reality  of  grace  which  it  was 
appointed  to  represent.  But  according  to  Protestantism  there 
must  always  be  direct  instruction  from  the  Head  of  the  church — 
a  formal  institution  or  establishment  by  God  in  Christ  for  the 
authoritative  guidance  of  his  people.  According  to  the  Roman 
view,  whatever  has  a  general  warrant  in  the  New  Testament  is  a 
sacrament,  though  Christ  may  not  have  immediately  or  directly 
designated  it  as  such.  Under  the  former  statement,  there  can  be 
but  two  sacraments  in  the  Christian  church,  baptism  and  the 
eucharist — both  of  which  have  the  immediate  seal  of  Christ  upon 
them  as  they  are  enjoined  in  the  New  Testament :  the  supper 
being  arranged  by  him  personally  even  in  detail  in  order  to  com- 
memorate his  death,  and  baptism  being  contained  explicitly  in 
his  final  injunction  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature. 

Lutheranism  was  at  first  disposed  to  regard  absolution  as  a 
third  sacrament  (Apologia),  but  in  the  maturer  Lutheran  teaching 
it  was  recognized  as  a  legitimate  usage  only.  Under  the  Roman 
definition,  which  is  also  (Xonger  Cat.  285)  that  of  the  Greek 
communion,  five  other  sacraments  are  discernible  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament ;  confirmation,  penance,  ordination,  matrimony  and 
extreme  unction, — minor  indeed  as  compared  with  baptism  and 
the  supper,  yet  in  their  nature  sacramental,  and  therefore  obliga- 
tory, so  far  as  they  are  needful  or  practicable,  by  the  mandate  of 
the  church.  At  some  periods  in  medieval  Christianity  a  still 
larger  number  of  such  minor  sacraments  were  ecclesiastically  im- 
posed. In  the  creed  of  the  Old  Catholic  Union  (Art.  VIII) 
while  the  five  sacraments  are  recognized  as  in  some  sense  obliga- 
tory, it  is  admitted  that  they  rest  their  claim,  not  on  the  Scrip- 
tures or  even  on  holy  tradition  coming  down  from  the  apostles  or 
from  the  earliest  times,  but  simply  on  theological  speculation  : 
in  other  words,  they  are  ecclesiastical  inferences  rather  than 
biblical  requisitions.  Two  essential  elements  are  seen  to  be  lacking 
in  these  minor  sacraments,  the  divine  institution  on  one  hand  and 
the  symbolic  quality  on  the  other.  Confirmation  and  ordination 
are  simply  modes  of  admission  to  the  church  or  of  official  investi- 
ture within  it :  matrimony  is  a  religious  as  well  as  a  civil  cere- 
mony, but  has  in  it  no  sacramental  element  :  churchly  penance 
as  distinct  from  evangelical  repentance  has  no  claim  whatever 
as  sacramental;  and  extreme  unction  is  equally  void  of  divine 
authoritativeness.  To  regard  any  of  these  usages  as  sacraments 
is  to  degrade  the  biblical  conception,  and  to  impose  on  the 
believer  obligations  which  the  New  Testament  nowhere  enjoins. 
As  sacred  symbols  they  have  no  significance  such  as  we  discern 


SACRAMENTS  :     EFFICACY    AND    VALUE.  671 

in  baptism  and  the  supper  ;  as  churchly  impositions  they  may 
be  perverted,  as  history  has  abundantly  shown,  into  occasions  of 
error  and  mischief. 

It  will  be  apparent  that  under  the  Protestant  definition  the 
real  value  of  the  Christian  sacraments  lies,  not  in  what  they  are 
in  themselves  as  visible  signs  merely,  but  in  the  saving  truths 
which  they  symbolize,  and  in  the  appropriation  of  these  truths  by 
faith.  In  the  second  and  third  sections  of  this  chapter  it  is 
expressly  stated  that  there  is  a  spiritual  relation  between  the  sign 
and  the  thing  signified — the  truths  set  forth  in  it ;  and  that  the 
grace  which  is  exhibited  in  or  by  the  sacraments  is  not  con- 
ferred by  any  power  in  them,  but  simply  through  the  truth  received 
and  the  ministry  of  the  Spirit  therewith.  It  is  said  that  there  is 
a  promise  of  benefit  to  worthy  receivers,  rightly  using  these  sacred 
ordinances  in  obedience  to  the  divine  precept  authorizing  such 
use  ;  and  in  the  Catechisms  these  spiritual  benefits  are  fully 
described.  There  is  also  in  the  second  section  a  direct  reference 
to  the  Roman  error  respecting  efficacy  inherent  in  the  ordinances 
themselves  as  channels  or  vehicles  of  grace  :  the  names  and  effects 
of  the  truths  signified  being,  it  is  said,  sometimes  attributed  to  the 
sign,  as  if  that  were  of  itself  efficacious.  The  Greek  church  illus- 
trates this  error  in  the  statement  (L,onger  Cat.  284)  that  a  sacra- 
ment is  a  holy  act  through  which  grace — or,  in  other  words,  the 
saving  power  of  God, —  works  mysteriously  upon  man.  This 
formulary  proceeds  to  an  explanation  of  the  way  in  which  the  seven 
sacraments  thus  work  immediately  upon  the  recipients;  affirming 
that  in  baptism  they  are  mysteriously  born  into  a  spiritual  life, — 
that  in  confirmation  (or  unction  with  chrism)  the  baptized  person 
receives  in  and  through  the  holy  oil  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost, — 
that  in  the  communion  he  is  spiritually  fed,  as  if  with  or  by  the 
sacred  elements, — that  in  penance  he  is  healed  of  spiritual  diseases, 
or  of  sin, — that  in  ordination  he  receives  grace  spiritually  to 
regenerate,  feed  and  nurture  others, — and  in  general  that  the 
receiver  is  operated  upon  graciously  by  the  materials  of  the  sacra- 
ments as  if  they  were  themselves  spiritual  agencies,  sacred  medi- 
cines,   mysteriously    imparting   healing   and  life   and  salvation. 

The  Roman  dogma  closely  resembles  this  in  essence,  though 
not  in  form.  According  to  the  Tridentine  Catechism,  as  defined 
by  Moehler,  the  outward  sign  by  a  divine  ordinance  not  only 
typifies  but  works  holiness  and  justice  into  the  soul, — the  sacra- 
ments, by  reason  of  their  character  as  institutions  prepared  by 
Christ  for  our  salvation,  themselves  becoming  so  many  vehicles 
by  which  grace  is  carried  into  the  moral  nature,  first  to  renew  and 


672  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

then  to  sanctify  and  strengthen.  In  the  language  of  the  Council 
of  Trent  (Session  Seventh),  through  these  holy  sacraments  all  jus- 
tice (or  righteousness)  either  begins,  or  being  begun  is  increased , 
or  being  lost  is  repaired.  The  Council  also  decreed  in  its  accom- 
panying canons  that,  if  any  one  should  say  that  grace  is  not  thus 
conferred  b3r  the  sacraments  ex  opere  operato,  but  that  faith  in 
the  divine  promise  alone  is  sufficient  to  procure  such  grace  ;  or  if 
any  one  should  say  that  in  baptism  and  confirmation  and  ordina- 
tion there  is  not  imprinted  in  the  soul  an  indelible  character,  which 
needs  never  to  be  repeated  ;  or  if  any  one  should  sa}7  that  the  sacra- 
ments are  merely  outward  signs  of  grace  received  by  faith — visible 
marks  of  the  Christian  profession  by  which  believers  are  distin- 
guished from  others,  let  him  be  anathema. 

It  is  thought  that  we  may  discern  some  approach  toward  this  false 
doctrine  showing  itself  in  the  clause  already  quoted  from  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  :  B3'  which  God  doth  invisibly  work  in  us . 
and  doth  not  only  quicken  but  also  strengthen  and  confirm  our 
faith.  This  impression  is  doubtless  deepened  by  those  expressions 
in  the  Anglican  liturgy  which  suggest  the  hypothesis  of  regenera- 
tive baptism.  The  earl}7  L,utheranism  also  was  insensibly  drawn 
in  the  same  direction  by  its  theory  of  a  corporeal  residence  of 
Christ  in,  with  and  under  the  elements  in  the  holy  communion  ; 
with  its  natural  consequence  in  some  mysterious  transfusion  of 
Christ  himself  into  the  soul,  as  the  believer  receives  the  bread  and 
the  wine, — these  being  not  indeed  transubstantiated,  as  Rome 
affirmed,  yet  mystically  inhabited  by  the  ubiquitous  Savior.  But 
such  views,  so  far  as  they  have  at  any  time  been  held,  have 
given  way  substantial^  to  the  general  doctrine  of  evangelical 
Protestantism,  as  defined  in  the  Symbols  and  elsewhere.  All 
Protestant  churches  would  at  the  present  time  unite  in  reciting 
the  temperate  declaration  of  the  Belgic  Confession  :  We  believt 
that  our  gracious  God,  on  account  of  our  weakness  and  infirmi- 
ties, hath  ordained  the  sacraments  for  us,  thereby  to  seal  unto  us 
his  promises,  and  to  be  pledges  of  the  good  will  and  grace  of 
God  towards  us,  and  also  to  nourish  and  strengthen  our  faith 
which  he  hath  joined  to  the  word  of  the  Gospel,  the  better  to  pre- 
sent to  our  senses  both  that  which  he  signifies  to  us  by  his  Word . 
and  that  which  he  works  inwardly  in  our  hearts  ;  thereby  assur- 
ing and  confirming  in  us  the  salvation  which  he  imparts  to  us. 

Accepting  this  confessional  declaration  as  to  the  positive  insti- 
tuting and  divine  warrant,  and  also  as  to  the  representative  char- 
acter and  spiritual  quality  and  uses  of  the  Christian  sacraments, 
we  may  briefly  note  the  four  remaining  topics  presented  in  this 


SACRAMENTS:     SPECIAL    FEATURES.  67<"> 

chapter  :  First,  the  essential  identit)',  as  to  the  spiritual  things 
signified  and  exhibited,  between  the  two  sacraments  instituted  by 
our  Lord  and  the  two  preparatory  sacraments,  circumcision  and 
the  paschal  supper,  enjoined  in  the  Old  Testament.  This  identity 
will  become  more  manifest  as  we  pass  on  to  the  specific  study  of 
baptism  and  the  eucharist,  but  the  general  resemblance  should  be 
noted  even  at  this  stage.  The  obvious  fact  in  the  case  of  the 
eucharist  is  that  it  sprang  like  a  flower  directly  out  of  the  soil 
supplied  by  that  impressive  observance  which  commemorated  the 
deliverance  from  Egyptian  bondage ;  and  there  are  good  reasons 
for  viewing  Christian  baptism,  regarded  as  an  ordinance  fitted  to 
the  need  of  humanity  universally,  as  a  happy  substitute  for  that 
older  observance  which  included  in  its  range  none  but  the  Jewish 
race.  Second:  the  obvious  fact  that  the  sacraments  were  designed 
by  Christ  to  be  not  private  but  churchly  ordinances.  They  are, 
in  other  words,  essential  constituents  of  his  church,  and  their 
observance  is  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  act  of  the  organized 
household  of  faith.  It  may  be  too  much  to  say  that  a  church  which 
does  not  regard  these  ordinances  is  not  a  church  of  Christ :  yet 
the  fact  that  they  have  been  recognized  through  all  the  centuries, 
and  even  by  the  most  degenerate  sections  of  Christendom  as 
obligatory,  shows  clearly  their  proper  claim,  and  their  high  value 
also,  as  true  constituents  of  the  Christian  church  according  to 
the  divine  ideal. 

Third  :  the  important,  fact  emphatically  stated  in  the  third 
section,  that  the  efficacy  of  a  sacrament  doth  not  depend  upon  the 
piety  or  intention  of  him  that  doth  administer  it,  but  only — as  the 
Larger  Catechism  teaches,  in  harmony  with  the  Reformed  creeds 
generally — on  the  working  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  blessing 
of  Christ  by  whom  it  is  instituted.  There  were  various  reasons 
for  such  a  statement.  It  was  in  part  a  reply  to  the  papal  assump- 
tion that  none  but  the  priesthood  of  Rome  were  legitimately 
empowered  to  administer  the  sacraments.  It  was  undoubtedly 
designed  also  as  a  comfort  to  those  who  were  in  doubt  as  to  the 
validity  of  their  baptism,  as  having  been  administered  by  men 
whom  they  could  no  longer  regard  as  true  priests  and  miuistrants 
under  the  Gospel.  A  more  extended  statement  to  the  same  effect 
appears  in  the  Thirty- Nine  Articles  (XXVI),  affirming  that 
there  are  evil  ministers  within  the  church  visible,  but  that  these 
fill  their  office  by  the  commission  and  authority  of  Christ ;  that 
therefore  we  ma}?  use  their  ministry  in  the  assurance  that  the 
effect  of  the  ordinances  is  not  taken  awa>-  b}T  their  wickedness  ; 
out  rather  that   the  sacraments   become   effectual   through  the 


674  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

promise  of  Christ,  even  though  the}"  be  administered  by  evil  men. 
Fourth :  the  sacraments,  being  thus  of  divine  origin  and 
authority,  may  not  be  neglected  or  ignored  without  culpability. 
Having  such  design  and  warrant,  and  being  in  themselves  the 
ordained  channels  of  such  large  blessing  to  all  worthy  recipients, 
the  neglect  or  rejection  of  them  cannot  be  otherwise  than  sinful. 
The  two  chapters  (VIII-IX)  in  the  American  Director}',  on  the 
administration  of  Baptism  and  of  the  Supper,  enforce  this  obli- 
gation in  very  practical  and  impressive  ways;  and  among  the  sins 
against  God  named  in  the  Catechisms,  the  neglect  of  these  sacred 
ordinances  occupies  a  prominent  place.  Protestantism  does  not 
affirm  that  the  observance  of  them  is  in  every  case  indispensable 
to  salvation;  even  the  Roman  communion,  according  to  Moehler, 
does  not  affirm  this>  since  there  are  cases  in  which  what  he 
describes  as  invincible  outward  obstacles  prevent  such  observance. 
In  the  case  of  evangelical  bodies  such  as  the  orthodox  Friends, 
who  regard  the  duty  as  spiritual  rather  than  formal,  or  of  indi- 
vidual believers  who  may  be  deterred  by  defective  views  of  these 
ordinances,  or  by  the  sense  of  personal  unworthiness  or  other 
kindred  cause,  Christian  charity  must  forbid  our  judgment  or 
condemnation.  Yet  the  warning  of  Moehler  may  fitly  be  uttered 
in  the  hearing  of  all:  It  is  not  for  man  to  reject,  according  to  his 
caprice,  the  salvation  offered  to  him  by  Christ,  or  to  prefer  some 
other  path  of  grace,  since  this  must  argue  very  gross  presumption, 
and  most  culpable  contempt  of  the  divine  ordinances. 

The  comprehensive  chapter  on  the  Sacraments  is  followed  in 

the  Confession  by  an  equally  elaborate  chapter  (XXVIII)   Of 

Baptism,  presenting  a  full  definition  of 
2.    Baptism:  its  nature,     .,  .  ..  , 

,. v, ,,„  this   sacrament  as  to  its  nature  and 

design  and  mode. 

purpose,  indicating  the  proper  mode  of 
its  observance  and  the  classes  of  persons  to  whom  the  ordinance 
may  be  applied,  and  describing  to  some  extent  its  efficacy  and 
value.  Some  of  these  topics  are  discussed  with  greater  fullness 
in  the  two  Catechisms,  especially  the  Larger ;  and  practical  sug- 
gestions of  similar  tenor  appear  in  the  two  Directories  for  Worship, 
British  and  American.  Questions  are  suggested  by  these  confes- 
sional representations  which  it  would  require  volumes  to  discuss 
effectively:  the  condensed  statement  of  the  doctrine  in  its  essential 
points  is  all  that  is  practicable  in  this  connection : 

Baptism  is  declared  to  be  a  sacrament,  according  to  the  defini- 
tion given  in  the  chapter  just  considered, — an  observance  ordained 
by  Christ  for  the  benefit  of  his  church,  and  therefore  to  be  continued 


BAPTISM  :     NATURE    AND    SIGNIFICANCE.  675 

in  his  church  until  the  end  of  the  world, — an  ordinance  designed 
first  of  all  to  signify  the  admission  of  the  party  baptized  into  the 
visible  church,  and  therefore  in  its  nature  a  public  and  churchly 
rather  than  a  private  observance.  The  Larger  Catechism  teaches 
(166)  that  baptism  is  not  to  be  administered  to  any  that  are  out 
of  the  visible  church,  and  so  are  strangers  to  the  covenant  of 
promise,  till  they  profess  their  faith  in  Christ  and  obedience  to 
him.  It  is  also  appointed  as  an  authoritative  sign  and  seal  of  the 
covenant  of  grace , — of  ingrafting  into  Christ,  and  personal  regen- 
eration b}r  his  Spirit,  and  of  the  remission  of  sins  and  resurrection 
unto  everlasting  life.  It  also  involves  a  covenant  on  the  part  of 
the  recipient  to  give  himself  up  wholly  and  openly  to  God  in  the 
service  of  Christ,  to  be  faithful  to  his  membership  in  the  visible 
church,  and  to  walk  henceforth  in  newness  of  life  as  a  cleansed 
and  sanctified  person.  In  other  words,  there  is  expressed  in  it  on 
one  side  the  fact  of  spiritual  pollution,  and  of  the  need  of  regen- 
erative grace,  and  on  the  other  side  the  cordial  acceptance  of  Christ 
as  the  only  Redeemer  of  the  soul.  Comprehensive!)'  the  sacra- 
ment represents  both  the  interior  depravation  and  the  need  of 
spiritual  cleansing  and  recovery,  and  also  the  exterior  forfeiture 
of  divine  favor  and  loss  of  the  estate  of  acceptance  with  God ; 
and  at  the  same  time  graphically  shadows  forth  both  the  restora- 
tion of  the  soul  to  a  state  of  holiness  through  grace,  and  its 
introduction  through  the  mediation  of  Christ  into  a  new  estate 
of  justification  and  adoption. 

All  sections  of  evangelical  Protestantism  are  substantially 
agreed  in  the  definition  thus  given  in  the  Symbols,  though  with 
varying  emphasis  upon  this  or  that  clause  in  the  general  state- 
ment. Baptism  is  said,  in  the  Catechism  of  Luther,  to  work 
forgiveness  of  sins,  to  deliver  from  death  and  the  devil,  and  to 
give  everlasting  salvation  to  all  who  believe,  as  the  word  and 
promise  of  God  declare.  The  Catechism  of  Heidelberg  teaches 
(69-70)  that  Christ  hath  appointed  this  outward  washing  with 
water  and  hath  joined  therewith  this  precious  promise,  that  we 
are  washed  with  his  blood  and  Spirit  from  the  pollution  of  our 
souls, — that  we  have  forgiveness  for  sins  from  God  through 
grace,  and  are  also  renewed  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  sanctified  to 
be  members  of  Christ.  By  baptism,  say  the  Saxon  Articles  (III) 
as  a  bath  of  the  regeneration  and  renovation  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
God  saves  us  and  works  in  us  such  justice  and  purgation  from  our 
sins  that  he.  who  perseveres  to  the  end  in  that  covenant  and  hope, 
does  not  perish  but  has  eternal  life.  More  full  and  accurate  defi- 
nitions may  be  found  in  the  Helvetic  Confessions,  and  in  most  of 


676  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

the  other  formularies,  Lutheran  and  Reformed.  The  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  say,  (XXVII)  that  baptism  is  not  only  a  sign  of  profes- 
sion and  mark  of  difference  whereby  Christian  men  are  discerned 
from  others  that  be  not  christened,  but  is  also  a  sign  of  regenera- 
tion or  new  birth,  whereby  as  by  an  instrument  they  that  receive 
baptism  rightly  are  grafted  into  the  church  ;  the  promises  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sin,  and  of  our  adoption  to  be  the  sons  of  God  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  are  visibly  signed  and  sealed  ;  faith  is  confirmed 
and  grace  increased  by  virtue  of  prayer  unto  God.  Compared 
with  the  statements  of  these  antecedent  creeds,  we  may  readily 
discern  in  the  Symbols  a  marked  advance  in  both  fullness  and 
accuracy — an  advance  which  is  explained  by  the  rise  of  the 
immersionist  issue  in  Britain,  and  by  the  special  study  which  we 
know  to  have  been  given  to  the  doctrine  by  some  of  the  West- 
minster divines,  and  by  their  immediate  predecessors  and  contem- 
poraries. 

Several  of  these  earlier  creeds  show  traces,  like  the  Saxon  Arti  - 
cles  just  quoted — lavacrum  regenerationis — of  that  false  view  of 
baptism  as  carrying  with  it  regeneration  and  the  new  life,  which 
Rome  received  from  the  middle  ages,  and  which  it  still  retains 
in  substance.  The  Tridentine  Council  declared  in  its  canons  that 
grace  is  conferred  always  and  to  all  men  through  the  sacramental 
act  performed,  and  specially  that  in  baptism  a  character,  a  cer- 
tain spiritual  and  indelible  sign  of  such  grace,  is  imprinted  in  the 
soul,  and  also  that  such  baptism,  conferred  by  the  Roman  church 
as  the  mother  and  mistress  of  all  churches,  is  necesary  to  salva- 
tion. In  the  case  of  the  baptized  infant  all  stains  of  original  sin 
are  said  to  be  regeneratively  removed  through  the  sacrament,  and 
in  the  case  of  adults  all  sin  original  and  actual  is  cleansed  away, 
so  that  the  recipient,  in  the  words  of  Moehler,  becomes  a  member 
of  Christ,  and  being  interiorly  quickened  by  the  divine  Spirit 
showeth  himself  a  new  man.  We  are  not  indeed  to  understand 
that  on  this  view  it  is  the  sacrament  by  itself  that  regenerates, 
but  rather  that  wherever  the  sacrament  is  thus  observed,  the  grace 
of  God  works  in  vital  conjunction  with  it,  so  as  produce  the 
spiritual  result  described.  But  it  is  easy  to  see  how  such  a  view 
would  readily  degenerate  into  the  grossest  sacramentarianism, — 
how  the  outward  form  would  come  to  be  the  prominent  feature, 
and  the  names  and  effects  of  the  truth  or  grace — to  quote  again 
the  significant  warning  of  the  Confession — would  be  ath  ibuted  to 
the  sign  which  simply  typifies  them.  At  the  outset  of  the  Refor- 
mation such  gross  and  corrupting  formalism  had  actually  taken 
possession  of  the    Roman   church  :  and  it  was  against  this  mode 


BAPTISM  :     QUESTION    OF    MODE.  677 

of  attributing  grace  to  the  sacraments  themselves,  and  setting  up 
the  outward  rite  as  if  that,  received  and  submitted  to,  could  save 
the  soul,  that  Luther  and  Zwingli  thundered  and  Calvin  and 
Knox  reasoned,  until  northern  Europe  saw  the  destructive  error 
and  earnestly  arrayed  itself  against  it.  It  was  against  this  error 
within  the  Roman  communion,  and  as  it  existed  iu.modified  form 
in  the  earlier  Lutheranism  (Augsburg  Conf.  IX)  and  in  Anglican 
Episcopacy  also,  that  the  Confession  affirmed  in  the  fifth  section 
of  this  chapter  that  grace  and  salvation  are  not  so  inseparably 
annexed  unto  baptism  as  that  no  person  can  be  regenerated  or 
saved  without  baptism,  or  that  all  that  are  baptized  are  undoubt- 
edly regenerated.  It  has  been  questioned,  however,  whether  in 
the  sixth  section,  the  Westminster  divines  did  not  themselves 
attribute  more  efficacy  to  the  ordinance  than  their  Presbyterian 
descendants  have  done,  and  more  than  the  Scriptures  warrant. 
While  on  one  side  they  said  that  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrament 
is  not  tied  to  that  moment  of  time  in  which  it  is  administered,  they 
yet  taught  that  the  grace  promised  is  not  only  offered  but  really 
exhibited  and  conferred  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  his  appointed  time 
to  such  as  that  grace  belongeth  unto  by  election — a  statement 
not  easily  understood  except  on  the  hypothesis  that  even  in  the 
case  of  infants  what  is  called  baptismal  grace  is  often,  perhaps 
generally,  received. 

The  position  of  the  Assembly  in  respect  to  the  mode  of 
observing  the  sacrament  is  clearly  indicated  in  the  second  section. 
Three  things  are  there  described  as  essential,  the  use  of  water 
applied  to  the  person — water  as  distinguished  from  other  liquids 
such  as  oil  or  milk,  sometimes  used  in  oriental  communions  ;  the 
administration  by  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  lawfully  called  there- 
unto ;  and  the  consecration  of  the  recipient  in  the  name  of 
the  Holy  Trinity.  In  the  American  Directory  it  is  directly 
prescribed  that  there  shall  be  no  other  ceremony, — such  as 
as  Rome  has  introduced  into  the  observance.  The  omission  of 
the  name  of  the  Trinity  would  in  the  general  judgment  of  Prot- 
estantism fatally  invalidate  the  observance.  Unitarian  baptism 
or  baptism  by  other  unevangelical  or  heretical  bodies  (if  such  a 
ceremony  should  occur)  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  proper  compli- 
ance with  the  command  of  Christ.  Roman  baptism  is  regarded 
as  valid,  except  by  those  who  refuse  to  recognize  the  Roman 
communion  as  an  integral  part  of  the  church  of  Christ,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  trinitarian.  The  official  character  of  the  administrator 
is  also  generally  regarded  by  Protestants  as  indispensable, 
though  the  Roman  church.— holding  that  baptism  is  necessary  to 


678  SACRAMKNTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

salvation,  recognizes  lay  baptism  as  valid  in  certain  extreme  cases. 

Respecting  the  use  of  water  as  an  element,  it  is  a  striking  illus- 
tration of  the  state  of  the  question  of  mode  at  the  time,  and  per- 
haps also  of  the  liberality  of  the  Assembly  on  matters  regarded 
as  comparatively  indifferent,  that  all  three  modes  of  applying 
water  to  the  person,  known  in  the  early  Church,  sprinkling 
and  pouring  and  dipping  or  immersing,  were  alike  recognized  by 
that  body  as  valid.  In  the  third  section  it  is  stated  that  baptism 
is  rightly  administered  either  by  pouring  or  by  sprinkling  water 
upon  the  person,  and  that  the  dipping  of  the  person  into  the  water 
is  not  necessary.  In  the  original  Directory  (Chap.  VIII)  it  is 
said  that  infants  may  be  baptized  by  pouring  or  sprinkling  water 
on  their  faces  :  which  for  the  manner  of  doing  it,  is  not  only 
lawful  but  sufficient  and  most  expedient  to  be.  An  interesting  illus- 
tration of  the  disposition  of  the  Assembly  appears  in  the  Life  of 
Ivightfoot  (Preface  to  his  Works),  in  the  following  record  :  When 
they  came  to  the  vote  whether  the  Directory  should  run  thus, 
The  minister  shall  take  water  and  sprinkle  or  pour  it  with  his 
hand  upon  the  face  or  forehead  of  the  child,  some  were  unwilling 
to  have  dipping  excluded  ;  so  that  the  vote  came  to  an  equality 
within  one,  for  the  one  side  there  being  twenty-four  and  for  the 
other  twenty-five.  The  business  was  therefore  recommitted  and 
resumed  the  day  following,  when  Ljghtfoot  demanded  of  them 
who  insisted  upon  the  recognition  of  dipping,  that  they  would 
state  the  reason  of  their  opinion,  and  would  give  in  their  proofs. 
Hereupon  it  was  thus  worded,  That  pouring  on  of  water  or  sprink- 
ling in  the  administration  of  baptism  is  lawful  and  sufficient. 
Whereupon  Ljghtfoot  excepted  against  the  word  lawful,  it  being 
unfit  to  vote  that  as  lawful  which  every  one  grants  it  to  be,  and 
moved  that  it  might  be  expressed  thus,  //  is  not  only  lazeful  but 
also  sufficient :  and  it  was  so  done  accordingly.  To  this  settle- 
ment of  the  question  of  mode  in  the  case  of  adults  as  well  as 
infants,  the  Presbyterian  churches  have  adhered  almost  without 
exception,  and  still  adhere.  The  preference  for  pouring  or 
sprinkling,  the  two  terms  being  apparently  very  nearly  synony- 
mous, as  being  sufficient  and  ?nost  expedient  to  be,  does  not  exclude 
dipping  or  immersion  if  Christian  expedience  should  so  suggest ; 
and  this  latter  mode  is  regarded  by  all  Presbyterians  as  entirely 
valid. 

It  is  not  practicable  in  these  confessional  studies  to  enter  into 
any  discussion  of  the  vexed  question  here  presented.  That  there 
is  a  considerable  group  of  texts  in  the  New  Testament  which 
suggest  immersion  as  a  probable  mode  of  administration  in  the 


BAPTISM  :     VARIETIES   OF    MODE.  679 

apostolic  church,  may  be  freely  admitted.  That  there  is  another 
group  of  texts  equally  extensive,  which  point  to  pouring  or 
sprinkling  as  the  more  probable  mode,  and  still  another  which 
seem  to  preclude  the  possibility  or  at  least  the  probability  of 
immersion,  is  an  equally  palpable  fact.  That  the  germs  of  the 
sacrament  found  in  the  lustrations  and  baptisms  of  the  Old 
Testament,  representing  ceremonial  defilement  and  ceremonial 
purification  chiefly,  suggest  a  similar  variety  in  the  Christian 
ordinance  is  quite  apparent.  And  in  view  of  such  biblical  pre- 
sentations, taken  in  their  totality,  it  seems  a  just  conclusion  that 
our  Lord  intentionally  left  the  incidental  question  of  administra- 
tion to  the  judgment  of  the  church  in  the  very  diversified  condi- 
tions in  which,  as  he  foresaw,  it  was  to  be  placed  on  the  earth. 
So  long  as  the  essential  truths  represented  in  the  sacrament  are 
spiritually  held,  and  the  sacrament  is  spiritually  observed  in  cor- 
dial obedience  to  his  command,  the  subordinate  question  of  mode 
cannot  properly  be  regarded  as  vital.  Tenacious  adherence  to 
any  particular  mode,  to  the  condemnation  of  all  others,  is  certainly 
not  essential  in  itself,  neither  is  it  in  harmony  with  the  cardinal 
law  of  spiritual  brotherhood  in  Christ.  Nor  is  it  an  unimportant 
fact  in  the  case  that  uniformity  in  administration  in  all  countries 
and  in  all  the  endless  variety  of  circumstance,  is  in  the  nature  of 
things  well-nigh  impossible.  Neither  is  the  witness  of  history 
even  in  the  earliest  ages,  as  found  in  the  Didache  and  other  like 
testimonies,  at  all  conclusive  as  showing  that  immersion  was  the 
only,  though  it  may  have  been  a  frequent  mode  of  administration 
in  apostolic  or  post-apostolic  times.  And  in  view  of  all  the 
evidence  that  can  be  gathered  from  all  quarters  it  is  doubtful 
whether  any  wiser  conclusion  can  be  reached  on  the  whole  matter, 
than  that  so  happily  enunciated  by  Calvin  in  terms  which  un- 
doubtedly suggested  the  declaration  of  the  Assembly:  Whether 
the  person  who  is  baptized  be  wholly  immersed,  or  whether  water 
be  only  poured  or  sprinkled  upon  him,  is  of  no  importance  : 
churches  ought  to  be  left  at  liberty  in  this  respect  to  act  accord- 
ing to  the  difference  of  countries  :  Inst.  B.  IV  :  15. 

Some  subsidiary  matters  of  administration  present  themselves  at 
this  point.  The  seventh  section  of  this  chapter  teaches  that 
baptism  is  but  o?ice  to  be  administered  to  any  person  ;  and  the 
Directory  requires  that,  being  a  churchly  ordinance,  it  shall  take 
place  in  the  presence  of  the  congregation,  though  it  is  not  invalid  if 
administered  in  private  houses.  The  Directory  also  advises  that 
It  be  not  unnecessarily  delayed,  evident^  with  reference  to  the 
tendency  occasionally  manifest  in  church   history,    to  postpone 


680  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

baptism  to  a  certain  age  or  to  the  closing  period  of  life.  The 
Confession  declares  it  a  great  sin  to  contemn  or  neglect  the  ordi- 
nance, though  grace  and  salvation  are  not  inseparably  annexed 
unto  it :  and  the  Directory  counsels  the  minister  to  instruct 
the  people  whenever  occasion  offers  as  to  the  appointment,  nature 
use  and  ends  of  the  sacrament.  In  the  administration  it  is  not 
needful  that  the  water  be  three  times  sprinkled  or  poured  on  the 
person  as  the  three  names  in  the  Trinity  are  pronounced,  nor  has 
the  naming  of  the  baptized  person  any  essential  relation  to  the 
ordinance.  It  is  advised  also  that  the  biblical  usage  and  prece- 
dent as  to  form  be  preserved  in  their  simplicity,  and  that  no  addi- 
tional features  beyond  exhortation  and  prayer  be  introduced. 
The  baptizing  of  sanctuaries  or  altars  or  bells,  or  other  impersonal 
objects  as  a  species  of  benediction,  is  evidently  contrary  to  scrip- 
tural teaching  and  to  Protestant  usage  :  other  kindred  practices 
introduced  or  observed  by  Rome,  are  to  be  rejected  as  unwar- 
rantable superstitions. 

A  second  question  which  has  divided  and  still  divides  Protes- 
tantism to  a  serious  extent,  but  which  can  only  be  briefly  adverted 

to  here,   relates  to  the  classes  of  per- 
3.    Baptism :  proper  sub-  .  ,,  ,  , 

jects:  baptism  of  infants.         sons  to  whom  the  water  of  baPtlsra 

may  be  applied.  Nearly  all  Protes- 
tants are  substantially  agreed  that  adults  should  be  baptized  only 
upon  personal  profession  of  faith,  and  as  an  introductory  step 
toward  voluntary  union  with  some  Christian  church.  They  agree 
in  holding  that  the  church  is  something  more  than  a  visible 
society  to  whose  privileges  baptism  in  infancy  conveys  a  formal 
title,  and  whose  adult  membership  is  made  up  of  those  who  have 
entered  its  communion  through  or  in  virtue  of  such  baptism, 
without  regard  to  their  spiritual  state  before  God.  While  differ- 
ing somewhat  in  respect  to  the  nature  and  amount  of  the  personal 
experience  of  religion  requisite  to  such  connection,  they  are 
agreed  that  there  should  be  in  every  case  some  credible  profession 
of  piety  as  a  personal  experience.  They  regard  baptism  when 
applied  to  adults  as  being  far  more  than  a  sign  of  ecclesiastical 
place  or  privilege, — as  signifying  rather  a  personal  ingrafting  into 
Christ,  with  regeneration  and  the  remission  of  sins  through  his 
grace  and  mediation.  Nor  do  they  consent  that  any  adult  should 
be  admitted  to  the  church  in  the  hope  that  through  its  culture  he 
may  be  led  to  repentance  and  faith  according  to  the  Gospel. 
They  therefore  refuse  to  baptize  any  adult  except  upon  the  single 
and  simple  condition  of  personal  acceptance  of  Christ,  and  the 
willingness  sincerely   manifested    to   serve   him    faithfully    and 


BAPTISM  :     PROPER    SUBJECTS.  681 

always,  as  a  member  of  his  visible  household  of  faith.  During 
the  discussions  in  the  Assembly  it  was  resolved  (Minutes,  39  I  ) 
that  the  duty  of  improving  our  baptism  is  to  be  performed  by  us 
all  our  life  long,  by  serious  and  thankful  consideration  of  the 
nature  of  it,  and  of  the  ends  for  which  Christ  instituted  it,  the 
privileges  and  benefits  conferred  and  sealed  thereby,  and  our 
solemn  vow  made  therein  ;  and  by  being  humbled  for  our  sinful 
defilement,  our  falling  short  of  and  walking  contrary  to  the  grace 
of  baptism. 

The  question  now  to  be  considered  in  brief  relates  to  the  appli- 
cation of  the  water  of  baptism  to  infants,  who  are  incapable  of 
any  such  experience  as  has  just  been  described.  The  church  of 
Rome  baptizes  all  infants,  as  well  as  all  consenting  adults,  on  the 
ground  that  none  but  baptized  infants  are  regenerate  and  saved. 
The  Tridentine  Council,  following  Irenaeus  andOrigen  and  other 
patristic  authorities,  affirmed  in  explicit  terms  that  little  children 
should  be  baptized  in  order  to  their  regeneration, — that,  having 
received  baptism,  they  are  to  be  counted  among  the  faithful 
though  they  have  not  actual  faith, — that  baptism  ought  never  to 
be  postponed  until  such  children  are  able  to  believe  for  them- 
selves,— that  being  baptized  in  infancy  they  are  not  to  be  bap- 
tized again  upon  any  avowal  of  such  faith, — that  their  ratification 
in  adult  years  of  the  baptism  applied  in  childhood  is  not  essen- 
tial,— that  they  are  therefore  within  the  church  even  against  their 
maturer  will,  and  are  not  to  be  expelled  from  it  or  subjected  to 
any  penalty  as  members  of  it,  except  exclusion  from  the  holy 
Eucharist  :  and  the  Council  concluded  its  very  positive  canons 
by  pronouncing  its  formal  anathema  on  all  who  reject  its  teach- 
ings on  this  subject.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  the  strict 
enforcement  and  steadfast  use  of  the  doctrine  put  forth  in  these 
canons  have  had  much  to  do,  from  the  days  of  that  memorable 
Council  until  now,  with  the  maintenance  of  the  firm  hold  of 
Romanism  upon  the  people  of  southern  Europe,  and  with  its 
success  in  the  propagation  of  the  faith  in  other  lands.  To  bap- 
tise an  infant  and  thus  give  it  an  enduring  place  within  the 
church,  to  educate  it  wholly  under  the  nurture  of  the  church,  to 
habituate  it  to  the  conviction  that  the  church  holds  it  by  an 
indissoluble  bond,  and  during  its  maturer  years  to  enforce  upon 
it  the  claim  of  membership  as  an  investiture  which  cannot  be 
thrown  off  and  which  it  is  death  to  the  soul  to  question,  is  a 
process  that  can  result  only  in  establishing  a  domination  which  the 
individual  feels  utterly  unable  to  oppose,  and  which  gives  the 
church  an  irresistible  control  over  his  belief  and  his  life. 


682  SACRAMKNTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  the  earlier  Reformers,  notwithstanding 
their  opposition  to  Rome,  remained  largely  under  the  influence  of 
this  illusive  conception.  The  Apologia  declares  it  most  certain 
that  the  promise  of  salvation  belongs  even  to  infants,  and  that 
they  ought  therefore  to  be  baptised  inasmuch  as  salvation  is  offered 
in  or  with  baptism.  Similar  expressions  appear  in  the  Smalcald 
Articles,  and  in  the  Helvetic  Confessions.  Luther  in  his  Larger 
Catechism  tersely  says  that  the  virtue,  work,  use,  fruit,  end  of 
baptism  is  to  save,  and  affirms  that  infants  are  saved  in  baptism — 
but  on  the  singular  hypothesis  that  they  do  in  some  way  or  sense 
personally  believe.  They  were  led  into  this  position  partly  by 
the  state  church  theory  which  made  all  persons,  adult  or  infant, 
members  of  some  geographic  ecclesiastical  organization  ;  partly 
by  the  lingering  influence,  as  these  quotations  show,  of  the 
notion  of  baptismal  regeneration  :  and  partly,  we  may  hope, 
through  their  recognition  of  the  Old  Testament  doctrine  of  the 
unity  of  the  pious  household.  But  it  is  evident  also,  that  almost 
from  the  beginning  many  of  them  realized  that  the  theory  of 
regenerative  baptism  and  of  geographic  church  membership  would 
only  fill  their  churches  with  multitudes  who  had  never  believed 
in  Christ  or  been  justified  through  his  mediation,  unless  some 
spiritual  expedients  or  agencies  should  be  introduced  as  correc- 
tives. Hence  arose  the  series  of  Catechisms,  beginning  with  those 
of  Luther,  which  were  even  more  potent  than  the  authorized 
creeds  in  educating  the  people  in  spiritual  and  practical  religion. 

It  is  another  interesting  fact  that  as  early  as  1524  Luther,  with 
this  great  need  in  mind,  set  about  the  establishment  of  Christian 
schools  in  the  cities  of  Germany,  declaring  in  his  own  strong- 
language  that  it  is  a  grave  and  serious  thing,  affecting  the  inter- 
ests of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of  all  the  world,  that  we  apply 
ourselves  to  the  instruction  of  the  young.  Two  years  later,  in 
a  letter  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  he  broached  the  broad  principle 
on  which  all  modern  systems  of  popular  education  are  based,  that 
inasmuch  as  such  instruction  is  necessary  to  the  well-being  of 
the  state,  it  should  be  supplied  by  those  wielding  authority  over 
the  state ;  and  on  that  basis  principally  the  common  school, 
imparting  positive  religion  as  well  as  ordinary  knowledge,  was 
established  during  that  century  not  only  in  Germany  but  in  Swit- 
zerland and  Holland  and  elsewhere  in  northern  Europe,  including 
the  British  Isles.  In  1558,  John  Knox,  writing  from  Geneva, 
declared  it  most  expedient  for  the  preservation  of  religion,  that 
schools  be  immediately  erected  in  all  cities  and  chief  towns  .  .  . 
that  of  the  youth  godly  instructed  in  them  a  seed  may  be  preserved 


BAPTISM   OF   INFANTS.  683 

and  continued  for  the  profit  of  the  church  in  all  ages.  Protes- 
tantism has  always  needed  the  Christian  school  as  well  as  the 
Christian  home  as  an  adjunct  to  the  church  in  diffusing  and  per- 
petuating the  true  faith  :  without  their  helpful  ministrations 
and  influence  infant  baptism  has  always  degenerated  into  a  super- 
stitious form,  and  infant  church  connection  has  always  been 
superficial  and  unfruitful. 

Guarded  against  such  perversions,  the  doctrine  of  child  mem- 
bership,— a  membership  established  at  birth  and  certified  in  the 
rite  of  baptism — is,  as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  see,  a 
tenet  clearly  sustained  by  Scripture,  and  palpably  confirmed  in 
the  experience  of  Christendom.  But  we  must  go  back  of  such 
experimental  evidence  to  the  Old  Testament  teachings  respecting 
the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  natural  unity  of  the  pious  family, 
respecting  the  divine  covenant  with  the  heads  of  such  holy  house- 
holds, respecting  the  religious  significance  of  circumcision 
regarded  as  an  outward  sign  and  seal  of  said  covenant,  respect- 
ing the  transmission  of  piety  through  the  sanctified  home  from 
generation  to  generation,  respecting  the  relation  of  the  home  to 
the  church  and  the  ordained  perpetuity  of  the  church  through 
the  appointed  ordinances  of  grace, — we  must  turn  back  to  these 
primal  teachings  to  find  the  initial  warrant  for  the  application  of 
the  water  of  baptism  to  the  children  of  believing  parents.  We 
must  turn  also  to  the  example  of  our  L,ord  in  blessing  little  chil- 
dren and  proclaiming  them  heirs  of  heaven, — to  his  tender 
instruction  concerning  them,  even  as  lambs  in  his  earthly  flock, — 
to  the  teaching  of  the  apostles  respecting  the  godly  family,  and 
especially  the  Pauline  instruction  as  to  the  federal  holiness  of  the 
offspring  of  pious  parentage,  and  the  illustrations  of  household  as 
well  as  individual  baptism  recorded  in  the  New  Testament.  We 
must  also  recognize  the  essential  oneness  of  the  Church  in  all 
dispensations,  the  practical  identity  between  the  faith  of  Abra- 
ham and  Christian  faith,  the  transmission  of  other  ordinances 
such  as  the  paschal  supper,  and  the  close  relation  between  cir- 
cumcision as  a  type  under  the  old  and  infant  baptism  as  a  type 
under  the  new  economy  of  grace.  It  is  important  also  to  note  in 
close  conjunction  the  recorded  usage  of  the  early  church,  if  not 
in  all  instances  still  in  many,  and  the  historic  growth  of  such 
usage,  avowedly  on  biblical  rather  than  traditional  authority, 
until  it  came  to  be  the  general  practice  of  the  church  in  both  its 
western  and  its  oriental  divisions.  To  all  this  may  be  added  the 
manifest  values  of  this  sacramental  observance  to  the  Christian 
oarent  as  a  guide  and  stimulant  to  the  training  of  his  children  for 


€84  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

Christ  ; — to  the  child  thus  consecrated  even  from  infancy  to  the 
divine  service  and  nurtured  from  the  outset  into  holy  manhood 
or  womanhood  ;  and  to  the  church  as  an  encouragement  to  supply 
so  far  as  possible  all  needful  help  in  such  nurture,  and  as  an  assur- 
ance that,  in  the  instructive  words  of  Knox,  a  hoty  seed  shall  be 
preserved  and  continued  through  all  the  ages. 

If  Romanism  can  justify  itself  in  the  baptizing  of  infants  and 
incorporating  them  by  that  sign  within  its  ecclesiastical  fold,  a 
thousand  times  more  may  evangelical  Protestantism,  counting  its 
youth  even  from  their  birth  as  members  in  its  holy  family,  and 
devoting  itself  to  their  training  for  complete  membership  in  after 
life,  set  this  seal  upon  them  and  by  that  act  openly  acknowledge 
its  relationship  to  them,  and  its  purpose  and  faith  with  respect  to 
their  spiritual  relationship  to  Christ.  That  on  the  various  grounds 
here  noted  there  has  grown  up  in  the  Protestant  communions  as 
well  as  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches,  a  general  verdict  in 
favor  of  this  ordinance  cannot  be  questioned  :  that  there  is  a 
growing  appreciation  of  its  values,  especially  in  those  commun- 
ions where  it  has  been  most  thoroughly  tested,  is  a  maniifest  fact. 
Nor  is  evidence  of  its  decline  in  favor  anywhere  apparent.  Paren- 
tal faith  and  the  parental  covenant,  enfolding  the  infant,  are  as 
real  now  as  in  the  age  of  Abraham;  should  these  disappear,  one  of 
the  peculiar  glories  of  the  Christian  religion  would  be  lost.  And 
certainly  it  is  a  fact  of  great  significance  and  comfort,  that  those 
sections  of  Protestantism  which  refuse  to  regard  infant  baptism 
as  an  ordinance  warranted  by  Scripture  and  historic  experience, 
do  still  recognize  the  great  underlying  truths  in  the  case,  and  do 
probably  as  earnestly  as  others  endeavor  to  train  up  their  youth 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 

The  spiritual  quality  of  the  sacrament,  and  also  of  the  cove- 
nant into  which  the  parents  enter  in  connection  with  it,  cannot 
be  too  strongly  emphasized.  That  covenant  puts  the  parents 
under  obligations  as  tender  and  sacred  as  can  ever  rest  on  any 
human  being.  The  American  Directory  (Ch.  VIII)  declares 
that  they  ought  to  teach  the  child  to  read  the  Word  of  God  and 
instruct  it  in  the  principles  of  our  holy  religion,  to  pray  with  and 
for  it,  to  set  it  an  example  of  piety  and  godliness,  and  by  all  the 
means  of  divine  appointment  to  train  it  up  for  Christ  and  for 
heaven.  In  the  presence  of  such  obligations  all  duties  relating  to 
the  temporal  welfare  of  children,  such  as  provision  for  food  and 
clothing  or  for  their  education  and  their  comfort  and  happiness  in 
maturer  life — though  in  themselves  primary  and  indispensable — 
grow  relatively  secondary  and  unimportant.     To  feed  and  robe 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER.  <l<sr> 

and  shelter  and  instruct  and  ripen  the  child  for  Christian  useful- 
ness and  for  heaven,  must  after  all  be  the  supreme  obligation. 
The  original  Directory  contains  a  form  of  prayer  to  be  offered  in 
connection  with  the  ordinance,  which  might  well  be  treasured  in 
the  memory  of  all  pious  parents,  and  be  offered  up  from  day 
to  day  so  long  as  their  children  remain  within  the  sanctuary  of 
the  home. 

The  second  Christian  sacrament,   the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  is  set  before  us  exhaustively  in  one  of  the  most  extended 
chapters  (XXIX)    in   the  Confes- 
sion, and  with  corresponding  elabo-        4.    The  Lord's  Supper :  itsde- 
rateness  in  the  Larger  Catechism,     sign  and  uses.   Roman  and  Prot- 

,   .      u  ,,     , ,  •   •     i        j  ,,        estant  doctrine:   Participants: 

and  in  both   the  original  and  the    mode  of  admlnistration. 

American   Directory   for  Worship. 

Cunningham  justly  remarks  (Hist.  Theol.)  that  the  papal  doc- 
trine concerning  this  sacrament  forms  the  very  heart  and  marrow 
of  the  papal  system  of  belief  ;  and  adds  that  the  Roman  church 
has  embodied  in  its  teaching  and  practice  on  this  subject  its 
principal  provisions  for  crushing  the  exercise  of  all  mental  inde- 
pendence and  freedom  of  thought,  and  for  subjecting  the  under- 
standings, consciences  and  purses  of  men  to  the  control  of  the 
priesthood.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  every  prominent 
creed  of  the  Reformation  which  aims  at  a  comprehensive  state- 
ment of  Christian  doctrine,  should  contain  extensive  articles  or 
chapters  on  this  subject.  Nor  is  it  surprising  that,  although  all 
were  agreed  in  condemning  the  papal  teaching  as  unscriptural 
and  pernicious,  the  Reformers  should  have  failed  at  various  points 
to  agree  among  themselves  as  to  certain  purposes  and  features  of 
the  sacrament, — such  failure  developing,  as  we  know  in  some 
instances,  into  suspicion  and  open  antagonism.  It  must  be  con- 
fessed that  the  Protestant  belief  was  far  from  being  a  unit  during 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  that  later  Protestanism  even  down  to 
our  own  day  has  not  been  able  to  attain  such  unity  as  to  specific- 
elements  in  the  doctrine,  though  even  more  firm  than  the  earlier 
in  condemnation  of  the  Roman  view. 

There  are  indeed  .some  elements  of  the  doctrine  in  which  Roman- 
ism and  Protestantism  are  substantially  agreed.  Both  regard  the 
sacrament  as  imposed  authoritatively  by  Christ,  and  as  appointed 
for  his  Church  and  for  the  instruction  and  nutriment  of  his  dis- 
ciples to  the  end  of  the  world.  Both  regard  the  sacrament  as  a 
continuation  under  the  Gospel  of  that  paschal  supper  through 
which  the  devout  people  of  Israel  celebrated  their  deliverance  from 


686  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

Egyptian  bondage.  Both  condemn  the  Socinian  affirmation  that 
the  sacrament  was  designed  as  a  temporary  expedient,  suited  to 
the  needs  of  the  apostolic  church,  but  intended  to  pass  away 
with  time  :  and  the  kindred  notion  that  it  is  a  mere  ceremony  of 
thanksgiving  and  profession,  or  a  mode  of  good  fellowship,  which 
may  be  observed  or  omitted  according  to  taste  or  convenience. 
Both  regard  the  observance  as  something  more  than  a  spiritual 
or  inward  commemoration  of  Christ  and  his  sacrifice, — as  rather  a 
formal  ordinance  of  the  church,  to  be  observed  visibly  as  our  Lord 
commanded,  and  with  the  use  of  the  elements  which  he  selected. 
But  beyond  these  points  there  is  wide  and  indeed  irreconcile- 
able  disagreement.  Romanism  affirms  that  these  two  elements, 
bread  and  wine,  are  so  transubstantiated  or  transformed  by 
what  is  in  the  nature  of  a  miracle  that,  without  changing  their 
outward  appearance,  they  do  actually  become  the  veritable  body 
and  blood  of  the  crucified  Redeemer.  According  to  the  Council 
of  Trent  this  ordinance,  in  virtue  of  such  transubstantiation, 
becomes  something  more  than  a  simple  sacrament ;  it  is  a  visible 
sacrifice  also,  whereby  the  original  sacrifice  on  the  cross  is  not 
only  typified  but  in  a  sense  repeated,  and  its  salutary  virtue 
directly  applied  to  the  remission  of  sins.  Our  Lord,  in  other  words, 
is  immolated  again  under  visible  signs  by  the  church  through  the 
priestly  ministration,  and  the  mass  thus  becomes  a  propitiation 
through  which  the  grace  and  gift  of  penitence  are  granted,  and 
heinous  sins  and  crimes  are  forgiven,  if  the  sacrament  be  received, 
in  this  sense  of  it,  with  a  sincere  heart  and  with  godly  reverence. 
Like  baptism  it  carries  grace  in  itself,  and  is  to  be  administered 
as  an  opus  operatum, — the  participant  actually  receiving  Christ 
corporeally  as  well  as  spiritually,  though  in  an  incomprehensible 
manner.  It  is  held  further,  that  this  sacrifice  may  be  offered  in 
the  interest  of  the  dead  as  truly  as  of  the  living,  both  for  the 
honoring  of  departed  saints  already  in  heaven,  and  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who,  though  departed  in  Christ,  are  not  as  yet  fully 
purified.  And  the  mass  may  be  observed  in  certain  cases  by  the 
priesthood  only,  acting  therein  for  the  whole  church,  and  in  all 
cases  the  wine  duly  mixed  with  water  must  be  taken  by  none  but 
the  priest,  since  the  whole  Christ  is  received  under  either  species 
alone.  Nor  is  the  sacrament  ever  to  be  celebrated  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  or  in  any  other  than  a  low  tone,  since  the  priest  is  speak- 
ing therein  to  God  only.  It  is  also  claimed  that  the  church  may 
rightly  employ  additional  ceremonies  at  her  discretion,  such  as 
mystic  benedictions,  lights,  incense,  vestments,  if  derived  from 
apostolical   discipline   and   tradition,    whereby — it  is  said — the 


ROMAN    AND    PROTESTANT    DOCTRINE.  687 

majesty  of  so  great  a  sacrifice  may  be  commended,  and  the 
minds  of  the  faithful  may  be  excited  by  such  visible  signs  of 
religion  and  piety  to  the  contemplation  of  those  most  sublime 
things  which  are  hidden  in  this  sacrifice. 

The  Reformers  were  cordially  agreed  in  rejecting  the  dogma  of 
miraculous  transubstantiation,  and  of  an  actual  repetition  in  the 
sacrament,  in  any  form  whatever,  of  the  original  oblation  of 
Christ  on  the  cross.  They  were  agreed  in  rejecting  the  fiction 
that  there  is  grace  hidden  in  the  elements  when  thus  transformed, 
which  is  communicated  corporeally  to  the  participant,  as  if  the 
elements  had  efficacy  in  themselves  ;  or  that  the  sacrament  can 
be  beneficial  to  any  one  otherwise  than  through  the  exercise  of 
faith  in  and  personal  appropriation  of  the  crucified  Redeemer, 
whose  dying  for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation  the  ordinance  was 
designed  to  typify.  They  were  agreed  that  the  sacrament  could 
not  be  of  value  to  the  dead  whether  for  honor  or  for  purgation, 
and  that  it  is  valuable  to  the  living,  not  because  the  church  pro- 
vides it  or  the  priesthood  administers  it,  but  only  so  far  as  it 
represents  a  spiritual  union  established  between  the  believing 
recipient  and  Christ.  They  were  agreed  also  in  rejecting  the 
usage  of  private  mass,  the  exclusion  of  the  laity  from  sharing  in 
the  wine,  the  administration  in  language  unknown  to  the  people, 
and  the  introduction  of  ceremonials  superadded  upon  the  original 
ordinance  as  instituted  by  our  Lord.  In  a  word,  they  were  agreed 
in  repudiating  the  notion  of  the  sacrament  as  a  ritual  and  a  sacri- 
fice, and  held  it  rather  as  a  spiritual  ordinance  full  of  grace  and 
blessing  if  its  divine  intent  was  observed,  and  Christ  himself 
was  present  to  hallow  the  observance.  In  the  language  of  the 
Second  Helvetic  Conf. :  As  the  sun  in  heaven  is  efficaciously 
present  with  us,  so  much  more  is  Christ,  the  sun  of  righteous- 
ness, with  us  not  indeed  corporeally,  but  spiritually,  by  his  enliv- 
ening and  vivifying  operation,  even  as  he  in  the  L,ast  Supper 
explained  that  he  would  himself  be  present  with  his  people. 

In  the  more  specific  interpretation  of  this  ordinance,  three  vari- 
eties of  opinion  existed  among  the  primitive  Protestants.  At 
one  extreme  stood  Zwinglianism,  maintaining  the  widest  contrast 
with  the  papal  dogma  at  every  point,  and  affirming  that  the  holy 
supper  is  historical  and  commemorative  only — a  picturesque  cere- 
monial designed  to  bring  to  mind  the  tragic  scene  on  Calvary,  and 
so  to  impress  us  more  vividly  with  the  reality  and  preciousness 
of  the  atoning  sacrifice  there  once  for  all  offered  in  behalf  of  sin. 
At  the  other  extreme  stood  Lutheranism,  repudiating  the  error  of 
transubstantiation,  yet  affirming  that  in  some  transcendental  way 


688  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

Christ  is  really  present  with  and  in  the  elements  employed,  so 
that  the  sacrament  becomes,  not  merely  a  commemoration  of  the 
crucifixion  as  a  past  event,  but  also  an  actual  participation  of  the 
Savior  as  present  in  some  sense  corporeally, — the  real  presence 
and  oral  communication  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  becom- 
ing, in  the  language  of  another  (Sprecher,  Evang.  L,uth.  Theol. ) , 
a  most  gracious  pledge  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  :  see  Krauth . 
Conservative  Reformation. 

Between  these  extremes  stood  the  profound  doctrine  of 
Calvin,  which  has  been  incorporated  in  substance  in  all  of  the 
Reformed  Confessions,  and  which  has  become  the  generally 
accepted  doctrine  of  Protestant  communions,  outside  of  the  circles 
of  sacrameutarian  Lutheranism.  Calvin  defines  a  sacrament 
briefly  (Inst.  B.  IV  :  14)  after  the  manner  of  Augustine,  as  a 
testimony  of  the  grace  of  God  toward  us,  confirmed  by  an  out- 
ward sign  as  a  ring  or  pledge,  with  a  reciprocal  attestation  of  our 
faith  in  Christ ;  but  more  broadly,  as  an  outward  sign  by  which 
the  Lord  seals  in  our  consciences  the  promises  of  his  good  will 
towards  us,  to  support  the  weakness  of  our  faith,  while  we  on 
our  part  testify  our  piety  towards  him  in  his  presence  and  that  of 
angels  as  well  as  before  men.  He  justifies  his  general  definition 
by  a  careful  process  of  reasoning  both  from  Scripture  and  from 
the  nature  of  the  Christian  sacraments :  and  then  applies  it 
specifically  to  the  sacrament  of  the  supper,  which  he  describes  as 
a  spiritual  banquet  in  which  Christ  testifies  himself  to  be  the 
bread  of  life,  to  feed  our  souls  for  a  true  and  blessed  immortality. 
It  is,  he  says  elsewhere,  a  token  and  pledge  of  our  secret  union 
through  faith  with  him  who  is  the  fountain  and  origin  of  all 
spiritual  life,  by  whose  flesh  and  blood  our  souls  are  fed,  just  as 
our  corporeal  life  is  preserved  and  sustained  by  bread  and  wine. 
Against  the  dogma  of  transubstantiation,  and  all  the  errors  and 
mischiefs  that  have  grown  out  of  it,  Calvin  utters  his  most  earnest 
protestations  :  between  Zwinglianism  and  Lutheranism  he  stands 
in  the  attitude  of  mediation,  recognizing  what  is  good  in  the  teach- 
ing of  each,  but  criticising  their  respective  deficiencies,  especially 
the  Lutheran  conception  of  the  corporeal  ubiquity  of  Christ  on 
earth,  and  adding  what  he  regards,  and  what  later  Protestantism 
generally  has  come  to  regard  with  him,  as  essential  to  the  com- 
pleteness and  spiritual  value  of  the  sacrament. 

The  elaborate  chapter  in  the  Confession  presents  in  detail  and 
with  great  discrimination  the  Reformed  or  Calvinistic  view.  In 
the  first  section,  it  affirms  the  appointment  of  this  holy  ordinance 
by  Christ  himself  as  an  institution  of  his  church,  to  be  observed 


CALVINISTIC   STATEMENT.  689 

until  the  end  of  the  world,  and  points  out  the  five  uses  of  the  ordi- 
nance: first,  as  commemorative, — a  perpetual  remembrance  and 
acknowledgment  of  the  atoning  sacrifice  itself;  second,  as  a  guar- 
antee to  each  true  believer  of  all  the  benefits  accruing  from  that 
sacrifice;  third,  as  furnishing  present  nutrition  and  strengthening 
the  worthy  recipient  in  godly  living;  fourth,  as  consecratory , 
or  in  the  specific  sense  of  the  term,  sacramental — a  solemn  cove- 
nant or  pledge  on  the  part  of  the  receiver  to  be  faithful  to  all 
Christian  duty;  and  fifth,  as  a  sign  of  union  and  communion  among 
the  participants,  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Christian  church — as 
members  together  in  the  mystical  body  of  Christ :  L.  C.  168. 
Viewed  more  broadly,  the  sacrament  may  fitly  be  described  as  at 
once  a  sermon  setting  forth  in  picturesque  form  the  central  doc- 
trines of  grace;  a  creed  professed  and  confessed  before  the  world; 
a  law  prescribing  for  the  believer  his  most  vital  duties;  a  holy 
hymn  of  praise  and  gratitude  to  Christ;  a  sacred  oath  of  allegi- 
ance placing  the  soul  under  the  most  impressive  obligations  to  the 
Redeemer;  a  willing  covenant  whereby  he  is  conjoined  for  time 
and  for  eternity  with  those  who  are  associated  with  him  within 
the  household  of  faith. 

The  second  section  condemns  the  papal  tenet  that  the  sacrament 
is  in  any  sense  a  sacrifice  or  an  oblation  offered  to  God  in  order  to 
secure  the  remission  of  sins,  whether  for  the  living  or  for  the  dead; 
and  declares  that  the  popish  sacrifice  of  the  mass  (Revised  form  : 
the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass)  is  most 
injurious  to  the  one  and  only  sacrifice  of  Christ.  In  the  third  sec- 
tion the  requisite  elements  are  named,  the  form  of  observance  is 
prescribed,  following  closely  the  original  institution;  the  giving 
of  the  wine  as  well  as  the  bread  to  the  laity  is  required;  and  in  the 
next  section  private  masses  by  the  priesthood,  the  worshiping  of 
the  elements,  as  if  Christ  were  present  in  them,  the  elevation  or 
carrying  about  of  the  host,  and  other  papal  observances,  are  stren- 
uously condemned  as  contrary  to  the  nature  of  the  sacrament  and  to 
the  institution  of  Christ.  John  Knox  represented  the  general  senti- 
ment of  Protestantism  in  the  declaration  (Xorimer,  Life  of  Knox) 
that  the  plain  rule  of  Scripture  is  to  be  observed  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  both  sacraments,  without  addition  or  diminution,  and 
that  all  attempts  to  impose  additional  ceremonies  or  to  introduce 
any  additional  meanings  or  significations  is  a  heinous  sin.  The 
fifth  and  sixth  sections  describe  the  relation  of  the  elements  as 
outward  signs  or  emblems  to  the  spiritual  truths  typified  by  them ; 
affirm  that  they  are  the  bod}'  and  blood  of  Christ  only  in  a  sacra- 
mental sense,  while  in  substance  and  nature  they  still  remain  truly 


690  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

and  only  bread  and  wine,  as  they  were  before  their  consecration; 
condemn  the  dogma  of  transubstantiation  as  repugnant  not  to 
Scripture  alone  but  eveti  to  common  sense  and  reason  ;  and  declare 
that  this  dogma  not  only  overthroweth  the  nature  of  the  sacra- 
ment, but  is  the  cause  of  manifold  superstitions  and  even  of  gross 
idolatries. 

In  the  seventh  and  eighth  sections  the  recipients  worthy  and 
unworth)'  are  described,  and  the  proper  limits  are  put  upon  the 
observance  as  a  religious  act.  As  in  baptism  so  here,  the  qualifi- 
cation for  participation  is  a  gracious  state  already  secured — indi- 
cated by  an  open  membership  in  some  branch  of  the  visible  church. 
Bvery  such  worthy  receiver,  partaking  of  the  visible  elements,  is 
said  to  feed  by  faith,  not  caj'nally  or  corporally  but  spiritually ',  upon 
Christ  crucified  and  all  benefits  of  his  death:  Christ  being  present 
as  really  to  the  faith  of  believers  in  and  with  the  ordinance,  as  the 
elements  themselves  are  to  their  outward  senses.  In  the  language 
of  the  Shorter  Catechism  (96),  they  are  made  partakers  of  his 
body  and  blood,  with  all  his  benefits,  to  their  spiritual  nourishment 
and  groivth  m  grace.  Proper  preparation  for  the  sacrament  is 
particularly  described  in  the  Larger  Catechism  (171)  in  language 
which  may  well  be  studied  with  solemn  care  by  every  one  who 
desires  to  participate  worthily  in  the  observance.  Wise  counsel 
is  also  given  (172)  to  those  who  anxiously  doubt  as  to  their  per- 
sonal interest  in  Christ,  and  both  warning  and  encouragement  are 
offered  according  to  their  individual  condition  and  need.  The 
special  thoughts  and  feelings  which  should  be  experienced  by  the 
participants  during  the  administration  are  mentioned — hoty  rev- 
erence and  attention,  affectionate  meditation  on  the  crucified 
Savior,  sincere  sorrow  for  all  sins  and  departures  from  duty, 
thanksgiving  for  grace  and  a  renewed  consecration  to  the  divine 
service.  So  also  the  duties  consequent  upon  the  communion  are 
set  forth  with  like  particularity,  the  proper  utilizing  of  the  privi- 
lege in  such  ways  as  to  increase  growth  in  grace  and  holiness,  and 
the  renewed  purpose  to  render  effective  service  to  Christ  and  his 
cause..  On  the  other  hand,  all  ignorant  and  ungodly  persons  are 
said  to  be  unworthy  to  sit  at  the  table  of  Christ  so  long  as  they 
remain  such,  and  must  not  be  admitted  thereunto,  since  they  by 
such  outward  participation  only  eat  and  drink  not  to  any  spiritual 
benefit  but  to  their  own  damnation. 

To  these  catechetical  instructions  must  be  added  the  further 
counsels  and  teachings  contained  in  the  two  Directories  for  Wor- 
ship. The  original  Directory  advises  that  the  communion  shall 
be  observed  frequently  --that  sufficient  notice  be  given  and  due 


QUALIFICATIONS   FOR    COMMUNION.  091 

preparation  of  heart  be  made, — that  the  table  be  so  placed  that 
the  communicants  may  sit  at  or  about  it, — that  the  bread  be  in 
comely  and  convenient  vessels  and  the  wine  in  large  cups:  also 
that  an  exhortation  be  given  beforehand  to  worthy  communicants, 
and  a  solemn  warning  to  the  ignorant,  scandalous,  profane,  and 
them  that  are  living  in  any  sin  or  offence  against  their  knowledge 
and  conscience:  also  that  the  record  of  the  first  institution  be  read, 
and  the  same  order  be  observed  throughout,  with  prayer  and 
thanksgiving,  and  the  blessing  of  the  bread  and  the  wine.  Out- 
lines of  exhortation,  warning,  petition  and  thanksgiving  suitable 
to  the  service  are  added  for  the  guidance  of  the  minister  in  the 
administration,  and  a  collection  for  the  poor  at  the  close  of  the 
service  is  ordered.  The  American  Directory  makes  no  additional 
suggestion  of  moment,  except  that  the  communion  service  may 
fitly  be  preceded  or  followed  by  special  services,  as  the  needs 
of  the  people  ma)'  seem  to  require.  Subordinate  questions,  such 
as  the  number  partaking,  the  posture  of  the  communicants,  the 
persons  distributing,  the  quality  of  the  bread  or  the  wine,  are 
wisely  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  individual  church  or  its  official 
representatives. 

The  Larger  Catechism  contains  two  extended  answers  (176— 
177)  presenting  successively  the  points  of  agreement  and  the 
points  of  difference  between  the  two  Christian  sacraments.  They 
are  said  to  agree  in  the  fact  that  the  author  of  both  is  God, — that 
both  on  their  spiritual  side  represent  Christ  and  his  benefits, — 
that  both  are  seals  of  the  same  gracious  covenant, — that  both  are 
to  be  dispensed  by  ministers  of  the  Gospel  and  none  other, — and 
that  both  are  to  be  continued  and  maintained  in  the  church  until 
the  second  coming  of  the  Lord.  They  differ  in  the  fact  that  bap- 
tism is  to  be  administered  but  once,  while  the  supper  is  to  be 
administered  often, — that  baptism  is  observed  with  water,  and 
the  supper  with  bread  and  wine, — that  the  water  of  baptism  is 
designed  to  be  a  sign  and  seal  of  our  ingrafting  into  Christ,  while 
the  bread  and  wine  represent  and  exhibit  Christ  as  spiritual  nour- 
ishment to  the  soul  and  as  an  assurance  of  continuance  and 
growth  in  him, — and  that  baptism  may  be  administered  to  infants, 
but  the  supper  only  to  those  who  are  of  years  and  ability  to 
examine  themselves.  The  Council  of  Trent  gave  as  a  reason  for 
the  exclusion  of  children  from  the  eucharist  that,  inasmuch  as 
they  have  not  attained  to  the  use  of  reason,  they  are  not  obligated 
to  participate  ;  and  further  that,  forasmuch  as  they  have  been 
regenerated  by  the  laver  of  baptism  and  are  thus  incorporated  with 
Christ  already,  they  cannot  during  that  age  lose  the  grace  which 


692  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

they  have  already  acquired  of  being  the  sons  of  God.  The  Amer- 
ican Directory  simply  follows  the  Protestant  usage  in  counseling 
that  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  such  participation  shall  be  urged 
upon  the  young  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  discern  the  true  mean- 
ing of  the  observance  and  exercise  personal  faith  in  the  dying 
Savior  whom  the  observance  sets  before  them, — the  officers  of  the 
particular  church  being  judges  of  their  spiritual  qualification. 

It  should  be  noted  finally  that  in  the  language  of  the  Larger 
Catechism  (164),  Christ  under  the  New  Testament  hath  insti- 
tuted in  his  church  only  two  sacraments.  This  statement  rules 
out  not  only  the  five  minor  sacraments  of  Rome,  but  also  certain 
other  usages  more  or  less  current  in  the  primitive  church,  and 
possessing  some  measure  of  religious  value,  such  as  the  agape  or 
love-feast,  the  imposition  of  hands,  anointing  with  oil,  the  wash- 
ing of  feet,  the  kiss  of  peace  or  of  charity,  the  casting  of  lots. 
Such  observances,  though  more  or  less  recognizable  in  the 
New  Testament,  obviously  do  not  carry  the  proper  marks  of  a 
sacrament,  nor  are  they  enjoined  upon  the  church  as  universal 
or  perpetual,  though  some  of  them  were  at  the  outset  regarded 
as  appropriate  and  valuable  appendages  to  the  developing  Chris- 
tianity. Church  history  shows  plainly  that  these  observances 
not  only  originated  in  literalistic  interpretations  of  Scripture  and 
were  generally  associated  with  crass  conceptions  of  Christianity, 
but  have  tended  wherever  observed  to  impair  the  authoritative- 
ness  and  the  spiritual  values  of  the  two  unquestioned  sacraments 
of  our  holy  faith. 

In  addition  to  the  two  Christian  sacraments  just  considered,  a 
series  of   adjunctive  Ordinances — positive  institutes  or  appoint- 
ments resting  on   divine  authority, 
5.    The  Christian  Ordinances:  ,        ...  .  ,     .  . .        ... 

The  Sabbath.    The  Sanctuary.       and  sustaining  special  relations  both 

to  individual  piety  and  to  the  life 
and  growth  of  the  church — present  themselves  at  this  point  for 
careful  consideration.  The  term,  ordinance,  is  sometimes  used 
more  specifically  as  the  synonym  of  sacrament  merely,  and  some- 
times so  broadly  as  to  include  all  the  parts  or  elements  of  Christian 
worship.  In  the  Larger  Catechism  (154)  it  is  said  that  the  out- 
ward and  ordinary  means  by  which  Christ  communicates  to  his 
church  the  benefits  of  his  mediation,  are  all  his  ordinances — 
especially  the  word,  sacraments  and  prayer.  Similar  use  of  the 
term  appears  in  two  sections  of  the  confessional  chapter  (VII  > 
on  the  Covenants.  What  is  now  contemplated  is  that  group  of 
fixed  institutes  or  prescripts  of  divine  origin  and  authority,  which, 


THE    CHRISTIAN    ORDINANCES    DEFINED.  693 

although  not  so  directly  enforced  as  the  sacraments  were  by  any 
positive  command  of  Christ,  are  still  closely  related  to  the  sacra- 
ments as  conditions  of  Christian  culture  and  as  tributary  aids  in 
the  life  of  the  organized  church.  Even  in  the  Hebraic  dispensa- 
tion there  were  such  adjunctive  institutes,  divinely  ordained  as 
helps  in  religious  living  for  both  the  individual  and  the  nation. 
The  altar,  the  tabernacle  and  the  temple,  the  holy  feasts  and  sab- 
baths, the  ordained  modes  of  worship,  the  prescribed  ceremo- 
nies and  the  priestly  office,  taken  together,  constituted  a  sacred 
cultus  through  whose  gracious  disciplines  the  Hebrews  were  led 
into  larger  and  richer  experience  of  religion  than  they  could 
otherwise  have  gained.  While  these,  so  far  as  they  were  typical 
merely,  have  ceased  to  be  obligatory  under  the  Gospel,  yet  Chris- 
tianity as  well  as  Hebraism  stands  in  need  of  similar  tributary 
appointments,  as  helps  alike  to  the  best  culture  and  to  the  most 
effective  labors  of  those  who  love  and  serve  Christ.  The  ordi- 
nances divinely  provided  in  the  present  dispensation  to  meet  this 
obvious  need  are  four  in  number  ;  the  Sabbath  a  sacred  time,  the 
Sanctuary  a  sacred  place,  the  Means  of  Grace  constituting  a  sacred 
cultus,  and  the  Ministry  as  a  sacred  order  and  form  of  service  in 
the  interest  of  believers  and  of  the  church. 

The  Sabbath  as  a  sacred  time,  instituted  at  the  creation,  invested 
with  new  significance  at  Sinai,  and  lifted  into  its  supreme  place 
under  the  Gospel  as  commemorative  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
and  of  salvation  through  his  messiahship,  has  already  been  suffi- 
ciently considered  in  general,  in  the  study  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. We  may  now  simply  note  that  it  is  to  be  cherished  and 
observed  by  the  church  through  all  ages  as  a  holy  ordinance, 
appointed  by  God  in  order  that  spiritual  religion  might  thus  have 
set  seasons  and  opportunities  for  its  largest  development.  Both 
for  private  instruction  and  devotion,  and  for  public  convocation 
and  worship,  the  Sabbath  as  an  institute,  consecrated  by  divine 
sanction,  seems  hardly  less  essential  than  are  the  two  Christian 
sacraments, — a  blessed  day  of  grace  which  the  church  of  Christ 
can  never  spare. 

The  Sanctuary  as  a  sacred  place  stands  by  the  side  of  the  Chris- 
tian Sabbath  as  a  second  institute,  almost  equally  essential  alike 
to  the  believer  and  to  the  church.  Both  in  Scripture  and  in  fact 
religion  presents  itself  to  our  view  first  of  all  as  an  inward  experi- 
ence, and  the  closet  or  its  equivalent  is  the  first  temple.  Enoch 
walking  alone  with  God,  Isaac  worshiping  at  eventide,  Daniel 
praying  in  his  chamber,  are  types  of  an  experience,  hidden 
and  apart  from  the  world,  which  is  in  fact  universal  among  saints. 


694  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

But  from  the  beginning,  community  of  faith  when  realized  found 
its  natural  expression  in  community  of  worship,  first  around 
the  crude  altars  which  were  the  primitive  centers  of  religious 
assembling,  afterwards  in  the  Mosaic  tabernacle,  and  then  in 
the  temple  and  the  local  synagogue.  The  conception  of  a  fixed 
place  in  which  God  should  especially  dwell  and  be  specially 
adored,  was  thus  inwrought  from  the  beginning  in  the  con- 
victions of  the  chosen  people  ;  and  in  the  later  eras  of  their 
national  life,  the  splendid  temple  of  Solomon  became  the  material 
embodiment  of  such  convictions — a  suitable  place  for  the  residence 
of  the  national  church. 

That  profound  religious  instinct  which  thus  expressed  itself  in 
Hebraism,  rises  to  its  culmination  in  Christianity.  Though 
religion  under  the  Gospel  as  under  the  law  is  primarily  a  personal 
matter — an  experience  of  the  closet,  it  is  also  an  associative  experi- 
ence, and  the  sanctuary  like  the  church  is  one  of  its  practical 
and  universal  needs.  The  followers  of  Christ  indeed  worshiped 
privately  at  first,  and  in  whatever  places  of  convocation  might  be 
found  available  :  but  the  Christian  sanctuary  soon  began  to  appear 
by  the  side  of  the  Jewish  synagogue  and  the  pagan  temple,  wher- 
ever the  developing  church  could  provide  itself  with  such  a  spir- 
itual home.  And  wherever  in  later  ages  Christianity  in  whatever 
variety  has  gone,  such  consecrated  homes  have  invariably  sprung 
up  as  indispensable- adjuncts.  It  is  not  needful  here  to  discuss  the 
many  specific  uses  which  the  Christian  sanctuary  subserves.  The 
glad  strains  of  the  psalmist,  as  he  sings  of  the  gates  of  Zion,  loved 
of  Jehovah,  are  representative  of  the  happy  emotions  with  which 
every  true  saint  contemplates  the  house  of  God,  as  the  holy  place- 
where  he  has  received  his  most  precious  instruction  touching  divine 
things,  where  his  soul  has  been  lifted  up  into  its  loftiest  spiritual 
experiences,  and  where  his  hope  of  dwelling  finally  in  the  house 
of  the  Lord  forever  has  reached  its  firmest  assurance.  The  sanc- 
tuary also  brings  such  saints  together  as  one  happy  family,  and 
becomes  the  scene  of  their  sweetest  communion  and  of  their  most 
productive  activities.  It  also  stands  forth  before  the  eyes  of  all 
men  as  an  enduring  invitation  to  come  in  and  partake  of  the  feast 
of  grace,  and  a  silent  but  most  effective  witness  to  the  reality  and 
power  and  permanence  of  the  Christian  faith.  Were  there  no 
such  consecrated  places,  in  which  the  company  of  the  faithful 
might  meet  for  mutual  culture,  for  social  worship,  for  organ- 
ized endeavor  in  the  interest  of  religion,  it  is  almost  certain  that 
religion  itself,  deprived  of  its  legitimate  home  and  support,  would 
languish  and  decline  from  the  earth. 


THK    CHRISTIAN    SANCTUARY.  695 

It  follows  as  an  imperative  obligation  that  every  household  of 
faith  should,  wherever  possible,  provide  itself  with  such  a  spiritual 
home,  and  should  make  whatever  sacrifices  and  undergo  whatever 
labors  may  be  requisite  to  gain  so  great  a  privilege.  It  seems  at 
first  sight  singular  that  this  obligation  should  have  had  almost  no 
recognition  in  the  creeds  of  the  Reformation.  This  omission  is 
explained  in  part  by  the  supreme  absorption  of  the  Reformers  in 
the  more  pressing  matters  relating  to  the  church  itself,  its  faith 
and  constitution  and  order.  It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  the 
places  of  worship  already  erected  under  the  papacy  became 
available  for  use,  and  were  sufficient,  wherever  Protestantism 
established  itself  geographically.  The  cathedrals  of  Germany, 
Switzerland,  Holland,  in  which  the  Roman  mass  had  been  cele- 
brated for  centuries,  became  the  homes  of  Protestant  churches, 
and  resounded  with  the  sermons  and  the  hymns  and  prayers  of 
of  those  who  had  accepted  the  new  faith.  Westminster  Abbey, 
as  we  know,  was  first  a  Papal,  then  an  Episcopal,  and  for  a  little 
time  a  Presbyterian  and  also  an  Independent  sanctuary.  But  in 
general  the  obligation  just  named  is  as  universal  as  evangelical 
Christianity.  The  example  of  the  Jewish  nation,  in  its  readiness 
to  contribute  to  the  erection  of  the  tabernacle  and  the  temple, 
and  in  its  generous  maintenance  of  the  sacrificial  and  the  tithing 
system  divinely  imposed  upon  it,  becomes  an  impressive  enforce- 
ment of  this  duty.  Similar  incentive  might  be  drawn  from  the 
vast  expenditure  for  temples,  sacrifices,  priestly  service,  among 
the  devotees  of  the  great  natural  religions.  But  a  thousand  fold 
more  imperative  is  the  obligation  of  every  Christian  church  to 
provide  itself  with  an  appropriate  sanctuary,  as  a  home  for  the 
the  disciple,  a  school  for  the  young,  a  pulpit  for  the  public  proc- 
lamation of  the  truth,  a  fountain  of  gracious  life  and  influence 
that  may  refresh  and  fertilize  the  world. 

The  phrase,  Means  of  Grace,  is  frequently  employed  to  describe 

in  general  all  those  instrumentalities  which  God  is  pleased  to  use 

for  the  spiritual  edification  of  his 

,     ,        ,  .  .  .     L.         6.  The  Christian  Ordinances : 

people,  and  also  those  special  msti-     Means  Qf  ^^  distinctively. 

tutes  or  appointments  which  he  has 

ordained  to  be  the  channels  of  grace, — what  are  styled  in  the  Larger 
Catechism  (161),  the  mea?is  of  salvation.  These  means  are 
described  in  the  Symbols  as  three  in  number;  the  Word,  the  sacra- 
ments and  prayer.  In  the  two  Catechisms  these  three  are  classed 
together  as  the  outward  and  ordinary  means  whereby  Christ  com- 
municates the  benefits  of  his  redemption.  The  Augsburg  Conf. 
("V)  says  that  it  is  by  the  word  and  sacraments  as  instruments, 


696  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

that  the  Holy  Spirit  worketh  faith  when  and  where  it  pleaseth 
God  in  those  that  hear  the  Gospel :  so  the  Heidelberg  Catechism 
declares  that  the  Holy  Ghost  teaches  us  in  the  Gospel  and  by  the 
holy  sacraments.  But  later  formularies  add  prayer,  as  in  the 
Confession  (VII),  and  also  fasting  and  devout  meditation  and 
other  religious  exercises,  and  in  some  cases  the  providences  of 
God  both  favorable  and  adverse,  as  tributary  helps  in  gracious 
experience.  In  a  more  specific  sense,  the  means  of  grace  are 
simply  the  various  parts  or  branches  of  private,  but  especially  of 
public  worship — the  ordained  cultus  wherein  God  is  adored  and 
his  religion  advanced  within  the  sanctuary  ;  what  are  described 
in  the  Amer.  Form  of  Gov.  distinctively  as  the  ordinances. 

In  their  most  elementary  type,  as  during  the  patriarchal  period, 
these  ordinances  consisted  simply  of  sacrifice  and  adoration,  in 
connection  especially  with  the  Sabbath, — the  adoration  doubtless 
assuming  the  form  of  praise  and  prayer.  At  least  we  find  no 
clear  traces  during  this  period,  extending  as  far  as  the  Exodus, 
of  any  other  variety  of  worship.  After  that  event,  the  reading 
of  the  Sinaitic  law  was  added,  in  conjunction  with  a  more  extended 
system  of  sacrifices  ;  and  still  later  came  in  the  exposition  of  the 
law  as  a  regular  feature  in  the  sabbatic  service.  As  the  sacred 
books  increased  in  number,  especially  during  the  royal  and  pro- 
phetic eras,  the  reading  of  history  and  prophecy  as  well  as  law 
was  introduced.  Vocal  praise  also  grew  into  prominence,  partic- 
ularly in  the  age  of  David  and  his  successors.  The  simpler  ritual 
of  the  tabernacle  gave  way  by  degrees  to  the  gorgeous  ceremo- 
nial of  the  temple,  with  its  robed  priests  and  its  costlier  offerings. 
The  three  great  annual  feasts,  and  the  crowning  festival  of  the 
sabbatic  year,  gave  occasion  for  still  further  elaboration  of  the 
national  worship.  Yet  the  essential  elements  of  that  worship, 
sacrifice  and  offering,  prayer  and  praise,  the  reading  and  expo- 
sition of  the  law  and  of  the  other  inspired  literature,  remained 
without  important  change,  and  were  observed  alike  in  the  second 
temple  and  in  the  local  synagogue  down  to  the  Christian  era — as 
indeed  they  still  survive  essentially  wherever  the  Hebrew  race 
come  together  for  purposes  of  devotion. 

Under  the  Gospel  this  divinely  prescribed  cultus  survived  in 
substance,  though  with  some  important  modifications  on  one 
side  and  some  essential  additions  on  the  other.  The  one  great 
sacrifice  having  been  offered  once  for  all,  the  altar  and  the  formal 
sacrifice  were  no  longer  needful,  yet  the  presentation  of  suitable 
offerings  as  expressions  of  gratitude  to  Christ  and  of  loyalty  to 
his  cause,  are  as  incumbent  on   the  Christian,  as  the  burning  of 


THE   MEANS   OF   GRACE.  697 

consecrated  animals  was  on  the  Hebrew.  The  great  high  priest 
having  ascended  into  the  heavens,  there  to  intercede  for  his 
church,  the  priestly  orders  were  all  abolished  as  no  longer  need- 
ful ;  yet  the  Christian  minister  is  also  an  intercessor  for  the  sins 
of  the  people,  and  every  Christian  is  in  a  profound  and  blessed 
sense  a  priest  unto  God.  The  Sinaitic  law  has  not  lost  its  claim 
to  devout  recognition  in  public  service,  nor  are  the  Jewish  history 
and  prophecy  to  be  set  aside  as  no  longer  important ;  yet  the  story 
of  Christ  and  his  teaching,  and  the  records  and  communications 
of  his  disciples,  constitute  a  still  more  vital  message  to  be  rever- 
ently read  in  the  sanctuary  through  all  the  ages.  Prayer  and 
praise  remain,  but  the  basis  and  scope  of  prayer  and  both  the 
substance  and  the  tone  of  praise  have  assumed  more  spiritual 
quality  and  far  loftier  significance.  Christian  worship  in  all  its 
varieties  thus  sprang  directly  out  of  the  old  Hebrew  cultus  as 
God  had  prescribed  it,  just  as  the  Christian  Church  sprang  from 
the  Church  Hebraic,  yet  both  the  Church  of  Christ  and  its  wor- 
ship assumed  from  the  first  a  much  broadened  form,  a  higher 
character,  a  more  spiritual  meaning.  Romanism  has  indeed  made 
the  fearful  mistake  of  following  too  closely  the  Hebraic  antetype, 
and  has  consequently  ceremonialized  and  corrupted  disastrously 
the  true  Christian  cultus.  It  is  the  glory  of  evangelical  Protes- 
tantism that,  while  it  has  shaken  off  the  Jewish  husk,  it  has  faith  - 
full)-  preserved  all  that  was  vital  in  that  primitive  worship,  and 
has  glorified  it  all  through  the  new  significance  and  power  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

According  to  the  original  Form  of  Government,  drafted  by  the 
Assembly,  the  means  of  grace  or  ordinances  consisted  of  prayer, 
thanksgiving,  singing  of  psalms,  the  Scriptures  read  and  ex- 
pounded and  applied,  catechising,  the  sacraments  administered, 
collections  received  for  the  poor,  and  dismissing  the  people  with 
the  apostolic  benediction.  The  American  Form  (VII)  varies  the 
language  in  several  places,  adds  public  fasting  and  the  exercise 
of  discipline,  provides  for  contributions  for  other  pious  purposes, 
but  makes  no  really  important  change.  The  American  Directory 
proceeds  on  this  basis  to  give  practical  instruction  as  to  each  of 
these  parts  or  departments  of  public  worship,  but  also  introduces 
an  important  series  of  chapters  designed  to  instruct  the  minister 
in  the  discharge  of  certain  other  functions  officially  devolving 
upon  him.  What  thus  appears  in  Presbyterian  usage,  however, 
is  by  no  means  peculiar  to  the  Presbyterian  churches  :  neither 
I^utheranism  nor  Anglicanism  or  Methodism  provides  any  essen- 
tially different  religious  cultus.     There  are  some  wide  variations 


698  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

among  Protestants  with  respect  to  the  method  and  the  propor- 
tion and  style  of  these  various  elements  of  worship  ;  yet  the  Prot- 
estant ciiltus  is  as  truly  one  in  essence  as  is  the  formal  ritual  of 
Rome.  Adoration  in  the  form  of  prayer  and  praise,  the  reading 
and  exposition  of  holy  Scripture,  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments, with  the  adjunctive  acts  just  named,  are  universally  its 
distinctive  characteristics. 

What  has  been  said  already  respecting  the  Christian  minister 
as  an  official  servant  within  the  church, — his  call  and  appoint- 

,    „,   ,    .  ment,  his  sphere  and  functions,  and 

7.   The  Christian  Ordinances:     ,  .      ,  .       5  -        „      ., 
The  Ministry  as  an  office.  hls  dele£ated  authority  as  an  or- 

dained  teacher  and  ruler  in  the 
household  of  faith,  need  not  be  repeated  here.  That  the  Min- 
istry, no  less  truly  than  the  Sabbath  or  the  Sanctuary  or  the 
Means  of  Grace  just  described,  is  an  ordinance  of  God,  instituted 
in  the  interest  of  religion  and  of  the  church,  is  a  proposition 
justified  alike  by  Scripture  and  by  wide  and  prolonged  experience. 
The  apostolic  church  had  beyond  question  such  a  ministry,  set 
apart  by  divine  warrant  and  officially  recognized  and  vested  with 
due  authority  in  the  church.  In  the  centuries  succeeding  we  are 
obliged  to  recognize,  first,  the  undue  multiplication  of  such  official 
teachers  and  rulers,  and  later  on,  the  rise  of  that  hierarchal  sacer- 
dotalism of  which  the  papacy  became  finally  the  disastrous  con- 
summation. The  divine  ordinance  was  gradually  subverted  and 
overruled  through  the  pride  and  ambition  and  selfishness  of  man, 
and  the  primitive  ministry  which  Christ  appointed,  slowly  relapsed 
into  a  priesthood  scarcely  worthier  than  that  of  Judaism.  But 
it  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  primitive  Protestantism  that,  iu 
the  presence  of  the  dominating  and  persecuting  hierarchy  of 
Rome,  it  did  not  swing  over  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  cast  the 
ministerial  office  aside  as  being  no  essential  part  or  element  of 
the  Christian  church.  There  were  iconoclasts  like  Carlstadt  and 
his  disciples,  who  were  inclined  at  least  to  undervalue,  if  not  to 
cast  off,  not  only  the  ministry  as  an  order,  but  also  the  sacra- 
ments and  almost  every  other  constituent  of  the  visible  church . 
But  it  was  a  mark  of  the  sound  conservatism  of  Luther,  or  rather 
of  his  profound  Christian  wisdom,  that  he  desired  no  changes 
within  the  church  which  did  not  result  spontaneously  from  cleat- 
insight  into  the  true  principles  and  demands  of  Scripture. 
Zwingli  also  affirmed  the  full  legitimacy  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ministry,  but  drew  sharp  lines  between  that  holy  office,  and 
the  Roman  priesthood.  Calvin  followed  both,  not  only  in  a 
deeper  detestation  of  the  papacy  in  all  its  gradations,  but  in  an 


THE   MINISTRY   AN    ORDINANCE.  699 

elaborate  and  irresistible  argument  in  favor  of  a  divinely  war- 
ranted and  adequately  endowed  ministry  ;  and  it  was  from  him 
chiefly  that  subsequent  Protestantism  derived  the  solid  doctrine 
to  which  in  most  of  its  branches  it  has  ever  since  in  substance 
adhered. 

It  is  true  that  during  the  long  period  of  discussion,  and  of 
division  also,  which  intervened  between  the  age  of  Calvin  and 
that  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  the  Protestant  communions 
both  on  the  Continent  and  in  Great  Britain,  found  themselves 
more  and  more  inclined  to  disagree  respecting  the  nature  of  ordi- 
nation and  the  number  and  classifying  and  qualification  of  those 
who  should  fill  the  ministry.  On  the  one  side  in  England  arose 
a  considerable  body  who,  if  they  did  not  fully  accept  the  doctrine 
of  Carlstadt,  were  inclined  with  him  to  regard  the  minister  as 
little  more  than  a  private  member,  appointed  not  so  much  to  an 
indelible  office  with  corresponding  prerogatives  as  to  a  simple 
function  more  or  less  permanent — more  or  less  authoritative: — 
the  essence  of  the  call  to  such  service  being  the  election  by  the 
particular  church,  his  acceptance  of  such  election,  and  his 
separation  to  that  service  by  the  official  representatives  of  that 
church  :  Savoy  Decl.  in  loc.  On  the  other  side  arose  the  pre- 
latic  dogma  of  three  orders  in  the  ministry,  whose  members  were 
lifted  quite  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  laity  and  set  apart  to  the  task  of 
exercising  certain  holy  functions  within  the  church,  and  to  whom 
there  was  transmitted  through  the  episcopate  a  special  grace,  a 
spiritual  and  ineffaceable  character,  supernaturally  endowing  its 
recipients  for  their  sacred  office.  Between  these  two  extremes 
the  divines  of  Westminster,  after  long  debate  especially  with  the 
eminent  and  learned  representatives  of  Independency  in  the  As- 
sembly, took  a  mediate  position  ;  rejecting  on  one  side  with 
marked  emphasis  the  dogma  of  three  orders  and  of  the  need  of 
episcopal  ordination,  with  its  claim  of  transmitted  grace  ;  on  the 
other  side  affirming  the  indelibility  of  the  ministerial  office,  the 
special  gifts  received  by  those  divinely  chosen  to  fill  it,  the  authority 
and  dignity  vested  consequently  in  them,  and  the  jurisdiction 
granted  to  them  within  the  church.  Gathering  their  doctrine 
from  various  references  in  the  Confession  and  Catechisms,  and 
especially  from  the  Form  of  Gov.  where  the  qualifications  of  the 
office  and  the  manner  of  receiving  it  are  described  in  detail,  we 
have  no  difficulty  in  discovering  how  poised  and  considerate,  how 
strong  and  how  thoroughly  biblical  their  position  was.  The  fact 
that  their  doctrine  has  stood  without  change  for  more  than  two 
centuries  among  the  numerous  Presbyterian  communions   now 


700  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

planted  throughout  the  world,  may  be  regarded  as  presumptive 
proof  of  its  scripturalness  and  its  practical  worth. 

Recognizing  the  ministerial  office  as  being  thus,  as  truly  as  the 
Sabbath  or  the  Sanctuary  or  the  Means  of  Grace,  an  ordinance 
of  divine  appointment  for  the  benefit  of  the  church,  we  may  now 
easily  discern  its  peculiar  relation  to  these  associated  ordinances 
or  institutes  of  Christianity.  The  Sabbath  and  the  Sanctuary 
clearly  presuppose  such  a  ministry  as  definitely  as  they  presup- 
pose a  congregation  assembled  for  worship  on  the  holy  day.  The 
Means  of  Grace  in  like  manner  require  such  a  ministry  for  their 
proper  utilization  :  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  they  could  be  made 
effectual  or  valuable  otherwise.  The  conception  of  such  a 
divinely  appointed  series  of  gracious  disciplines  certainly  carries 
with  it  the  conception  of  an  ordained  leadership  whereby  the 
church  may  be  aided  in  these  forms  of  social  devotion.  It  is  quite 
obvious  that  the  divine  appointment  of  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and 
of  the  Levitical  order  for  service  in  the  Hebrew  church,  rested 
on  such  a  necessity.  Much  more  apparent  is  that  need  in  the 
church  of  the  New  Testament,  with  its  more  extended  system  of 
worship,  and  its  broadened  experience  of  divine  things.  Without 
such  ordained  helps  Judaism  would  inevitably  have  fallen  into  de- 
cadence: the  Sabbath  and  Sanctuary,  and  the  Mosaic  ceremonials, 
would  have  lost  their  hold  on  the  popular  mind  and  conscience. 
Still  more  certain  is  it  that  the  Christian  ministry  has  an  essen- 
tial place  as  an  instrumental  and  tributary  ordinance,  indispens- 
able to  the  proper  carrying  into  effect  of  these  kindred  institutes. 
And  the  argument  in  its  favor  is  greatly  enhanced,  if  we  take 
into  account  also  the  helpful  relation  of  a  duly  authorized  min- 
istry to  the  right  administration  of  the  two  holy  sacraments  which 
are  associated  with  these  institutes  as  constituent  features  of  the 
Church  of  Christ.  The  ministerial  office  is  to  be  regarded  as  in  all 
these  ways  essential,  if  not  to  the  existence  of  the  church,  at  least 
to  the  proper  maintenance  both  of  its  interior  life,  and  of  its  exter- 
nal activities  as  a  divine  agency  and  representative  in  the  world. 

This  elevated  conception  of  the  ministry  explains  the  marked 
emphasis  laid  by  the  Assembly  on  the  possession  of  large  endow- 
ments and  of  special  equipment  for  the  holy  office.  There  are 
very  broad  differences  between  the  Romanist  and  the  Protes- 
tant opinion  as  to  the  kind  and  amount  of  mental  culture 
requisite  in  the  minister.  These  differences  made  themselves 
apparent  even  in  the  earlier  decades  of  the  Reformation.  But 
Calvin  and  Knox  were  still  more  strenuous  than  Luther  and 
Zwiugli  had  been .  in  insisting  on  high  qualifications,  intellectual 


ministry:    qualifications  requisite.  7<>L 

as  well  as  moral,  to  be  possessed  by  those  who  should  proclaim 
the  new  doctrines  or  guide  the  young  churches  in  their  wor- 
ship and  their  organized  activities.  Romanism,  depending  largely 
on  the  spectacular  element  in  religion,  exalting  the  church  as  the 
channel  of  salvation,  glorifying  the  sacraments  as  the  only  or 
chief  means  of  grace,  and  enrobing  the  priesthood  with  crimson 
and  gilded  authorities,  might  dispense  in  large  measure  with  both 
learning  and  character.  But  no  variety  of  Protestantism  could 
hope  to  prosper  by  any  such  process.  Even  in  its  crudest  forms 
the  primitive  Protestantism  realized  its  need  of  a  body  of  leaders, 
such  as  Luther  and  Calvin  and  their  learned  associates  and  suc- 
cessors, who  were  competent  to  instruct,  to  educate  and  elevate 
intellectually,  the  people  and  churches  committed  to  their  eccles- 
iastical care.  A  minister,  said  the  Helvetic  Conf.  representing 
closely  the  view  of  Calvin,  and  indeed  of  the  Reformers  generally, 
should  not  only  be  lawfully  called  and  chosen  by  the  church,  but 
should  excel  in  sacred  learning,  pious  eloquence,  prudence  and 
unblemished  character.  Such  a  ministry  was  from  the  first  an 
indispensable  condition  of  success  and  growth,  and  as  time  pro- 
gressed, that  condition  became  more  and  more  indispensable  : 
without  such  a  ministry  Protestantism  could  never  have  passed 
so  successfully  as  it  did  through  all  the  conflicts  and  perils  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  or  have  entered  on  the  first  decades 
of  the  seventeenth  with  such  firmness  of  position  or  strength 
of  influence. 

But  among  the  Protestant  communions  Presbyterianism  was 
foremost  from  the  beginning  in  insisting  on  these  high  qualifica- 
tions. The  duties  which  are  laid  upon  the  pastor  in  the  Form  of 
Government  (Chap.  IV)  are  such  as  none  but  a  person  thoroughly 
trained  for  such  service  can  discharge.  The  original  Directory 
describes  these  duties  in  detail,  and  lays  special  stress  on  their 
being  so  discharged  as  to  perfect  the  saints  and  edify  the  church. 
In  its  minute  instructions  respecting  ordination  to  the  ministerial 
office,  the  Directory  required  that  the  person  be  duly  qualified  botli 
for  life  and  ministerial  abilities  according  to  the  biblical  rule,  and 
that  he  be  duly  examined  and  approved  by  the  Presbytery  as  an 
ordaining  body.  The  rules  and  the  standard  for  such  examina- 
tion are  carefully  laid  down,  with  an  amount  of  specified  learning 
and  a  degree  of  stringency  in  the  testing  which  is  hardly  equaled, 
certainly  not  surpassed,  even  in  these  later  times.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  so  great  qualifications  were  required  by  any  other  Prot- 
estant communion  in  that  age;  and  the  records  of  the  Assembly 
show  that  it  was  as  faithful  in  practice  as  in  theory  on  this  vital 


702  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

matter.*  This  was  in  harmony  with  the  nature  and  spirit  of  the 
Westminster  Presbyterian  ism,  both  as  a  type  of  doctrine  and  as 
a  system  of  church  order;  it  was  also  in  harmony  with  the  intel- 
lectual temper  and  the  elaborate  scholarship  and  culture  of  that 
period  in  Britain.  The  American  Form  and  Directory  maintained 
the  same  high  standard  from  the  first;  and  American  Presbyteri- 
anism  has  not  failed,  even  at  the  cost  of  schism,  to  insist  on  sub- 
stantially the  same  measure  of  preparation  and  equipment  for  the 
sacred  office. 

It  remains  only  to  be  added  here,  that  the  Assembly  laid  down 
with  emphasis  what  has  been  the  doctrine  of  the  Presbyterian 
churches  ever  since,  as  to  the  absolute  parity  or  equality  of  those 
who  by  proper  ordination  hold  the  ministerial  office.  All  ministers, 
said  the  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  following  the  view  of  Calvin,  are 
equal  in  power  and  commission:  bishops  and  presbyters  were  orig- 
inally the  same  in  office.  The  Belgic  Confession  taught  that  all 
ministers  have  equal  power  and  authority  wheresoever  they  are,  as 
they  are  all  ministers  of  Christ,  the  only  universal  Bishop  and  the 
only  Head  of  the  Church.  Outside  of  prelatic  circles,  this  was  the 
universal  doctrine  of  the  Reformation,  even  where  bishops  were 
assigned,  as  in  some  portions  of  northern  Europe,  to  special  super- 
vision of  the  churches:  See  debates  in  the  Assembly:  also  Savoy 
Declaration.  This  parity  of  the  clergy  is  also  freely  accorded  to 
all  those  of  whatever  denominational  connection,  who  have  been 
duly  ordained  by  their  respective  communions,  even  though  the 
intellectual  standard  of  qualification  be  less  extensive.  Nor  does 
existing  Presbyterianism  recognize  any  other  mode  of  receiving 
ordination,  even  from  episcopal  hands,  as  superior  to  its  own,  or 
consent  that  its  ministers  should  be  regarded  as  inferior  in  official 
rank  to  those  connected  with  any  other  ecclesiastical  organization. 

What  has  been  said  respecting  the  Christian  Ordinances,  and 

especially  the  Means  of  Grace,  prepares  the  way  for  a  more  specific 

consideration  of  Christian  Worship,  as 
8.    Worship:    its  nature.  .L  .  ,    ,    .         .A 

grounds,  elements,  to  lts  Seneral  nature  and  deslSn>  lts 

particular  parts  or  elements,  and  its 

relation  to  the  life  and  growth  of  the  visible  church.     The  subject 

*It  is  a  fact  not  generally  known  that  the  Assembly  acted,  under  instruc- 
tion of  Parliament,  as  a  Board  of  Triers,  and  in  that  capacity  approved  some 
candidates  and  set  aside  others  as  incompetent  or  unworthy;  appointed  some 
ordained  ministers  to  particular  parishes,  and  refused  to  grant  such  appoint- 
ment to  others  on  the  ground  of  inadequate  qualification  or  of  moral  defi- 
ciency; and  as  a  court  deposed  other  ministers  for  unministerial  conduct  or 
for  heresy  or  schism 


worship:    its  nature  and  ground.  70'J 

is  brought  before  us  in  the  Confession,  Ch.  XXI;  in  many  state- 
ments and  suggestions  in  the  two  Catechisms,  and  in  seven  detailed 
chapters  in  the  Directory.  The  presence  of  so  much  judicious 
instruction  and  counsel  is  another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the 
Westminster  divines  were  after  all  less  concerned  with  the  grave 
matters  of  doctrine  which  they  expounded  than  with  those  prac- 
tical matters  of  duty  and  spiritual  experience  which  in  a  sense  rise 
far  above  all  merely  doctrinal  issues,  because  they  more  directly 
affect  the  Christian  life  at  its  very  centers.  The  fundamental 
element  in  worship  as  here  described  is  adoration — the  devout 
recognition  of  God  as  a  Being  infinitely  worthy  in  himself,  and 
worthy  also  in  view  of  his  relations  to  man,  of  the  utmost  vene- 
ration that  man  can  pay.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  offering  up  to 
God  of  true  spiritual  homage,  involving  not  only  that  reverential 
regard  which  is  due  from  all  his  moral  creatures,  but  also  supreme 
fealty,  love,  devotion.  In  still  other  words,  it  is  the  approach  of 
the  soul  to  him  in  the  way  of  his  own  appointment  in  such  a  frame 
of  holy  fear  and  filial  affection  as  is  becoming  to  one  whom  he  has 
created,  is  sustaining  by  his  providence,  and  has  owned  as  his 
subject  and  his  child, — an  approach  like  that  which  is  seen  in  the 
angelic  host  and  in  the  redeemed  in  heaven,  as  they  cast  their 
crowns  at  his  feet,  and  with  veiled  faces  forever  cry,  Holy,  Holy, 
Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty. 

In  indicating  the  specific  grounds  on  which  this  supreme  duty 
rests,  the  chapter  begins  with  the  declaration  that  even  the  light 
of  nature  shows  us  that  there  is  such  a  Being;  that  he  hath  lord- 
ship and  sovereignty  over  all  his  creatures;  that  he  is  good  and 
doeth  good  unto  all;  and  that  he  is  therefore  to  be  feared,  loved, 
praised,  called  upon,  trusted  in,  and  served  with  all  the  heart  and 
with  all  the  soul.  In  the  second  chapter,  after  an  extensive  state- 
ment of  his  perfections  and  of  his  infinite  exaltation  above  all  that 
he  has  made,  it  is  said  that  to  God  is  due  from  angels  and  men, 
and  every  other  creature,  whatsoever  worship,  service,  or  obedi- 
ence he  is  pleased  to  require  of  them.  It  is  added,  however,  in 
the  present  chapter  that  the  acceptable  way  of  worshiping  God 
has  been  instituted  by  himself  and  is  clearly  defined  in  his  revealed 
will,  and  that  he  may  not  be  worshiped  in  any  other  way, — no 
human  imagination  or  device,  or  any  visible  representation,  or 
suggestion  of  Satan,  being  allowed,— the  only  sure  key  and  guide 
to  acceptable  worship  being  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  is  also  said 
;hat  worship  is  to  be  given  not  to  any  one  person  in  the  holy 
Trinity,  but  alike  to  God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  to  this  holy  Trinity  only:  the  adoration  of  angels  or  saints  or 


704  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

any  other  creature  is  declared  to  be  an  offence  and  insult  to  him 
to  whom  alone  the  veneration  of  the  soul  is  due:  see  Larger 
Catechism,  194-199.  The  important  fact  is  added  that  since  the 
fall  God  cannot  be  rightly  approached  or  adored  by  sinful  man 
except  through  some  form  of  mediation;  and  further,  that  the 
only  acceptable  mediator  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  as  an  inter- 
cessor presents  our  praises  and  supplications  before  the  throne. 

It  was  doubtless  the  intent  of  this  clause  to  rule  out  the  Roman 
heresy  of  the  interposition  either  of  the  earthly  church  through 
its  priesthood  or  of  martyrs  and  glorified  saints  in  heaven, — a 
heresy  which  has  reached  its  ultimate  point  in  the  papal  dogma 
of  the  mediation  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  Christ.  The  Augsburg 
Confession  sums  up  the  general  position  of  Protestantism  in  the 
statement  (XXI)  that  Scripture  teacheth  not  to  invocate  saints 
or  to  ask  help  of  saints,  because  it  propoundeth  unto  us  one  Christ, 
the  mediator,  propitiatory,  high  priest  and  intercessor,  who  is  to 
be  invocated  and  who  hath  promised  that  he  will  hear  our  prayers. 
The  Second  Helvetic  Conf .  says:  We  neither  adore  nor  invoke  the 
departed  saints,  and  give  no  one  else  the  glory  which  belongs  to 
God  alone:  much  less  do  we  believe  that  the  relics  of  saints  should 
be  worshiped.  The  Thirty-Nine  Articles  declare  that  the  wor- 
shiping and  adoration  of  images  or  of  relics,  and  also  the  invocation 
of  saints,  is  a  fond  thing  vainly  invented — grounded  upon  no 
warranty  of  Scripture,  but  rather  repugnant  to  the  Word  of  God. 

The  conditions  requisite  to  acceptable  worship  have  already 
revealed  themselves  in  these  confessional  statements.  Briefly  pre- 
sented they  are,  first,  intelligent  belief  in  the  existence  of  God  as 
a  being  eternal  in  duration,  infinite  in  nature,  and  robed  in  incon- 
ceivable majesty  and  glory;  second,  the  recognition  of  those  attri- 
butes, qualities,  perfections,  which  belong  to  God  as  a  being,  and 
which  give  him  inherent  and  supreme  claim  to  our  adoration ; 
third,  apprehension  of  all  those  relationships  which  he  sustains 
toward  us  as  our  Father  and  Sovereign,  and  as  our  Preserver  and 
bountiful  Benefactor,  by  his  tender  care  and  love  establishing  still 
further  in  countless  forms  his  inherent  right  to  our  filial  venera- 
tion; fourth,  the  cordial  acceptance  of  those  ways  of  approaching 
him  in  adoration  which  are  pointed  out  in  the  inspired  Word,  and 
conforming  to  his  direction  in  each  and  every  prescript  there 
enjoined;  fifth,  the  sense  of  dependence  upon  him  as  the  true  and 
only  source  of  life,  instinctively  impelling  us  to  seek  his  presence, 
and  to  find  in  him  the  end  and  consummation  of  our  existence; 
sixth,  the  conscious  possession  of  such  a  moral  disposition,  such  a 
frame  of  soul,  such  holy  desires  and  aspirations  towards  him  as  are 


WORSHIP  :     WHERE   AND   HOW   OFFERED.  705 

befitting  in  view  of  his  tender  and  gracious  revelations  of  himself; 
and  seventh,  the  commitment  of  ourselves,  with  all  our  needs  and 
our  aspirations  to  the  intercessory  ministrations  of  Christ  and  to 
the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  alone  can  enable  us  either 
to  pray  or  to  praise  and  adore  as  we  ought.  It  is  obvious  that 
these  verities  constitute  the  foundations  of  an  obligation  to  wor- 
ship which  rests  inevitably  on  every  human  being,  and  which  is 
by  its  own  nature  imperative  and  supreme — an  obligation  which 
rises  immeasurably  above  any  and  every  duty  which  we  can  owe 
to  our  fellow  men,  and  which  is  the  broad  basis  of  every  specific 
duty  toward  God  himself.  And  here  we  discern  in  a  measure  both 
the  awful  sin  of  idolatrous  adoration  of  false  deities,  and  the 
equally  heinous  sin  of  living  in  the  neglect  of  this  great  primal 
obligation.  God  assuredly  has  the  right  to  claim  our  worship, 
and  to  require  that  he  be  worshiped  in  spirit  and  in  truth;  and 
they  who  in  Gospel  lauds  live  in  chronic  indifference  to  this 
supreme  duty,  are  even  more  guilty  in  his  sight  than  those  who 
in  pagan  lands  bow  blindly  down  to  idols  which  their  hands 
have  made. 

The  sixth  section  of  the  chapter  relates  to  the  place  where 
worship  is  to  be  paid.  To  rebuke  the  disposition  to  venerate  places 
as  specially  sacred,  as  the  Hebrews  revered  the  temple  at  Jerusa- 
lem, or  as  Rome  has  taught  its  adherents,  it  is  said  with  emphasis 
that  worship  is  under  the  Gospel  neither  tied  unto  nor  made  more 
acceptable  by  any  place  in  which  it  is  performed  or  toward  which 
it  is  directed.  This  is  also  said  in  part  to  emphasize  the  duty  of 
household  and  of  secret  or  personal  as  well  as  public  devotions, 
since  God  is  as  truly  present  to  receive  our  adoration  in  the  home 
or  in  the  private  chamber  as  in  the  sanctuary.  Yet  it  is  added 
that  a  special  solemnity  attaches  to  such  worship  in  the  very  house 
of  God  and  in  the  assemblies  of  his  saints  ;  and  therefore  that  the 
careless  or  willful  neglect  or  forsaking  of  such  assemblies  is  a  sin 
against  him.  Public  worship  on  the  Sabbath  and  at  other  fitting 
times  is  thus  incumbent  upon  the  church  as  indeed  its  first  and 
chief  obligation.  Toward  men  the  mission  of  the  church  is  one 
of  testimony — testimony  to  the  existence  and  attributes  of  God,  to 
his  character  and  relations,  his  providence  and  his  grace.  There 
is  a  peculiar  strength,  a  potent  efficiency,  in  such  organized  wit- 
nessing which  goes  far  beyond  whatever  evidence  the  individual 
Christian  may  be  able  to  offer.  But  a  still  greater,  loftier  task  is 
that  of  adoration,  in  which  the  face  of  the  church  is  turned  toward 
God,  and  in  which  its  deepest  feelings  are  poured  out  as  incense 
before  his  throne.     He  doubtless  loves  the  pious  home  where  his 


706  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

name  is  honored,  and  pours  down  upon  its  members  his  tender 
benediction  :  but  there  is  something  in  the  worship  of  the  sanct- 
uary, in  the  joint  adoration  of  the  assembled  church,  which  is 
even  more  precious  in  his  sight.  The  spectacle  of  the  household 
of  faith  throughout  the  world  thus  turned  toward  him  and  ex- 
pressing its  veneration  and  love  and  trust  in  the  ways  which  he 
has  appointed,  is  the  sublimest  vision  which  our  earth  contains: 
it  is  a  fit  emblem  and  representative  here  of  that  unending  adora- 
tion which  is  offered  before  him  by  angels  and  saints  in  glory. 

In  this  chapter  (sections  iii-v)  the  divinely  prescribed  parts  or 
elements  of  such  worship  are  enumerated  as  prayer,  the  reading 
and  exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  psalmody,  and  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments.  These  have  already  been  mentioned 
under  the  confessional  title  of  the  ordinances,  or  the  means  of 
grace,  with  the  addition  of  catechising  and  the  gathering  of  con- 
tributions for  benevolent  uses.  To  all  these  there  are  added 
here  as  incidental,  oaths  and  vows,  and  also  solemn  fastings,  and 
thanksgivings  upon  special  occasions,  — all  which,  it  is  said,  are 
in  their  several  times  and  seasons  to  be  used  in  an  holy  and 
religious  manner.  The  subject  of  vows  and  oaths  regarded  as 
religious  acts  has  already  been  sufficiently  noted.  Both  fasting  and 
thanksgiving  by  the  Church  as  well  as  by  the  individual  believer 
are  alike  warranted  by  Scripture,  and  upon  special  occasions  may 
have  marked  significance  as  acts  or  forms  of  adoration.  Cate- 
chization,  which  was  specially  enjoined  also  in  the  Sec.  Helvetic 
Conf.  XXV,  and  some  others,  and  which  was  widely  current  in 
the  Protestant  communions,  has  ceased  for  the  most  part  to  be  an 
element  in  church  worship,  though  still  a  discipline  of  very  great 
value  in  its  relations  to  the  instruction  and  nurture  of  the  young 
within  both  the  home  and  the  church.  American  Presbyterian- 
ism  has  incorporated  in  its  Directory  a  special  chapter  (VI)  on 
the  Worship  of  God  by  Offerings,  in  which  the  duty  of  benevolent 
giving  in  the  sanctuary  is  enforced,  the  method  of  giving  is  pre- 
scribed, the  uses  of  such  gifts  are  designated,  and  the  obligation 
of  the  minister  to  cultivate  the  grace  of  benevolence  is  enjoined. 

The  chapter  lays  special  stress  upon  the  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures with  godly  fear,  and  the  sound  preaching  and  consciona bit- 
hearing  of  the  Word  in  obedience  unto 

9.    Worship:    reading,  ,    °.  .        .  ,. 

preaching,  and  hearing  God,  with  understanding,  faith  and  rev- 
the  Word.  erence,   as  main  or  central  elements  in 

Christian  worship.  What  has  been  said 
in  general  respecting  the  inspiration  and  authoritativeness  -and 
sufficiency  of  the  Bible  as  a  Revelation  from  God  for  the  enlight- 


READING    THE    WORD.  707 

ertment  and  salvation  of  men  ;  and  what  has  also  been  said  more 
specifically  respecting  the  Gospel  as  a  gracious  message  divinely 
addressed  to  the  race,  and  respecting  the  Law  of  God  revealed 
in  the  Scriptures  as  the  comprehensive  and  universal  rule  of  life 
for  man,  obviates  the  necessity  for  any  present  discussion  respect- 
ing the  Word  which  is  to  be  read,  expounded  and  reverently 
heard,  as  chief  among  the  ordained  means  of  grace.  The  term 
indicates  every  divine  utterance  given  in  Scripture  in  whatever 
form,  and  most  of  all  the  teaching  of  Him  who  in  the  beginning 
was  the  Word,  and  who  became  the  Word,  the  Logos  incarnate,  in 
order  to  instruct  and  save  men.  The  Bible  is  said  to  contain  or 
to  be  that  Word,  and  as  such  is  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  all 
in  the  vulgar  or  common  tongue  ;  they  having  inherent  right  unto 
and  interest  i?i  the  Scriptures,  and  being  commanded  individually 
to  read  and  search  them,  in  order  that  all  may  worship  God  in  an 
acceptable  manner.  This  Word  is  also  (Direct.  Chap.  I  :  XVI) 
to  be  read  in  the  family ,  and  to  be  gravely  attended  to  as  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  household  devotions.  The  spirit  in  which  the 
Scriptures  are  to  be  read  privately  and  in  the  family  is  described 
in  the  Larger  Cat.  (157),  as  including  a  high  and  reverent  esteem 
for  them, — a  firm  persuasion  that  they  are  the  very  Word  of  God, 
and  that  he  alone  can  enable  us  to  understand  them, — a  desire  to 
know,  believe  and  obey  the  will  of  God  as  revealed  in  them, — 
diligence  and  attention  to  their  matter  and  scope,  accompanied 
with  meditation,  application,  self-denial  and  prayer.  But  such 
reading  in  the  congregation  is  declared  to  be  of  still  graver 
moment  (Direct.  Ch.  Ill)  ;  and  this  duty,  regarded  as  one  of 
the  regular  ordinances  of  the  sanctuary,  is  not  to  be  intrusted  to 
private  or  unordained  persons,  but  is  to  be  attended  to  by  the 
appointed  pastors  and  teachers.  The  proportion  and  amount  of 
Scripture  to  be  read  in  each  service,  with  the  current  exposition 
of  the  same,  is  left  to  their  discretion  :  and  in  the  original  Direc- 
tory various  practical  instructions  are  given  to  such  pastors  as  to 
the  selection  of  particular  portions,  such  as  the  Psalms  ;  to  the 
reading  of  the  whole  Bible  in  course,  excluding  the  Apocrypha  ; 
and  especially  to  the  distinct  and  careful  reading  so  that  all  may 
hear  and  tinderstand. 

The  expounding  and  application  of  the  doctrines  and  duties  con- 
tained in  the  Bible,  and  of  whatever  else  in  Revelation  bears  upon 
the  Christian  life  whether  in  the  individual  disciple  or  in  the 
church,  have  in  all  ages  been  regarded  as  essential  features  of 
spiritual  Christianity.  Provision  for  such  instruction  and  edifica- 
tion of  the  church  has  very  clear  warrant  in  the  New  Testament, 


708  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

as  the  Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus  as  well  as  other  references 
abundantly  show,  and  is  fully  justified  also  by  the  known 
usage  of  the  apostolic  church.  Justin  Martyr  tells  us  that  in  his 
day  discourses  on  the  truths  of  religion  and  exhortations  to  holy 
living  were  delivered  by  the  presiding  bishop,  in  con  junction  with 
the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  observance  of  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Supper,  on  each  recurring  Sabbath.  Such  preach- 
ing, sometimes  simple  and  crude  and  hortatory,  sometimes  more 
elaborate  and  ornate,  as  in  the  case  of  men  like  Origen  and  Am- 
brose, Chrysostom  and  Augustine,  continued  to  be  a  conspicuous 
part  of  public  worship,  until  it  was  by  degrees  supplanted,  and 
in  some  centuries  almost  wholly  excluded,  by  the  ceremonials 
and  sacerdotalisms  of  both  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  commun- 
ions. The  restoration  of  preaching  to  its  true  place  among  the 
Christian  ordinances  was  one  of  the  first  and  one  of  the  greatest 
achievements  of  the  primitive  Protestantism.  It  was  to  that 
restoration  as  a  practical  measure  that  the  rapid  diffusion  of 
gospel  truth,  the  deepened  convictions  respecting  the  essential 
doctrines  of  grace,  and  the  broader  experience  of  vital  religion  in 
central  and  northern  Europe  were  very  largely  due.  The  Ref- 
ormation not  only  placed  a  free  Bible  in  the  hands  of  all  men  in 
languages  with  which  they  were  familiar,  but  also  produced  a 
noble  race  of  preachers  with  whom  the  less  educated  and  less 
spiritual  clergy  of  Rome  were  powerless  to  compete.  The  creeds 
of  the  Reformation  show  what  supreme  emphasis  was  everywhere 
laid  upon  this  function  of  preaching,  and  the  biographies  of  its 
great  leaders  and  preachers  show  how  thoroughly  such  teaching 
was  believed  and  put  into  practice.  Nor  has  there  been  any 
period  since  that  age  when,  with  some  incidental  exceptions,  this 
function  has  not  retained  the  conspicuous  place  thus  assigned  to 
it.  Even  when  the  preaching  has  become  dogmatic  and  fossil- 
ized, or  crude  and  shallow  in  its  exposition  of  divine  truth,  or 
has  degenerated  into  rhetorical  show  or  mere  speculative  moral- 
izing about  divine  things,  it  yet  has  retained  a  singular  hold  upon 
the  church  almost  universally  as  being,  amid  all  its  defects  and 
aberrations,  still  a  permanent  ordinance  of  God. 

All  those  qualifications,  personal,  intellectual,  spiritual,  which 
are  said  in  the  Form  of  Gov.,  Chap.  IV,  and  elsewhere,  to  be 
requisite  in  the  minister  of  Christ,  are  essential  in  a  special  sense  in 
this  central  task  of  preaching, — more  and  more  essential  as  each 
new  period  in  the  history  of  the  church  develops  wider  ranges  of 
sacred  truth,  deeper  necessities  in  man  and  in  human  life,  and 
vaster  opportunities  for  the  promulgation  of  the  Gospel  to  the 


PREACHING   THE   WORD.  70U 

race.  These  qualifications  pertain  in  part  to  what  the  preacher 
must  be  as  a  Christian  man, — a  subject  of  sanctifying  influence, 
living  in  communion  with  Christ,  possessing  in  special  measure 
those  spiritual  virtues  which  belong  alike  to  all  believers,  and 
animated  by  peculiar  impartations  of  grace  in  view  of  his  sacred 
calling.  They  are  also  in  part  such  as  pertain  to  his  office  and 
his  personal  endowment  for  its  special  duties.  It  is  presupposed, 
says  the  original  Directory,  that  the  minister  of  Christ  is  in  some 
good  measure  gifted  for  so  weighty  a  service  as  preaching  by  his 
skill  in  the  original  languages  and  in  such  arts  and  sciences  as 
are  handmaids  to  divinity, — by  his  knowledge  in  the  whole  body 
of  theology,  but  first  of  all  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  having  his 
senses  and  heart  exercised  in  them  above  the  common  sort  of  be- 
lievers,— and  by  the  illumination  of  God's  Spirit  and  other  gifts  of 
edification  which  (together  with  reading  and  studying  the  Word) 
he  ought  to  seek  by  prayer  and  an  humble  heart,  resolving  to 
admit  and  receive  any  truth  not  yet  attained,  whenever  God  shall 
make  it  known  unto  him.  It  is  not  needful  to  attempt  any  other 
description  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  requisites  to  the  suc- 
cessful preaching  of  the  Gospel,  than  is  contained  in  these  preg- 
nant sentences.  And  the  fidelity  with  which  the  Westminster 
divines  applied  these  searching  tests,  first  to  themselves,  and  then 
to  those  who  through  them  sought  ordination  to  the  ministerial 
office,  must  ever  be  counted  among  their  special,  even  distin- 
guishing, qualities  as  Christian  men.  The  American  Directory 
sums  up  the  whole  in  the  statement  that  preaching  requires  much 
study,  wieditation  and  prayer ;  and  that  they  who  preach  ought 
also  by  their  lives  to  adorn  the  doctrine  which  they  preach.  The 
Amer.  Form  of  Gov.  (XIV-XV)  also  warns  against  degrading 
the  ministerial  office  by  committing  it  to  weak  or  unworthy  men, 
requires  that  all  candidates  for  that  office  shall  be  carefully 
examined  respecting  their  experimental  acquaintance  with  religion, 
and  prescribes  with  no  less  care  than  the  original  Directory  all 
those  intellectual  attainments  which  are  essential  to  efficiency  in 
the  proclamation  of  the  Word. 

The  method  and  spirit  of  Christian  preaching  are  also  presented 
with  special  fullness  in  the  Symbols.  The  Amer.  Directory 
teaches  that  great  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  manner  as  well 
as  matter  of  preaching,  and  that  diligent  application  at  all  points 
is  indispensable  to  the  right  discharge  of  a  service  which  involves 
the  salvation  of  men.  It  also  says  that  ministers  ought  to  pre- 
pare their  sermons  with  care,  never  indulging  in  loose,  extempo- 
rarv  harangues,  or  serving  God  with  that  which  cost  them  naught  : 


710  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

and  that  they  ought  to  keep  to  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  making 
their  language  conformable  to  the  Scriptures,  and  level  to  the 
apprehension  of  the  meanest  of  their  hearers,  and  carefully  avoid- 
ing ostentation  whether  of  parts  or  learning  : — as  stated  in  the 
original  Directory, — shunning  all  such  gesture,  voice  and  expres- 
sions as  may  occasion  the  corruption  of  men  to  despise  them  and 
their  ministry.  The  subject  of  the  sermon,  it  is  further  said, 
should  be  some  verse  or  verses  of  Scripture,  selected  with  a  view 
to  the  explaining,  defending  or  applying  some  part  of  the  system 
of  divine  truth,  or  to  pointing  out  the  nature  and  stating  the 
bounds  and  application  of  some  duty.  It  also  advised  that,  in 
order  to  instruct  the  people  in  the  meaning  and  use  of  the  sacred 
oracles,  larger  portions  of  Scripture  may  sometimes  be  expounded 
for  spiritual  improvement ;  and  finally  that  the  sermon  in  what- 
ever form  should  never  be  so  long  as  to  interfere  with  or  exclude 
the  more  important  duties  of  prayer  and  praise*     The  Larger  Cate- 

*The  original  Directory  contains  what  the  special  needs  of  the  age  prob- 
ably required,  a  much  more  full  and  detailed  account  of  the  qualities  essential 
in  the  sermon,  and  of  the  manner  and  temper  in  which  the  sermon  should  be 
presented  to  the  congregation  :  in  fact,  one  finds  in  it  the  substance  of  an 
excellent  treatise  on  practical  homiletics.  In  illustration  the  following  extracts 
may  be  introduced  here  under  the  several  heads  suggested  in  the  Directory  : 

Subject  :  Ordinarily  the  subject  of  his  sermon  is  to  be  some  text  of  Scrip- 
ture, holding  forth  some  principle  or  head  of  religion,  as  suitable  to  some 
special  occasion  emergent. 

Introduction  :  Let  the  introduction  to  his  text  be  brief  and  perspicuous, 
drawn  from  the  text  itself  or  context,  or  some  parallel  place  or  general  sen- 
tence of  Scripture. 

Text  :  If  the  text  be  long,  let  him  give  a  brief  sum  of  it ;  if  short,  a  para- 
phrase thereof,  if  need  be;  in  both,  looking  diligently  at  the  scope  of  the  text. 

Division  :  In  analysing  and  dividing  his  text,  he  is  to  regard  more  the 
order  of  matter  than  of  words  ;  neither  burdening  the  memory  of  his  hearers 
with  too  many  members  of  division,  nor  troubling  their  minds  with  obscure 
terms  of  art. 

Proposition  :  In  raising  doctrines  from  the  text  his  care  ought  to  be, 
first,  that  the  matter  be  the  truth  of  God  ;  secondly,  that  it  be  a  truth 
grounded  on  that  text ;  and  thirdly,  that  he  insist  on  those  doctrines  which 
'  are  principally  intended  and  make  most  for  the  edification  of  the  hearers. 

Statement  of  Doctrine  :  The  doctrine  is  to  be  expressed  in  plain 
terms  ;  if  anything  in  it  need  explication,  it  is  to  be  opened  and  the  conse- 
quence from  the  text  cleared.  Parallel  passages  of  Scripture  confirming  the 
doctrine,  plain  and  pertinent,  rather  than  many,  are  to  be  applied. 

Arguments  :  The  arguments  or  reasons  are  to  be  solid  and,  as  much  as 
may  be,  convincing.  The  illustrations,  of  what  kind  soever,  ought  to  be  full  of 
light,  and  such  as  may  convey  the  truth  to  the  hearer  with  spiritual  delight. 

Objections  MET  :  If  any  doubt  obvious  from  Scripture,  reason,  or  preju- 
dice of  the  hearer,  seem  to  arise,  it  is  very  requisite  to  remove  it  by 


HEARING  THE   WORD.  711 

chism  adds  the  crowning  feature  to  the  entire  description  in  the 
declaration  (159)  that  they  that  are  called  to  labor  in  the  min- 
istry of  the  Word  are  to  preach  sound  (free  from  error  and  spir- 
itually healthful)  doctrine,  diligently,  in  season  and  out  of  season  ; 
plainly,  not  in  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom  but  in  demonstra- 
tion of  the  Spirit  and  of  power  ;  faithfully,  making  known  the 
whole  counsel  of  God  ;  zvisely,  applying  themselves  to  the  neces- 
sities and  capacities  of  the  hearers  ;  zealously,  with  fervent  love  to 
God  and  to  the  souls  of  his  people  ;  sincerely,  aiming  at  his  glory 
and  their  conversion,  edification  and  salvation. 

It  is  not  needful  to  emphasize  here  the  immeasurable  solemnity, 
the  peculiar  dignity,  or  the  recompense,  temporal  and  eternal, 
involved  in  such  faithful  preaching  of  the  divine  Word.  Con- 
scionable  hearing  is  the  antithetic  duty  enjoined  not  only  in  the 
Symbols  but  in  other  Protestant  Catechisms  and  Confessions. 
We  should  so  fear  and  love  God,  taught  Luther  in  his  Short 
Catechism,  as  not  to  despise  preaching  and  his  Word,  but  deem  it 
holy  and  willingly  hear  and  learn  it:  and  in  the  Larger  Catechism 

reconciling  the  seeming  difficulties,  answering  the  reasons,  and  discovering 
and  taking  away  the  causes  of  error  or  mistake. 

Application  :  He  is  not  to  rest  in  general  doctrine,  although  never  so 
much  cleared  and  confirmed,  but  to  bring  it  home  to  special  use  :  which 
albeit  it  prove  a  work  of  great  difficulty  to  himself,  yet  he  is  to  endeavor  to 
perform  it  in  such  a  manner  that  his  auditors  may  feel  the  Word  of  God  to 
be  quick  and  powerful. 

Practical  Suggestions  :  In  the  use  of  instruction  or  information  given, 
he  may  confirm  it  by  a  few  firm  arguments  from  the  text  in  hand  and  other 
places  of  Scripture,  or  from  the  nature  of  some  common-place  in  divinity 
whereof  that  truth  is  a  part. 

In  confuting  false  doctrines,  he  is  neither  to  raise  an  old  heresy  from  the 
grave,  nor  to  mention  a  blasphemous  opinion  unnecessarily  :  but  if  the 
people  be  in  danger  of  an  error,  he  is  to  confute  it  soundly. 

In  exhorting  to  duties,  he  is,  asheseethcause,  to  teach  also  the  means  that 
Help  to  the  performance  of  them.  In  dehortation,  reprehension  and  public 
admonition,  let  him  as  there  shall  be  cause  not  only  discover  the  nature  and 
greatness  of  the  sin,  but  also  show  the  danger  his  hearers  are  in  to  be  over- 
taken by  it. 

In  applying  comfort,  whether  general  or  particular,  he  is  carefully  to 
answer  such  objections  as  a  troubled  heart  and  afflicted  spirit  may  suggest 
to  the  contrary.  It  is  sometimes  necessary  to  give  notes  of  trial  whereby 
the  hearers  may  be  able  to  examine  themselves,  whether  they  have  attained 
those  graces  and  performed  those  duties  to  which  he  exhorteth. 

As  he  needeth  not  always  to  prosecute  every  doctrine  which  lies  in  his  text, 
so  is  he  wisely  to  make  choice  of  such  uses  as,  by  his  residence  and  con- 
versing with  his  flock,  he  findeth  most  needful  and  reasonable  :  amongst 
these,  such  as  may  most  draw  their  souls  to  Christ,  the  fountain  of  light, 
holiness  and  comfort. 


712  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

he  teaches  that  the  Word  of  God  is  the  sanctuary  above  all  sanc- 
tuaries—the treasure  which  makes  all  things  holy  and  by  which 
the  saints  are  sanctified, — and  that  whatever  hour  or  place  the 
Word  is  taught,  preached,  heard,  read  or  considered,  the  person 
and  day  and  place  and  work  are  thereby  hallowed.  The  Heidel- 
berg Catechism  (83)  pronounces  the  preaching  of  the  holy 
Gospel  one  of  the  two  keys,  by  which  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
opened  to  believers,  and  shut  against  unbelievers.  The  church 
cannot  exist,  said  the  French  Confession  (XXV)  without  pastors 
for  instruction,  whom  we  should  respect  and  reverently  listen  to, 
when  they  are  properly  called  and  exercise  their  office  faithfully. 
And  the  Synod  of  Dort  affirmed  (Fifth  Head  :  14)  that  as  it  hath 
pleased  God  by  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  begin  the  work  of 
grace  in  us,  so  he  preserves,  continues  and  perfects  that  work  by 
the  hearing  and  reading  of  his  Word,  by  meditation  thereon,  and 
by  the  exhortations,  threatenings  and  promises  thereof.  Protes- 
tantism thus  enjoined  universally  the  duty  of  hearing  as  correla- 
tive to  the  duty  of  preaching, — not  only  calling  upon  all  to  be 
habitually  in  the  sanctuary  when  the  Word  was  preached,  but 
sometimes  even  compelling  such  attendance  by  civil  enactments 
and  civil  penalties. 

Conscionable  hearing  is  repeatedly  set  forth  in  the  Symbols, 
specially  in  the  Directory  and  the  two  Catechisms,  as  an  impera- 
tive obligation.  The  qualities  of  acceptable  hearing  are  also  given 
in  detail.  The  Larger  Catechism  sums  up  the  whole  in  the  dis- 
criminating statement  (160)  that  those  who  hear  the  Word 
preached  should  attend  upon  it  with  diligence,  preparation  and 
prayer, — that  they  should  examine  what  they  hear  by  the  Scrip- 
tures,— that  they  should  receive  the  truth  with  faith,  love,  meekness 
and  readiness  of  mind  as  the  Word  of  God, — that  they  should 
meditate  and  confer  upon  it,  hide  it  in  their  hearts,  and  bring 
forth  the  fruit  of  it  in  their  lives.  The  peril  of  neglect  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  preaching,  the  sin  of  disregarding  the  Sabbath  and  the 
sanctuary  in  their  relation  to  the  preaching  of  the  Word,  the  guilt 
of  hardening  the  heart  against  the  gracious  proclamation,  and  of 
blunting  religious  appeal  through  worldly  indulgence  or  engross- 
ment, are  all  set  forth  with  corresponding  distinctness  and  solem- 
nity in  the  extended  comments  on  the  Ten  Commandments, 
("L,.  Cat.  104-153)  and  elsewhere.  And  the  final  condemnation 
of  the  wicked  is  said  to  turn  generically  upon  their  neglect  of  the 
light  of  nature,  revealing  to  them  a  God  worthy  to  be  loved, 
praised,  called  upon  and  trusted  in,  and  specially  on  their  disobe- 
dience to  the  call   of   grace  sounding   forth    from   the  revealed 


PRAISE   AND   THANKSGIVING.  713 

Word — hardening-  their  hearts  under  those  means  which  Cod  useth 
for  the  softening  of  others. 

Another  main  element  in  public  worship,  named  in  the  Symbols, 
is  prayer ; — including  under  that  term  praise  and  thanksgiving 
on  one  side  and  sincere  confession  on        ^  ^^  pralsCf  con_ 
the  other.    Prayer  is  admirably  defined     fession>  suppiiCation. 
in  the  Larger  Cat.  (178)  as  the  offering 

up  of  our  desires  unto  God  in  the  name  of  Christ,  by  the  help  of 
his  Spirit,  with  confession  of  our  sitis,  and  thankful  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  mercies.  The  Shorter  Cat.  (98)  adds  the  important 
clause,  for  things  agreeable  to  his  will.  We  may  properly  reverse 
the  order  of  these  specifications,  and  consider,  first,  the  offering 
of  praise,  together  with  thanksgiving  in  view  of  the  divine  mer- 
cies. Praise  distinctively  speaking  is  defined  by  Edwards  in  his 
Treatise  on  the  Will  (Part  III :  1)  as  the  exercise  or  testimony 
of  some  sort  of  esteem,  respect  and  honorable  regard.  He  argues 
that  such  exercise  and  testimony  are  due  to  God  as  a  Being  in 
whom  is  all  possible  virtue,  and  every  virtue  in  the  most  abso- 
lute purity  and  perfection,  and  in  infinitely  greater  brightness 
and  amiableness  than  appear  in  any  creature — the  most  perfect 
pattern  of  virtue,  and  the  fountain  from  whom  all  the  virtue  of 
others  flows  as  beams  from  the  sun  :  and  who  on  account  of  his 
virtue  and  holiness  is  infinitely  more  worthy  to  be  esteemed, 
loved,  honored,  admired,  commended,  extolled  and  praised  than 
any  creature.  Edwards  further  argues  that  the  fact  that  God  as 
a  Being  is  under  a  species  of  moral  necessity  to  be  what  he  is 
here  described,  does  not  diminish  but  rather  increases  our  obliga- 
tion to  praise  him, — adoring  him  as  the  possessor  of  such  supreme 
excellence,  and  testifying  in  all  possible  ways  to  our  appreciative 
estimate  of  his  character  and  perfections.  The  duty  of  thus 
praising  God  for  what  he  is,  may  properly  be  brought  into  the 
foreground  as  the  supreme  task  of  his  church,  when  assembled 
together  in  his  earthly  sanctuaries.  Such  holy  fear,  humble  ven- 
eration, filial  love,  adoration  in  this  most  primary  sense,  are  ever 
due  to  him  from  his  redeemed  people,  and  most  of  all  when  they 
are  convened  in  the  holy  place. 

Thanksgiving  involves  another  element, — the  recognition  of 
this  supreme  Being  as  the  source  of  all  the  numberless  blessings 
and  privileges  of  life,  and  the  expression  of  appropriate  gratitude 
for  all  his  bestowments.  True  gratitude  is  always  a  reflexive 
emotion  :  it  carries  the  soul  beyond  the  gift,  and  fixes  the  thought 
upon  the  giver  and  upon  the  motives  animating  him  in  the  con- 
ferring of  favor.     As  exercised  toward  God,  it  involves  kindly 


714  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

feeling,  tender  appreciation,  the  sense  of  indebtedness,  the  con- 
sequent desire  to  respond  to  his  beneficence  by  every  practicable 
expression  of  loyalty  to  him  and  of  readiness  to  serve  as  well  as 
adore  him.  The  Catechism  of  Luther,  after  a  lengthy  enumera- 
tion of  the  blessings  bestowed  on  us  by  providence,  adds:  All 
this  out  of  pure,  paternal  divine  goodness  and  mercy,  without 
any  merit  or  worthiness  of  mine :  for  all  which  I  am  in  duty 
bound  to  thank,  praise,  serve  and  obey  him  :  see  also  Heid.  Cat. 
86, 116.  Such  gratitude,  measured  by  the  more  or  less  impressive 
consciousness  of  the  divine  kindness  and  mercy,  is  a  sentiment 
inherent  in  every  true  Christian  :  and  when  it  is  awakened  by 
the  proper  apprehension  of  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ  and  in 
redemption  conferred  through  him,  it  rises  to  the  loftiest  point 
which  such  a  holy  emotion  can  attain  in  this  life, — an  experience 
introductory  to  the  grateful  casting  of  the  crowns  of  the  redeemed 
before  the  throne  in  heaven.  Such  thanksgiving  to  God  should 
be  an  abiding  state  of  soul  in  the  believer,  ever  expressing  itself 
in  the  secret  chamber,  at  the  family  altar  and  elsewhere  as  oppor- 
tunity may  occur.  But  most  fitting  is  such  thanksgiving  when 
believers  are  assembled  in  the  house  of  God,  to  praise  and  adore 
him  in  the  great  congregation.  Here  most  of  all  should  their 
gratitude  pour  forth  its  holy  fragrance  in  his  presence,  and  their 
responsive  sacrifices  be  offered  on  his  altar. 

The  American  Directory  contains  in  the  chapter  (V)  on  Prayer, 
express  instruction  that  thanks  be  thus  given  to  God  in  the 
sanctuary  for  all  his  mercies  of  every  kind,  general  and  partic- 
ular, spiritual  and  temporal,  common  and  special ;  and  above  all, 
for  Jesus  Christ,  his  unspeakable  gift,  and  for  the  hope  of  eternal 
life  through  him.  It  contains  also  a  suggestive  chapter  (IV)  on 
the  singing  of  psalms  or  hymns  as  a  mode  of  praising  God  and 
expressing  gratitude  toward  him  in  the  sanctuary, — such  singing 
to  be,  it  is  said,  with  both  spirit  and  understanding  and  with 
true  melody  of  heart,  becoming  in  manner,  and  with  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  rules  of  music, — the  entire  exercise  having  its  due 
place  and  proportion  in  the  public  worship.  In  the  original 
Directory,  in  connection  with  the  appointment  of  special  seasons 
of  thanksgiving,  it  is  explicitly  said  :  Because  the  singing  of 
psalms  is  of  all  other  the  most  proper  ordinance  for  expressing 
of  joy  and  thanksgiving,  let  some  pertinent  psalm  or  psalms  be 
sung  for  that  purpose  :  and  the  minister  at  such  seasons  is  coun- 
selled to  enlarge  himself  in  due  and  solemn  thanksgiving  for 
former  mercies  and  deliverances,  with  humble  petition  for  the 
continuance  of  such  mercies  as  need  shall  be,  and  for  sanctifying 


CONFESSION   AND   SUPPLICATION.  715 

grace  to  make  a  right  use  thereof.  It  is  a  fact  of  interest  in  this 
connection  that  the  Assembly,  acting  upon  an  order  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  took  up  the  version  of  the  Psalms  by  Francis  Rous — 
who  was  himself  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  and  also  of  Parlia- 
ment— carefully  perused  them,  made  some  alterations  and  amend- 
ments, approved  them  by  formal  vote,  and  commended  them  to 
be  publicly  sung  in  the  churches  as  being  useful  and  profitable  : 
Minutes,  131,  163,  221.* 

The  other  elements  to  be  considered  under  the  general  title  of 
prayer,  are  petition  and  confession — the  offering  up  our  desires 
unto  God  for  things  agreeable  to  his  will,  and  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  our  sins  before  him.  Such  acknowledgment  has  already 
been  considered,  so  far  as  the  individual  Christian  is  concerned, 
as  one  feature  of  true  repentance.  If  we  recall  for  a  moment  the 
sublime  description  of  Edwards,  and  in  any  intelligent  measure 
discern  what  a  being  God  is,  we  realize  at  once  the  fundamental 
truth  that  no  human  soul  can  ever  approach  him  otherwise  than 
with  sincere  and  poignant  confession — confession  not  alone  in 
view  of  specific  acts  or  desires  or  thoughts  of  evil,  but  still  more 
on  account  of  that  sinfulness  which  is  resident  in  the  nature,  and 
which  compels  us  to  veil  our  faces,  and  cry,  Unclean,  Unclean,  in 
his  holy  presence.  But  the  church  needs  also  to  come  before 
God  in  this  attitude  of  acknowledgment  and  contrition  :  it 
cannot  fitly  worship  him  in  any  other  attitude  :  it  must  ever 
bow  and  kneel,  as  with  tears,  before  his  throne.  In  the  Direc- 
tory, (Ch.  V)  the  assembled  company  of  believers  are  called  upon 
to  make  humble  confession  of  sin,  both  original  and  actual,  with  a 
deep  sense  of  the  evil  of  all  sin, — to  acknowledge  particular  sins 
in  thought,  word  and  deed,  secret  and  presumptuous,  accidental 
or  habitual,  whether  committed  against  God,  against  our  neigh- 
bors or  ourselves, — to  realize  the  aggravations  of  sin,   arising 

*Gillespie,  in  his  report  to  the  Scotch  General  Assembly,  1647,  said  of  the 
version  of  Rous  :  This  new  Paraphrase  was  done  hy  a  Gentleman  verie  able 
for  the  purpose,  but  it  was  afterwards  revised  by  a  Committee  of  the  Assem- 
bly, and  was  approven  by  the  whole  Assembly.  Baillie  in  his  Journal  pro- 
nounced this  version  the  best  beyond  all  doubt  that  ever  yet  was  extant  ; 
and  declared  his  belief  that  these  lines  are  likely  to  go  up  to  God  from  many 
millions  of  tongues  for  many  generations.  Another  version  by  Barton, 
though  recommended  by  the  House  of  Lords,  was  set  aside  by  the  Assembly, 
chiefly  on  the  ground  that  the  introduction  of  various  paraphrases  would  be 
a  great  distraction  and  hindrance  to  edification.  The  Appendix  to  the  third 
volume  of  the  Journal  contains  an  extensive  and  very  valuable  Note  by 
David  Laing,  on  the  history  of  the  various  British  versions  of  the  Psalms, 
from  Sternhold  to  Rous.  See  also  the  Gude  and  Godlie  Ballatis,  edited  with 
an  introduction,  by  Prof.  Mitchell. 


716  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

from  knowledge,  from  distinguishing  mercies,  and  from  valuable 
privilege, — and  to  make  most  earnest  supplication  for  the  pardon 
of  sin  and  peace  with  God  through  Christ,  and  for  support  and 
comfort  in  the  endeavor  to  overcome  all  sin  in  the  future.  That 
such  confession  as  this  is  due  from  the  church  as  truly  as  from 
the  individual,  and  that  none  can  approach  God  successfully  in  the 
offering  up  of  desires  personal  or  public  for  things  agreeable  to 
divine  will,  on  any  other  basis,  is  assumed  constantly  in  the  Sym- 
bols, and  is  everywhere  recognized  by  the  household  of  faith. 

Prayer,  in  the  special  sense  of  supplication,  has  been  well 
described  as  the  characteristic  act  of  religion,  and  eminently — 
when  coupled  with  praise  and  confession — the  characteristic  act 
of  the  Christian  religion.  The  natural  faiths  of  the  world  indeed 
make  some  provision  for  the  plaintive  outcry  of  the  soul,  when 
burdened  with  the  consciousness  of  dependence  upon  some  super- 
human power  or  agency,  from  whose  hands  the  needed  blessing- 
may  be  solicited.  But  Christianity  alone  carefully  defines  prayer, 
indicates  the  scope  and  range  of  acceptable  petition,  describes  the 
method  in  which  our  supplications  may  be  presented,  reveals  a 
gracious  and  effectual  mediation  which  assures  to  us  the  hearing 
of  our  desires,  gives  encouragement  and  spiritual  help  to  the  peti- 
tioner, and  justifies  prayer  by  multiplied  promises  of  accceptance 
and  of  adequate  answer.  Evangelical  Protestantism  from  the 
first,  while  rejecting  with  vehemence  the  papal  formalisms  in 
prayer,  with  their  consequence  in  the  dogma  of  priestly  interces- 
sion and  absolution  through  the  church,  joyously  accepted  the 
more  biblical  view,  justified  it  by  earnest  argument,  wrought  it 
into  its  confessions,  and  day  by  day  lived  upon  it  in  unswerving 
confidence  and  hope.  The  Reformers  were  one  and  all  prayerful 
men,  believing  with  Zwingli  that  they  alone  are  the  true  wor- 
shipers who  call  upon  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  praying  from 
the  heart,  not  with  clamor  in  the  presence  of  men.  They  agreed 
with  the  more  elaborate  discussion  of  Calvin,  (Inst.  B.  Ill  :  20) 
respecting  prayer  as  the  principal  exercise  of  faith  and  the  medium 
through  which  we  receive  divine  blessings, — a  doctrine  which  he 
applied  to  the  church  as  well  as  to  individual  believers,  enjoining 
prayer  upon  the  church  as  one  of  its  great  primal  duties  and  chief 
privileges  also.  By  prayer,  he  says,  we  penetrate  to  those  riches 
which  are  reserved  by  our  heavenly  Father  for  our  use  :  the  only 
fortress  of  salvation  consists  in  the  invocation  of  his  name.  .  .  . 
The  duty  of  prayer  is  a  principal  part  of  his  worship,  and 
the  sanctuary  has  been  erected  as  a  standard  for  believers,  in 
order  that  they  might  engage  in  prayer  with  one  consent.     The 


PRAYER  :     ITS   EFFICACY    AND   SCOPE.  717 

Protestant  communions  both  Lutheran  and  Reformed,  while  dif- 
fering as  to  this  or  that  form  or  method  of  public  prayer,  were 
fully  agreed  from  the  first  in  the  conviction  that  such  prayer, 
Worthily  offered,  is  a  real  power  in  both  the  sphere  of  providence 
and  the  sphere  of  grace. 

How  thoroughly  the  divines  of  Westminster  believed  in  prayer, 
we  have  many  and  diversified  evidences  in  the  Symbols.  It  is 
needful  only  to  refer  to  some  of  these  in  brief  terms  in  order  to 
obtain  a  full  conception  of  this  primal  duty,  and  to  note  the  safe- 
guards suggested  against  serious  mistakes  in  prayer.  It  is  notice- 
able at  once  that  we  are  never  at  liberty  to  offer  up  our  desires  to 
God  for  anything  concerning  which  we  have  not  just  ground  for 
hoping  that  the  granting  of  the  answer  will  be  agreeable  to  hiszvill 
and  for  his  glory.  At  least,  all  supplication  is  to  be  offered  con- 
ditionally— with  cordial  acquiescence  in  the  decision  of  the  divine 
will,  whether  it  be  to  grant  or  to  withhold.  Again  :  it  should  be 
noted  that  all  acceptable  prayer  must  be  offered  in  the  name  of 
Christ, — in  virtue  of  his  mediation  and  intercession,  and  of  his 
merits  graciously  reflected  upon  us.  The  renunciation  of  all 
other  merit  as  the  basis  of  a  claim  or  right  to  be  answered, 
whether  it  be  our  own  or  that  of  others,  or  that  of  the  priesthood 
or  the  church,  or  that  of  glorified  saints  in  Paradise,  is  an  indis- 
pensable condition.  Again  :  acceptable  prayer  can  be  offered 
oidy  by  the  help  of  the  Spirit,  who  knows  what  petitions  are  agree- 
able to  the  divine  will,  and  what  are  worthy  of  a  hearing  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  and  who  therefore  is  competent  to  show  us  what 
we  ought  to  pray  for,  and  is  himself  ready  in  a  sense  to  pray 
within  us, — making  prayer  in  fact  a  gracious  mystery  wherein 
God  and  man  are  joined  together,  as  in  conversion  or  sanctifi- 
cation.  Public  as  well  as  private  prayer — we  are  taught  again  and 
again — is  always  subject  to  these  three  primal  conditions  :  agree- 
ableness  to  the  divine  will  and  glory,  the  mediatorial  interces- 
sion of  Christ,  the  inward  guidance  and  superintending  efficiency 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

It  is  further  said  (section  iv)  that  prayer  may  be  made,  not  only 
for  things  that  are  lawful,  and  desirable  for  us  personally,  but  also 
for  the  whole  church  of  Christ  on  earth,  for  magistrates  and  min- 
isters, for  our  brethren  and  even  for  our  enemies,  and  generally  for 
all  sorts  of  men  living,  and  even  for  those  that  may  live  hereafter. 
But  prayer  for  the  dead,  such  as  Romanism  encouraged  and  justi- 
fied, is  expressly  forbidden, — doubtless  on  the  ground  that  their 
sternal  state  is  not  to  be  changed  through  the  intercessions  of  the 
sarthly  church.     There  is  no  warrant  whatever  in  Scripture  for 


718  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

che  opinion  that  such  intercessions  can  be  of  benefit  to  the  sainted 
dead,  either  in  any  improvement  in  their  beatific  condition  or  in 
hastening  on  their  progressive  sanctification.  Still  less  is  there 
biblical  warrant  for  the  hope  that  such  intercessions  can  raise  the 
unsanctified  dead  into  any  better  condition,  or  be  effectual  in  secur- 
ing their  salvation  in  the  intermediate  life  through  belief  in 
Christ.  It  is  also  said  that  prayer  is  not  to  be  offered  for  those 
persons  of  whom  it  may  be  known  that  they  have  sinned  the  sin 
unto  death, — a  clause  that  was  omitted  in  the  recent  Revision,  on 
the  ground  that  it  is  not  given  to  man  to  know  assuredly  that  any 
particular  person  has  been  guilty  of  that  unpardonable  offence 
against  divine  grace,  and  that  it  might  be  dangerous  for  the  church 
to  assume  for  itself  the  possession  of  such  knowledge.  The  fur- 
ther fact  is  emphasized  that  prayer  is  not  to  be  confined  to  any  one 
place  or  time  or  form,  since  God  may  be  appealed  to  by  his  children 
in  any  time  or  place,  and  will  hear  their  cry  for  help  in  whatever 
form  it  may  be  presented.  Public  prayer  in  a  foreign  tongue  is 
forbidden,  it  being — in  the  language  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles — 
plainly  repugnant  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  custom  of  the 
primitive  church,  to  have  prayer  in  the  church  in  a  tongue  not 
understanded  of  the  people:  Sec.  Helvetic,  XXIII.  It  is  also 
enjoined  upon  the  minister  that  by  study  of  the  Scriptures,  by 
meditation,  and  by  a  life  of  communion  with  God  in  secret,  he 
diligently  prepare  himself  in  a  general  way,  and  specifically  also, 
for  this  part  of  the  public  service;  and  he  is  pertinently  warned 
against  making  excessively  long  prayers,  or  disgracing  that  service 
by  mean,  irregular  or  extravagant  effusions.  Other  kindred 
injunctions  are  introduced  in  the  two  Directories,  and  in  the 
original  Directory  an  extended  formula  is  given  for  each  of  the 
three  prayers  commonly  offered  in  public  worship. 

It   is  impracticable  to   refer   here   to   the   somewhat  minute 
instructions   furnished  in   the  two   Directories  with  regard   to 

other  forms  of  ministry,   such  as  the 
11.    Concluding  Survey:        ,.   .  ,  ; 

Ritual,  Liturgies;  Sacred  religious  solemnization  of  marriage,  the 
times.  pastoral  visitation  of  the  sick,  and  the 

public  burial  of  the  dead.  The  chap- 
ters on  these  subjects,  taken  together  with  those  already  referred 
to  constitute,  if  not  an  informal  ritual,  still  a  practical  manual  for 
the  guidance  of  ministers  in  fulfilling  their  office  in  these  several 
directions.  The  Preface  to  the  original  Directory  contains  a  very 
earnest  protest  against  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  as  prepared 
and  used  by  English  Episcopacy,  declaring  among  other  things 
that  it  had  proved  an  offence,  not  only  to  many  of  the  godly  at 


RITUAL  :     LITURGY.  719 

dome,  but  also  to  the  Reformed  churches  abroad;  that  it  had 
debarred  many  able  and  faithful  ministers  from  the  exercise  of 
dieir  office,  and  been  injurious  in  its  effects  upon  the  laitj^;  and  that 
It  "ended  toward  the  restoration  of  the  papal  liturgy,  with  all  its 
formalisms  and  idolatries.  Some  members  of  the  Assembly,  the 
eminent  L,ightfoot  among  them,  strongly  advocated  set  forms  of 
prayer,  but  failed  to  secure  general  assent  to  their  opinions.  But 
while  thus  putting  itself  on  record  against  all  liturgical  imposi- 
tions, and  in  favor  of  full  liberty  in  public  devotions,  the  Assembly 
recognized  the  importance  of  supplying  the  churches  with  some 
uniform  method  of  divine  service,  and  also  of  giving  to  the  min- 
isters some  help  and  furniture — to  quote  the  phrase  of  the  Direc- 
tory— as  a  corrective  to  sloth  or  negligence  and  a  stimulant  to 
the  highest  measure  of  spiritual  efficiency. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  preparation  of  such  a  manual 
of  worship,  the  Assembly  was  acting  in  accordance  with  the  direct 
instruction  of  Parliament, — that  bod)7  being  desirous  of  sweeping 
away  the  liturgy  of  Episcopacy  as  well  as  all  other  forms  of 
Episcopal  rule.  Yet  it  was  regarded  by  both  Parliament  and 
Assembly  as  important  that  some  regular  order  of  public  devo- 
tions, as  being  an  indispensable  adjunct  in  the  constitution  of  a 
national  church,  should  not  only  be  commended,  but  in  a  measure 
enforced  by  legislative  action.  From  such  a  mixed  political  and 
ecclesiastical  condition  arose  the  primitive  Directory — issued  even 
before  the  preparation  of  the  Confession  and  Catechisms  had  been 
fairly  begun, — which  for  a  brief  time  became  the  authoritative 
manual  of  public  worship,  not  only  in  England  but  also  in  Scot- 
land and  throughout  the  British  Isles.  The  General  Assembly 
of  Scotland,  shortly  after  its  publication  in  1645,  unanimously 
approved  it  in  all  the  heads  thereof-,  ordered  that  it  be  carefully 
and  uniformly  observed  and  practiced  by  all  the  ministers  of  the 
kingdom,  and  with  much  joy  and  thankfulness  welcomed  the 
uniformity  in  religion  thus  secured.  The  Scotch  Parliament  also 
without  a  contrary  voice  approved  and  ratified  the  Directory, — 
thus  interposing  and  adding  the  authority  of  the  civil  power  to 
the  act  of  the  General  Assembly.  In  its  general  structure  and  in 
many  of  its  specific  instructions,  this  Directory  illustrates  the 
mediate  position  which  the  Assembly  sought  to  maintain.  There 
are  in  it  some  surviving  traces  of  the  ritualistic  spirit  and  tendency 
which  had  held  sway  so  largely  in  England  from  the  earliest  days 
of  the  Reformation ;  yet  in  the  main  it  was  probably  as  well  fitted 
to  secure  not  only  uniformity  but  also  liberty  in  worship,  as 
any  such   mandatory  document   could   have   been.      American 


720  SACRAMENTS,    ORDINANCES,    WORSHIP. 

Presbyterianism  early  discovered  the  necessity  for  modification  in 
ihe  further  interest  of  liberty  ;  and  therefore,  in  1729,  simply 
recommended  that  the  Directory  be  used  in  the  churches  as  near 
as  circumstances  will  allow  and  Christian  prudence  direct.  The  first 
Assembly,  following  the  Synod  of  1786,  also  recommended  it  as 
in  substance  agreeable  to  the  instructions  of  the  New  Testament, 
but  affirmed  in  the  same  connection  that  God  has  not  been  pleased 
to  reveal  and  enjoin  every  circumstance  of  church  government  or 
administration.  Later  on,  various  emendations  were  from  time 
to  time  introduced,  until  now  the  Directory  presents  itself  in  a 
form  which,  though  full  of  valuable  instruction  as  a  general 
guide,  allows  all  needful  freedom  and  variety  in  public  devotions. 
The  general  question  whether  a  fixed  liturgy  is  desirable  in 
church  worship,  is  one  which  cannot  be  answered  positively  or 
negatively  in  the  abstract,  whether  the  proof  be  sought  from 
Scripture,  from  the  usage  of  the  early  church,  or  from  practical 
experiment.  In  the  Roman  Catholic  communion  such  a  liturgy 
easily  correlates  itself  to  the  papal  conception  of  the  priesthood . 
and  has  indeed  been  regarded  as  obligatory  by  biblical  authority, 
and  even  as  one  of  the  essential  marks  or  signs  of  the  true 
church.  It  may  be  admitted  also  that  a  mode  of  worship  so 
formal  and  spectacular,  having  in  it  so  much  to  attract  the  senses 
of  the  worshiper,  has  been  at  times  an  element  of  great  power 
among  the  nations  and  races  where  the  church  of  Rome  has  been 
most  successful  in  gathering  adherents.  That  the  more  mod- 
erate and  spiritual  liturgies  established  in  some  Protestant  com- 
munions, have  proved  themselves  valuable  as  helps  in  public 
devotion,  and  that  there  are  classes  of  persons  who  find  themselves 
greatly  aided  through  such  liturgical  ministrations,  may  be 
admitted  with  equal  freedom.  The  Augsburg  Conf .  teaches  that 
those  ecclesiastical  rites  are  to  be  observed  which  can  be  observed 
without  sin,  and  are  profitable  for  tranquility  and  good  order  in 
the  Church.  We  may  note  also  that  Luther  prepared  a  brief 
ritual,  as  early  as  1526,  and  Calvin  framed  a  liturgy  in  1541, 
though  without  excluding  free  prayer ;  and  that  John  Knox 
twelve  years  later  proposed  a  form  of  public  worship  based  on 
that  which  he  had  found  in  use  at  Geneva — measures  doubtless 
required  by  the  necessities  of  the  Protestant  churches,  just  emerg- 
ing from  the  picturesque  discipline  of  Rome.  Nor  is  it  too  much 
to  confess  that  what  are  called  in  our  Directory  mean,  irregular 
and  extravagant  effusions  in  prayer,  like  the  loose,  extemporary 
harangues  \\\  the  pulpit  rebuked  by  the  same  document,  have  too 
often  impaired  and  even  disgraced — to  use  the  strong  phrase  of 


SACRED   TIMES.  721 

the  Directory — the  worship  of  communions  where  liturgies  are 
rejected  and  condemned.  Yet  it  is  an  obvious  fact  that  Protes- 
tantism has  in  the  main  pronounced  against  fixed  liturgical 
forms,  and  has  strongly  preferred  freer,  less  rigid  and  less  cere- 
monious modes  of  offering  divine  worship.  The  reasons  for  such 
preference  need  not  be  discussed  here.  Perhaps  the  Protestant 
spirit  in  its  profound  love  of  liberty  and  its  spontaneous  hostility 
to  all  that  binds  thought  or  emotion  no  less  than  action  in  the 
religious  sphere,  furnishes  all  needful  explanation.  It  is  certain 
that  the  positive  judgment  of  Presbyterianism,  and  especially  of 
the  Presbyterian  churches  in  America,  is  habitually  adverse  by  tra- 
dition and  by  instinct  to  ritualism  in  whatever  variety.  A  free 
worship,  guided  by  Christian  intelligence  and  stimulated  in  even- 
part  by  active  piety  in  both  minister  and  people,  has  been,  now 
is,  and  is  likely  to  be,  one  of  its  cardinal  characteristics. 

The  Assembly  in  the  same  spirit  resolved  after  considerable 
debate  that  the  Sabbath  is  the  only  holy  day  enjoined  in  the  New 
Testament  to  be  kept  by  all  the  churches  of  Christ,  expressed 
itself  as  opposed  to  all  other  holy  days  excepting  fasts  and  thanks- 
givings when  duly  ordered,  and  condemned  all  parish  feasts  and 
the  like,  under  the  garb  of  religion,  as  profane  and  superstitious. 
One  record  tells  us,  however  (Minutes,  3,  21),  that  the  Assembly 
conferred  with  Parliament  on  the  observance  of  Christmas  as  a 
fast  to  be  kept  in  all  the  churches.  Canonical  hours,  such  as 
are  observed  according  to  the  Roman  Breviary,  were  condemned 
by  one  of  the  Helvetic  Confessions  as  unwarranted  by  tradition , 
and  in  themselves  unprofitable  ;  and  the  observance  of  such  hours 
was  disregarded  by  early  Protestantism  almost  universally.  No 
traces  of  the  Christian  or  Ecclesiastical  Year,  so  prominent  a 
feature  in  Roman  ritualism,  appear  in  the  Symbols.  One  of  the 
continental  creeds,  however,  approves  of  the  annual  observance  of 
the  times  of  the  nativity,  circumcision,  passion,  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  Christ,  and  the  descent  of  the  Spirit  upon  the  early 
church.  Episcopacy  and  L,utheranism  have  extensively  followed 
such  observance,  but  the  Reformed  churches  have  generally  set 
it  aside,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Christmas  and  Easter,  as 
without  biblical  warrant  and  of  doubtful  propriety. 


L.ECTURE  FOURTEENTH— ESCHATOLOGY. 

Millennium:  Death:  Immortality:  Judgment:  the  In- 
termediate Life  :  Future  Salvation  :  Final  Advent  : 
Resurrection  :  General  Judgment:  the  Eternal  Estate. 

C.  F.  Ch.  XXXII-XXXIII.  h.  C.  82-90  :  190-2.  S.  C.  19, 
=37-8,  102. 

While  the  Scriptures  principal^  teach  what  man  is  now  to 
iclieve  concerning  God  and  what  duty  God  now  requires  of  man, 
he  Bible  is  also  both  history  and  prophecy.  On  one  hand  it  pre- 
sents in  an  accurate  and  faithful  form  the  moral  record  of  our  race 
*rom  the  instant  of  creation,  through  the  era  of  the  fall,  and 
through  the  long  and  dark  career  of  our  humanity  as  sinful,  down 
to  the  advent  of  Christ  and  the  introduction  of  the  plan  of  salva- 
tion through  his  mediatorial  work  and  sacrifice.  On  the  other 
hand  it  foretells  with  equal  fidelity,  and  doubtless  with  equal 
accuracy,  the  moral  career  of  our  race,  not  through  some  brief 
intervening  periods  or  ages  in  the  future,  but  down  to  the  last 
instant  of  earthly  time, — describing  with  singular  clearness  and 
pathos  all  that  is  to  transpire  to  the  church  or  to  the  world  until  the 
final  consummation  of  earthly  things.  Its  revelations  reach  even 
beyond  all  time,  and  include  in  their  sweep  the  life  to  come,  both 
for  the  individual  and  for  mankind, — prophesying  what  eternity 
shall  be,  and  what  shall  be  the  character  and  experience  and  des- 
tiny of  men  forever  and  forever.  It  was  therefore  most  fitting 
that  the  Westminster  Assembly  should  conclude  its  methodical 
and  profound  exposition  of  Christian  doctrine  and  Christian  duty 
with  two  brief  but  most  impressive  chapters  concerning  the  Things 
which  shall  be  Hereafter.  Having  set  forth  the  teachings  of  Scrip- 
ture concerning  the  creation  and  the  fall,  providence  and  sin  and 
law,  Christ  and  his  redemptive  grace,  the  Christian  life  in  its 
various  phases,  the  Church  of  God  on  earth  with  all  that  is  com- 
prised within  that  holy  organism, — having  traversed  thus  the 
broad  domain  of  revealed  truth,  and  having  so  far  as  they  were 
able  crystalized  into  enduring  form  the  contents  of  Revelation  on 
all  these  subjects,  the  men  of  Westminster  realized  that  the  Bible, 
as  one  vast  and  sublime  prophecy  including  all  the  future,  needed 


ESCHATOLOGY  ;     CONTENTS   AND    IMPORTANCE.  723 

also  to  be  formulated  in  like  manner,  specially  for  the  enlightening 

and  comfort  of  the  people  of  God. 

As  a  department  or  section  of  Christian  doctrine,  what  is  termed 

Bschatology  covers  a  very  extensive  area.     It  embraces  all  that 

the  Word  of  God,  and  also  the  illustra-  „    , 

.,  '     „    ,      ,.    ,  l.   Eschatology defined; 

tive  providence  of   God,   discloses  con-     £arly   creed   statements; 

cerning  the  future  of  our  world  as  a  Protestant  eschatology. 
material  structure,  concerning  the  hu- 
man race  in  its  moral  developments  on  earth,  and  especially  con- 
cerning the  future  condition  and  career  of  the  church  and 
kingdom  of  Christ  in  this  world.  It  includes  the  transition  of 
mankind  individually  and  collectively  from  the  scenes  and  ex- 
periences of  the  present  life  to  an  eternal  state  ; — death  in  both 
its  natural  and  moral  aspects  ;  the  problem  of  immortality,  with 
respect  to  both  the  righteous  and  the  wicked;  the  counter  theory 
of  annihilation;  the  nature  of  the  intermediate  life;  the  dogma  of 
purgatory,  the  theory  of  a  probation  for  man  after  death,  the 
hypothesis  of  final  restoration.  It  includes  also  the  general 
conception  of  eternity  as  a  state,  not  of  probationary  discipline, 
but  of  award  and  retribution  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body  ;  the  particular  judgment  in  the  case  of  each  soul  at  death, 
and  the  ultimate  judgment  pronounced  upon  the  race  ;  and  as 
involved  in  this,  the  second  coming  of  Christ  as  the  Judge  of  all 
men,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the  end  of  the  world.  It 
embraces  also  a  survey  of  the  final  character  and  condition  of  the 
wicked,  and  also  of  the  character  and  condition  of  the  godly  amid 
the  employments  and  felicities  of  heaven,  together  with  the  ques- 
tion of  the  endlessness  of  this  future  estate.  And  finally  it 
embraces  a  view  of  the  ultimate  consummation  of  all  things,  when 
the  process  of  Messiahship  shall  cease,  and  the  kingdom  shall  be 
surrendered  to  the  Father,  and  when  the  work  of  human  redemp- 
tion shall  be  unfolded  in  its  full  intent  and  effect  throughout  the 
cycles  of  Eternity. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  such  a  department  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, springing  directly  from  the  disclosures  of  Scripture,  should 
be  in  many  ways  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  devout  men  in  all 
ages.  There  is  in  the  human  mind  a  native  desire  to  know  the 
future  and  the  end  of  things, — the  future  of  religion  and  of  the 
Church  in  this  world,  and  the  effect  of  Christianity  upon  the 
moral  life  and  character  of  the  human  race, — the  future  of  the 
Christian  man,  evidently  imperfect  now,  but  plainly  having  within 
himself  the  beginnings  of  a  moral  experience,  far  outreaching 
his  present  state  of  being,    and  apparently   rising  toward  some 


724  ESCHATOLOGY. 

ultimate  perfection  of  immeasurable  beauty  and  glory, — the 
future  also  of  the  providential  and  moral  administration  of  God 
over  the  human  race,  now  evidently  in  a  state  of  progress,  and 
in  its  present  developments  apparently  incomplete,  yet  clearly 
moving  on  toward  some  appropriate  and  sublime  consummation 
at  last.  But  this  natural  desire  to  know  the  future  of  things  is 
vastly  enhanced  by  the  consciousness  that  we  are  ourselves  to 
share  in  this  complex  and  tremendous  future,  both  as  to  our 
personal  work  and  career  in  this  world,  and  to  our  individual 
experiences  in  and  after  death,  and  also  as  to  our  unending 
life  and  condition  thereafter.  There  are  also  man)-  unfulfilled 
prophecies  in  Scripture,  intimations  of  events  to  come,  which 
apparently  involve  the  destiny  of  the  whole  world  and  all  its 
inhabitants,  and  which  therefore  are  of  absorbing  interest  to  the 
Christian  mind, — predictions  in  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New,  concerning  the  glorious  progress  of  the  Church  in  some 
coming  millennial  age,  the  downfall  of  Babylon  and  of  Antichrist, 
the  final  conflicts  with  the  Gogs  and  Magogs  of  unbelief,  the 
victory  of  the  Christian  Truth,  and  finally  the  second  coming  of 
Christ  unto  judgment.  It  is  obvious  further  that  Christian  faith 
finds  within  this  department  of  doctrine  one  of  its  highest  stimu- 
lants, not  merely  in  the  form  of  trust  or  resignation  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  God  is  carrying  forward  such  a  process  as  this 
in  human  history,  but  also  in  the  form  of  encouragement  to 
intense  activity  in  view  of  such  an  assured  and  blessed  outcome 
of  all  Christian  service  and  sacrifice.  Nor  is  it  a  slight  stimulus  to 
such  believing  and  loving  interest,  that  so  many  strenuous  con- 
troversies have  arisen  in  the  church  respecting  man}'  of  these 
eschatological  revelations,  or'  that  current  skepticism  has  found 
within  this  field  so  many  points  of  attack,  and  has  claimed  for 
itself  such  positive  victories  over  the  biblical  doctrine.  For  all 
these  reasons,  and  for  still  others  kindred  to  these,  Christian 
Kschatology  has  often  commanded  in  the  past,  and  now  is  specially 
commanding  the  deepest  interest,  the  most  thoughtful  and  earnest 
study,  of  those  who  believe  in  that  sure  word  of  prophecy  on 
which  our  hopes  and  the  hope  of  humanity  are  resting. 

It  is  impracticable  to  speak  at  any  length  of  the  sources  from 
which  knowledge  may  be  obtained  and  Christian  faith  be  nour- 
ished within  this  broad  department, — of  the  Scriptures  above  all, 
notwithstanding  the  difficult  problems  of  interpretation  involved, 
and  the  evident  obscuration  divinely  allowed  at  many  points 
where  wider  knowledge  might  seem  desirable, — of  the  concur- 
rent and  converging  providences  of  God,   often  impenetrable  or 


TEACHING    OF    THE    ANCIENT    CREKDS.  725 

jut  partly  comprehended,  yet  in  the  main  shedding  a  clear  and 
ever  growing  light  upon  the  teachings  of  the  inspired  Word, — of 
the  tributary  value  also  of  the  deepest  and  wisest  philosophy, 
with  its  helpful  analogies  from  nature  and  its  profound  endorse- 
ment of  much  that  the  Bible  teaches  respecting  the  moral  consti- 
stitution  of  man,  the  nature  of  sin,  the  possibilities  of  grace,  and 
the  natural  issues  of  conduct  both  here  and  hereafter, — or  of  the 
aid  which  spiritual  insight  and  spiritual  experience  afford,  in 
confirming  the  essential  reasonableness  of  the  divine  revelations, 
and  in  enabling  the  soul  to  appreciate  them,  and  build  them  intelli- 
gently into  the  solid  structure  of  its  faith.  That  these  sources 
of  knowledge  are  sufficient  to  meet,  or  were  divinely  intended  to 
answer,  all  the  questionings  which  a  speculative  intellect  may 
propose,  is  not  to  be  claimed  ;  nor  is  it  desirable  that  such  ques- 
tionings, often  springing  from  mental  curiosity  or  from  subtle 
hostility  to  the  truth  as  revealed,  should  receive  complete  present 
solution.  But  that  much,  if  not  all  that  might  be  desired  or  all 
that  may  hereafter  be  learned,  may  from  these  sources  be  already 
known,  believed,  cherished,  and  made  part  of  the  firm  faith  and 
doctrine  of  the  Church  is  abundantly  manifest. 

It  is  a  most  suggestive  fact  that  the  three  ancient  creeds, 
accepted  almost  from  the  beginning,  held  in  reverence  through  all 
the  centuries  preceding  the  Reformation,  and  now  received  not 
merely  by  the  Greek  and  Roman  communions  but  by  all  sections  of 
evangelical  Protestantism, — theTe  Deum  of  the  ages — contain  so 
much  of  positive  teaching  respecting  the  things  that  are  to  be. 
These  creeds  agree  in  declaring,  first,  that  our  ascended  Iyord,  of 
whom  they  all  speak  as  now  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father,  shall  come  again  to  this  earth  with  glory,  to  be  the  judge 
of  the  quick  (or  living)  and  the  dead  ;  secondly,  that  at  his  coming 
unto  judgment  all  the  dead  shall  rise  again  with  their  bodies  ; 
thirdly,  that  all  shall  give  account  of  their  works  and  their 
lives  before  his  tribunal  ;  fourthly,  that  there  is  a  life  everlasting, 
into  which  all  shall  finally  pass  at  his  adjudication  ;  fifthly,  that 
they  that  have  done  good  shall  go  into  life  everlasting,  and  they 
that  have  done  evil  into  a  life  of  everlasting  condemnation  ;  and 
sixthly,  that  the  kingdom  of  righteousness,  and  of  authority 
which  is  thus  established,  shall  never  end.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  these  six  declarations  are  statements,  not  of  theory  or  specu- 
lation, but  of  facts  or  events  to  come, — as  clear  and  positive  as 
those  which  precede  them  in  these  ancient  symbols  concerning 
the  first  advent  and  life,  the  passion  and  resurrection  of  our  Lord  ; 
and  further  that  they   are  affirmed  on  the  direct  authority  of 


?26  ESCHATOLOGY. 

Scripture,  and  largely  in  the  very  words  of  Holy  Writ.  It  is  also 
noticeable  that,  though  these  clear  affirmations  have  often  been 
challenged,  and  have  sometimes  been  rejected  by  individuals  or 
by  nominally  Christian  sects,  yet  such  opposition  has  rarely  if 
ever  attempted  to  sustain  itself  b}7  counter  biblical  warrant ;  and 
further  that,  notwithstanding  such  opposition,  the  Church  uni- 
versal has  clung  to  them  through  all  the  centuries,  and  with  hardly 
any  exception  still  clings,  as  not  only  containing  what  the  Bible 
teaches  but  also  what  that  Church  now  profoundly  believes. 

Descending  from  the  ancient  to  more  recent  symbolism,  it  may 
be  remarked  that  one  cannot  appreciate  at  its  full  value  the 
eschatology  of  the  Confession  and  Catechisms  of  Westminster, 
unless  he  is  familiar  in  some  degree  with  the  teaching  of  the  Prot- 
estant creeds  in  general,  and  also  with  the  prevalent  theology  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  in  this  department!  It 
is  clear  that  the  Westminster  divines  inherited  a  definite  scheme 
of  doctrine  on  the  topics  embraced  in  this  department,  to  a  large 
extent  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  church  antecedent  to  the 
Reformation,  but  still  more  decisively  from  the  professed  faith  of 
the  various  churches  which  bore  the  Protestant  name.  The 
Augsburg  Confession,  for  example,  teaches  (Art.  XVII)  that  in 
the  consummation  of  the  world  Christ  shall  appear  to  judge,  and 
shall  raise  up  all  the  dead,  and  shall  give  unto  the  godly  and 
elect  eternal  life  and  everlasting  joys  ;  but  ungodly  men  and  the 
devils  shall  he  condemn  unto  endless  torments.  It  also  enters  a 
solemn  protest  against  those  who  imagine  that  there  shall  be  an 
end  of  such  torments,  and  formally  condemns  those  who  scatter 
abroad  Jewish  notions  (Judaicas  opiniones)  to  the  effect  that 
before  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  godly  or  the  saints  shall, 
for  a  time,  occupy  the  kingdom  of  this  world — shall  set  up  and 
enjoy  an  earthly  dominion,  the  wicked  everywhere  being  sup- 
pressed or  exterminated.  The  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  in  the  same 
strain  condemns  (XI)  the  Jewish  dreams  (Judaicasomnia)  to  the 
effect  that  before  the  day  of  judgment  there  shall  be  a  golden  age 
on  the  earth  when  the  pious  shall  hold  all  authority  and  their 
impious  enemies  shall  be  under  their  feet. 

The  Confession  of  Edward  VI,  from  which  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  sprang,  declares  that  they  who  attempt  to  reproduce  the 
fable  of  the  millennarians,  are  adverse  to  holy  Scripture,  and  pre- 
cipitate themselves  into  Judaic  phantasies.  The  Scotch  Conf.  (XI) 
affirms  that  Christ  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  inaug- 
urate in  his  kingdom,  till  all  his  enemies  be  made  his  footstool, 
as  undoubtedly  they  shall  be  at  the  final  judgment,  when  he  shall 


TEACHING   OF   PROTESTANT   CONFESSIONS.  727 

visibly  return,  as  that  he  was  seen  to  ascend.  The  Belgic  Conf . 
(XXXVII)  proclaims  its  belief  that  according  to  the  Word  of 
God,  at  the  time  appointed,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  will  come  from 
heaven  corporeally  and  visibly,  as  he  ascended  with  great  glory 
and  majesty,  to  declare  himself  Judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead — 
burning  this  old  world  with  fire  and  flame  to  cleanse  it : — and  then 
all  men  will  appear  personally  before  this  great  Judge,  both  men 
and  women  and  children,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the 
end  thereof,  being  summoned  by  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and 
by  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  of  God.  This  Conf.  proceeds  to 
describe  further  the  manner  and  form  of  the  general  judgment,  and 
the  eternal  issues  that  shall  follow  it  to  both  the  wicked  and  the 
righteous.  With  these  comprehensive  declarations  it  may  safely 
be  said  that  all  of  the  subsequent  creeds  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
British  as  well  as  Continental,  so  far  as  they  contained  eschato- 
logical  matter,  were  in  substantial  agreement. 

Following  chronologically  this  prolonged  series  of  creeds,  yet 
still  within  the  range  of  their  immediate  influence,  the  Westmin- 
ster Symbols  incorporate  afresh  their  almost  unanimous  teaching 
on  these  grave  topics,  but  with  a  degree  of  distinctness  and 
emphasis  before  unattaiued.  They  agree  entirely  both  with  the 
affirmations  of  the  ancient  symbolism,  and  with  the  more  extended 
teaching  of  both  the  continental  and  the  antecedent  British  creeds. 
More  full,  more  exact,  and  more  practical,  their  very  form  indi- 
cates both  the  historic  sources  from  which  they  sprang,  and  also 
the  matured  condition  of  the  Protestant  mind  in  Great  Britain  as 
well  as  on  the  Continent,  with  respect  to  the  solemn  doctrines 
presented.  Simple  and  direct  in  diction,  comprehensive  and 
unequivocal  in  their  statements,  incorporating  with  happy  skill 
the  clearest  utterances  of  the  inspired  Word,  they  may  be  said  to 
present  in  one  view  the  best  thoughts  of  Protestantism  on  these 
topics  from  the  time  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  down  to  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Turning  to  consider  more  specifically  the  eschatology  of  the 
Symbols,  we  may  first  note  their  answer  to  the  interesting  ques- 
tion respecting  the  future  of  the  earth 

and  of  humanity  on  earth,   the  final        2-   Westminster  Escbatol- 
,',,"«        ,    ,  i        oey:  general  statement:  the 

triumph  of  the  Gospel  throughout  the    Millennium< 

world,   and  the  ascendancy  of  Jesus 

Christ  over  the  human  race.  Respecting  the  earth  itself  as  a 
material  structure,  they  follow — if  we  may  judge  from  their  bib- 
lical quotations — the  general  belief  of  earlier  Christendom  in  the 
ultimate  combustion  of  the  world,  together  with  all  its  contents, 


728  ESCHATOLOGY. 

at  the  close  of  the  career  of  our  race  on  its  surface.  That 
oelief  undoubtedly  had  its  origin  in  certain  biblical  suggestions, 
especially  in  the  teaching  of  Christ  and  in  some  apostolic  let- 
ters. Nor  is  this,  though  it  is  sometimes  ridiculed  by  unbelief 
as  a  gross  fancy,  an  unreasonable  anticipation.  Van  Oosterzee 
(Christ.  Dogmatics)  suggests  that  there  are  natural  forces  enough, 
present  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  to  bring  about  such  a  result;  and 
affirms  that  the  belief  that  God  will  at  some  time  set  these  forces 
free  in  order  to  consume  and  purify  the  planet,  has  solid  warrant 
in  the  word  of  prophets  and  apostles.  Fixed  and  immutable  as 
nature  with  its  laws  and  forces  is  seen  at  present  to  be,  it  is  still 
a  scientific  hypothesis,  quite  in  harmony  with  the  weird  imagery 
of  Holy  Writ,  that  the  material  earth  is  itself  passing  through  a 
cosmic  process — a  process  which  in  its  silent  progression  through 
the  ages  may  result  in  such  change  as  will  render  the  world  unin- 
habitable to  man,  and  possibly  transform  it  finally  into  a  flaming 
planet  blazing  with  strange  glories,  or  a  consumed  and  dead  orb 
hidden  away  somewhere  in  the  great  night  of  space.  This  is  not 
inconsistent  with  the  other  suggestion  of  Scripture  that,  as  man 
rises  under  the  nurture  of  grace  to  the  perfection  of  the  millen- 
nial state,  the  earth  itself,  now  groaning  and  travailing  as  if  in 
pain  on  account  of  human  sin,  will  assume  a  corresponding  phys- 
ical improvement,  becoming  once  more  graciously  subject  to 
man — its  very  deserts  blossoming  responsively  into  roses  in  his 
holy  presence.  The  latter  will  be  a  beneficent  provision  in  the 
interest  of  the  millennial  age:  the  former  may  be  a  sovereign  and 
judicial  procedure, — He  who  created  the  earth  for  man  burning  it 
out  of  existence  when  it  has  fully  subserved  its  purpose  for 
humanity. 

But  all  this  is  very  incidental  to  the  question  respecting  the  race 
of  beings,  intelligent  and  immortal,  who  now  constitute  the  inhab- 
itants of  this  physical  world.  Various  theories  are  current  as  to 
the  future  career  of  humanity  on  the  earth: — the  theory  of  an 
unending  round  of  evolution  and  decay,  of  rising  and  falling  civ- 
ilizations, of  progress  followed  by  decline  and  return  to  primitive 
conditions  perpetually; — the  theory  of  advancement  slowly  secured 
through  the  victories  of  man  over  nature,  and  the  development  of 
the  capabilities  and  energies  of  the  race,  until  at  length  a  material 
millennium,  wrought  out  by  man  for  himself  apart  from  any  super- 
natural agencies,  shall  bless  the  world : — the  theory  that  no  such 
advance  or  even  any  stationary  condition  is  possible,  but  rather 
that  our  humanity  is  slowly  perishing  like  a  decaying  tree  whose 
season  of  fruitage  is  already  past,  whose  leaves  are  even  now 


FUTURE  OP  THE   WORLD  :     THE   MILLENNIAL    AGE.         729 

withering,  and  whose  predestined  end  is  a  catastrophe  from  which 
there  will  be  no  possible  restoration.  In  contrast  with  all  such 
theories,  it  is  the  clear  and  cheering  prophecy  of  Scripture  that 
the  race  is  neither  to  perish  nor  to  live  on  perpetually  without 
essential  improvement,  nor  even  to  advance  toward  maturity 
through  the  agency  of  physical,  mental,  social  forces  resident  in 
the  bosom  of  humanity, — but  is  rather  to  come  to  its  maturing 
through  the  instrumentality  of  supernatural  powers  flowing  into 
our  human  nature  in  such  ways  as  to  arrest  its  corrupting  sinful- 
ness, convert  its  disposition  and  aims,  transform  it  into  a  diviner 
manliness,  and  so  bring  it  out  and  up  to  some  worthy  consumma- 
tion. In  other  words,  it  is  the  teaching  of  Scripture  that  by  the 
Word  of  God  preached  and  believed,  the  Christ  of  God  accepted 
and  enthroned  in  the  soul,  the  Spirit  of  God  energizing  and  puri- 
fying the  moral  nature,  the  Church  of  God  standing  out  in  human 
society  as  a  great  supernatural  organism  by  its  peculiar  agencies 
disciplining  the  race  for  a  grand  future; — thus  and  not  otherwise 
the  career  of  humanity  is  to  come  to  its  predestined  transfigura- 
tion. And  by  actual  experiment  in  this  direction  thus  far,  two 
things  seem  already  well  assured :  first,  that  spiritual  Christianity 
is  inherently  able  to  work  out  this  cosmic  miracle  of  healing;  and 
secondly,  that  no  other  agency  now  known  to  man  can  produce 
any  such  result.  So  far  as  we  can  judge  from  either  Scripture 
or  experience,  the  alternative  of  the  race  must  lie  between  such 
Christian  progress  and  development  and  some  remediless  failure 
and  decay. 

It  is  a  fact  of  deep  significance  that  the  Christian  Church 
through  all  the  ages,  and  never  more  strongly  than  now,  has  been 
animated  by  an  unswerving  conviction  that  such  a  grand  future 
is  yet  to  come  to  our  race,  and  that  this  result  is  to  be  secured 
through  the  Gospel,  and  the  tributary  agencies  which  are  work- 
ing together  in  its  advancement.  The  expectation  of  such  a 
millennium,  to  be  brought  about  by  human  powers  or  devices 
apart  from  vital  Christianity,  is  held  by  no  intelligent  Christian. 
Nor  does  the  kindred  expectation  that  God  will  finally  introduce 
some  new  instrumentalities,  as  if  this  Gospel  were  proving  itself 
a  failure — some  displays  of  majestic  and  subduing  power,  able  to 
crush  out  the  sin  which  the  Gospel  could  not  eradicate — find 
more  than  slight  and  occasional  acceptance  within  the  church.  The 
grounds  on  which  the  Christian  hope  is  based  can  only  be  stated 
here  without  expansion  or  argument.  They  are,  first,  the  abun- 
dant and  significant  promises  of  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ments, given  in  a  wide  variety  of  forms,  and  under  very  diverse 


730  ESCHATOLOGY. 

conditions,  yet  in  full  harmony  with  each  other,  and  together  con- 
centrating their  radiance  upon  such  a  future  age  of  spiritual 
triumph  as  has  just  been  sketched.  Secondly  :  the  hope  of  such 
a  future  is  justified  by  what  we  know  of  the  intrinsic  energies  of 
the  revealed  truths  of  Scripture,  and  of  their  ability  to  convince 
the  reason,  to  affect  the  conscience,  and  to  stir  the  human  will 
into  holier  aspirations  and  holier  living.  Thirdly:  it  is  justified 
further  by  the  pledge  of  the  Holy  Spirit  who  comes  specifically 
to  convince  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment  in 
conjunction  with  such  truth,  and  whose  potent  influences  are  able 
not  only  to  convince,  but  also  to  convict  and  subdue  even  the 
hardest  heart,  and  to  bring  even  the  entire  race  into  loving 
obedience  to  Christ.  Fourthly  :  the  Christian  Church  must  be 
recognized  as  a  vast  and  effective  agency,  divinely  endowed  and 
working  toward  the  same  end, — by  its  teachings  and  creeds,  its 
sacraments  and  ordinances  and  organized  activities,  and  through 
the  godly  living  of  its  membership,  ever  striving  and  growing 
toward  such  millennial  perfection  and  splendor.  Fifthly:  so  far 
as  the  great  plan  of  God  in  providence  can  now  be  discerned,  we 
find  abundant  evidence  that  divine  providences  are  more  and  more 
clearly  revealing  their  subordinate  relation  to  the  superior  economy 
of  grace,  and  are  working  more  and  more  directly  in  the  interest 
of  the  salvation  of  the  entire  race.  And  sixthly  :  there  is  much 
in  human  experience,  and  especially  in  the  experience  of  Chris- 
tians, which  justifies  their  anticipation,  not  that  the  religion  they 
have  embraced  will  finally  come  to  naught,  or  at  best  work  out 
only  some  partial  and  insufficient  results  in  the  heart  and  life  of 
humanity,  but  rather  that  what  Revelation  foretells  will  yet 
actually  come  to  pass  in  its  fullness — the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  becoming  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ  : 
Edwards,  Work  of  Redemption. 

While  Scripture  and  experience  abundantly  justify  the  faith  of 
the  Church  that  Christianity  will  finally  evenuate  in  such  a 
glorious  issue,  it  is  to  be  carefully  noted  that  they  furnish  no  clue 
to  the  time  when  this  age  of  holiness  and  peace  shall  begin.  All 
attempts  arithmetical  or  otherwise  to  determine  such  a  date  nave 
failed  and  must  always  fail  ;  on  this  point  the  sacred  Oracles  are 
silent.  Yet  we  may  note  their  frequent  suggestions  respecting 
three  events  which  must  take  place  before  the  coming  of  such  an 
age,  and  whose  occurrence  will  be  the  clear  precursor  of  the  great 
consummation.  The  first  of  these  is  the  conversion  of  the  Jewish 
people,  and  the  restoration  of  their  relationship  as  a  race  to  the 
Messiah  and  to  his  Gospel, — involving  not  so  much  their  return  to 


EVENTS   PRECEDING   AND   FOLLOWING.  731 

Palestine  or  their  organization  again  in  any  national  form,  but 
their  spiritual  enlightenment  respecting  the  mission  and  claims 
ot  Christ,  and  their  cordial  submission  to  him  as  the  true  and 
only  Redeemer  of  men.  The  second  of  these  precurrent  events 
is  the  final  overthrow  of  Antichrist,  or  of  all  antichristian  powers 
or  influences  whether  personal  or  general,  social  or  political  or 
religious  in  their  nature  or  pretensions,  and  the  visible  supremacy 
of  the  Gospel  among  men  as  the  true  and  only  religion  for  the 
race.  The  third  is  the  universal  spread  of  that  religion  through 
the  divine  and  the  human  agencies  now  employed  in  its  implanta- 
tion and  diffusion  in  the  earth,  until  it  shall  be  literally  true,  not 
merely  that  the  human  race  shall  have  heard  the  story  of  Christ 
testified  unto  by  his  church,  but  shall  have  received  that  story 
and  believed  on  him  whom  God  has  sent  to  be  the  Savior  of  the 
world.  It  is  impracticable  here  to  quote  the  biblical  assurances 
that  these  three  events  are  actually  to  occur,  or  that  their  occur- 
rence will  be  the  clear  sign  of  a  millennial  era  just  dawning  upon 
the  earth  :  but  the  careful  student  of  Holy  Writ  will  not  fail  to 
be  convinced  either  of  their  future  transpiring  or  of  their  precur- 
sive  or  anticipatory  relations.  That  a  millennial  age  cannot 
occur  before  these  events  is  evident,  since  they  are  each  and  all 
conditions  essential  to  such  an  issue  :  that  such  an  age  is  not 
now  near  at  hand,  however  ardently  desired  or  labored  for  by  the 
church,  is  also  evident  to  any  one  who  sees  how  far  off  these 
anticipatory  events  apparently  are. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  three  events  which  are  plainly 
revealed  in  Scripture  as  occurring  only  after  this  millenial  age 
shall  have  first  been  experienced  by  the  world  in  all  its  sub- 
lime fullness.  The  first  of  these  is  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  The  biblical  passages  sometimes  quoted  in  support  of  the 
opinion  that  there  are  to  be  two  resurrections,  one  preceding  and 
the  other  following  this  millennial  era,  are  offset  decisively  by 
the  numerous  and  unquestionable  declarations  that  there  will  be 
but  one  such  resurrection, — a  resurrection  in  which  human  beings 
of  all  types  of  character  are  to  be  alike  included,  and  which  is  to 
occur  at  the  end  of  the  world,  and  in  immediate  conjunction  with 
the  final  judgment.  The  second  of  these  events  is  the  final  judg- 
ment itself,  as  distinguished  from  the  notion  of  two  judgments 
taking  place  respectively  at  the  beginning  and  close  of  the  millen- 
nial era,  and  also  from  the  conception  of  a  continuous  judgment 
carried  on  progressively  throughout  that  era.  Against  both  of 
these  hypotheses,  though  they  be  dimly  suggested  by  some 
oiblical  references,  the  main    current   of    Scripture   teaching  is 


732  ESCHATOI.OGY. 

entirely  decisive.  The  third  event  which  is  to  occur,  not  prior 
to  this  age  of  Gospel  triumph  but  at  its  close,  is  that  second 
advent  of  Christ  unto  judgment  which  is  so  plainly  set  forth  in 
the  Bible  as  the  final  step  in  the  great  process  of  human  proba- 
tion. There  is  certainly  no  clear  biblical  proof  in  favor  of  the 
counter  hypothesis  of  two  such  advents, — the  first  in  order  to 
establish  the  kingdom  of  our  L,ord  in  visible  and  material 
supremacy  overall  other  kingdoms  whether  of  men  or  of  Satan, — 
the  other  for  the  purpose  of  final  adjudication  only.  Summa- 
rizing what  has  been  said, — just  as  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
there  must  occur  the  three  events  named,  the  conversion  of  the 
Jews,  the  overthrow  of  all  antichrists  and  the  effectual  calling  of 
the  Gentile  races,  before  there  can  be  a  truly  millennial  era  on 
earth,  so  these  three  solemn  events,  the  general  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  the  general  judgment  of  mankind,  and  the  glorious  advent 
of  Christ  as  Judge  of  the  race,  are  all  to  occur,  not  before  or 
during  but  at  the  close  of  that  culminating  era  in  the  earthly 
career  of  humanity. 

That  the  future  age  here  contemplated  will  be  a  period  of 
triumph  for  the  Christian  faith,  of  great  glory  to  the  Church, 
of  peace  and  prosperity  among  the  nations,  of  virtue  and  holi- 
ness and  brotherhood  in  human  society,  and  of  wonderful 
development  among  Christians  in  all  that  pertains  to  personal 
religion  and  to  those  graces  of  character  that  exist  in  the  truly 
sanctified  soul,  will  be  abundantly  apparent.  All  that  has  yet 
appeared  in  human  history  or  human  experience  will  then  be 
seen  to  be  but  the  early  dawnings  of  that  more  holy,  more  beau- 
tiful, more  splendid  age.  The  question  respecting  the  duration 
of  this  millennial  era  is  one  of  absorbing  interest.  The  thousand 
years  named  in  the  Apocalypse  are  not  to  be  interpreted  as  exact 
chronologically  :  the  phrase  obviously  indicates  a  period  which 
has  a  definite  beginning  and  close,  and  which  compared  with  ordi- 
nary events  is  one  of  vast  extent — a  period  which  may  continue 
through  tens  of  thousands  of  our  calendar  years.  Edwards,  in 
his  remarkable  plea  for  Union  in  Prayer  for  the  early  coming  of 
this  millennial  era,  enters  into  a  very  suggestive  calculation  as  to 
the  probable  number  of  inhabitants  on  the  earth,  and  especially  the 
probable  number  of  Christians  during  this  period,  particularly  if  it 
be  thus  prolonged  ;  and  concludes  that  there  will  be,  at  a  very 
moderate  estimate,  an  hundred  thousand  times  as  many  souls 
redeemed  by  Christ  during  the  millennium  as  will  have  been  thus 
redeemed  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  that  time.  His 
calculation  has  a  large  moral  and  spiritual,  if  not  an  exact  arith- 


THE    MILLENNIAL   AGE  :     DURATION    AND    GLORY.  733 

metical  basis.  There  is  good  reason  to  hope  and  believe  that  at 
the  end  of  this  era  the  number  of  the  saved  will  be  immeasurably 
greater  than  the  number  of  all  that  have  been  or  shall  be  lost 
among  the  sons  of  men.  And  it  may  well  be  anticipated  that  in 
the  glorious  light  shed  by  this  millennial  age  on  the  entire  admin- 
istration of  God  over  the  race,  much  that  now  seems  dark  in  his 
providence— much  that  now  perplexes  us  as  we  study  the  slow 
evolutions  of  his  grace— much  that  now  oppresses  us  as  we  think 
of  the  countless  millions  of  mankind  who  have  never  heard  the 
Gospel  or  are  now  in  ignorance  of  it  or  rejecting  it,  will  be  fully 
and  gloriously  explained. 

With  this  general  summary,  the  Symbols  as  we  shall  see  on  close 
inspection  are  in  full  accord.     They  contain  no  trace  of  sympathy 
with  the   materialistic    notions   which   the   earlier   Confessions 
condemned  in  such  vigorous  terms,  respecting  a  coming  of  Christ 
upon  earth  before  the  resurrection,  and  his  residence  among  men 
for  a  prolonged  period,  in  order  to  establish  a  temporal  kingdom 
marked  by  displays  of   imperial  splendor   and  by  supernatural 
exhibitions  of  energy,  before  which  his  enemies  whom  the  Gospel 
cannot  reach,  are  to  be  prostrated  and  utterly  overthrown.     Nor 
do  they  ever  suggest  some  prolonged  era  of  judgment,  or  a  special 
resurrection  of  some  specified  portion  of  mankind,  or  any  other 
of  the  hypotheses  now  current  in  premillenarian  circles.     They 
affirm  rather  that  the  present  kingdom  of  Christ  among  men,  the 
kingdom  of  grace,  is  to  be  developed  more  and  more  until  it  shall 
become  a  spiritual  millennium  ;  and  that  the  dominion  of  Christ 
over  humanity  is  to  be  a  growing  dominion  of  truth  and  love  and 
holiness  in  the  souls  of  men  and  in  the  heart  of  human  society,  until 
at  last  the  whole  earth  shall  become  submissive  to  his  spiritual 
sway.     They  teach  that  the  power  of  Satan  over  mankind,  the 
domination  of  evil  in  organized  and  malevolent  form  in  the  world, 
Antichrist  of  whatever  type,    is  but  temporary,    and  is  in  the 
coming  ages  to  be  overthrown  in  the  only  way  possible — the 
implantation  of  Christianity  and  the  cosmic  development  of  the 
Christian  Church,  not  merely  in  grace  and  experience,  but  also  in 
influence  and  control  throughout  the  earth.     They  do  not  indeed 
answer  all  the  specific  questions  which  have  since  their  era  excited 
the  interest  of  the  church, — doubtless  for  the  reason  that  escha- 
tological  doctrine  held  no  conspicuous  place  in  the  deliberations 
or  controversies  of  that  period.     Yet  their  general  teaching  is 
remarkably  clear  and  convincing,   and  their  statements — as  has 
already  been  said — comprise  the  fullest  exposition  of  the  Protes- 
tant belief  up  to  their  time.     And  it  certainly  is  a  strong  testimony 


734  ESCHATOLOGY. 

to  the  intellectual  wisdom  and  spiritual  insight  of  their  framers, 
that  these  old  Symbols  contain  for  the  most  part  not  only  the 
clearest  doctrine,  but  also  the  best  antidote  to  much  of  the  heresy 
in  this  later  age  when  unhistoric  speculation  is  so  rife,  and  the 
minds  of  many  are  so  much  confused  or  misled  as  to  the  real 
truth  of  God. 

It  may  be  well  to  confirm  this  general  claim  by  a  more  specific 
study  of  the  Symbols  in  detail.     It  is  said  at  the  beginning  of 

the  Confession  (I :  i)  that  the  Holy 
3.  Westminster  Eschatologr:     «    .  A  .         .  ,    - 

particular  declarations.  Scriptures  have  been  prepared  for 

the  better  preserving  and  propa- 
gating of  the  truth,  and  for  the  more  sure  establishment  and  com- 
fort of  the  church  against  the  malice  of  Satan  and  of  the  world  : 
and  that  they  are  to  be  translated  into  the  vulgar  language  of 
every  nation,  in  order  that  the  divine  Word  may  dwell  plentifully 
in  all.  It  is  said  (V  :  vii)  that  the  providence  of  God  after  a  most 
special  manner  taketh  care  of  his  church,  anddisposeth  all  things 
to  the  good  thereof.  It  is  said  (VII  :  vi),  that  the  covenant  of 
grace,  or  offer  of  life  and  salvation  to  sinners  through  Christ  is, 
although  with  more  simplicity  and  less  outward  glory  than  in  the 
Hebraic  dispensation,  held  forth  under  the  Gospel  in  more  full- 
ness, evidence  and  spiritual  efficacy  to  all  nations,  both  Jews 
and  Gentiles.  It  is  said  (VIII)  that  God  hath  put  all  power  into 
the  hand  of  Christ  as  our  Mediator  ;  that  in  this  capacity  he  is  to 
bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent  of  evil  ;  that  by  his  almighty  power 
and  wisdom  he  will  in  his  own  manner  and  way  overcome  all  the 
enemies  of  his  people  ;  and  will,  after  sitting  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Father  to  make  intercession  for  the  saints,  return  at 
the  end  of  the  world  to  be  the  judge  of  men  and  angels. 

In  the  Larger  Catechism  (53-4)  it  is  added  that,  acting  thus 
as  Mediator,  Christ  gave  his  apostles  commission  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  all  nations, — that  he  ascended  into  the  highest  heavens 
there  to  receive  gifts  for  men, — that  in  his  ascended  state  he  has 
all  fullness  of  joy,  glory  and  power  over  all  things  in  heaven  and 
earth,  and  doth  both  gather  and  defend  his  church  and  subdue  all 
its  enemies.  It  is  said  (XXI  :  iv)  that  prayer  is  to  be  made  for 
all  things  lawful,  and  for  all  sorts  of  men  living,  or  shall  live 
hereafter  :  which  is  specialized  in  the  Larger  Cat.  (183-4)  as 
including  all  things  tending  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  welfare 
of  the  whole  church  of  Christ  on  the  earth.  In  the  subsequent 
exposition  of  the  prayer  taught  us  by  Christ,  we  are  still  more 
particularly  instructed  to  pray  that  God  would  prevent  and 
remove  all  atheism,  ignorance,    idolatry,   and  by  his  overruling 


MILLENNIUM  :     WESTMINSTKR   TEACHING.  735 

v>ri  ddence  direct  and  dispose  all  things  to  his  own  glory  :  specif- 
ically that  the  kingdom  of  sin  and  Satan  may  be  destroyed, — 
that  the  Gospel  may  be  propagated  throughout  the  world, — that 
the  Jews  may  be  called,  and  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  brought 
in, — that  the  church  may  be  furnished  with  all  that  is  essential 
to  the  discharge  of  her  great  commission  to  convert  and  save 
men, — that  Christ  would  hasten  the  time  of  his  second  coming 
and  our  reigning  with  him  forever, — and  finally  that  he  would 
be  pleased  so  to  exercise  the  kingdom  of  his  power,  or  his  gracious 
sovereignty,  in  all  the  world  as  may  best  conduce  to  these  ends. 
And  in  the  original  Directory  for  Worship  ministers  are  enjoined 
specifically  to  pray  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  and  king- 
dom of  Christ  to  all  nations,  for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  for 
the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles,  for  the  fall  of  Antichrist,  and  for  the 
hastening  of  the  second  coming  of  our  Lord  :  Minutes,  387. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  three  events  just  named  as  antecedent 
and  essential  conditions  to  the  establishment  of  Christianity  in 
the  millennial  form,  are  here  specified  as  objects  of  supplication, 
and  that  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  as  a  saving  message 
among  all  nations  was  directly  contemplated  by  the  Westminster 
divines  as  a  matter  of  hope  and  of  holy  desire.  It  may,  however, 
be  admitted  that  their  strict  doctrine  of  election  and  predestina- 
tion stood  in  the  way  of  their  full  dogmatic  apprehension  of  the 
objects  for  which  they  themselves  prayed,  and  enjoined  the  min- 
istry and  the  churches  under  their  care  continually  to  pray.  Hold- 
ing as  many  of  them  did  to  the  doctrine  of  Calvin,  that  God  has 
determined  in  himself  what  he  would  have  to  become  of  every 
individual  of  mankind,  and  that  eternal  life  is  foreordained  for 
some  and  eternal  damnation  for  others,  even  from  eternity,  they 
could  not  well  rise  in  their  theology  up  to  the  high  level  of  their 
pra3rers,  and  their  prayers  in  turn  were  doubtless  limited  in  sweep 
and  fervency  by  the  restrictions  imposed  by  their  theological 
belief.  Yet  it  is  obvious  that  they  were  in  fact  among  the  fore- 
most representatives  in  their  day  of  a  large  and  free  Gospel,  able 
in  its  provisions  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  world.  It  is  also  a 
precious  fact  that  later  Presbyterianism  has  attained  to  still 
broader  conceptions,  and  is  animated  by  a  still  larger  hope  con- 
cerning that  Gospel  and  its  adaptations  to  the  spiritual  necessities 
of  all  men,  whether  in  nominally  Christian  or  in  pagan  lands. 
The  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  has  well  expressed 
this  better  view  in  its  clear  declaration  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  decrees,  including  the  doctrine  of  election  to  eternal  life,  is  to 
be  held  in  connection  and  harmony  with  the  truth  that  God  is  not 


736  ESCHATOLOGY. 

vvilling  that  any  should  perish  but  that  all  should  come  to  repen- 
tance, and  that  he  has  provided  a  salvation  sufficient  for  all,  adapted 
to  all,  and  offered  to  all  in  the  Gospel.  Statements  no  less 
emphatic  appear  in  the  Declaration  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  in  the  Articles  of  the  English  Synod. 

American  Presbyterianism,  at  least  in  this  age,  has  with  com- 
paratively small  exception  planted  itself  on  this  broader  concep- 
tion. Its  Directory,  although  abbreviated  from  the  original, 
inculcates  no  less  fully  the  duty  of  public  intercession  for  others, 
including  the  whole  world  of  mankind,  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
or  his  church  universal,  and  for  the  interests  of  human  society  in 
general.  The  chapter  recently  inserted  in  it  calls  upon  all  Chris- 
tians by  their  gifts  to  promote  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  all  the 
world  and  to  every  creature,  according  to  the  command  of  Christ. 
The  chapter  on  the  Gospel,  proposed  in  the  Revision,  which 
doubtless  represents  the  belief  of  a  large  majority  of  the  Church, 
declares  expressly  that  God  has  provided  a  way  of  life  and  salva- 
tion sufficient  for  and  adapted  to  the  whole  lost  race  of  man  ;  that 
this  way  of  salvation  promises  eternal  life  to  all  who  truly  repent 
and  believe,  and  invites  all  to  accept  the  offered  mercy  ;  that 
Christ  has  commissioned  his  church  to  go  into  all  the  world  and 
to  make  disciples  of  all  nations  ;  and  that  all  believers  are  there- 
fore bound  to  contribute  by  their  prayers,  gifts  and  personal 
efforts  to  the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  throughout  the 
world.  The  chapter  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  proposed  in  the  same 
Revision,  also  represents  the  larger  view  in  the  declaration  that 
the  Spirit  is  everywhere  present  among  men,  preparing  the  way 
for  the  Gospel ;  that  he  accompanies  the  Gospel  with  his  persua- 
sive energies  and  urges  its  message  upon  the  reason  and  the 
conscience  ;  that  he  gives  efficacy  to  the  Word  and  the  ordi- 
nances, and  calls  and  endows  all  ministers  for  their  holy  office  ; 
and  finally  that  by  him  the  church  will  be  preserved,  increased 
and  purified,  until  it  shall  cover  the  earth.  Another  proof  may 
be  added  to  these  unofficial  declarations  in  the  fact  that  in  its  vast 
missionary  enterprises,  domestic  and  foreign,  American  Presby- 
terianism has  acted  steadily — not  on  the  theory  that  the  mere 
task  of  testifying  to  the  nations  concerning  Christ  and  his  grace 
is  sufficient,  and  that  the  number  of  the  elect,  called  from  among 
the  nations,  may  even  now  be  complete,  and  Christ  may  accord- 
ingly come  at  any  time  and  set  up  an  imperial  throne  among 
men,  the  work  of  the  Gospel  and  the  church  being  ended, — but 
rather  or.  the  broader  belief  that  the  Jewish  people  are  to  be  con- 
verted, the  Gentile  races  brought  into  the  fold,  Antichrist  finally 


PHYSICAL   DEATH.  73? 

overcome  by  Christian  agencies,  and  the  Gospel  of  grace  every- 
where triumphant  among  men.* 

Turning  from  this  interesting  branch  of  eschatological  doctrine, 
we  may  next  note  the  teaching  of  the  Westminster  divines  respect- 
ing the  article  of  Death,  viewed  in 

Its  theological  aspects  and  relations.  4-  Physical  Death,  its  theo- 
«,       .  ,       ■ _    .       -.  ,    .       logical    significance;    Creed 

The   term,   death,  is   often   used   in     „♦«,♦„.„,..,♦„ 
'  '  statements. 

the  Symbols  as  in  the  Scriptures  to 

describe  deadness  in  sin,  that  corruption  of  the  spiritual  nature 
which  is  said  to  be  conveyed  through  Adam  to  all  his  posterity, 
and  which  has  its  counterpart  in  the  intense  phrase,  defiled  in  all 
the  faculties  and  parts  of  soul  and  body.  But  we  contemplate 
here  only  physical  death,  which  is  represented  as  coming  into  the 
world  as  a  direct  punitive  result  of  human  sin.  Man  is  made 
subject  to  death  in  this  physical  sense  in  consequence,  first,  of  his 
original  sin  with  its  corruption  of  the  moral  nature,  and  then  of 
',;iat  actual  transgression  which  specially  binds  him  over  to  the 
zurse  of  the  law  and  the  wrath  of  God.  Physical  death  is  directly 
enumerated  (L,.  C,  28,  84  ;  S.  C,  19)  among  the  punishments 
of  sin  in  this  world,  and  as  the  appointed  wages  or  outcome  of 
personal  transgression.     The  Symbols  make  no  reference  to  the 

*So  far  as  the  language  of  reports  adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  may 
be  quoted  as  authoritative  illustrations  of  the  accredited  faith  of  the  living 
Church,  the  following  quotation  from  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  For- 
eign Missions  to  the  Assembly  of  1878  furnishes  an  interesting  confirmation 
of  the  view  here  presented  : 

The  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  country  has  planted  itself  from  the  begin- 
ning on  the  clear  and  broad  doctrine  of  Scripture,  that  this  world  is  yet  to 
be  converted  to  Christ,  and  that  the  forces  already  brought  into  requisition 
in  the  divine  economy  are  all  that  are  needful  to  the  securing  of  that  grand 
result.  The  Presbyterian  Church  believes,  that  in  his  written  Word  God 
has  revealed  all  the  truth  that  is  essential  to  the  enlightenment  and  salva- 
tion of  our  humanity.  The  Presbyterian  Church  believes  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  potent  enough  and  gracious  enough  to  justify  the  largest  anticipa- 
tions in  respect  to  the  regeneration  of  mankind.  The  Presbyterian  Church 
believes  that  the  living  Church,  as  established  by  Christ,  contains  within 
itself,  under  the  divine  guidance  and  quickening,  all  the  agencies  and 
resources  requisite  to  the  evangelization  of  the  whole  earth.  And  on  these 
cardinal  verities  of  Scripture  the  Presbyterian  Church,  discouraged  by  no 
outward  obstacles,  daunted  by  no  burdens,  now  and  always  plants  itself  in 
this  great  missionary  work  ;  by  these  it  justifies  the  offering  up  of  its  means 
and  the  sacrifice  of  its  beloved  sons  and  daughters  on  this  altar  :  in  them  it 
hopes  and  acts  and  prays,  and  in  them  it  will  ever  hope  and  act  and  pray, 
for  the  coming  of  a  kingdom  that  shall  be  righteousness  and  joy  and  peace 
in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  shall  increase  and  extend  until  it  has  filled  the 
earth. 


738  ESCHATOI.OGY. 

fact  that  the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds,  so  far  as  they  existed 
prior  to  the  creation  of  man,  were  subject  to  a  law  of  material 
decay  analogous  to  physical  death  in  him.  The  more  natural 
interpretation  of  their  teaching  is  that  man,  had  he  remained 
sinless,  would  have  been  lifted  above  the  range  of  this  general 
law  of  decay,  and  so  would  have  existed  on  the  earth  from  age 
to  age  without  any  wasting  of  his  native  powers,  and  without  the 
dark  experience  of  death.  Yet  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  their 
teaching  to  hold  that,  though  death  would  have  come  in  the' 
course  of  time  upon  his  bodily  organism,  as  upon  all  other  material 
organisms,  such  death  would  have  been  only  a  serene  and  happy 
translation,  void  of  all  painful  elements,  from  these  earthly  to 
some  celestial  scenes. 

Certainly  death  as  we  now  behold  it,  with  all  the  elements  and 
concomitants  that  make  it  so  solemn  and  so  dreadful  an  event,  has 
been  utilized  by  God  as  the  sign  and  emblem  of  his  feeling  towards 
sin,  and  of  his  purpose  to  punish  the  sinner.  As  such  it  has  come 
upon  the  entire  race,  and  remains  as  an  inexorable  decree  through 
all  the  generations.  We  have  here  a  most  impressive  illustration 
of  the  organic  unity  of  the  race,  and  of  that  solemn  law  of  repre- 
sentation, according  to  which,  under  the  divine  constitution  of 
things,  the  effects  of  action  flow  down  from  the  actor  upon  others, 
even  from  generation  to  generation.  Even  infants  and  imbecile 
persons  who  have  never  sinned  personally,  are  represented  as 
amenable  to  this  dread  law,  passing  under  the  universal  condem- 
nation in  consequence  of  their  sharing  in  the  Adamic  taint,  and 
therefore  capable  of  being  saved  only  through  Christ,  and  by  the 
gracious  ministrations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  alone.  Though  the 
Symbols  say  but  little  about  the  heathen  world,  yet  their  clear 
implication  is  that  the  heathen,  old  and  young,  die  because  they 
also  are  sinful  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  are  included  by  him  in  his 
comprehensive  judgment  upon  the  race.  So  far  as  his  solemn 
mandate  as  to  death  is  concerned,  no  distinction  is  found  to  exist 
between  Jew  and  Gentile,  between  the  dweller  in  Christian  lands 
and  the  pagan.  In  the  case  of  those  who  are  living  under  the 
clear  light  of  Revelation,  and  who  yet  refuse  to  obey  the  divine 
commands  or  to  accept  the  grace  offered  to  them  in  Christ,  death 
has  a  peculiarly  solemn  significance.  It  is  not  alone  the  fact  that 
they  belong  to  a  sinful  race  and  are  by  nature  exposed  to  its  stroke: 
God  solemnly  testifies  in  this  way  to  what  they  have  personally 
done  as  being  evil  in  his  sight,  and  in  inflicting  physical  death 
upon  them  gives  assurance  also  of  that  further  punishment  which 
their  personal  sin  has  justly  incurred. 


DEATH  :     ITS    THEOLOGICAL   SIGNIFICANCE.  739 

In  the  case  of  Christians,  physical  death  is  not  to  be  viewed  as 
penal,  though  it  ma}-  assume  the  aspect  of  chastisement  or  perhaps 
.le  aspect  of  disciplinary  culture.  Christ  has  pardoned  the 
believer  and  redeemed  him  in  this  sense  from  the  curse  of  violated 
aw,  But  he  ma}-  still  need  divine  correction  or  divine  chastise- 
ment while  in  his  earthly  condition,  and  death  itself  ma}-  have  for 
him  some  disciplinary  or  perchance  retributive  mission.  God  does 
not  save  even  the  saint  from  the  action  of  the  universal  law;  or 
even  from  as  severe  and  dreadful  pangs  in  death  as  befall  the 
greatest  unbeliever.  But  we  are  taught  that  he  does  so  far  change 
the  nature  of  death  in  the  case  of  the  righteous,  that  they  are 
(L.  C,  85)  delivered  from  the  sting  and  curse  of  it;  and  that, 
though  they  must  die  as  men,  the  event  has  its  source  and  explan- 
ation, not  so  much  in  the  wrath  of  God  as  in  his  love,  to  free  them 
perfectly  and  forever  from  sin  and  misery,  and  to  make  them 
capable  of  further  and  better  communion  with  Christ  in  glory. 
To  the  saint,  therefore,  the  event  becomes  not  a  curse,  but  rather 
a  precious,  crowning  benediction — a  divine  decree,  having  in  it 
the  twofold  object  just  stated,  and  being  therefore  a  final  seal  of 
the  blessed  covenant  into  which  he  has,  through  Christ,  been 
permitted  to  enter  with  God. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Confession  and  Catechisms  on  this  subject 
is  the  general  doctrine  of  the  Protestant  creeds,  and  the  universal 
belief  of  evangelical  Protestantism  in  our  time.  It  is  true  that 
comparatively  little  is  said  in  these  formularies  respecting  physical 
as  distinguished  from  spiritual  and  eternal  death :  it  was  on  the 
latter  that  stress  was  naturally  laid,  as  a  sequence  from  the  strong 
and  solemn  doctrine  held  by  the  Reformers  almost  universally 
touching  sin  and  its  moral  issues.  The  Belgic  Conf .  (XIV)  states 
their  general  view  in  the  proposition  that  man,  being  by  creation 
in  honor  understood  it  not,  neither  knew  his  excellency,  but  will- 
fully subjected  himself  to  sin,  and  consequently  to  death  and  the 
curse;  and  that  by  sin  he  separated  himself  from  God  who  was 
his  true  life,  having  corrupted  his  whole  nature,  whereby  he  made 
himself  liable  to  corporeal  and  spiritual  death.  The  Scotch  Conf. 
teaches  that  Christ  by  rising  again  for  our  justification  has 
destroyed  him  who  was  the  author  of  death,  and  has  brought  life 
again  to  us  who  were  subject  to  death  and  to  the  bondage  of  the 
same;  and  the  Irish  Articles  declare  in  biblical  phrase  that  death 
went  over  all  men  forasmuch  as  all  have  sinned.  Respecting  the 
righteous,  the  Heidelberg  Cat.  affirms  (42)  that  death  is  not  a  sat- 
isfaction for  their  sin,  but  only  a  dying  unto  sins  and  entering  into 
eternal  life.     It  is  noticeable  that  the  Council  of  Trent  maintains 


740  ESCHATOLOGY. 

substantially  the  same  doctrine  as  these  Protestant  formularies, 
affirming  that  through  his  offense  Adam  incurred  the  wrath  of 
God,  and  consequently  death,  with  which  God  had  previously 
threatened  him;  and  that  he,  being  defiled  by  that  sin  of  disobe- 
dience, has  transfused  death  and  the  pains  of  the  body  into  the 
whole  human  race. 

Such  is  plainly  the  generic  doctrine  of  Scripture  on  this  solemn 
theme;  nor  can  those  who  believe  in  its  teachings  as  conclusive 
accept  any  other,  and  least  of  all  any  merely  naturalistic  explan- 
ations or  hypotheses  on  a  matter  so  vital.  We  cannot  rest  in  the 
rationalistic  conception  that  physical  death  in  man  is  nothing  more 
or  less  than  the  application  to  him  of  a  law  which  is  stamped  upon 
the  system  of  nature  everywhere,  and  from  which  it  is,  therefore, 
as  impossible  for  him  to  escape  as  it  would  be  to  raise  himself  by 
mere  volition  or  by  physical  endeavor  above  the  atmosphere  that 
surrounds  the  earth.  Nor  can  we  accept  the  cold  dogma  of  specu- 
lative science,  which  excludes  God  and  his  will  from  this  dark 
experience  of  man,  and  refers  the  experience  to  the  mere  action 
of  impersonal  and  inexorable  forces.  Neither  can  we  shut  out  the 
doctrine  of  an  individualizing  or  particularistic  action  of  Provi- 
dence in  determining  for  every  human  being  the  time,  the  manner, 
the  condition  of  his  transition  through  this  narrow  gateway  into 
the  life  beyond.  Nor  can  we  consent  to  dissociate  death  and  sin, 
or  to  deny  that  the  latter  is  in  some  true  and  deep  sense  the  cause 
of  the  former;  death  having  passed  upon  all  men,  as  we  are  assured, 
for  that  all  have  sinned.  Evangelical  Protestants  can  hold  no 
other  belief  than  that,  at  least  in  its  present  painful  form,  death 
is  the  divinely  ordained  outgrowth  of  transgression — an  outgrowth 
so  broad  and  so  effectual  that  not  adult  transgressors  in  Christian 
lands  alone,  but  even  the  heathen  in  their  low  blindness  and  cor- 
ruption cannot  escape  it;  an  outgrowth  that  reaches  even  infants 
in  its  wide  sweep,  and  from  which  even  the  holiest  disciple  is  not 
exempt,  since  he  also  is  of  mortal  parentage,  though  for  him  the 
nature  of  death  is  graciously  changed,  and  its  gateway  becomes  to 
him  the  wide  door  to  a  purity  that  is  complete,  and  a  blessedness 
that  is  everlasting. 

Associated  with  this  thoroughly  biblical  view  of  death  stands 
the  confessional  doctrine  of  Immortality  as  an  original  endow- 
ment of  the  soul  in  man.     The  ques- 

5.    Immortality  :     evidences     tion  whether  there  is  for  man  a  life 
natural    and   biblical:    West-     b         d  h  .  w  h  death 

minster  teaching :  other  creeds.        .f  f. 

will    immediately    introduce    him, 

and  the  further  question  whether  that  life  will  be  temporary 


IMMORTALITY :     EVIDENCES.  741 

tfke  our  present  existence  or  unending  and  eternal,  have  inter- 
ested thoughtful  minds  in  all  lands  and  ages.  Apart  from  the 
conception  of  such  a  future  life,  religion  in  its  natural  varieties,  and 
eminently  in  its  Christian  form,  would  be — as  has  well  been  said 
—an  arch  resting  on  one  pillar,  a  bridge  ending  in  an  abyss.  Phil- 
osophy, especially  ethical  philosophy,  apart  from  this  conception 
not  only  loses  one  of  its  chief  charms,  but  misses  one  of  its  most 
substantial  supports.  Hence  Socrates  earnestly  argues  for  immor- 
tality in  the  Phaedo  and  elsewhere,  maintaining  that  the  soul, 
being  the  immaterial  part  of  man  and  far  superior  to  the  body, 
cannot  possibly,  when  separated  from  the  body,  be  dissipated  into 
nothingness.  Cicero  discourses  eloquently,  De  Immortalitate, 
on  the  foundations  of  the  universal  hope  that  man  shall  survive 
the  dissolution  of  his  bodily  organization.  And  in  all  subsequent 
ages  thoughtful  men,  both  pagan  and  Christian,  have  brooded 
over  the  answer  which  nature  and  reason  combine  to  give  to  the 
old  query  of  Job  whether  if  a  man  die,  he  shall  live  again  and 
live  forever. 

The  speculative  arguments  for  such  futurity  and  immortality 
of  existence  may  be  briefly  stated.  They  lie  partly  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  soul  itself  as  being,  so  far  as  it  can  be  discerned  in 
consciousness,  a  simple  and  uncompounded  essence  which  such 
an  event  as  death  cannot  possibly  destroy, — mere  change  of  form 
or  activity,  however  radical,  involving  no  necessary  change  in 
substance.  They  are  found  partly  in  the  natural  experiences  of 
the  soul,  such  as  that  law  or  principle  of  vital  continuity,  and  also 
of  conscious  supremacy,  which  belongs  essentially  to  our  person- 
ality, and  which  survives  within  us  through  all  the  changes  and 
diversities  of  the  present  life.  Kindred  evidence  is  derived  from 
the  obvious  survival  of  mental  and  moral  powers  in  undiminished 
vigor,  even  while  the  body  is  just  sinking  into  decay.  The  sense 
of  responsibility  also,  and  the  witness  of  conscience,  and  the  antici- 
pation of  award  or  retribution  not  merely  in  this  life  but  hereafter, 
are  rightly  adduced  in  further  confirmation.  The  instinctive 
yearnings  of  the  soul,  its  innate  aspirations  after  kno wedge,  its 
irrepressible  desire  to  live,  its  visions  of  future  activity  and  future 
fellowship,  greatly  increase  the  force  of  such  natural  argument. 
The  teleological  reasonings  based  on  the  divine  purpose  and  the 
divine  goodness  in  the  present  creation,  preservation,  equipment 
and  discipline  of  man,  point  strongly  toward  some  other  and 
higher  life  than  the  present :  and  the  moral  constitution  of  the 
race  as  a  race,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  moral  govern- 
ment evidently  administered  now  over  the  race  in  ways  which 


/4£  ESCHATOLOGY. 

constantly  suggest  fnturition,  certainly  confirms  that  conclusion. 
It  is  also  argued  that  the  perfection  of  human  society,  which  like 
the  perfection  of  the  individual  man  is  clearty  unattainable  in 
xhis  present  state  of  being,  furnishes  a  strong  presumption  in 
cavor  of  the  belief  that  such  a  perfected  condition  for  society  as 
well  as  for  man  individually  will  be  attained  hereafter.  The 
argument  of  Cicero  from  the  consensus  of  human  belief  in  immor- 
tality in  various  countries  and  ages  may  well  be  added  to  the  list 
of  such  reasonings.  There  are  also  some  analogies  in  physical 
nature,  such  as  the  apparent  permanence  of  life  in  the  midst  of 
continuous  mutations  and  convulsions,  which  make  some  illus- 
trative contribution  to  the  speculative  argument. 

It  is  to  be  admitted,  however,  that  shadows  of  doubt  rest  more 
or  less  heavily  on  all  such  reasonings,  even  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  present  them, — as  Cicero  confessed  after  reading  the  Phaedo. 
The  proposition  that  the  soul  is  simple  rather  than  compound 
cannot  be  positively  established,  nor  does  the  existence  of  human 
desires  or  aspirations  prove  conclusively  that  such  desires  or 
aspirations  will  be  gratified, — since  many  right  and  good  wishes  in 
this  life  bear  no  fruitage.  If  mental  and  moral  powers  in  some  cases 
survive  while  the  process  of  physical  decay  is  going  on,  there  are 
other  instances  in  which  consciousness  is  lost,  the  sense  of  person- 
ality fades  away,  and  all  the  higher  powers  seem  to  be  engulfed 
in  the  wreck  which  dashes  to  pieces  the  bodily  organism.  Inas- 
much as  justice  seems  not  to  be  secured  always  in  this  life,  it  must 
be  admitted  speculatively  that  justice  may  sometimes  fail  here- 
after, and  that  it  is  possible  that  the  sinner  may  escape  the 
consequences  of  his  sin  in  the  future — as  he  sometimes  seems  to 
escape  them  here.  The  argument  from  consensus  of  belief  cannot 
be  viewed  as  conclusive,  since  a  contrary  consensus,  or  at  least 
doubt,  and  in  many  cases  indifference  as  to  a  coming  life,  exist 
widely  among  men.  All  analogies  drawn  from  the  field  of  phys- 
ical existence  are  at  best  but  illustrative,  and  cannot  justify  a 
positive  conclusion.  And  after  all,  the  objector  may  say  with 
some  force  that  all  the  reasonings  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  can 
create  nothing  more  than  a  presumption  of  its  truth, — a  presump- 
tion which  leaves  room  for  reasonable  and  serious  questioning  on 
the  whole  matter. 

In  view  of  such  doubts  and  questionings,  we  must  turn  to  the 
Bible  if  anywhere  for  really  decisive  proof.  Here  all  doubts  are 
solved — all  unbelief  is  divinely  answered.  The  doctrine  of  immor- 
tality as  an  original  endowment  of  the  soul  is  indeed  one  of  the 
fundamental  elements  of  Christianity.     It  is  based  immediately 


IMMORTALITY  :     BIBLICAL   PROOFS.  743 

on  the  teachings  of  Scripture,  and  especially  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  centrally  on  the  words  of  Him  whose  mission  it  was  to 
Dring  life  and  immortality  to  light.  Whatever  may  be  said 
respecting  the  inevitable  incompleteness  of  the  great  argument 
from  nature,  there  can  be  no  question  concerning  the  truth  in  the 
minds  of  any  who  have  once  recognized  and  received  Jesus  Christ 
as  their  teacher  concerning  eternal  things.  The  Old  Testament 
contains  a  variety  of  evidences  which  indicate  that  the  doctrine  of 
future  if  not  of  perpetual  existence  was  divinely  made  known  to 
the  Hebrew  race,  and  was  accepted  among  them  as  an  unques- 
tionable article  of  belief.  Although  most  of  the  divine  stimulants 
brought  to  bear  upon  them  in  restraining  from  sin  and  inciting 
to  virtue  and  godliness,  were  drawn  from  the  present  life,  there 
is  much  more  than  recent  criticism  admits,  to  show  that  the  incen- 
tives drawn  from  a  life  to  come  did  reach  and  powerfully  control 
them  both  as  individuals  and  as  a  people.  But  the  testimony  of 
Christ  as  to  both  futurity  of  existence  and  perpetuity  of  existence 
is  clear  and  decisive :  more  than  all  other  teachers,  Gentile  or  He- 
brew, he  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  in  conjunction  with 
his  Gospel,  and  used  the  revelation  as  a  mighty  incentive  both  to 
faith  and  to  holy  living.  At  one  time  he  declares  that  all  the  right- 
eous who  are  joined  to  him  as  his  disciples  shall  live  forever  :  at 
another  he  solemnly  affirms  that  the  wicked  shall  not  be  blotted 
out  of  being  but  shall  have  an  eternal  existence  :  at  another  he 
announces  that  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice,  and 
shall  come  forth  to  an  eternity  of  life,  either  blessed  or  retribu- 
tive. His  own  resurrection  is  itself  a  conclusive  proof  of  the 
general  doctrine  :  death  cannot  mean  annihilation  since  he 
actually  lived  after  dying,  and  thereby  proved  that  in  him  we 
may  live  also.  His  apostles  took  up  his  teaching  and  unswerv- 
ingly repeated  and  emphasized  it,  as  if  the  doctrine  were  past  all 
possibility  of  challenge.  It  is  impracticable  to  introduce  specific 
illustrations  here  :  all  will  admit  that  whether  its  testimony  be 
true  or  false,  the  Bible  is  as  clear  and  decisive  on  this  doctrine  as 
language  can  make  it.  A  plain  and  solemn  alternative  thus  con- 
fronts us.  If  that  testimony  be  true,  then  the  beiiets  and  the 
hopes  of  the  soul  are  resting  on  impregnable  foundations  :  if 
it  be  false,  then  nothing  remains  but  either  such  probable  con- 
jectures as  nature  and  reason  may  supply,  or  the  impenetrable 
shadows  of  intellectual  and  moral  despair. 

On  these  biblical  grounds,  the  doctrine  was  incorporated  in  the 
first  of  the  Christian  creeds  in  the  concluding  phrase,  the  L,ife 
Everlasting.     We  see  it  also  in  the  vitam  venturi  seculi  of  the 


744  ESCHATOLOGY. 

Nicene,  and  the  vitam  aeternam  and  ignem  seternum  of  the  Atha- 
nasian  symbol.  The  confessions  of  the  Reformation  may  be 
said  universally  to  affirm  the  doctrine,  though  for  the  most 
part  in  the  form  of  general  allusion  rather  than  direct  state- 
ment. It  is  assumed,  as  in  the  passages  already  quoted  from 
the  Augsburg  and  Belgic  Confessions,  wherever  the  associ- 
ated doctrine  of  the  Judgment  is  introduced.  The  First  Hel- 
vetic expressly  declares  that  man  was  made  in  the  perfect  image 
of  God  spiritually,  but  was  composed  of  two  parts,  body  and 
spirit,  of  which  the  first  was  mortal  and  the  second  immor- 
tal, according  to  the  divine  arrangement.  The  Heidelberg 
Catechism  asserts  the  doctrine  of  immortal  existence  for  both  the 
righteous  and  the  wicked  in  its  terse  statement  that  God  created 
man  good,  and  after  his  own  image,  that  he  might  rightly  know 
God  his  Creator,  heartily  love  him,  and  live  with  him  in  eternal 
blessedness.  Then  it  adds  that  his  justice  requires  that  sin,  which 
is  committed  against  the  most  high  majesty  of  God,  be  also  pun- 
ished with  extreme,  that  is,  with  everlasting  punishment.  The 
Roman  and  the  Greek  creeds  also  teach  the  doctrine,  at  least  by 
implication,  as  in  their  injunctions  respecting  the  offering  of 
prayers  and  the  giving  of  alms  for  the  benefit  of  the  dead. 

Immortality  is  asserted  in  the  Westminster  Symbols  in  various 
ways.  It  is  clearly  implied  in  the  description  of  the  nature  of 
man  at  his  creation,  as  a  being  'made  in  the  image  of  God.  It  is 
directly  taught  elsewhere,  as  in  the  phrase,  having  an  immortal 
subsistence ,  and  in  the  associated  declaration  as  to  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  and  its  subsequent  union  with  the  soul  forever.  It 
is  also  taught  in  the  statement  concerning  the  issues  of  the  final 
judgment :  the  righteous,  it  is  said,  going  into  an  everlasting  life, 
and  there  receiving  the  fullness  of  joy  and  refreshing  that  shall 
come  from  the  presence  of  the  L,ord  for  evermore  ;  while  the 
wicked  who  know  not  God,  and  obey  not  the  Gospei,  are  said  to 
be  cast  into  eternal  torments,  and  to  be  punished  with  an  ever- 
lasting destruction  :  L,.  C,  89,  90;  S.  C. ,  19.  Such  passages 
show  beyond  question  that  the  writers  of  the  Symbols  regarded 
man  as  having  an  immortal  subsistence,  not  as  a  gift  of  grace, 
but  as  a  constitutional  endowment  distinguishing  him  from  all 
other  earthly  creatures,  and  allying  him  in  nature  and  essence 
with  God  forever.  They  do  not,  indeed,  suggest  any  of  those 
interesting  considerations  by  which  men  have  endeavored  to  prove 
the  fact  of  human  immortality  from  the  light  and  teachings  of 
nature.  But  their  appeal  to  the  Word  of  God  is  very  distinct 
and  conclusive,  and  the  fact  that  they  rather  assume  the  doctrine 


CONDITIONAL   IMMORTALITY.  745 

than  undertake  to  set  it  forth  in  logical  form,  is  itself  a  strong 

evidence  as  to  their  belief. 

At  this  point  we  are  confronted  by  the  counter  hypothesis  of 

an  immortality  not  inherent  but  conditioned  upon  character — the 

dogma    of    annihilationism.      This 

,  &  ,  .  6.    Conditional  Immortality: 

dogma,  somewhat  current  in  more     Annihilationism. 

recent  times,  and  in  some  aspects 

specially  injurious  to  faith,  affirms  in  general  that  immortality, 
or  endlessness  of  existence,  is  the  peculiar  heritage  of  the  right- 
eous, communicated  by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  grace,  as  the 
final  reward  of  their  faith  and  obedience;  and  that  the  souls  of  the 
unholy  perish  judicially  as  their  bodies  perish,  either  at  death,  or 
after  some  assigned  period  of  penalty,  or  at  the  last  judgment. 
The  doctrine  that  endless  existence  is  an  original  endowment  of 
the  soul  is  thus  set  aside,  and  immortality  is  made  a  conditional 
and  also  a  gracious  experience.  The  arguments  urged  in  favor 
of  this  belief  are  derived  from  various  sources,  natural  and 
biblical.  It  is  claimed  in  general  that  the  strong  language  of  the 
Bible  respecting  the  destruction  of  the  wicked,  their  being  swept 
away  before  the  whirlwind  of  divine  vengeance,  their  being  cast 
off  into  outer  darkness  and  there  lost  forever,  justifies  this  con- 
clusion ;  and  further,  that  on  many  grounds  it  is  more  consonant 
with  what  we  know  of  the  character  of  God  and  of  his  admin- 
istration over  men,  and  with  the  essential  equities  of  the  case,  to 
believe  that  he  will  finally  annihilate  the  wicked  rather  than 
preserve  them  in  an  unending  estate  of  misery. 

More  specifically,  it  is  maintained  that  there  is  no  positive  war- 
rant in  nature  for  the  affirmation  that  the  soul  whether  material 
or  immaterial  is  intrinsically  immortal  :  it  may  live  for  a  period 
more  or  less  prolonged  after  death,  and  yet  become  ultimately 
altogether  unconscious  of  existence.  It  is  said  that  the  soul 
must  depend  for  its  immortality  and  for  the  continuance  of  its 
consciousness  on  the  upholding  power  of  God,  and  that  he  may 
at  his  option  and  for  adequate  reason  at  any  time  withdraw  that 
sustaining  power,  and  suffer  the  sinful  soul  to  drop  into  oblivion. 
It  is  also  held  that  sin  is  a  disorder  of  such  nature  that,  having 
no  permanent  ground  of  existence  in  itself,  it  may  finally  destroy 
the  soul  that  is  possessed  by  it,  and  may  thus  itself  become 
extinct.  It  is  urged  that  the  penalty  of  sin  is  not  positive  inflic- 
tion of  suffering  but  rather  the  privation  of  good,  and  that  the 
extreme  of  penalty  is  to  make  such  privation  absolute  and  endless. 
It  is  argued  that  the  goodness  and  mercy  of  God  will  constrain 
Mm  finally  by  some  beneficent  process  to  blot  out  forever  those 


746  ESCHATOLOGY. 

whom  he  finds  to  be  incorrigibly  sinful.  It  is  further  argued 
that  the  welfare  and  the  final  triumph  and  glory  of  the  divine 
government  would  be  enhanced  even  by  the  judicial  destruction 
eternally  of  those  who  oppose  it.  It  is  also  maintained  that  this 
hypothesis  relieves  us  from  the  dark  alternative  of  eternal  sin 
and  eternal  damnation.  And  finally  it  is  held  that  immortality 
and  fullness  of  life  would  thus  be  seen  to  be  the  proper  reward 
of  the  good  through  divine  grace,  and  would  continue  to  be  their 
reward  and  their  joy  forevermore.  It  is  admitted  by  some  advo- 
cates that  some  degree  of  future  penalty  may  be  requisite  to 
vindicate  the  divine  government  and  character,  and  that  conse- 
quently such  annihilation  may  not  occur  at  death  or  in  any  brief 
period  thereafter,  but  may  be  deferred  even  until  the  general 
judgment  when,  as  one  part  of  that  transcendent  event,  the 
wicked  may  one  and  all  be  swept  out  of  existence  forever.  Cer- 
tain passages  of  Scripture,  from  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New,  in  some  instances  suggesting  utter  death  and  destruction  to 
the  evil  and  in  others  pledging  glory  and  honor  and  an  immortality 
of  blessedness  to  the  holy,  are  quoted  in  support  of  these  more 
general  considerations  :  White,  Life  in  Christ. 

It  might  be  urged  as  a  sufficient  reply  to  the  biblical  argument, 
that  the  deep  silence  of  Scripture  as  to  such  an  event  as  is  thus 
described,  must  of  itself  be  conclusive.  If  the  wicked  were  all  to 
be  destroyed  at  the  final  judgement,  for  example,  it  is  reasonable 
to  expect  that  in  the  repeated  and  specific  and  intensely  real 
descriptions  of  that  great  transaction,  there  would  be  some  hint 
of  an  immortality  that  hinged  upon  its  solemn  testing.  But 
further :  there  is  certainly  no  adequate  ground  for  interpret- 
ing such  biblical  terms  as  destruction  and  death,  and  such 
startling  metaphors  as  are  sometimes  found  in  the  Bible,  as  if 
they  signified  the  actual  cessation  of  conscious  existence  ;  since 
it  is  obvious  that  such  language  often  refers,  as  in  the  instance 
of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  to  a  state  of  failure  or  loss  or 
desolation  which  is  not  final  or  irremediable  :  Plumptre,  Spirits  in 
Prison.  In  reply  to  the  more  general  argumentation  it  is  sufficient 
to  note,  first,  that  this  hypothesis  is  entirely  at  variance  with  the 
clear  and  positive  doctrine  of  universal  immortality  suggested  by 
so  many  speculative  presumptions,  and  abundantly  verified  in  the 
inspired  Word  :  secondly,  that  the  fact  of  present  sin  suggests 
the  possibility  of  the  continuance  of  sin,  and  consequently  of 
sinners,  even  eternally  ;  and  in  like  manner,  the  fact  of  present 
punishment  and  of  punishment  after  death,  justifies  the  presump- 
tion that  punishment,   like  sin,   may  continue  forever  :  thirdly, 


ANNIHILATION.  747 

that  such  a  catastrophe  as  annihilation  would  seem  to  frustrate 
the  very  purpose  of  God  in  the  creation  of  the  multitudes  who  are 
thus  to  be  swept  as  worthless  chaff  out  of  being  :  fourthly,  that 
this  dogma  involves  a  serious  impugning  of  the  divine  government 
and  administration,  and  also  a  dark  reflection  upon  the  divine 
goodness  and  mercy,  since  God  is  compelled  at  last  to  accept  such 
a  dreadful  alternative  :  fifthly,  that  it  implies  a  subversion  of  the 
idea  of  penalty,  an  abrogation  of  the  solemn  law  of  retribution, 
and  the  escape  of  the  sinner  from  a  doom  such  as  his  guilt 
deserves  :  and  finally,  that  there  is  nothing  in  such  a  hypothesis 
which  removes  or  even  lightens  the  pain  which  the  righteous 
suffer  in  contemplating  the  fact  of  eternal  sin,  followed  under  a 
law  of  moral  necessity  by  eternal  condemnation.* 

There  are  no  clear  traces  of  the  existence  of  this  erroneous 
dogma  in  Protestant  circles  during  the  long  period  in  which  the 
Protestant  creeds  were  receiving  their  form,  and  we  therefore  find 
in  them  no  direct  reference  to  it.  But  what  they  do  affirm 
respecting  the  life  to  come  and  its  issues,  both  before  the  general 
judgment  and  after,  is  entirely  inconsistent  with  any  such  doc- 
trine. They  proceed  invariably  on  the  basis  of  the  continued 
existence  of  the  wicked  as  truly  as  of  the  righteous :  they 
nowhere  intimate  that  the  penalties  of  sin  are  to  be  removed  in 
eternity,  and  still  less  that  there  is  a  time  to  come  when  the  sin 
and  the  sinner  will  be  extinguished  together.  That  the  Symbols 
follow  the  general  trend  of  the  Protestant  Confessions  in  exclud- 
ing this  error  cannot  be  doubted,  though  the  exclusion  be 
implied  rather  than  formal.  Their  uniform  teachings  respecting 
the  general  judgment,  the  life  to  come,  the  eternal  condition  of 
mankind,  are  wholly  inconsistent  with  any  other  interpretation, 
and  their  biblical  references  are  decisive.  They  nowhere  recognize 
the  view  that  death  and  destruction  and  other  kindred  terms  in 
the  New  Testament  always  or  even  generally  imply  extinction  of 
being.  These  terms  are  often  used  in  Scipture,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  describe  varieties  of  loss,  failure,  desolation,  both  temporal 
and  spiritual,  which  are  not  in  their  nature  remediless,  and  which 

*Edwards  in  his  solemn  discourse  on  the  Eternity  of  Hell  Torments  argues 
against  the  theory  of  annihilation  on  the  ground  that  a  state  of  annihilation 
is  not  a  state  of  suffering  or  of  punishment, — that  consciousness  is  an  essen- 
tial condition  in  such  punishment, — that  this  theory  nullifies  the  conception 
of  degrees  in  penalty, — that  the  second  death  described  in  Scripture  must  be 
something  different  from  the  mere  cessation  of  being, — and  that  there  are 
stringent  reasons  in  the  divine  administration  why  positive  punishment 
should  be  eternal — even  the  goodness  of  God  toward  the  moral  universe  as 
well  as  his  justice  demanding  such  endlessness  of  penalty. 


748  ESCHATOLOGY. 

fall  in  man}'  instances  very  far  short  of  utter  annihilation.  In  like 
manner  the  term  death,  as  applied  in  the  Bible  to  the  present 
condition  of  the  sinful  soul,  by  no  means  implies  that  the  soul 
has  perished  or  is  to  perish  and  be  blotted  out  eternally,  even 
though  that  condition  of  sin  should  become  characteristic  of  it 
forever.  And  the  manner  in  which  the  Westminster  divines 
employ  such  terms  shows  beyond  question  that  this  theory  had 
no  place  whatever  in  their  convictions  ; — shows  rather  that  they 
regarded  all  men  as  alike  inherently  immortal,  and  believed  in 
an  eternity  of  being  for  the  sinful,  as  truly  as  for  those  who  have 
received  salvation  through  Christ.  The  fact  that  they  sometimes 
used  the  term,  immortality,  as  the  Bible  itself  does,  in  a  special 
sense  to  describe  not  merely  endlessness  of  being,  but  also  an  end- 
less and  ineffable  felicity  of  being  in  the  immediate  presence  of 
God,  in  no  way  affects  their  general  teaching. 

Holding  therefore  to  the  doctrine  of  an  immortal  life  for  the 

holy  and  the  unholy  alike,  when  death  shall  have  wrought  its  work 

in  the  dissolution  of  the  ties  which 

7.  The  Intermediate  Life :  its    bind  bod    and     irit  together  in  this 

eeneral  characteristics.  ,'      ,  .  A        L   , 

mortal  state,  we  are  at  once  interested 

in  the  further  question  respecting  the  nature  and  qualities  of  that 
condition  of  being  into  which  the  soul  is  thus  ushered.  It  is 
styled  theologically  the  Intermediate  State  or  Life,  as  lying 
between  death  and  that  remote  resurrection  in  which  the  vital  ties, 
for  a  time  dissolved,  shall  be  again  restored  in  an  indissoluble  and 
eternal  form.  It  will  be  obvious  at  once  that  this  is  a  prolonged 
state  of  being,  extending  from  the  beginning  of  history  through 
all  the  ages  of  the  world  down  to  the  hour  when  the  last 
members  of  the  race  shall,  without  passing  through  death,  be 
changed  as  in  a  moment  at  the  dawning  of  the  day  of  judgment. 
It  is  obvious  also  that  those  who  already  dwell  in  this  universe  of 
the  dead  outnumber  incalculably  all  who  are  now  living  on  the 
earth,  and  that  this  innumerable  multitude  may  be,  probably  will 
be,  increased  many  fold  before  the  end  of  human  history.  The 
further  fact  that  many  of  our  friends  and  associates  have  already 
entered  that  shadowy  realm,  and  that  within  a  brief  period  we  our- 
selves shall  become  members  of  this  vast  concourse  of  disembodied 
spirits,  deepens  beyond  all  power  of  expression  our  sense  of  the 
significance  of  the  inquiry  respecting  the  nature  and  general  char- 
acteristics of  the  Intermediate  Life. 

The  primary  question  to  be  considered  here  is  the  question 
whether  the  soul  during  the  period  of  its  separation  from  the  body 


THE   INTERMEDIATE   EIFE.  749 

onward  to  the  resurrection  remains  in  a  state  of  quiescence  or 
torpor,  or  is  conscious  and  active,  having  true  and  proper  exercise 
of  its  rational  and  spiritual  powers.  The  Symbols  say  nothing 
that  would  favor  the  notion  of  quiescence  or  slumber  during  this 
long  interval.  They  directly  declare  (XXXII  :  1)  that  the  souls 
of  all  men  neither  die  nor  sleep  after  death,  but  do  immediately 
return  as  in  true  consciousness  to  Him  who  gave  them.  They 
also  describe  in  explicit  terms  the  two  estates  into  which  these 
souls  pass  respectively  at  death,  and  their  description  invariably 
implies  a  conscious  and  active  existence,  whether  it  be  one  of 
felicity  in  the  immediate  presence  of  God,  or  of  absence  from  him 
and  of  retributive  torment.  In  the  Smaller  Catechism  (37)  it  is 
explicitly  taught  that  the  souls  of  believers  are  at  their  death 
made  perfect  in  holiness  and  do  immediately  pass  into  glory, — a 
statement  which  is  absolutely  exclusive  of  the  theory  of  an  inter- 
mediate condition  of  torpor.  More  fully  still,  the  righteous  soul 
is  said  (L.  C,  86)  to  be  received  immediately  after  death  into  the 
highest  heavens,  there  to  behold  the  face  of  God  in  light  and 
glory,  and  there  to  wait  for  the  redemption  of  its  body,  and  for 
the  wonderful  union  that  shall  follow.  L,ike  affirmations,  though 
less  full,  are  made  respecting  the  soul  that  has  passed  under  the 
experience  of  death  while  in  a  state  of  wickedness  and  unbelief. 
And  it  is  added,  that  besides  these  two  places  or  conditions,  both 
of  which  are  seen  to  involve  consciousness  and  activity,  the 
Scripture  acknowledgeth  none. 

These  declarations  will  be  better  understood,  if  we  call  to  mind 
the  antecedent  symbolism  on  this  subject.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  dogma  that  the  soul  sleeps  in  entire  unconsciousness  during 
the  period  intermediate  between  death  and  the  resurrection  has 
found  occasional  advocates  in  both  the  ancient  and  the  medieval 
church, — sometimes  in  the  form  here  stated,  sometimes  in  the 
grosser  form  of  an  absolute  death  of  the  soul  in  conjunction  with 
the  decease  of  the  body,  to  be  followed  by  a  resurrection  of  both 
body  and  soul  and  their  union  again  at  the  general  judgment. 
It  is  also  a  familiar  fact  that  the  dogma  obtained  some  degree  of 
currency  in  Protestant  circles,  especially  among  the  Anabaptists, 
at  the  very  outset  of  the  Reformation.  There  are  expressions  in 
the  writings  of  Luther  which  would  seem  to  imply  that  he  at  one 
time  favored  it.  The  first  theological  treatise  of  Calvin,  De  Psy- 
chopannychia,  was  written  to  confute  it.  The  continental  creeds 
without  exception  imply  the  contrary,  though  the  dogma  is 
nowhere  formally  stigmatized  in  them  as  heretical.  The  British 
symbols  are  more  explicit,  opposition  to  the  heresy  evidently  hav- 


750  ESCHATOLOGY. 

ing  grown  up  in  Britain  during  the  period  immediately  following 
the  Reformation.  The  most  distinct  and  positive  declaration  is  that 
of  the  Scotch  Confession  (Art.  XVII),  which  doubtless  furnishes 
the  key  to  the  Westminster  statements.  The  language  of  the 
Scotch  Confession  is  so  strong  and  so  quaint  that  it  deserves  quo- 
tation here:  The  Elect  departed  are  in  peace,  and  rest  fra  their 
labours:  Not  that  they  sleep,  and  come  to  a  certaine  oblivion,  as 
some  Phantastickes  do  affirm:  bot  that  they  are  delivered  fra  all 
feare  and  torment,  and  all  temptatioun,  to  quhilk  we  and  all 
Goddis  Elect  are  subject  in  this  life.  ...  As  contrariwise,  the 
reprobate  and  unfaithfnll  departed  haue  anguish,  torment  and 
paine,  that  cannot  be  expressed.  So  that  nouther  are  the  ane  nor 
the  uther  in  sik  sleep  that  they  feel  not  joy  or  torment. 

In  view  of  certain  tendencies  of  our  time,  it  is  important  to 
emphasize  this  doctrine.  The  argument  of  Whately  (Future 
State),  from  passages  which  speak  of  death  as  a  sleep,  and  of  the 
resurrection  as  an  awakening  from  sleep,  and  also  from  the  final 
judgment  as  being  the  first  divine  adjudication  upon  the  character 
•  and  deserts  of  the  soul,  does  not  satisfy  his  own  mind,  and  is 
practically  set  aside  in  the  very  volume  that  presents  it.  Isaac 
Taylor,  in  his  Physical  Theory  of  Another  Life,  urges  a  similar 
argument,  wholly  speculative,  based  on  the  notion  that  corporeity 
and  locality  are  essential  to  conscious  activity  on  the  part  of  the 
human  soul.  But  the  fact  that  God  exists  above  locality  and  cor- 
poreity, and  that  angels,  so  far  as  we  know,  are  as  conscious  and 
active,  though  disembodied,  as  we  are  in  the  present  life,  seems  a 
sufficient  answer  to  this  argument.  That  the  intermediate  life 
within  whose  vast  domain  such  countless  millions  are  already 
dwelling,  is  not  a  long  sleep  but  rather  a  conscious  and  an  active 
life,  may  be  positively  affirmed.  This  affirmation  rests  primarily 
on  the  numerous  and  cumulative  statements  of  both  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New, — specifically  on  the  words  of  our  Lord 
touching  the  patriarchs  as  still  in  conscious  existence,  his  parables 
such  as  that  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  his  promise  to  the  crucified 
thief;  and  on  the  repeated  declarations  of  Paul  and  Peter  and 
John,  and  the  sublime  representations  of  the  Apocalypse.  Such 
consciousness  involves  the  knowledge  by  the  soul  of  itself  as 
existing,  and  as  being  itself  and  not  another.  It  implies  the 
exercise  of  intellect  and  emotion  and  purpose,  and  the  ability  to 
apprehend  such  exercise  in  others.  It  includes  not  only  the  power 
to  will,  but  the  putting  forth  of  volitions — perhaps  with  far  wider 
range  than  was  possible  to  the  actor  while  in  the  flesh.  There 
can  be  no  valid  objection  to  this  suggestion,  drawn  from  the  fact 


THE   SOUL   CONSCIOUS,    ACTIVE,    MORAL.  751 

that  the  soul  is  disembodied,  and  is  therefore  without  the  physical 
media  which  are  requisite  to  such  exercises  in  the  present  life. 
Such  consciousness  and  such  activity  belong  of  right  to  the  con- 
ception of  pure  spirit  as  distinguished  from  man.  Moreover,  the 
same  divine  power  which  now  enables  a  human  soul  to  live  and 
act  in  and  through  its  corporeal  frame,  may  qualify  it  to  live  and 
act,  perhaps  in  much  greater  efficiency,  when  freed  from  such 
physical  limitations.  The  speculations  of  Whately  and  Taylor 
are  clearly  invalid  :  a  deeper  philosophy  certifies  that  the  soul  can 
be  and  is  both  conscious  and  active  after  death  as  before. 

Further  :  this  intermediate  life  is  also  a  moral  life — a  condi- 
tion in  which  conscience  is  as  truly  exercised  as  reason  or  feeling, 
in  which  the  will  may  be  set  as  here  upon  right  or  wrong  forms  of 
activity,  and  in  which  character  is  as  truly  exhibited  and  devel- 
oped as  amid,  the  scenes  and  experiences  of  time.  Whatever 
reasons  there  are  for  believing  that  the  soul  will  exist  in  a  disem- 
bodied condition,  and  will  in  that  condition  have  all  its  innate 
powers  in  conscious  play,  constitute  so  many  reasons  for  believing 
equally  in  its  ethical  endowment  and  ethical  experience  also. 
Death,  whatever  else  it  may  take  away,  does  not,  cannot,  disrobe 
the  soul  of  character  :  the  man  in  all  his  moral  faculties  and 
capabilities  survives  its  shock  and  its  strange  transmutations.  It 
follows  that  the  intermediate  life  must  also  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  be  retributive — a  life  of  awards  or  punishments  which  are 
directly  consequent  upon  the  earthly  career.  Without  antici- 
pating two  or  three  questions  which  will  arise  a  little  later,  we 
may  simply  note  here  the  obvious  fact  that,  as  death  ushers  the  soul 
into  the  more  immediate  presence  of  God,  in  full  consciousness 
and  in  the  exercise  of  all  its  faculties,  wearing  the  robe  of  char- 
acter which  has  been  woven  by  it  amid  the  experiences  and  tests 
of  time,  that  soul  must  meet  either  the  divine  approval  or  the 
divine  condemnation  in  view  of  what  God  as  judge  sees  it  in  that 
decisive  hour  to  be.  It  is  also  obviously  the  teaching  of  Scrip- 
ture that  in  that  solemn  adjudication  the  character,  however 
mutable  in  this  life,  assumes  its  final  form, — that  the  moral 
status  of  the  soul  is  then  and  there  determined,  and  that  the 
experiences  which  follow  thereafter  are  in  the  nature  either 
of  reward  or  of  penalty  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  And 
it  may  also  be  suggested  at  this  point  that  this  biblical  teaching 
is  corroborated  by  the  spontaneous,  the  intense,  the  solemn 
convictions  of  mankind  ;  the  righteous  dying  not  in  the  expec- 
tation of  sleeping  in  unconsciousness  until  the  resurrection,  but 
rather  in  the  anticipation  of  immediate  benediction  and  blessing; 


752  ESCHATOLOGY. 

the  unholy  dying  in  similar  anticipation  of  some  distinct  and 
dread  disapproval  of  their  worldly  lives,  their  unworthy  charac- 
ters before  God. 

It  is  also  important  to  note  still  further,  that  this  intermediate 
life  is  not,  like  the  present,  a  condition  of  intermingling  and  com- 
panionship on  the  part  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  but  is 
rather  a  life  of  separation  between  those  two  classes — a  separa- 
tion complete  and  perpetual.  So  far  as  we  can  conceive  of  place 
as  applicable  to  the  conception  of  disembodied  spirit,  the  Scrip- 
tures sometimes  present  to  us  the  thought  of  one  vast  universe  in 
which  all  the  dead  are  congregated  ;  but  more  often  we  derive 
from  them  the  impression  of  two  such  universes,  as  far  apart  from 
each  other  as  are  the  characters  of  those  who  respectively  inhabit 
them.  The  Hebrew  Sheol  and  the  Greek  Hades  in  some  instances 
suggest  simply  the  grave  where  the  dead  are  sleeping  together, 
and  in  others  the  great  world  where  the  dead  are  congregated  in 
consciousness,  without  special  recognition  of  any  division  or 
separation  based  on  character.  Yet  these,  like  the  more  specific 
terms,  Paradise  and  Gehenna,  not  infrequently  convey  the  added 
thought  that  the  intermediate  life  is  not  a  place  of  indiscriminate 
fellowship,  but  rather  a  condition  of  separation,  provided  for 
even  by  the  natural  repulsion  between  good  and  evil,  but  directly 
prescribed  by  divine  ordination.  It  is  therefore  in  full  harmony 
with  inspired  teaching  to  speak  of  two  universes  rather  than 
one — two  moral  conditions  as  widely  divided  as  the  most  radical 
diversities  in  character  can  make  them.  The  papal  dogma  of 
other  subordinate  distinctions  of  place,  such  as  purgatory,  the 
limbus  patrum  or  the  abode  of  the  souls  of  the  devout  who  died 
before  the  advent  of  Christ,  and  the  limbus  infantum  where  those 
who  die  before  they  have  reached  the  age  of  moral  responsibility 
are  gathered,  may  be  dismissed  without  discussion  as  a  mere 
speculation  wholly  void  of  biblical  warrant.  The  antithetic  con- 
ceptions of  heaven  and  hell,  and  no  others,  lie  as  truly  in  the 
biblical  picture  of  the  intermediate  life  as  in  its  disclosure  of  what 
transpires  after  the  last  judgment. 

Over  against  the  general  doctrine  of  the  Intermediate  Life 
thus  sketched  in  outline  stand  three  opposite  theories,  the  purga- 
torial, the  naturalistic,  and  the  pro- 
9     Opposite  Theories:   pur-     ,      .  ,       „      ,  .  , 

gatorial,  naturalistic,  proba-  bationary,  each  of  which  requires 
tionary.  some  passing    examination.  —  The 

purgatorial  dogma,  as  held  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  since  the  age  of  Gregory,  relates  not  to 
the  great  multitude  of  disembodied  spirits,  but  simply  to  those 


INTERMEDIATE   UFE  :     FALSE   THEORIES.  753 

members  of  that  communion  who  are  not  at  death  sufficiently 
sanctified  to  be  worthy  of  admission  to  heaven  itself — that  middle 
class,  to  use  the  phrase  of  Augustine,  who  are  neither  too  good 
to  need  such  purification  nor  too  bad  to  have  it  granted  to  them. 
The  Decrees  of  Trent  and  the  Tridentine  Profession  simply 
assert  the  existence  of  such  a  place  of  disciplinary  and  purifying 
preparation,  in  which  souls  of  this  class  are  for  a  smaller  or 
greater  period  detained  until  the  process  of  grace  is  completed  ; 
and  further  say  that  this  sanctifying  process  may  be  hastened  and 
the  door  of  heaven  earlier  opened  through  the  suffrages  of  the 
faithful  on  earth,  and  principally  through  the  acceptable  sacri- 
fice of  the  altar,  and  the  saying  of  masses  for  the  dead.  The 
Greek  Church  in  like  manner  declares  (L,.  Cat.  376),  that  those 
who  have  departed  this  life  in  the  faith  but  without  having  time 
to  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance,  may  be  aided  toward  a 
blessed  resurrection  (or  restoration)  by  prayers  offered  in  their 
behalf,  especially  pra37ers  offered  in  union  with  the  oblation  of 
the  sacrifice  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  by  works  of 
mercy  done  in  faith  for  their  memory.  Moehler  maintains  that 
the  hypothesis  of  such  a  purgatorium  is  an  indispensable  adjunct 
of  the  Roman  doctrine  of  justification, — that  it  is  inconceivable 
that  by  some  violent  mechanical  process  sin  should  be  altogether 
purged  out  of  the  sinful  spirit  at  the  instant  when  the  body 
dies, — and  that  the  opposite  theory,  as  Protestants  hold  it,  is 
incompatible  with  the  whole  moral  government  of  the  world. 

To  this  papal  dogma  which  was  proving  to  be  such  a  source  of 
profit  and  influence  to  the  priesthood,  and  of  bewilderment 
and  superstition  among  the  people  at  the  dawn  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, Protestantism  from  the  outset  proclaimed  its  earnest  antago- 
nism,— everywhere  affirming  with  Zwingli  that  sacred  Scripture 
knows  and  reveals  no  purgatorium  after  this  life.  The  Augsburg 
Conf .  describes  the  Roman  mass  as  a  work  which  is  supposed  to 
take  away  the  sins  of  the  living  and  of  the  dead  also,  and  declares 
that  on  this  basis  justification  for  both  the  living  and  the  dead 
becomes  a  work  of  masses  rather  than  an  act  of  faith  in  Christ. 
It  is  needless  to  refer  specifically  to  the  strong  condemnation  of 
the  Roman  doctrine  and  usage,  found  in  the  subsequent  conti- 
nental creeds.  The  earlier  British  formularies  are  still  more 
intense  in  their  repudiation  ;  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  speaking 
for  all  in  its  terse  statement  (XXII)  that  the  Romish  doctrine 
concerning  purgatory  is  a  fond  thing,  vainly  invented,  and 
grounded  upon  no  warranty  of  Scripture,  but  rather  repugnant  to 
the  Word  of  God.     The  Symbols,  after  speaking  of  heaven  and 


754  ESCHATOLOGY. 

hell,  (XXXII  :  i)  declare  that  besides  these  two  places  for  souls 
separated  from  their  bodies,  the  Scripture  acknowledgeth  none  : 
and  in  the  chapter  on  Worship,  and  also  in  the  Larger  Cat. 
(183),  directly  prohibit  all  prayer  or  intercession  for  the  dead. 
The  Tridentine  Council  affirmed  the  dogma  on  the  ground  that 
it  is  warranted  by  the  voice  of  ancient  councils  and  the  tradition 
of  the  fathers,  and  also  by  the  authority  of  the  sacred  writings. 
But,  aside  from  the  fact  that  neither  the  ancient  councils  nor  the 
patristic  teachings  are  at  all  unanimous  in  its  favor,  the  dogma 
is  entirely  without  distinct  support  in  the  Bible.  The  purifica- 
tion which  our  L,ord  and  the  apostles  describe,  is  a  purification 
antecedent  to  death  :  nothing  in  their  delineations  of  the  inter- 
mediate life  carries  with  it  any  positive  suggestion  that,  whether 
by  fire  or  discipline  or  in  any  other  way,  the  souls  of  believers 
are  essentially  changed  during  that  state  or  form  of  existence. 
On  the  other  hand,  this  dogma  is  in  direct  antagonism  with  much 
that  is  taught  in  the  Scriptures  respecting  the  fixed  estate  of  the 
soul  in  eternity,  and  the  necessity  for  preparation  for  the  future 
life  while  we  are  in  the  flesh.  Other  errors,  such  as  the  notion 
of  human  merit  in  the  sphere  of  grace,  and  of  works  of  supere- 
rogation, are  inextricably  involved  in  this  dogma.  It  is  also  a 
false  assumption  that  the  priesthood  or  the  church  can  have  any 
real  influence  with  God  in  the  way  of  affecting  the  condition  of 
the  dead.  The  power  to  bind  and  loose,  conferred  by  our  L,ord 
on  the  apostles  and  through  them  on  his  earthly  church,  cannot 
justly  be  regarded  as  extending  to  or  being  truly  instrumental 
in  the  binding  or  loosing  of  souls  beyond  the  grave.  And  if  we 
add  to  all  this  the  historical  fact  that  this  dogma  has  for  centu- 
ries been  and  still  is  a  fountain  of  both  corruption  and  supersti- 
tion within  the  Roman  communion,  we  are  justified  in  setting  it 
aside  as,  in  the  language  of  the  Anglican  Article,  a  fond  thing, 
vainly  invented,  without  warrant  in  Scripture  and  repugnant  to 
the  Word  of  God. 

The  naturalistic  theory  of  radical  changes  in  character  and 
consequently  in  destiny  occurring  during  the  intermediate  life 
includes,  not  like  the  papal  dogma  just  considered  a  single  class 
of  persons,  but  all  of  every  class  and  condition  who  pass  into  that 
life  as  sinful.  It  affirms  that  such  moral  changes  may  be  expected 
to  occur  hereafter  as  well  as  here  through  the  action  of  capacities 
native  to  the  soul  itself, — that  the  personal  forces  which  are  seen 
to  be  producing  great  spiritual  transformations  among  men  in 
this  world,  may  induce  similar  transformations  in  numberless 
cases,  and  possibly  in  all.  after  death, — and  that  the  universe  of 


NATURALISTIC    THEORY.  755 

the  evil  may  thus  by  degrees  be  depopulated,  and  all  the  vast 
multitude  of  disembodied  spirits  be  brought  finally  by  this 
process  into  fellowship  with  the  multitude  of  the  good  in  one 
blessed  concourse  of  holiness  and  bliss  forevermore.  What  Mar- 
tensen  (Dogmatics)  calls  the  inextinguishable  capability  of  good 
within  man,  and  which  may  in  the  life  to  come  assert  its  restora- 
tive power  even  more  effectually  than  in  this  world,  will — it  is 
thought — work  out  such  spiritual  results  perhaps  universally  in 
the  realm  of  disembodied  spirits.  It  is  sometimes  suggested  that 
the  environments  of  the  intermediate  life  will  be  much  more 
likely  than  those  which  now  surround  men,  to  excite  the  better 
nature,  to  lead  to  calm  reflection  on  the  great  problem  of  char- 
acter, apart  from  the  entangling  influence  of  bodily  temptations, 
to  encourage  virtuous  purposes  and  aspirations,  and  so  to  assist 
vitally  in  renovating  and  purifying  the  soul.  It  is  urged  that  by 
these  natural  methods  the  heathen  and  infants  dying  in  infancy, 
and  thoughtless  sinners  in  Christian  lands,  and  even  the  most 
wicked  and  obdurate  transgressors,  may  be  lifted  out  of  their 
sinfulness,  and  progressively  elevated  into  a  higher  experience  of 
truth,  of  duty,  of  unselfish  and  holy  love. 

It  is  impracticable  here  to  trace  this  theory  through  its  various 
ramifications,  or  to  state  in  detail  the  several  arguments  adduced 
to  sustain  it.  If  we  turn  to  the  Bible  for  light,  we  at  once  dis- 
cover that,  aside  from  here  or  there  a  phrase  or  passage  taken 
out  of  its  connections,  and  infused  with  a  meaning  or  color  never 
contemplated  by  the  inspired  writers,  there  is  in  fact  nothing  in 
Scripture  to  suggest  or  sustain  such  an  expectation,  but  on  the 
contrary  very  much,  especially  in  the  New  Testament,  which  is 
radically  at  variance  with  it.  If  such  a  vast  process  as  this, 
carrying  in  it  the  eternal  destinies  of  uncounted  millions,  is 
actually  going  on  now,  and  has  been  in  progress  from  the  first, 
and  will  continue  while  the  intermediate  state  of  being  lasts,  it  is 
inconceivable  that  there  should  be  no  hint  of  such  a  sublime 
transaction  in  a  book  which  professes  to  foretell  the_future  desti- 
nies of  mankind, — especially  when  the  disclosure  of  such  a 
tremendous  verity  would  be  not  only  a  matter  of  vital  interest 
but  one  of  vast  practical  moment  to  our  sinful  and  prostrate  race. 

But,  waiving  the  fact  that  the  Word  of  God  furnishes  no 
adequate  foundation  for  this  specious  theory,  we  may  on  rational 
grounds  alone  declare  the  anticipation  vain.  The  moral  develop- 
ments occurring  in  this  world  are  such  as  to  justify  no  such 
expectation  touching  the  life  to  come.  We  nowhere  see  pagan 
races  becoming  virtuous  and  holy  through  any  innate  energy ; 


756  ESCHATOLOGY. 

we  nowhere  see  the  sinful  and  the  reprobate  as  a  class  pausing 
in  their  evil  courses,  revolutionizing  their  moral  experiences, 
cleansing  themselves  from  the  taints  of  evil,  and  of  their  own 
accord  coming  into  loving  affiliation  with  saints  and  angels  and 
with  God.  Nor  can  we  find  any  sufficient  warrant  in  what  we 
know  of  the  native  tendencies  of  the  heathen  mind,  or  of  like 
predispositions  among  adult  transgressors  in  Christian  lands,  to 
sustain  the  anticipation  that  the  sin  which  is  so  natural  and  so 
dominant  in  this  life,  will  be  resisted  and  eradicated  when  this 
life  shall  be  exchanged  for  another.  If  sin  were  a  physical 
product  simply — if  it  sprang  entirely  from  the  animal  organism 
and  tendencies  of  man,  such  a  result  might  possibly  be  hoped  for 
hereafter.  But  so  long  as  sin  is  seen  to  be  a  matter  in  which 
the  soul  even  more  than  the  body  is  involved — a  matter  which 
death  therefore  has  no  power  to  extirpate,  the  dream  of  ultimate 
restoration  through  energies  resident  in  the  sinful  soul  itself 
becomes  little  better  than  an  unwarrantable  illusion.  And  further, 
it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  sin  seems  to  exist  in  man  under  a 
law  of  growth, — that  this  law  of  growth  becomes  apparently  more 
and  more  potential  in  men  even  down  to  the  last  hour  of  life, — 
and  that  so  far  as  we  can  see,  its  potency  will  continue  to  increase, 
unless  some  exterior  power  interferes,  age  after  age,  forever. 

But,  without  dwelling  upon  other  considerations,  drawn  from 
the  study  of  man  as  a  sinner,  which  are  manifestly  at  variance 
with  the  hypothesis  of  naturalistic  transmutations  from  sin  to 
holiness  in  any  coming  form  of  existence,  we  may  note,  first,  the 
hurtful  influence  of  this  dogma  in  deterring  men  from  prompt 
attention  to  the  claims  and  the  opportunities  of  grace  in  this  life  ; 
and  secondly,  the  significant  fact  that  no  evangelical  creed  or 
church  has  ever  recognized  it  as  valid.  The  Westminster  divines 
certainly  knew  nothing  of  a  restoration  of  the  soul  to  holiness 
through  any  innate  experiences  or  powers — a  restoration  whereby 
the  sinner  not  only  remembers  and  confesses  his  sins  to  himself, 
but  by  an  interior  energy  still  resident  within  him,  and  under 
the  new  conditions  entered  upon  in  the  future  state,  comes  back, 
as  of  himself,  to  duty  and  to  God.  Their  strong  doctrine  respect- 
ing the  depravity  and  helplessness  of  the  sinner  in  this  life,  his 
loss  of  all  ability  of  will  towards  spiritual  good,  and  his  entire 
dependence  on  divine  grace  for  recovery  from  this  condition,  is 
wholly  inconsistent  with  the  anticipation  that  at  some  time  here- 
after he  will  of  himself,  and  without  any  gracious  aid,  rectify  his 
corrupted  moral  nature  and  become  a  fit  companion  for  saiats 
and  angels  before  the  throne  of  God. 


PROBATIONARY   THEORY.  757 

What  has  been  termed  the  probationary  theory  affirms,  like 
the  preceding,  the  possibility  or  probability  of  the  spiritual  resto- 
ration of  multitudes  in  the  intermediate  life,  but  bases  this  antic- 
ipation, not  on  the  ground  of  the  inherent  capabilities  of  the  soul 
itself  or  of  some  favorable  effect  of  environment,  but  simply  on 
the  extension  of  divine  grace  to  sinners  in  that  life,  and  the 
utilizing  of  the  remedial  agencies  incorporated  in  the  Gospel  to 
induce  conviction,  conversion  and  ultimate  salvation.  Some 
advocates  present  such  salvation  as  a  possible  or  probable  hypoth- 
esis only  :  others  urge  it,  with  great  confidence  as  actual, — 
sometimes  as  actual  in  some  individuals  or  some  classes,  such  as 
infants  or  the  heathen,  or  the  unevangelized  masses  in  Christian 
lands ;  and  sometimes  as  certain  to  result  ultimately  in  the 
redemption  of  every  sinner,  and  the  blotting  out  of  sin  and  its 
consequences  from  the  entire  moral  universe. 

This  theory  is  supposed  to  be  warranted  by  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  following  classes  of  passages  are  adduced  in  its  support,  either 
directly  or  by  inference  :  first,  passages  setting  forth  the  fullness 
and  freeness  of  the  grace  offered  in  the  Gospel,  and  in  their  form 
justifying  the  inference  that  this  full  and  free  salvation  may  be 
extended  in  its  range  beyond  the  present  life  ;  second,  passages 
exhibiting  in  comprehensive  ways  the  readiness  of  God  to  forgive 
sin,  and  suggesting  by  clear  inference  his  readiness  to  grant  such 
forgiveness  in  the  intermediate  world  as  in  this  ;  third,  passages 
intimating  the  gracious  limitation  and  the  possible  termination  of 
punishment  for  sin,  if  not  in  the  present  life,  still  in  the  life  to 
come — with  the  marked  exception  of  the  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost :  fourth,  passages  suggesting  that  judgment  upon  personal 
character  may  not  occur  before  the  end  of  the  world,  with  the 
implication  that  at  any  time  prior  to  that  general  judgment,  even 
many  ages  after  death,  the  soul  may  be  saved  through  penitence 
and  faith  in  Christ :  fifth,  passages  affirming  or  at  least  strongly 
implying  the  formal  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  to  the  dead — as 
in  the  descent  of  our  L,ord  to  the  spirits  in  prison  :  sixth,  passages 
directly  suggesting  by  illustration  or  example  the  doctrine  of  a 
second  probation,  to  be  granted  to  mankind  after  death  :  and 
seventh,  passages  which  set  forth  unbelief,  or  the  rejection  of 
Christ  and  his  Gospel,  as  the  only  ground  of  human  condemna- 
tion— with  their  implication  that  those  who  have  never  had  the 
opportunity  of  receiving  him  in  this  life  shall  be  granted  such 
opportunity  hereafter.  It  is  impracticable  here  to  present  the 
particular  texts  adduced;  these  seven  classes  include  every  passage 
that  has  ever  been  urged  in  support  of  this  theory. 


758  ESCHATOLOGY. 

Certain  general  considerations  are  also  presented  in  connection 
with  these  -biblical  evidences.  One  of  these  is  based  on  the 
known  character  of  God,  as  too  righteous  on  the  one  hand  and 
too  benevolent  on  the  other  to  make  no  provision  for  at  least  the 
opportunity  to  be  saved  after  death,  in  the  case  of  all  those  who 
have  had  no  adequate  opportunity  in  this  life.  Another  is  based 
on  the  universal  headship  of  Christ — a  headship  not  over  believers 
only  but  over  the  entire  race  of  mankind  as  the  second  Adam,  and 
including  consequently  all  those  members  of  the  race  who  have 
died,  no  less  than  those  who  still  remain  on  the  earth.  Another 
rests  on  the  inherent  capabilities  of  the  Christian  scheme  as  in  fact 
inexhaustible — the  one  absolute  religion, — no  less  truly  fitted  to 
meet  the  moral  needs  of  a  disembodied  spirit  than  to  help  and  save 
the  -sinner  in  this  world.  Still  another  is  found  in  the  surviving 
elements  of  good,  such  as  the  capacity  to  understand  and  appre- 
ciate saving  truth,  and  to  repent  of  sin  and  turn  to  Christ  for 
salvation, — elements  which  death  cannot  destroy,  but  may  rather 
greatly  stimulate  into  effective  action.  Another  rests  on  the 
testimony  of  the  Christianized  consciousness,  which  refuses  to 
accept  the  doctrine  that  death  terminates  probation,  but  demands 
that  provision  such  as  the  Gospel  furnishes,  be  made  for  the 
extension  of  the  possibility  of  grace  into  the  intermediate  life  : 
see  Farrar,  Eternal  Hope. 

The  answer  to  the  biblical  evidences  adduced  lies  in  such  incon- 
trovertible propositions  as  the  following  :  first,  that  the  offer  of 
salvation  through  Christ  is  invariably  presented  in  Scripture  as 
an  offer  to  be  accepted  or  rejected  during  the  present  life  ;  second, 
that  sinful  men  are  solemnly  warned  against  postponement  of  such 
acceptance,  even  during  this  life,  and  specifically  on  the  ground 
that  this  and  this  only  is  the  day  of  salvation  ;  third,  that  the 
converting  and  sanctifying  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  is 
everywhere  set  forth  as  an  indispensable  condition  of  salvation,  is 
always  represented  as  efficient  in  the  present  life,  and  is  in  no 
case  promised  to  men  after  death  ;  fourth,  that  the  church,  and 
all  the  helpful  instrumentalities  associated  with  it  in  the  interest 
of  salvation,  are  in  like  manner  invariably  described  as  operative 
in  this  world  only  ;  fifth,  that  such  passages  as  that  respecting 
the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  and  that  concerning  the  preaching 
of  Christ  to  the  spirits  in  prison,  must  be  so  interpreted  as  to 
preserve  the  divine  harmony  between  them  and  the  more  generic 
teachings  of  the  Word  as  to  the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  to  the  medi- 
atorial mission  of  our  Lord;  sixth,  that  reward  and  retribution  after 
death  are  without  exception  represented  as  being  the  outcome 


NO   SALVATION   AFTER    DEATH.  759 

oi  our  stewardship  whether  faithful  or  unfaithful  during  the 
present  life,  and  as  determined  judicially  as  soon  as  that  steward- 
ship is  ended  ;  seventh,  that  the  clear  doctrine  of  the  eternity  of 
punishment  shows  that  at  least  in  some  cases,  and  we  know  not 
how  many,  the  offer  of  salvation,  if  made  in  the  intermediate  life, 
is  unavailing — the  soul  still  willfully  abiding  in  its  sinfulness. 
These  are  simply  the  more  familiar  and  available  forms  of  the 
incontrovertible  argument  to  be  drawn  from  the  Divine  Word 
against  the  probationary  theory  in  whatever  aspect  presented. 

In  respect  to  the  more  general  considerations  named,  it  is  per- 
haps sufficient  to  say  that  they  involve  obvious  and  serious 
misconceptions  of  God  and  of  his  moral  government  over  men, — of 
Christ  and  his  relation  as  the  head  over  all  his  chosen  people, — 
and  of  the  Gospel,  as  to  its  real  nature  and  scope  and  adaptations. 
They  involve  also  kindred  misconceptions  of  man  on  one  side  as  a 
being  capable  of  salvation,  and  of  the  intermediate  life  on  the 
other  as  a  retributive  state,  wherein  the  evil  and  the  good  are  judi- 
cially and  finally  separate.  Nor  can  the  witness  of  Christian 
consciousness  be  urged  in  favor  of  this  hypothetic  view  of  that 
life,  so  long  as  that  consciousness  is  not  uniform  in  such  support, 
but  in  the  breast  of  the  vast  majority  of  believers  is  positively 
opposed  to  that  hypothesis. 

Although  some  of  the  Fathers,  such  as  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
and  Origen,  taught  that  the  redemptive  mission  of  Christ  ex- 
tended beyond  this  life  and  was  available  not  only  for  the  dead  but 
for  fallen  angels  also  until  the  day  of  judgment,  the  witness  of 
Christian  symbolism  against  this  theory  is  unanimous  and  decisive. 
So  far  as  the  three  ancient  creeds  may  be  quoted,  it  is  quite  obvious 
that  the  forgiveness  of  sins  mentioned  in  them  is  as  much  an 
experience  of  time  as  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Catholic  church,  or  the  communion  of  saints.  The 
symbolic  books  of  both  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  communions, 
while  affirming  the  kindred  dogma  of  purgatory,  recognize  no 
such  intermediate  estate  of  grace  and  restoration.  It  is  even  more 
certain  that  this  theory  finds  no  support  in  Protestant  symbolism. 
One  searches  in  vain  for  it  in  the  confessional  books  of  Luther- 
anism,  in  the  creeds  of  the  Reformed  churches  on  the  Continent, 
or  in  those  of  the  British  Isles.  One  searches  for  it  in  vain  in 
the  doctrinal  declarations  of  the  seventeenth  or  eighteenth  centu- 
ries, or  in  the  professed  faith  of  any  evangelical  body  of  our  own 
time.  Least  of  all  does  it  find  any  shadow  of  support  in  the 
Presbyterian  formularies.  These  Symbols  are  as  silent  as  the 
Bible  itself  respecting  any  transplantation  of  the  Gospel  with  its 


760  ESCHATOLOGY. 

peculiar  agencies  and  instrumentalities,  any  ministrations  of  the 
Spirit,  any  gracious  work  or  kingdom  of  Christ,  in  the  interme- 
diate life.  There  is  not  a  single  sentence  or  phrase  or  casual 
word  or  hint  in  Confession  or  Catechisms  on  which  such  a  claim 
could  by  any  ingenuity  of  reasoning  be  based.  Their  invariable 
teaching  is  that  death  terminates  the  present  estate  of  probation, 
and  brings  in  the  consequent  estate  of  reward  and  retribution. 
They  invariably  represent  the  Gospel  with  its  various  elements 
and  factors  as  a  matter  of  earth  and  time.  Their  account  of  the 
operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  limits  these  operations  entirely  to 
this  world.  Their  doctrine  of  the  Covenants  suggests  no  other 
fellowship  with  God  than  that  into  which  the  sinner  may  through 
grace  enter  while  his  earthly  day  of  opportunity  is  passing. 
Their  vivid  descriptions  of  the  free  will  in  man,  and  of  his  effect- 
ual calling  through  grace,  of  justification  and  adoption  and  sanc- 
tification,  of  saving  faith  and  repentance  and  good  works,  and  of 
the  perseverance  of  saints  and  their  assurance  of  salvation,  are 
based  entirely  on  the  assumption  that  this  life  is  the  period  in 
which  such  experiences  are  to  be  realized.  What  they  affirm  on 
all  these  points  is  absolutely  exclusive  of  any  other  view  than 
that  salvation  through  Christ  is  a  consummation  to  be  attained 
or  lost  before  death. 

It  is  especially  to  be  noticed  that  the  Symbols  allow  no  distinc- 
tion to  be  made  at  this  point  in  favor  of  infants  or  imbecile 
persons,  or  even  the  pagan  world,  so  far  as  that  world  came 
within  their  range  of  vision.  Elect  infants  and,  according  to 
current  belief,  all  infants,  being  thus  elect,  are  redeemed  by  Christ, 
not  hereafter,  but  in  this  world,  and  are  regenerated  and  saved 
through  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  not  in  the  future  state, 
but  before  or  at  their  death.  The  declaration  that  the  Spirit 
worketh  when  and  where  and  how  he  pleaseth,  was  never 
intended  to  include  his  gracious  working  in  some  coming  life, 
but  only  within  the  range  of  earth  and  time.  Imbecile  persons 
who  are  unable  to  heed  the  outward  calls  of  grace,  are  said  in 
like  manner  to  be  graciously  cared  for,  not  after  death  but  before 
or  in  death.  In  the  condemnation  which  is  pronounced  upon  the 
heathen  world,  not  for  the  rejection  of  a  Gospel  which  that  world 
has  never  heard,  but  for  its  neglect  of  the  law  of  God  written  on 
the  heart,  for  its  refusal  to  follow  the  revealing  and  guiding  light 
of  nature,  nothing  is  said  about  any  solution  of  the  great  problem 
of  character  after  this  life  is  over.  It  is  the  sin  of  the  pagan 
races  that  they  are  now  rejecting  the  tender  call  of  God  to  repen- 
tance and  submission  to  him,    now   following  rather  the  devices 


PARTICULAR   JUDGMENT.  761 

of  their  own  heart,  without  regard  to  what  God  commands  ;  and 
it  is  this  sin  which,  under  the  divine  government,  constitutes  the 
ground  of  their  condemnation  as  they  pass  from  this  world  into 
another.  The  solemn  chapter  on  the  Law  of  God  must  make  it 
abundantly  clear  to  every  candid  reader  that  the  Symbols  are 
consistent  with  themselves  and  are  unequivocal  in  their  teachings 
here,  and  that  whatever  pious  hope  may  be  indulged  by  any  at 
this  point  must  find  its  support  and  justification  elsewhere. 

The  doctrine  of  a  Particular  Judgment,  taking  place  in  the  case 
of  each  and  every  soul,  in  immediate  conjunction  with  its  admis- 
sion to  the  intermediate  life,  has  already 

,  .,  L  j      T7-  .        9.  Particular  Judgment  at 

been  more  than  once  suggested.     Yet     death.  nature  and  ^^ 

its  practical  importance,  especially  in 

its  bearings  upon  much  that  has  been  said  heretofore,  is  such  as 
to  command  for  it  separate  and  special  consideration.  Viewed  on 
rational  grounds  alone,  it  seems  a  natural  and  necessary  conse- 
quence that  a  separation  of  souls  into  two  great  classes,  on  the  basis 
of  character,  should  occur,  not  at  some  remote  period  in  the  future 
life,  but  at  the  time  of  death.  Such  a  separation  is,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  inevitable:  it  is  the  only  possible  outcome  of  the  present 
state  and  experience  of  probation.  A  continuous  commingling 
of  the  holy  and  the  wicked,  substantially  such  as  occurs  in  this 
life,  and  that  for  an  indefinite  period,  and  possibly  even  till  the 
final  judgment  at  the  end  of  the  world,  would  be  an  experience 
to  be  dreaded  rather  than  desired.  And  such  a  separation  can  be 
grounded  on  nothing  but  some  essential  difference  in  character; 
it  must  be  based  in  the  last  resort  on  the  final  relation  of  the  soul 
to  an  accepted  or  rejected  Christ.  And  this  final  relation,  with  all 
its  solemn  outcome,  must  be  fixed  at  the  hour  of  death;  it  cannot 
be  postponed  to  some  remote  era  in  the  eternal  state.  Such  is  the 
clear  witness  of  Scripture.  The  promise  of  our  Lord  to  the  dying 
thief,  the  vision  of  the  expiring  Stephen,  the  ecstatic  declarations 
of  Paul,  the  triumphal  song  of  Peter  in  his  first  Epistle,  and  other 
biblical  illustrations,  show  abundantly  that  death  for  the  righteous 
is  the  gateway,  not  to  such  a  mixed  condition  as  the  present  life 
presents,  but  to  a  condition  separate,  special,  everlasting,  such  as 
holy  character  alone  can  determine.  And  what  is  thus  seen  to  be 
true  respecting  the  righteous,  can  be  shown  on  equal  warrant  from 
Scripture  to  be  true  concerning  the  wicked  also. 

That  this  separation  is  judicial  becomes  apparent  at  a  glance. 
Tt  is  not  merely  the  result  of  certain  natural  laws  or  tendencies 
whereby   men   of    themselves   seek   their   own  companionship, 


762  ESCHATOL,OGY. 

whether  it  be  good  or  evil.  Nor  is  it  an  historic  process  sinipty, 
carried  on  through  ages,  and  finally  reaching  its  culmination  in 
hell  or  heaven.  It  occurs  in  the  immediate  presence  of  Christ  as 
judge;  it  involves  a  conviction  of  sin  and  guilt  in  view  of  the  l,aw 
and  the  Gospel  of  God ;  it  necessitates  a  decision  on  his  part  at 
the  very  threshold  of  eternity.  There  is,  indeed,  a  sense  in  which 
the  wicked  are  condemned  already,  even  before  that  solemn  hour 
of  adjudication  dawns  upon  them,  but  all  antecedent  condemna- 
tion must  become  secondary  in  the  presence  of  such  an  hour  and 
such  a  judgment.  The  supposition  that  Christ  begins  to  exercise 
his  judicial  functions  only  at  the  end  of  the  world,  is  obviously 
at  variance  with  many  declarations  of  Scripture,  distinctly  affirm- 
ing that  the  estate  of  the  righteous  is  judicially  settled  at  their 
death;  and  also  that  the  wicked  are  already  undergoing  judicial 
punishment.  Nor  is  there  any  conflict  between  the  two  concep- 
tions. One  eminent  American  theologian  (Smith,  H.  B.,  Syst. 
Theol. )  has  rightly  said  that  what  is  called  the  general  or  last  is 
not  the  first  passing  of  judgment,  but  the  final  manifestation  of 
it.  The  position  that  at  the  general  judgment  the  first  passing 
of  judgment  will  occur,  uproots  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  sin,  and 
of  the  penalty  of  death  which  has  already  begun  to  be  inflicted  upon 
men.  And  another  equally  eminent  teacher  (Shedd,  Dogm. 
Theol.),  has  also  said  that  the  private  judgment  at  death  and  the 
public  judgment  at  the  last  day  coincide,  because  in  the  inter- 
mediate state  there  is  no  alteration  of  moral  character,  and  con- 
sequently no  alteration  of  the  sentence  passed  at  death. 

It  is  a  most  impressive  picture  which  Isaac  Taylor,  in  his 
remarkable  essay  on  the  Dissolution  of  Human  Nature,  has  drawn 
of  the  condition  of  a  soul  thus  ushered  at  death  into  the  hall  of 
judgment, — those  experiences  which  originate  in  the  union  of  soul 
and  body  fading  away, — all  forms  of  external  excitation  ceasing, — 
the  soul  thrown  back  upon  its  own  moral  experiences,  whether 
good  or  depraved, — only  the  individual  life  remaining,  and  the 
moral  person  poised  and  resting  on  his  own  center.  As  that 
graphic  writer  suggests,  the  good  and  the  wicked  are  thus  sepa- 
rated by  an  interior  process  antecedent  to  all  judicial  inquiry; 
each  person  becoming  intuitively  his  own  judge,  and  of  himself 
determining  what  his  place  and  destiny  should  be.  But  above  all 
this,  is  the  conscious  coming  of  the  soul,  wearing  no  robe  but  the 
character  it  has  woven  for  itself  in  this  life,  into  the  very  presence 
of  its  Maker  who  is  also  its  Judge,  and  by  whom  its  worth  and  its 
eternity  are  to  be  formally  decided.  It  is  of  course  impossible  for 
US  to  frame  any  adequate  picture  of  such  a  scene,  or  to  conceive 


JUDGMENT    BASED    ON    CHARACTER.  763 

of  the  thoughts  and  the  emotions  which  at  such  a  moment  must 
fill  and  thrill  the  breast.  The  Bible  attempts  no  such  description: 
it  simply  states  the  fact  and  gives  full  assurance  of  the  occurrence 
of  the  solemn  event,  but  leaves  place  and  time  and  incident  in  an 
impenetrable  shadow. 

The  importance  of  emphasizing  this  doctrine  is  manifest, 
especially  just  at  this  juncture  when  the  entire  teaching  of  the 
inspired  Word  concerning  the  intermediate  life  is  so  widely  chal- 
lenged. The  fact  that  Christ  is  to  judge  mankind  at  the  end  of 
the  world  is  explicitly  affirmed  in  each  of  the  ancient  creeds;  but 
both  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  symbolism  affirms  or  implies  the 
further  fact  that  he  is  ever  and  always  the  Judge  as  well  as  the 
Savior  of  men.  The  dogma  of  purgatory  presents  no  exception, 
inasmuch  as  those  who  pass  through  that  experience  are  not 
condemned  but  saved  persons, — the  purgatorial  fires  being  not 
punitive  but  disciplinary  and  purifying  in  their  purpose.  The 
importance  of  recognizing  this  truth  in  their  doctrinal  system  was 
very  apparent  to  the  men  who  framed  the  creeds  of  Protestantism 
from  the  beginning.  It  is  true  that  the  general  judgment  at  the 
end  of  the  world  was  more  conspicuous  in  their  thought;  yet  their 
invariable  doctrine  was  that  death  terminates  the  state  of  proba- 
tion, settles  the  question  of  character,  and  determines  the  eternal 
destiny  by  a  judicial  process.  Thus  the  Irish  Articles  declare  in 
explicit  terms,  that  after  this  life  is  ended  the  souls  of  God's 
children  shall  be  presently  received  into  heaven,  there  to  enjoy, 
unspeakable  comforts,  and  the  souls  of  the  wicked  are  cast  into 
hell,  there  to  endure  endless  torments;  and  such  a  separation  must, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  assume  the  character  of  a  judgment 
pronounced  by  Christ  presently,  or  as  soon  as  the  soul  shall  have 
closed  its  earthly  existence.  But  the  doctrine  of  the  Westminster 
divines  is  still  more  full  and  explicit.  Their  generic  teaching  is 
that  man,  having  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,  is 
in  a  state  of  condemnation  judicially  even  in  this  life;  that  there 
is  no  sin  of  man  so  small  but  it  deserves  such  condemnation ;  that 
there  is  no  way  of  escape  from  this  condemnation  except  through 
coming  unto  Christ  under  an  existing  covenant  of  grace;  and  that 
for  those  who  refuse  the  offer  of  salvation  as  presented  in  this  life, 
there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin,  but  only  retributive 
judgment  as  the  proper  outcome  of  their  earthly  unbelief.  Both 
Catechisms,  and  especially  the  Larger,  confirm  this  teaching  in 
the  strong  declaration  (L,.  C,  25-27)  that  men  by  nature  are  the 
children  of  wrath,  slaves  to  Satan,  under  the  divine  displeasure, 
and  justly  liable  to  divine  punishment.     They  also  teach  that 


764  ESCHATOLOGY. 

redemption  from  this  condition  occurs  in  time  only  (L.  C,  59,  60), 
and  that  those  who  do  not  receive  that  redemption  in  time  cannot 
be  saved,  but  are  under  the  wrath  of  God  forever. 

More  specifically,  the  Symbols  affirm  (L.  C,  85)  that  the  right- 
eous even  in  death  are  delivered  from  all  remaining  sting  and 
curse  of  sin,  and  that  they  enter  at  once  upon  the  blessed  estate 
of  communion  with  Christ,  for  which  they  have  been  preparing 
in  the  present  life.  They  assure  us  that  this  communion  is 
enjoyed  immediately  after  death,  on  the  ground  that  the  right- 
eous are  then  at  once  perfected  in  holiness,  and  so  made  meet  for 
such  celestial  fellowship.  As  to  the  wicked,  they  in  like  manner 
assure  us  (I,.  C,  86)  that  death  judicially  determines  their  eternal 
condition  ;  and  their  description  of  the  punishments  of  sin  in  the 
world  to  come  (L,.  C,  29)  leaves  upon  the  mind  no  other  impres- 
sion than  that  such  punishment  begins  at  once  when  the  present 
probationary  experience  is  ended.  The  impressive  declaration  of 
the  Confession  already  quoted,  that  the  souls  of  men  at  death 
immediately  return  to  God  who  gave  them,  and  are  at  once  sepa- 
rated by  him  into  two  great  classes  on  the  basis  of  character  as 
determined  during  this  life,  seems  to  put  the  question  entirely  at 
rest  for  all  who  acknowledge  its  authority.  Nothing  can  be  more 
emphatic  than  the  decisive  statement  at  the  close  of  this  section  : 
Between  these  two  places  for  souls  separated  from  their  bodies, 
the  Scripture  acknowledgeth  none.  How  is  it  possible  for  any 
one,  in  view  of  such  statements,  to  affirm  that  the  conception  of 
such  a  judgment  has  no  proper  place  in  the  Christian  scheme, 
but  is  merely  a  crude  importation  from  ethnic  sources,  without 
any  right  to  claim  our  acceptance  ?  It  would  be  as  easy  to  claim 
that  the  idea  of  God,  or  of  the  incarnation,  or  the  conception  of  a 
supernatural  revelation,  or  the  belief  in  a  personal  immortality, 
had  flowed  from  such  foreign  sources  into  Christianity,  because 
traces  of  these  fundamental  truths  are  found  in  crude  forms  in 
certain  natural  religions,  or  in  the  speculations  of  certain  heathen 
sages. 

The  Intermediate  L,ife  whose  characteristics  and  special  experi- 
ences and  events  have  now  been  considered,  is  not  the  ultimate 

or  everlasting  life  of  either  the  right- 

10.  The  Final  Advent:  its  eous  or  the  sinful.  The  biblical  phrase, 
occurrence:  its  nature  and         t1  ,  ...  , 

r      lt  a   thousand    years,    indicates   a   long 

period  in  the  history  of  our  race,   if 

taken  literally,   but   probably   suggests  a  much  longer  though 

definite  period  during  which  the   Gospel   shall   be  universally 


THE    FINAL   ADVENT.  765 

known  and  received,  and  Christ  shall  be  universally  recognized 
as  the  Savior  and  Iyord  over  mankind.  But  this  period,  before 
whose  holy  splendors  all  the  antecedent  history  of  the  race  will 
pale  into  insignificance,  and  in  whose  light  the  dark  problem  of 
sin  and  condemnation  will  probably  receive  a  signal  solution,  will 
not  be  perpetual.  The  career  of  humanity  on  the  earth,  and  the 
experience  of  the  innumerable  myriads  of  disembodied  spirits 
dwelling  in  the  intermediate  state,  will  at  last  be  brought  by 
divine  decree  to  a  decisive  close, — a  termination  final  and  trans- 
cendent coming  in  that  appointed  hour  alike  to  the  universe  of 
the  living  and  to  the  two  universes  of  the  dead.  And  the  event 
which  will  signalize  this  wondrous  change  in  state  and  experience 
for  the  human  race,  and  which  will  throw  wide  open  the  door  for 
the  entrance  of  the  entire  race  on  its  true  and  ultimate  eternity,  is' 
the  second  or  rather  final  advent  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  on  the 
earth. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  neither  the  formularies  of  West- 
minster nor  any  other  Protestant  symbols  recognize  any  coming 
of  Christ  antecedent  to  the  millennial  era,  except  in  the  spiritual 
sense  in  which  he  is  always  coming  in  grace  to  believers  and  to 
his  church,  or  in  chastisement  or  retribution  to  those  who  live 
and  die  in  impenitence.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  conception 
of  a  physical  appearance  and  a  material  reign,  with  an  universal 
empire  established  over  all  nations  and  wielded  from  Jerusalem 
as  a  royal  center — an  empire  exhibiting  its  majesty  by  sup- 
pressing human  sin  through  resistless  power  and  by  exalting  the 
righteous  to  thrones  of  judicial  supremacy  over  the  race,  is  directly 
condemned  by  Christian  symbolism  as  being  unwarranted  by 
Holy  Scripture,  and  as  dishonoring  to  the  Gospel.  It  needs  only 
to  be  added  here  that,  while  the  sacred  writers  naturally  gather 
from  the  Jewish  State,  and  especially  from  the  palmy  era  of  David 
and  Solomon,  the  imagery  with  which  to  describe  more  graphically 
the  events  and  phenomena  of  the  millennium,  they  do  not  allow 
the  mind  to  rest  in  any  merely  physical  or  sensuous  visions  of 
that  sublime  age.  Nor  can  any  portions  of  either  the  Old  Testa- 
ment or  the  New  be  interpreted  in  a  literalistic  way,  in  the 
interest  of  such  conceptions,  without  plunging  the  mind  into 
endless  confusion  or  filling  it  with  small .  and  illusive  views  of 
Christ  and  his  redemptive  work. 

Another  kindred  error  of  even  greater  seriousness  is  the  error 
of  regarding  Christ,  now  ascended  into  the  heavens  and  acting- 
there  as  our  intercessor,  as  in  fact  wholly  absent  from  this  world 
and  from  his  earthly  church.     His  corporeal  absence,   so  far  as 


766  ESCIIATOLOGY. 

corporeity  may  be  affirmed  of  him  in  his  celestial  exaltation,  by 
no  means  warrants  the  inference  of  a  spiritual  and  personal 
absence.  It  is  explained  that  he  is  present  here  in  the  sense  that 
he  knows  whatever  is  transpiring  in  the  interest  of  his  church, 
and  present  also  in  the  further  sense  that  from  his  heavenly 
throne  he  wields  all  the  providential  and  gracious  power  needful 
to  protect  his  church  from  its  enemies,  and  to  propagate  and 
establish  it  in  the  world.  It  is  suggested  that  he  is  present 
vicariously  through  the  Holy  Spirit  as  his  agent,  who  is  fully 
empowered  to  complete  the  work  left  by  him  at  his  ascension,  and 
in  whose  activities  and  products  we  see  Christ  spiritually,  though 
he  is  really  far  away  from  us  in  heaven.  It  has  been  said  that  he 
is  present  because  his  truth,  his  ordinances,  his  organized  church, 
his  believing  and  faithful  disciples  are  here  carrying  out  his  great 
commission,  given  them  at  his  departure,  to  disciple  the  nations 
in  his  name.  But  it  is  held  that  in  himself  he  is  absent  and  will 
be  absent  throughout  the  present  dispensation,  and  will  personally 
visit  our  earth  again  but  once,  and  that  either  at  the  beginning 
or  at  the  close  of  the  millennial  age. 

This  view  involves  at  the  outset  a  serious  departure  from  the 
biblical  doctrine  of  Christ  as  divine — as  God.  It  is  said  in  the 
Confession,  that  in  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  there  be  three  Persons 
of  one  substance,  power  and  eternity  :  as  stated  in  the  Larger 
Catechism,  these  three  Persons  are  one  true,  eternal  God,  equal 
in  power  and  glory.  Whatever  attributes  belonged  to  Christ  as 
the  Son  of  God  prior  to  his  incarnation,  therefore  belong  to  him 
now  :  whatever  of  limitation  or  depotentiation  occurred  to  him 
while  incarnate  in  the  flesh,  must  have  ended  at  his  exaltation 
to  glory  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father.  His  original  deity 
must  have  enrobed  him  again  in  the  hour  of  ascension  :  every 
perfection  that  inhered  in  God  the  Father  resided  at  that  hour 
in  him  also.  And  if  God  is,  in  the  old  scholastic  phrase,  a  Being 
whose  center  is  everywhere  and  whose  circumference  is  nowhere, 
it  must  be  true  that  he  who  was  Immanuel,  God  with  us,  while 
he  dwelt  in  the  flesh,  is  Immanuel  still — present  everywhere  and 
at  all  times,  and  specially  present  on  this  earth  and  with  his 
people.  We  can  no  more  affirm  space  of  the  glorified  Son  than 
of  the  glorious  Father,  yet  in  a  sense  above  all  conceptions  of 
space  our  Lord  is  truly  and  essentially  present  on  the  earth,  as 
well  as  in  heaven  : — present  to  individual  believers  living  and 
dying,  present  in  every  assemblage  of  his  saints,  present  with  his 
apostles  and  with  his  church,  in  every  age,  in  every  land. 
Calvin  quotes  Augustine  as  teaching  the  spiritual  presence  of 


CONTINUOUS   PRESENCE   OF   CHRIST.  767 

Christ  with  his  people  in  conjunction  with  the  fact  of  his  corporeal 
absence  ;  and  himself  adds  that,  while  his  body  was  elevated  above 
all  heavens,  Christ  was  ever  truly  present  with  his  church  according 
to  his  promise — his  power  and  energy  being  diffused  and  extended 
beyond  all  the  limits  of  heaven  and  earth.  No  other  view  can 
adequately  interpret  either  his  own  direct  declarations  or  the 
teaching  of  the  later  Scriptures.  The  signs  of  that  presence  are 
not  physical,  nor  are  they  revealed  in  the  ordinary  experience  of 
man  ;  they  are  spiritual  in  essence  and  in  their  effects  :  yet  they 
are  very  real  to  the  apprehension  of  faith.  Wherever  the  Word 
is  effectually  preached,  Christ  is  there  ;  wherever  his  ordained 
sacraments  are  administered,  Christ  is  there  ;  wherever  his  saints 
are  assembled  for  worship  or  for  service  in  his  cause,  he  is  there  ; 
wherever  providences  in  the  interest  of  religion  are  transpiring, 
or  missions  or  other  great  enterprises  are  carried  forward,  or  his 
gracious  kingdom  is  amid  conflict  and  sacrifice  ascending  toward 
its  predestined  triumph  in  the  earth,  he  is  there — our  glorious 
Immanuel  still,  God  ever  with  us. 

Such  presence  of  Christ  is  doubtless  to  be  in  its  full  measure 
one  of  the  peculiar  features  of  the  millennial  era, — a  personal 
presence,  so  clear,  so  tender,  so  glorious,  that  the  church  and  the 
world  will  no  more  question  it,  than  did  the  Jewish  priesthood 
and  the  people  question  his  presence,  when  they  saw  Christ 
visibly  in  the  flesh.  And  the  just  presumption  is  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  such  an  ineffable  divine  presence,  diffusing  itself 
everywhere  as  if  it  were  incense  in  the  atmosphere  of  life,  will 
become  more  and  more  distinct  in  human  belief  while  the  millen- 
nial years  roll  on — until  men  shall  doubt  it  much  less  than  they 
now  doubt  the  immanent  presence  of  God,  the  Father,  in  the  vast 
domain  of  nature  or  in  the  events  of  our  ordinary  life.  And  this 
conviction  will  abide  in  the  world  more  and  more  potentially, 
even  amid  that  mysterious  outbreak  of  unbelief  which  the  Apoc- 
alypse dimly  hints  at  as  to  occur  near  the  close  of  the  thousand 
years  of  holiness  and  peace,  until  those  years  are  ended  at  last  in 
the  final,  visible,  sublime  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  not  for  the 
advancement  of  grace  but  as  a  King  unto  judgment. 

That  there  is  to  be  such  a  manifestation  at  that  period— other- 
wise styled  the  end  of  the  world — is  a  doctrine  in  which  universal 
Christendom,  Greek  and  Roman  as  well  as  Protestant,  is  fully 
agreed.  The  belief  in  it  rests  primarily  on  the  direct  declarations 
of  our  Lord  himself, — from  whose  positive  and  repeated  state- 
ments the  church  has  derived  its  faith.  It  was  asserted  by  the 
Apostles  speaking  in  his  name,  and  was  believed  by  the  apostolic 


768  ESCHATOLOGY. 

church,  in  all  its  developing  sections.  We  know  historically  that 
such  an  advent  was  ardently  expected  as  an  immediate  event,  by 
many  of  the  earlier  Fathers,  and  that  the  anticipation  of  it  even 
as  near  at  hand  was  extensively  current  in  the  church  of  the  first 
three  centuries.  It  made  its  way  into  the  most  ancient  creeds, 
standing  by  the  side  of  the  story  of  the  incarnation  and  life,  the 
death  and  resurrection  and  ascension  of  the  Lord,  as  an  unchal- 
lengeable article  of  belief.  The  Protestant  Confessions,  so  far  as 
they  aim  to  present  a  comprehensive  synopsis  of  the  Christian 
doctrine,  invariably  incorporate  that  article,  with  more  or  less  of 
elaboration.  The  Westminster  Symbols  are  specially  full  in  their 
affirmations.  In  the  Larger  Cat.  (56)  it  is  declared  that  Christ 
is  to  be  exalted  in  his  coming  again  to  judge  the  world  ;  that  he 
shall  come  at  the  last  day  in  great  power,  and  in  the  full  manifesta- 
tion of  his  glory  ;  that  all  his  holy  angels  will  be  with  him  in  that 
sublime  advent,  which  shall  be  heralded  with  the  voice  of  the 
archangel,  and  with  the  trumpet  of  God  ;  and  that  he  will  then, 
by  virtue  of  an  authority  vested  in  him  from  all  eternity,  judge 
the  world  in  righteousness.  These  descriptions  of  attendant 
pomp  and  glory  are  not  framed  by  the  imagination  of  man,  but 
are  set  forth  literally  by  our  Lord  himself  and  by  his  inspired 
apostles.  No  details  of  time  or  circumstance,  or  any  hints 
respecting  the  decisive  event  whereby  it  may  be  exactly  foreseen, 
are  any  where  given  :  the  event  itself  stands  out  in  all  its  solem- 
nity, He  shall  come,  He  shall  come,  to  judge  the  world  ! 

Certain  events  are  clearly  indicated  as  concurrent  with  this 
final  advent.  The  church  will  in  that  solemn  hour  reach  its  com- 
pletion ;  the  institutions  and  ordinances  of  our  holy  religion  will 
cease  ;  the  proclamation  of  grace  through  repentance  and  faith 
will  be  ended  ;  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  of  saints  for  the  promul- 
gation of  the  Gospel  will  be  required  no  longer  ;  the  Sabbath  and 
the  sanctuary  will  have  accomplished  their  peaceful  and  hallowing 
mission.  In  a  word,  the  mediatorial  work  of  Christ,  carried  on 
so  patiently,  will  then  be  finished  as  completely  as  his  atoning 
sacrifice  was  finished  on  the  cross.  In  the  world  of  disembodied 
spirits  also  all  activity,  all  experience,  all  possibilities  of  good 
or  evil,  will  then  cease  ;  as  a  separate  sphere  of  being,  the  inter- 
mediate life  will  have  reached  its  close.  The  voice  of  the  arch- 
angel will  command  instant  pause,  instant  silence,  throughout 
the  moral  universe  :  the  trumpet  of  God  will  arouse  all  men  to 
immediate,  intense,  and  thrilling  anticipation  of  that  which  is  to 
be.  The  advent  itself  will  be  the  one  absorbing  transaction 
through  all  the  realms  of  moral  existence.     And  with  that  advent 


THE   RESURRECTION.  769 

two  events  of  supreme  interest  will  transpire  :  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  and  the  general  or  final  judgment. 

The  first  of  these  events  is  the  Resurrection, — the  restoration 

to  vitality  of  the  bodies  of  all  who  have  died  from  the  beginning 

of  time  down  to  the  final  advent, 

,    ,    .  .        .„,  ,,  ,  11.    Resurrection  of  Christ: 

and  their  union  again  with  the  souls    Qf  aU  ^  dead .  ^  resurrection 

which  once  inhabited  them.     This     foody, 
process  involves  not  a  single  class 

as  to  character,  or  those  who  lived  under  some  specific  dispensa- 
tion, but,  in  the  language  of  our  Lord  himself,  all  that  are  in  the 
graves.  The  time  when  this  stupendous  event  will  occur  is  also 
indicated  by  the  Lord  :  They  shall  hear  his  voice — his  voice  at  the 
last  great  day — and  shall  come  forth  to  life.  The  single  passage 
in  the  Apocalypse  which  suggests  the  resurrection  of  certain 
persons  at  the  beginning  of  the  thousand  millennial  years,  if  inter- 
preted literally,  may  have  an  explanation  in  the  impressive  fact 
recorded  b}r  Matthew,  that  in  conjunction  with  the  crucifixion 
graves  were  opened  and  bodies  of  saints  which  slept  arose,  and 
went  into  the  holy  city  and  appeared  unto  many.  It  is  at  least 
not  incredible  that  at  the  dawning  of  the  millennium  a  similar  phe- 
nomenon should  take  place, — the  souls  of  martyrs  or  eminent 
witnesses  for  Christ,  appearing  again  in  mortal  form,  for  some 
special  ministry  of  grace  in  conjunction  with  that  great  event. 
Whether  this  be  or  be  not  a  just  interpretation  of  that  somewhat 
perplexing  passage,  and  of  one  or  two  others  which  speak  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  just  as  if  it  were  an  event  distinct  in  time, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  New  Testament  teaches  broadly 
the  doctrine  of  one  comprehensive  resurrection — a  resurrection 
concurrent  with  and  induced  by  the  final  advent  of  Christ  unto 
judgment. 

It  may  freely  be  admitted  that  such  an  event  is  to  our  view 
simply  incomprehensible — a  mystery  too  vast  and  profound  to  be 
measured  by  any  human  experience.  But  it  should  be  noted 
that  this  mystery  belongs  to  a  large  class  of  mysteries,  of  which 
not  one  is  penetrable  by  the  intellect  of  man.  The  mystery  of 
creation  from  nothing,  or  of  the  transmutation  of  unorganized 
into  vital  matter, — the  mystery  of  growing  plants  and  flowers,  of 
the  unfolding  of  the  oak  from  the  acorn,  of  animal  instincts  and 
movements,  of  the  intelligence  discernible  in  the  inferior  ani- 
mals,— the  mystery  of  the  combination  of  body  and  spirit  in  man, 
or  of  the  action  of  the  spirit  upon  the  bodily  organism  in  our  daily 
life, — the  mystery  of  miracles,    such  as  were  wrought  under  a 


770  KSCHATOLOGY. 

wide  variety  of  conditions  and  reliably  reported  in  the  Scriptures, — 
the  mystery  of  the  moral  change  induced  in  regeneration  and  sauc- 
tification, — the  mystery  of  death,  and  of  the  intermediate  life  as 
experienced  by  disembodied  spirits,  are  each  and  all  entirely 
beyond  human  comprehension.  Yet  in  all  these  cases  the  facts 
involved  are  intelligently  believed,  though  human  experience  and 
human  investigation  shed  no  light  on  the  deep  veil  of  mystery  that 
envelops  them.  In  like  manner  we  simply  accept  the  fact  here 
affirmed,  on  the  authority  of  Christ  and  of  the  Scriptures  gen- 
erally, although  the  fact  lies  wholly  outside  of  our  personal  cogni- 
zance, and  is  one  which  to  our  dim  vision  seems  incredible. 

Yet  the  doctrine  is  so  wrought  into  the  warp  and  woof  of  the 
later  Scriptures,  that  it  could  not  be  torn  out  without  working 
irreparable  damage  to  the  entire  structure.  It  is  even  set  forth, 
especially  in  connection  with  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  as  a  kind 
of  test  and  certification  of  many  related  truths.  If  duly  recog- 
nized, it  sheds  a  remarkable  radiance  on  much  else  that  is  taught 
respecting  eternity  :  once  admitted,  it  explains,  confirms,  glori- 
fies nearly  all  other  doctrines  within  the  same  section  of  Reve- 
lation. It  is  also  a  doctrine  of  vast  spiritual  value,  though  it  has 
been  challenged  as  being  not  only  incomprehensible,  but  also 
undesirable  and  mischievous.  He  alone,  says  Calvin,  has  made 
solid  proficiency  in  the  Gospel  who  has  been  accustomed  to  con- 
tinual meditation  on  the  blessed  resurrection.  He  adds  elsewhere, 
that  there  are  two  sufficient  grounds  of  faith,  the  omnipotence  of 
God  and  the  similitude  of  Christ.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  heart  of  humanity  instinctively  responds  to  it,  even  while  the 
intellect  questions  or  objects.  In  some  deep  sense,  it  is  a  crown- 
ing truth  in  the  Christian  scheme, — especially  when  viewed  in 
conjunction  with  the  doctrine  of  the  final  judgment,  and  of  eternal 
retribution  and  reward. 

Some  presumptive  proofs  are  urged  in  favor  of  the  doctrine. 
Nature  furnishes  several  suggestive  illustrations,  in  which  exist- 
ence— as  in  the  case  of  the  buried  seed — seems  to  be  perpetuated 
by  a  continuous  death  and  resurrection.  On  a  broader  scale, 
nature  seems  to  prophesy — as  in  the  development  of  spring  after 
the  long  and  dark  winter — some  better  future  for  the  decaying 
body  of  man.  There  are  also  instincts  and  aspirations  in  the  soul 
which  lead  us  to  desire  the  rehabilitation  of  the  spirit  in  such 
bodily  organism  :  at  least,  the  thought  of  such  restoration  and 
union  is  to  most  minds  much  more  natural  and  welcome  than  the 
opposite.  There  is  also  something  in  our  conception  of  the  judg- 
ment as  a  process,   which  suggests  that  the  body  itself  should 


RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  771 

share  with  the  spirit  in  experiencing  the  fruitage  of  the  deeds 
done  in  the  body, — the  physical  pictures  of  bliss  or  woe  presented 
in  the  Scriptures  being  in  a  sense  justified  by  our  innate  feeling 
and  conviction.  But  there  are  also  opposite  presumptions  drawn 
from  what  we  know  of  the  decay  of  the  physical  organism,  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  materials  of  the  perished  body  pass  into 
other  forms  of  life,  of  the  fact  that  the  earth  itself  is  already  one 
vast  cemetery,  and  that  the  dust  of  untold  millions  is  yet  to  be 
borne  upon  the  winds,  or  swept  downward  to  the  ocean,  or  con- 
sumed to  nothingness  in  great  conflagrations, — there  are  so  many 
and  such  serious  presumptions  against  the  doctrine  that  on  natural 
grounds  it  could  never  be  established,  if  indeed  the  natural  intel- 
lect could  ever  have  conceived  it. 

But  the  witness  of  Holy  Writ  is  decisive.  That  testimony 
is  centered  in  the  fact  that  Christ  has  risen  from  the  dead,  and 
thus  has  become,  in  the  Pauline  phrase,  the  first-fruits  of  them 
that  sleep  in  the  silence  of  the  grave.  Our  faith  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ  is  the  vital  condition  of  faith  in  the  general 
resurrection.  The  proof  as  to  this  fact  is  historical,  and  may  there- 
fore be  measured  by  the  human  understanding.  The  elements  in 
that  proof  are,  first  of  all,  that  our  Lord  prophesied  his  own 
resurrection,  and  staked  upon  its  occurrence  his  claim  to  human 
credence  ;  secondly,  the  testimony  of  the  four  evangelists  to  the 
fact — testimony  which  possesses  the  reliable  qualities  of  intelli- 
gence and  honesty  and  harmoniousness  ;  thirdly,  the  miracles 
wrought  by  Christ,  especially  the  three  miracles  of  restoration 
to  life,  may  be  taken  as  strongly  evidential  ;  fourthly,  the  entire 
Messiahship  of  Christ  becomes  a  failure  and  a  deception,  if  indeed 
he  did  not  rise  from  the  dead  according  to  his  promise  in  confirma- 
tion of  his  claim  ;  fifthly,  this  historic  event  becomes  a  convincing 
witness  in  favor  of  the  entire  Gospel  concerning  him,  and  was  so 
accepted  by  the  church  of  the  apostolic  century  ;  sixthly,  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  is  continually  introduced  in  the  epistolary 
Scriptures,  not  merely  as  an  unquestionable  fact,  but  as  a  stimu- 
lant to  duty  and  as  an  assurance  that  all  who  believe  on  him  shall 
rise  also — that  even  the  wicked  shall  rise  into  new  life  at  his 
summons.  Still  further  :  much  of  the  doctrine,  precept,  promise, 
warning,  urged  upon  Jew  and  Gentile  by  the  apostles  and  their 
helpers,  rested  on  this  foundation.  The  wide  historic  acceptance 
of  the  truth  by  the  Christian  Church  from  the  beginning,  and  on 
the  basis  of  evidence  more  extensive,  doubtless,  than  has  come 
down  to  us  ;  its  incorporation  in  the  three  ancient  creeds  ;  its  full 
a2xd  unvarying  affirmation  in  the  confessions  of  the  Reformation  ; 


772  ESCHATOLOGY. 

its  unchallenged  place  among  the  cardinal  verities  of  our  holy  faith 
at  this  day,  all  combine  yet  further  to  prove  that  the  Lord  has  risen 
indeed,  and  has  made  his  rising  clear  by  sufficient  and  incontro- 
vertible evidences. 

On  the  basis  of  this  fact,  the  resurrection  of  believers,  and 
indeed  of  all  mankind,  securely  rests.  In  thus  ascending  from  the 
abyss  of  the  grave,  Christ  not  only  proved  his  own  power  over 
death,  and  showed  that  although  he  might  be  corporeally  absent 
he  was  still  present  continually  with  his  earthly  disciples  :  he 
also  gave  them  thereby  a  conclusive  proof  of  his  power  to  give 
life  to  them,  and  even  to  raise  them  with  him  from  the  tomb, 
though  they  might  sleep  for  ages  within  its  narrow  walls.  Hence 
the  doctrine  of  a  general  resurrection  became  a  sure  and  glorious 
corollary  from  the  assured  fact  that  Christ  himself  had  risen  from 
the  dead.  There  are  many  allusions  in  the  Old  Testament — 
especially  in  the  Psalms  and  the  prophetical  writings — which  r 
when  considered  in  the  clearer  light  of  the  New,  go  to  show  that 
the  devout  Hebrews  contemplated  such  resurrection  as  at  least 
possible — just  as  they  regarded  the  doctrine  of  an  immortal  exist- 
ence as  partly  if  not  entirely  sustained  by  ancient-  revelations. 
In  the  New  Testament,  as  might  be  anticipated  after  the  full 
disclosures  by  our  I^ord,  the  resurrection  is  distinctly  affirmed, 
sometimes  with  reference  to  the  righteous,  at  others  with  reference 
to  the  wicked,  and  often  with  respect  to  all  men  without  regard 
to  character.  The  effort  to  explain  such  testimonies  as  referring 
wholly  to  spiritual  resurrection — to  the  restoration  to  newness  of 
moral  life  through  grace,  is  altogether  insufficient.  Questions  of 
time,  condition,  manner  are  often  raised  on  the  basis  of  these 
biblical  testimonies — questions  which  the  inspired  Word  refuses 
to  answer,  doubtless  for  the  reason  that  such  answer  would  be  of 
no  spiritual  benefit,  and  might  become  an  element  of  spiritual  mis- 
chief. It  is  enough  for  us  during  this  life  to  be  assured  of  the 
transcendent  fact. 

One  question  often  discussed  may  be  briefly  noted  here, — that 
which  relates  to  the  nature  of  the  resurrection  body,  and  to  its 
identity  with  the  present  body.  Reference  is  sometimes  made  for 
illustration  to  the  transfigured  body,  or  to  the  raised  body  of  our 
Iyord,  or  to  that  body  perhaps  still  further  sublimated,  which  was 
conveyed  by  him  into  heaven.  There  is  ground  for  the  belief 
that  the  bodies  of  the  saints  will  in  some  mysterious  way  be 
fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious  body,  whatever  that  may  have 
been.  We  are  also  warranted  in  believing  that  the  resurrection 
body  will  be  real — will  be  spiritual   and  immortal — will   be  free 


THE    RESURRECTION    BODY.  773 

from  the  taint  of  flesh  and  blood — will  not  retain  the  particular 
accidents  or  merely  phenomenal  qualities  of  the  earthly  organism ; 
—also  that  it  will  be  fitted  to  the  nature  and  uses  of  the  soul, 
and  will,  it  ma}r  be  presumed,  be  recognizable.  Respecting  the 
nature  of  this  identity  with  our  present  corporeal  organism,  it 
can  only  be  said  that  it  will  not  be  an  identity  of  atoms  or  of 
material  substance,  but  rather  of  the  principle  of  life,  or  of  or- 
ganization. There  certainly  is  in  man  such  a  vital  principle, 
lodged  in  the  body  at  its  very  formation,  and  which  maintains 
the  identity  of  that  body  through  all  the  changes  that  occur  in 
the  animal  structure  during  the  present  life, — a  vital  principle 
which  death  does  not  destroy,  and  which  maj^  out  of  material  at 
command  shape  for  itself  a  new  physical  organism,  that  is  iden- 
tical with  the  grosser  physical  organism  which  perished  at  death. 
The  essential  fact  is  the  identification,  whatever  may  be  the 
peculiar  characteristics  or  incidents  of  that  identification.  That 
the  body  of  the  resurrection  will  correspond  to  the  individuality 
of  the  earthly  person  in  every  essential  quality,  is  all  Scripture 
warrants  us  in  affirming. 

As  a  corollary  from  the  fact  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  belief 
in  the  general  resurrection  just  described  found  its  way  readily 
into  the  earliest  Christian  creeds,  and  became  one  of  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  the  universal  church.  The  L,onger  Catechism 
of  the  Greek  church  (366-367)  defines  this  resurrection  as  an  act 
of  the  almighty  power  of  God,  and  declares  in  answer  to  all 
objection  that,  since  God  formed  the  body  from  the  ground  orig- 
inally, he  can  equally  restore  it  after  it  has  perished  in  the 
ground.  The  Council  of  Trent,  in  arguing  for  the  veneration  of 
saints  and  martyrs,  affirms  that  their  holy  bodies  as  the  living 
members  of  Christ  shall  be  by  Him  raised  unto  an  eternal  and 
glorious  life.  The  declarations  of  Protestant  symbolism  are  too 
numerous  and  too  familiar  to  be  adduced  here  :  see  Augsburg 
Conf.,  XVII;  Second  Helvetic,  XXVI;  Heidelberg  Cat.,  45  ; 
Belgic  Conf.,  XXXVII;  Scotch  Conf.,  X,  XVII  ;  Thirty-Nine 
Articles,  IV.  The  Symbols  give  no  countenance  to  the  theory 
of  two  resurrections,  separated  by  a  long  interval  of  time  and 
having  widely  different  designs.  The  time  of  the  general  or 
universal  resurrection  is  specified  (ch.  XXXII  ;  1,.  C,  87)  as 
the  last  day  ;  and  then  not  any  special  class  but  all  the  dead,  it 
is  said,  shall  be  raised  up  together.  This  time  is  further  fixed 
by  the  declaration  (L,.  C,  88)  that  immediately  after  the  resur- 
rection shall  follow  the  general  and  final  judgment  of  angels  and 
men      The  full  identity  or  oneness  of  the  resurrection  body  with 


"774  ESCHATOLOGY. 

the  present  body  is  strongly  affirmed,  though  no  explanation  of 
the  nature  of  that  oneness  is  attempted  ;  the)'  are  to  be  the  self- 
same body  and  none  other.  It  is  beau ti full}'  said  that  the  earthly 
bodies  of  the  saints  are  even  in  death  somehow  united  to  Christ,  and 
that  they  rest  in  their  graves  as  in  their  beds  (X.  C.  86)  till  at  the 
last  day  they  shall  be  raised  tip  again  and  united  to  their  souls  by 
his  mighty  power  and  by  virtue  of  his  resurrection  as  their  Head. 
It  is  also  said,  with  an  impressive  antithesis,  that  the  bodies  of  the 
wicked  are  kept  in  their  graves  as  in  their  prisons,  until  the  resur- 
rection and  judgment  of  the  last  great  day.  In  the  same  connec- 
tion it  is  intimated  that  the  bodies  of  the  just  (L,.  C,  87),  being 
raised  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  shall  be  endued  with  new  qualities, 
raised  in  power  and  beauty  and  made  spiritual  and  incorruptible 
like  the  glorious  body  of  the  Saviour  Himself,  while  those  of  the 
wicked  are  raised  tip  in  dishonor,  as  by  the  authority  of  an  offended 
judge  who  summons  them  into  his  presence  for  final  condemna- 
tion. For  the  just  that  will  be  a  day  of  welcome  deliverance  and 
of  consummated  glory  ;  to  the  wicked  it  must  be  a  day  of  wrath 
and  of  unspeakable  humiliation. 

The  other  great  event  which  is  to  occur  in  connection  with  the 
second  advent  of  Christ,  and  which  is  revealed  as  the  object  of 

that  transcendent  coming,  is  the  General 
12.    General  Judgment:  TT  .  ,  T    ,  ,       T,  .         .       , 

necessity  and  nature:  Christ  or  Universal  Judgment.  It  has  already 
the  judge.  been  said  that  the  probation  of  men  closes 

with  the  present  life,  and  that  after  death 
there  comes  a  judgment,  individual  and  particular,  which  deter- 
mines the  character  and  destiny  of  each  soul  forever.  But  it  has 
also  been  said  that  the  condition  of  award  or  retribution  into  which 
the  disembodied  spirit  enters  at  death  is  a  temporary  and  prelimi- 
nary condition,  though  it  should  be  prolonged  to  multitudes 
through  many  ages.  The  particular  judgment  is  thus  introductory 
to  that  final  adjudication  of  the  race  as  a  race  of  which  our  L,ord 
in  the  gospel  of  Matthew  speaks  so  impressively,  and  in  which 
he  declares  himself  to  be  the  universal  Judge.  The  particular 
judgment  is  not  intended  to  usurp  the  functions  or  to  preclude  the 
necessity  of  that  ultimate  adjudication.  This  has  its  own  specific 
and  loftier  and  more  comprehensive  uses.  It  is  indeed  designed 
in  part  as  a  confirmation  and  final  sealing  of  the  judicial  decision 
made  on  the  entrance  of  the  soul  upon  its  disembodied  life;  but  it 
contemplates  mainly  the  moral  condition  and  deserts  of  the  race 
in  its  totality.  It  is  in  a  word,  that  solemn  transaction  which 
terminates  the  career  of  humanity  on  earth,  and  settles  judicially 
its  eternal  future. 


THE    GENERAL   JUDGMENT. 


775 


It  is  indeed  impossible  for  any  finite  mind  to  fathom  all  the 
reasons  for  such  a  transaction:  many  of  these  must  lie  in  the  divine 
mind  alone,  as  far  beyond  human  ken  as  the  reasons  for  the  first 
creation  of  the  race,  or  the  permission  of  sin,  or  the  providential 
administration  of  the  world,  or  the  incarnation  in  the  interest  of 
redemption.     But  we  may  reverently  discern,  or  discern  in  part, 
some  of  the  reasons  for  this  consummating  event.     As  the  Sover- 
eign and   Father  of   mankind,   God  evidently  desires  to  make 
manifest  to  all  souls  the  grounds  on  which  his  laws,  his  plans  and 
methods,  his  actual  dealings  with  the  race  have  been  based: — both 
to  convict  forever  those  who  have  rebelled  against  his  authority 
and  spurned  his  parental  love,  and  to  attach  those  who  have  been 
submissive  and  dutiful  to  himself  in  closer  love  eternally.     God 
as  the  Savior  of  men  especially  desires  that  both  sinners  and  saints 
should  more  fully  comprehend   his  dispensation  of   grace,  and 
should  thereby  be  forever  either  convicted  and  condemned  for 
their  rejection  of  the  Gospel,  or  more  firmly  fixed  in  faith  and 
devotion,  world  without  end.     God  as  the  Spirit  desires  that  his 
modes  and  measures  of  gracious  influence,  his  pentecostal  out- 
pourings of   power,   his  tender  and  patient  strivings,   his  final 
withdrawing  from  the  obdurate  soul  should  be  comprehended,  so 
that  while  those  who  have  yielded  to  him  and  been  transformed 
spiritually  through  his  ministries,  should  become  his  friends  in  an 
eternal  covenant  of  trust  and  affection,  those  who  have  sinned 
against  him  and  have  died  in  such  sin,  should  see  why  there  is  no 
forgiveness  for  them  either  in  this  world  or  in  the  world  to  come. 
Comprehensively,  the  final  judgment  is  intended  to  be  a  full  review 
of  all  the  dealings  of  God  with  the  race,  both  providential  and 
gracious,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  career  of  humanity 
on  the  earth, — to  justify  him  in  his  administration,  and  to  test  the 
race,  individually  and  collectively,  in  full  view  of  such  manifest- 
ation.    That  such  a  comprehensive  review  and  adjudication  is 
necessary  becomes  obvious  as  soon  as  the  relations  of  the  trans- 
action to  the  present  life  as  a  state  of  probation  are  clearly  seen. 
That  it  is  desirable,  at  least  to  the  righteous,  is  very  manifest; 
that  it  will  be  sublime  and  momentous  beyond  all  possible  concep- 
tions of  the  human  mind — the  day  for  which  all  other  days  were 
made,  and  on  whose  action  an  endless  eternity  is  dependent — our 
Lord  himself  has  abundantly  assured  us. 

There  are  some  obvious  presumptions  in  favor  of  the  belief  that 
such  an  adjudication  as  this  will  occur.  One  of  these  lies,  as  has 
already  been  suggested,  in  the  fact  that  a  state  of  probation  such 
as  that  through  which  both  individual   men  and   the  race  are 


T76  ESCHATOLOGY. 

passing,  requires  some  definite  conclusion,  since  an  unending 
probation  is  an  absurdity  in  itself;  and  also  some  conclusive 
explanation  of  its  nature,  and  the  application  of  that  principle  of 
award  which  the  idea  of  a  probation  carries  within  it  as  an  impli- 
cation. Another  lies  in  the  fact  that  so  far  as  we  now  are  able 
to  discern  them,  the  divine  methods  in  both  providence  and  grace 
seem  to  our  dim  vision  but  partial  and  incomplete — calling  appa- 
rently for  some  more  full  and  consummating  explanation.  Neither 
can  there  be  any  satisfactory  conception  of  a  moral  government 
over  man  in  which  right  ultimately  triumphs  and  wrong  is  ulti- 
mately punished,  except  on  the  hypothesis  of  some  final  rectifying 
and  completing  judgment.  In  a  word,  both  the  inherent  justice  of 
God  as  a  holy  Being,  and  the  nature  of  his  moral  relations  to  man, 
agree  in  calling  for  such  a  final  result  as  is  here  contemplated. 
There  are  also  in  the  rational  mind  and  conscience  what  seem  like 
premonitions  of  such  an  explaining  and  consummating  transaction, 
not  merely  for  the  individual  but  for  the  race — a  final  day  when 
all  spirits  shall  be  confronted  with  some  solemn  testing,  and  shall 
receive  some  ultimate  destination.  But  such  presumptions  alone 
could  not  sufficiently  confirm  and  emphasize  the  truth:  what  they 
suggest,  the  inspired  Word  decisively  affirms.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment contains  many  a  reference  which,  studied  in  the  clearer  light 
of  the  New,  corroborates  the  saying  of  Daniel  that  those  who  sleep 
in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall  arise,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and 
some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  The  witness  of  the 
New  Testament  is  too  full  and  clear  to  need  explanation.  The 
fact  is  assumed,  on  the  authority  of  Christ,  throughout  the  later 
Scriptures,  and  is  in  many  ways  wrought  inextricably,  as  if  by  a 
divine  hand  and  purpose,  into  the  very  texture  of  the  Christian 
doctrine.  In  the  presence  of  such  inspired  teaching  all  objections 
—such  as  that  such  a  comprehensive  adjudication  is  needless,  or 
that  it  is  undesirable,  or  that  it  may  be  painful  even  to  the  saint, 
inasmuch  as  it  involves  an  exposure  of  his  earthly  weakness  and 
sins — vanish  away.  In  that  great  day  there  will  be  no  questioning 
of  the  right  of  God  to  judge  the  world,  or  of  the  wisdom  or  the 
equity  or  the  love  that  will  mark  that  solemn  transaction. 

That  Christ  will  be  the  final  Judge,  is  determined  by  his  own 
declaration.  This  is  not  an  expedient  devised  subsequently  to 
his  incarnation  and  life  :  he  is  said  in  the  Couf.  to  be  from  all 
eternity  the  judge,  this  being  the  crowning  element  in  his 
Messiahship.  Nor  is  he  a  judge  by  divine  appointment  merely  : 
he  is  also  a  judge  by  nature  and  inherently  as  divine.  There  is 
also  s  fitness  in  his  sitting  thus  in  judgment,  since  the  supreme 


CHRIST   THE   FINAL  JUDGE.  777 

test  in  the  case  at  least  of  every  soul  that  has  heard  the  offer  of 
salvation  through  him,  will  be  its  treatment  of  that  gracious  offer. 
As  judge  he  is  to  wear  not  the  robes  of  his  earthly  humiliation, 
but  rather  the  insignia  of  his  heavenly  majesty  :  he  is  to  be 
seated  on  the  throne  of  his  sovereignty,  and  the  angels  who  sang 
hymns  of  peace  and  good  will  to  men  at  his  first  advent,  are  to 
accompany  him  in  his  glorious  descent,  as  in  the  clouds  of  heaven, 
to  perform  this  final  act  in  his  Messianic  office.  His  own  descrip- 
tion of  that  advent  and  of  the  scene  of  adjudication  simply 
overpowers  us  :  human  thought  could  by  no  possibility  supply 
anything  to  such  a  delineation.  The  concept  is  clearly  super- 
natural :  man  could  never  have  imagined  it.  It  should  be  added 
that  this  divine  declaration  shuts  out  decisively  the  rationalistic 
notion  of  the  judgment  as  merely  an  historic  procedure  in  time, 
continuous  and  evolutionary  ;  and  also  the  dogma  of  two  judg- 
ments, one  at  the  beginning  and  the  other  at  the  closing  of 
the  millennial  era.  The  day  may  not  be  a  literal  day,  but  it  can 
be  neither  an  indefinitely  prolonged  period,  nor  two  days  many 
centuries  apart. 

The  persons  judged  are  to  be  the  entire  human  race  :  before 
Him  shall  be  gathered  all  the  nations.  The  world  with  all  its 
inhabitants,  past  or  present  or  future  to  the  end  of  time,  is  to 
face  that  solemn  adjudication.  In  the  language  of  the  Confes- 
sion (Ch.  XXXIII)  all  that  have  lived  upon  earth  shall  appear 
before  the  tribunal  of  Christ.  It  is  also  said  in  this  chapter  that 
the  apostate  angels  shall  be  judged,  in  conjunction  with  the  judg- 
ment of  humanity, — a  statement  based  on  biblical  warrant,  and 
implying  that  the  angelic  apostacy  was  not,  according  to  the 
Mil  tonic  conception,  some  revolt  in  heaven  long  antecedent  to 
the  creation  of  man,  but  rather  a  lapse  into  sin  in  immediate  con- 
junction with  the  temptation  and  fall  of  our  first  parents.  Rep- 
robate angels  and  men  are  significantly  associated,  in  the  statement 
(90)  of  the  Larger  Catechism.  The  first  reprobate  or  apostate 
angel  of  whom  we  have  any  knowledge  was  that  Satan  who  led 
our  humanity  astray  in  the  primeval  Paradise,  and  his  share  in 
that  revolt  against  the  divine  commands,  and  the  share  of  all 
other  angels  associated  with  him  in  the  corruption  of  our  race, 
would  make  it  eminently  fitting  that  he  and  they,  together  with 
the  human  race,  should  be  arraigned  at  the  tribunal  of  Christ. 
The  ground  of  their  condemnation  is  nowhere  stated,  but  it  may 
be  presumed  that  it  will  be  the  same  in  kind  as  that  by  which 
humanity  are  judged.  In  each  and  every  case,  the  adjudication 
will  have  its  basis  in  character  as   illustrated  in  action.     The 


I    6  ESCHATOLOGY. 

books,  it  is  said  in  solemn  imagery,  will  then  be  opened  ;  the 
book  of  divine  omniscience  and  remembrance,  the  book  of  provi- 
dence, the  book  of  the  law  or  the  Scriptures,  the  book  of  con- 
science, the  book  of  life  or  of  death  ;  and  their  several  contents  will 
furnish  the  basis  of  the  adjudication.  This  adjudication  will  be 
equitably  conducted,  with  full  recognition  of  the  native  capaci- 
ties, the  moral  opportunity,  the  particular  light  and  privilege,  in 
the  case  of  each  and  every  arraigned  person.  They  that  have 
sinned  without  law,  shall  be  judged  without  law — according  to 
the  measure  of  their  violation  of  the  light  and  the  moral  incen- 
tives of  nature  ;  while  as  many  as  have  continued  in  sin  notwith- 
standing their  enjoyment  of  the  light  and  counsel  of  the  Gospel, 
shall  receive,  as  they  will  deserve,  the  greater  condemnation. 
The  millions  of  the  heathen  world  will  be  treated  justly,  and  with 
infinite  compassion  ;  the  greater  millions  of  infancy  and  childhood 
will  meet  with  like  tenderness  ;  while  they  who  have  sinned 
against  larger  light  and  knowledge  shall  be  beaten  with  many 
stripes. 

The  formal  issue  of  this  adjudication  is  revealed  to  us  in  unmis- 
takable language  by  Him  who  is  to  act  as  Judge  in  that  awful 
day.  Angustine  intimates  (Civ.  Dei.  XX)  that  in  that  hour 
each  soul  will  spontaneously  sit  in  judgment  on  itself,  and  in  the 
presence  of  Christ  will,  if  it  be  sinful,  pronounce  its  own  doom. 
But  that  decision  will  lie  rather  in  the  hand  of  Christ,  and  it  will 
be  from  his  lips  that  the  verdict  whether  of  reward  or  of  retribu- 
tion will  be  pronounced.  And  the  issue  of  that  solemn  assize 
will  be  the  final  separation  of  the  good  and  the  evil — as  if  angels 
passed  through  the  vast  concourse,  assigning  to  each  soul  its  just 
place,  and  executing  upon  the  race  as  a  whole  the  imperative 
decree  of  the  righteous  judge.  The  great  gulf  fixed,  which  our 
Lord  described  in  the  parable  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  is  a  faint 
type  or  suggestion  of  that  ultimate  division  and  separation,  im- 
measurably broader  and  deeper.  All  earthly  imagery  shrinks 
into  nothingness  when  the  attempt  is  made  to  utilize  it  in  the 
delineation  of  that  august  hour  when  the  multitudes  in  that  great 
concourse  shall  move  away  from  this  celestial  tribunal,  each  soul 
to  seek  it  own  place  and  enter  either  in  joy  or  in  unutterable 
anguish  on  the  destiny  which  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  has 
assigned  it. 

The  universal  teaching  of  Christian  symbolism  on  this  impres- 
sive theme  is  embodied  in  the  language  of  the  earliest  creed  ;  He 
ascended  into  heaven  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father  Almighty  ;  from  thence  he  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick 


THE   ETERNAL   STATE.  779 

and  the  dead.  The  Protestant  formularies  are  well  represented 
in  the  quaint  statement  of  the  Scotch  Conf .  XXV  :  In  the  general 
judgment  there  shall  be  given  to  every  man  and  woman  resur- 
rection in  the  flesh  :  For  the  Sea  shall  give  up  her  dead  :  the 
Earth  they  that  therein  be  inclosed  :  yea,  the  Eternal  our  God 
shall  stretch  out  his  hand  on  the  dust,  and  the  dead  shall  arise 
incorruptible  and  that  in  the  substance  of  the  self-same  flesh  that 
every  man  now  beareth,  to  receive  according  to  their  works  glory 
or  punishment.  The  doctrine  is  in  like  manner  explicitly  taught 
in  the  Symbols,  in  conjunction  with  the  revealed  fact  of  an 
universal  resurrection.  The  incidents  of  the  solemn  event  are 
(Ch.  XXXIII)  vividly  depicted.  Christ  is  there  to  appear  in 
the  full  and  final  exercise  of  his  delegated  authority  as  Judge. 
Apostate  angels  are  then  to  be  judged.  All  persons  that  have 
ever  lived  on  the  earth  are  to  present  themselves  before  the  great 
tribunal.  All  are  to  give  account  before  the  Judge  of  their 
thoughts,  words  and  deeds.  All  are  to  hear  the  final  decision, 
and  to  receive  according  to  what  they  have  done  in  the  body, 
whether  good  or  evil  ;  the  earthly  life — not  any  experience  in 
the  intermediate  state — determining  their  character  and  their 
destiny.  The  righteous  are  said  (L,.  C,  90)  to  be  caught  up  to 
Christ  in  the  clouds  ;  to  be  set  on  his  right  hand  ;  to  be  openly 
acknowledged  and  acquitted;  and  finally  to  be  joined  with  him  in 
the  judgment  of  reprobate  men  and  angels.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  wicked  (I,.  C,  89)  are  said  upon  clear  evidence,  and  with  full 
conviction  of  their  own  consciences,  to  be  justly  convicted  and  sen- 
tenced, and  cast  out  forever  from  the  favorable  presence  of  God  and 
the  glorious  fellowship  of  Christ  and  his  saints.  And  the  end  of 
this  solemn  procedure  is  said  to  be  the  full  manifestation  of  the 
glory  of  the  divine  mercy  in  the  salvation  of  the  righteous,  and 
the  antithetic  manifestation  of  the  divine  justice  in  the  condemna- 
tion of  them  that  obey  not  God. 

Beyond  the  transcendent  vision  of  the  final  judgment,  and  of 

the  judicial  decision  which  there  formally  divides  the  human  race 

on  the  basis  of  character  and  desert 

into  two  races  fundamentally  diverse,        13,     The   Eternal   state* 
.     ,  «    .  ,  ,    ,  .  Hell  and  Heaven,  nature  and 

inspired  Scripture  reveals  to  our  view,     duratinn 

at  least  to  some  extent,   the  eternal 

state  of  both  the  unholy  and  the  godly,  as  thus  judicially  and 

completely  separate.     It  tells  us  that  the  rehabilitation  of  both 

classes,  having  taken  place  at  the  resurrection,  is  the  beginning 

of  a  new  form  of  existence,  which  is  to  be  everlasting  in  dura- 


780  ESCHATOLOGY. 

tion,  and  unfathomable  to  mortals  in  its  manifold  experiences. 
It  tells  us  that  the  unholy  are  not  blotted  out  of  life,  but  rather 
survive  in  full  consciousness,  and  probably  with  powers  greatly 
quickened,  although  they  dwell  in  an  estate  of  condemnation. 
It  tells  us  also  that  the  godly  are  to  live  on,  in  the  more  imme- 
diate presence  of  Deity,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  most  blessed 
fellowship  with  one  another,  with  continuous  expansion  of  their 
finite  capacities  and  spheres  of  holy  activity  throughout  eternity. 
Its  revelations  are  indeed  clothed,  as  they  must  be,  in  imagery 
drawn  from  our  earthly  life,  whether  they  be  descriptive  of 
woe  or  of  blessedness, — yet  this  imagery,  it  should  be  noted,  is 
the  strongest,  the  most  vivid  and  impressive,  which  that  life  can 
supply.  And  the  manner  in  which  such  symbolic  representations 
are  introduced  and  used  always  suggests  the  momentous  truth, 
that  the  realities  which  they  seek  to  represent  are  in  themselves 
incomparably  greater.  Eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
hath  the  heart  of  man  conceived  the  indescribable  verity. 

The  doctrine  that  there  will  finally  be  a  universe  of  human 
beings  that  have  passed  at  the  day  of  judgment  into  an  estate  of 
authoritative  and  righteous  condemnation  as  a  consequence  of 
sinful  living  on  the  earth,  has  been  held,  painful  beyond  expres- 
sion as  such  a  thought  must  ever  be,  by  the  Christian  church 
universally,  on  the  basis  of  Holy  Scripture.  It  is  true,  as  Bishop 
Butler  has  conclusively  shown,  that  belief  in  some  future  punish- 
ment is  a  lesson  which  natural  theology  clearly  teaches,  with  a 
strong  if  not  conclusive  implication  that  such  punishment  may 
be  unending.  That  distinguished  divine  maintained  that  this 
proposition  is  a  necessary  corollary  from  the  unquestionable  fact 
that  God  is  now  administering  a  moral  government  over  man, 
and  over  man  as  sinful — a  government  which  would  cease  to  be 
government  if  it  contained  no  provision  for  punishing  transgress- 
ors against  its  holy  laws.  He  explained  the  present  delay  in  the 
administration  of  the  penalty  which  sin  as  a  present  fact  deserves, 
by  reference  to  the  associated  fact  that  sinners  are  now  living 
under  an  economy  of  grace,  with  its  possibility  of  repentance  and 
restoration;  but  held  that  where  this  gracious  interposition  fails 
in  this  world,  government  and  equity  will  have  their  way  in  the 
future  life,  and  will  punish  righteously  so  long  as  the  sinfulness 
lasts — even  though  it  be  forever  :  see  also  Jackson  on  Eternal 
Retribution  a  Doctrine  of  Natural  Theology. 

The  argument  is  intensely  solemn  in  its  sweep  and  conclusive- 
ness. It  starts  with  the  unchallengeable  premise  that  sin  is  not 
destroved  by  the  incident  of  death,  but  continues  to  occur  in  the 


HELL    AND    HEAVEN.  781 

intermediate  life,  and  will  continue  till  the  judgment.  Well  says 
Socrates  in  the  Phaedo  :  Death  is  not  the  end  of  all,  and  the 
wicked  is  not  released  from  his  evil  by  death  ;  but  every  one 
carries  with  him  into  the  world  below  that  which  he  is  and  that 
which  he  becomes,  and  that  only.  The  argument  affirms  more 
specifically,  that  there  is  a  self -perpetuating  capacity  in  sinful  as 
well  as  in  sanctified  character,  having  its  baleful  laws  of  growth 
and  its  ever-widening  aspirations  ;  and  that  such  development  in 
evil  may  go  on,  even  eternally.  It  points  also  to  the  nature  and 
operations  of  conscience  as  a  punitive  power  in  the  soul  during 
this  life — a  power  which  cannot  cease  with  death,  but  must 
continue  to  inflict  its  chastisement  upon  the  sinner  so  long  as  he 
continues  in  his  sin.  It  emphasizes  the  nature  and  claims  of 
equity  as  forbidding  any  compromise  with  sin,  but  demanding 
in  the  interest  of  righteousness  that  all  sinfulness  shall  be  pun- 
ished so  long  as  it  exists,  even  forevermore.  It  also  exalts  the 
moral  government  of  God,  with  its  eternal  claim  to  the  loving 
allegiance  of  all  moral  beings,  and  its  just  and  resistless  sentence 
on  all  willful  transgression,  in  whatever  world  or  age.  It 
emphasizes  the  nature  of  retribution  as  something  imperatively 
needful  as  a  restraint  upon  sin,  and  as  becoming  more  and  more 
necessary  as  sin  increases  in  volume  and  malevolence.  It  points 
also  to  the  social  relations  and  influence  of  sin  in  a  vast  commun- 
ity where  individual  sinfulness  abounds,  and  where  every  ten- 
dency may  be  more  and  more  averse  to  holiness  as  the  periods 
of  eternity  roll  on.  And  finally  it  rests  on  the  fact  that,  since 
all  restorative  forces  fail  during  this  life  to  arrest  sinfulness  and 
make  men  holy,  there  is  no  valid  reason  to  hope  that  such  forces, 
if  they  were  brought  to  bear  on  sinners  in  another  life,  would  be 
effective  in  checking  all  evil.  And  the  rational  inference  to  be 
drawn  from  all  these  considerations  is  that,  were  there  no  Scrip- 
ture to  reveal  the  awful  fact,  sin  and  its  penalty  will  remain  as 
realities  in  the  moral  universe,  even  forever, — the  Bible  honestly 
stating  that  fact,  but  in  no  sense  giving  it  existence. 

Yet  the  witness  of  Scripture  is  as  clear,  earnest,  conclusive  as 
language  can  make  it,  in  the  form  of  both  direct  affirmations  and 
negative  or  indirect  declarations,  and  also  of  general  statements 
and  inferences — all  so  numerous  and  explicit  that  it  seems  almost 
impossible  to  interpose  candid  question  or  challenge.  It  is  a  just 
remark  (Shedd,  Hist.  Doct.)  that  in  proportion  as  the  inspiration 
and  infallibility  of  Revelation  have  been  conceded,  the  doctrine 
of  an  absolute  and  therefore  endless  punishment  of  sin  has  main- 
tained itself  in  the  Christian  church, — it  being  impossible,  as  the 


782  ESCHATOLOGY. 

author  says,  to  eliminate  the  tenet  from  the  Scriptures,  except 
by  some  mutilation  of  the  Canon  or  some  violently  capricious 
exegesis.  In  multiplied  ways  the  Bible  describes,  first,  the  ground 
of  future  punishment  as  seen  in  the  sin  of  the  race  :  secondly,  the 
nature  of  that  punishment  as  adapted  to  the  constitution  of  the 
sinner,  and  both  privative  and  positive  in  its  aspects  :  thirdly, 
the  laws  that  control  its  administration,  in  the  application  of 
penalty  to  the  various  grades  and  measures  of  sinfulness  mani- 
fest :  fourthly,  its  severity  as  an  expression  of  the  feeling  of 
God  in  view  of  such  sin  in  whatever  form,  and  specifically  in  the 
crowning  form  of  willful  rejection  of  his  grace  in  Christ :  and 
fifthly,  its  duration  as  endless  in  time — complete  and  everlasting. 
These  are  the  spontaneous  conclusions  of  those  who  study  the 
sacred  writings  on  this  subject  with  candid  mind,  and  without 
preconceived  theories.  It  may  be  added  that  those  who  hold  to 
such  conclusions  would  rejoice  as  heartily  as  any  if  the  Word  of 
God  were  found  on  fair  investigation  to  disclose  any  other  or 
brighter  view  ;  but  they  reverently  accept  the  doctrine,  with  all 
the  mystery  and  awfulness  of  it,  simply  because  that  Word  so  un- 
questionably teaches  it.  And  they  further  regard  it  as  one  of 
the  evidences  that  the  Scriptures  have  come  to  us  from  God,  that 
they  speak  so  clearly  and  faithfully  on  this  solemn  theme,  on  the 
authority  of  a  Being  who  knows  the  exact  truth  in  the  case,  and 
who  loves  our  sinful  humanity  too  well  to  conceal  it. 

Turning  away  from  this  painful  vision,  we  are  confronted  at 
once  on  the  authority  of  the  same  Scriptures  with  glimpses  of 
the  reality  and  the  splendor  and  the  holiness  of  that  vast  uni- 
verse of  human  beings  whom  Christ  has  in  his  final  adjudication 
pronounced  worthy,  and  assigned  a  place  with  himself  in  the 
heavenly  Kingdom  of  God.  Some  noticeable  differences  become 
at  once  apparent.  The  ground  of  that  assignment  is  made  even 
more  clear  :  the  nature  of  its  awards  is  more  distinctly  revealed  : 
the  laws  that  rule  in  its  gracious  administration  are  set  forth  in 
more  glorious  coloring  ;  its  blessedness  is  more  fully  defined,  and 
its  duration  is  declared  to  be  as  endless  as  the  existence  of  God. 
The  inspired  Word  says  almost  nothing  respecting  the  associa- 
tions experienced  in  the  universe  of  evil,  but  dwells  with  tender 
interest  on  the  communion  of  the  saints  in  glory.  It  says  almost 
nothing  about  the  occupations  of  the  lost,  but  recounts  with 
enthusiasm  the  employments  of  the  saved — their  ceaseless  praises 
before  the  throne,  their  ministries  to  one  another,  their  eager 
discharge  of  whatever  services  God  may  require.  It  says  almost 
nothing  about  the  evolution  of  sin  within  the  breast  of  the  con- 


BIBLE    DOCTRINE.  783 

denmed  sinner,  or  the  dark  developments  of  evil  in  the  society  of 
the  condemned  ;  bnt  celebrates  in  advance  the  growth  of  the 
redeemed  in  knowledge,  their  increase  in  holiness,  their  moral 
development  into  equality  with  the  angels  that  have  never  sinned. 
The  same  faithful  Word  which  brings  to  us  the  revelation  of  the 
universe  of  evil  and  requires  us  to  accept  that  revelation  on  the 
authority  of  him  who  inspired  that  Word,  brings  to  us  also  this 
sublime  vision  of  the  universe  of  good,  and  permits  us  to  receive 
and  welcome  it,  not  simply  as  an  article  of  faith,  but  as  a  blessed 
verity  of  grace,  given  to  us  and  to  all  men  as  an  inspiration  to  a 
life  of  obedience  and  holiness  on  earth.  We  have  in  fact  no  more 
reason  for  believing  in  the  fact  of  heaven  than  for  believing  in 
the  fact  of  hell ;  the  same  Scriptures  which  reveal  the  one,  reveal 
also  the  other  ;  both  facts  rest  on  the  same  foundation  ;  yet  over 
the  abyss  of  hell  there  rest  eternal  shadows,  while  on  the  sum- 
mits of  heaven  eternal  sunshine,  everlasting  glory,  abides. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  Lecture  to  discuss  these  solemn 
topics  at  length,  or  to  present  the  proofs  of  these  antithetic  truths 
as  fully  as  they  deserve.  Both  doctrines  are  alike  incorporated 
in  the  very  structure  of  Christianity,  and  neither  of  them  can  be 
torn  out  without  impairing  and  endangering  that  structure 
throughout.  To  set  aside  the  biblical  teaching  respecting  hell 
involves  the  subversion  of  a  large  proportion  of  what  is  taught 
in  the  Scriptures  on  one  hand  in  respect  to  sin  and  law  and 
government,  and  on  the  other  respecting  Christ  and  the  redemp- 
tion which  he  came  into  our  world  to  offer  to  mankind. 
Even  the  inspiration  and  infallibility  of  the  Divine  Word  are 
called  in  question  by  such  a  procedure, — as  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  the  rejection  of  this  doctrine  has  quite  generally  been 
accompanied  by  characteristic  indifference,  or  at  least  by  lack  of 
positive  loyalty,  to  the  Bible  viewed  as  an  authoritative  and  final 
message  from  God  to  our  lost  race.  It  is  the  just  remark  of  an 
eminent  authority  that  though  this  be  a  solemn,  alarming,  fearful 
truth,  yet  to  hold  it  is  essential  to  the  integrity  of  the  whole 
system  of  faith,  and  to  the  taking  Scripture  as  the  supreme  rule 
of  faith.  To  set  aside  the  scriptural  teaching  respecting  hell 
requires  that  one  should  set  aside  the  corresponding  teaching 
respecting  heaven,  and  the  immortal  life  of  purity  and  blessedness 
there  centered, — in  that  process  sweeping  out  of  sight  some  of  the 
strongest  incentives  to  a  life  of  holy  obedience  on  earth.  This  has 
in  all  ages  been  apparent  to  the  Christian  church  ;  and  it  is  sig- 
nificant that  after  eighteen  centuries  of  investigation  that  church 
m  all  its  best  types,  and  even  in  its  more  degenerate  types  also, 


784  ESCHATOLOGY. 

Is  now  substantially  agreed  as  to  the  reality  and  the  nature  and 
the  duration  of  both  hell  and  heaven,  and  also  as  to  the  divinely 
established  relation  between  these  two  antithetic  universes  and 
the  kind  of  life  which  men  are  living  in  this  preparatory  world. 

The  Protestant  creeds  are  entirely  one  in  their  affirmations 
touching  these  truths,  from  the  Confession  of  Augsburg  down  to 
the  Symbols  of  Westminster.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  note  here 
the  strong  and  solemn  language  of  these  Symbols.  Their  de- 
scriptions of  the  permanent  estate  into  which  the  righteous  and 
the  wicked  are  respectively  assigned  by  Christ  as  their  Judge, 
are  both  positive  and  impressive  in  the  highest  degree.  Appro- 
priating the  awful  language  of  the  Bible  itself,  they  affirm  that 
the  souls  of  the  tvicked  are  cast  into  hell,  where  they  remain  in  tor- 
ments and  utter  darkness,  reserved  to  the  judgment  of  the  great 
day.  This  fate  is  declared  to  be  an  inevitable  consequence  of 
sin,  whereby  the  sinner  is  bound  over  to  the  wrath  of  God,  and 
made  subject  not  only  to  death,  but  to  unspeakable  miseries, 
spiritual,  temporal  and  eternal.  The  same  solemn  truth  is  em- 
phasized in  the  chapter  on  the  law  of  God  as  a  rule  of  life. 
In  the  Larger  Catechism,  it  is  said  (29,  86)  that  sin  is  punished 
in  the  world  to  come  by  everlasting  separation  from  the  comfort- 
able presence  of  God,  and  by  the  judicial  imposition  of  grievous 
torments  in  soul  and  body,  and  that  without  intermission.  Ter- 
rible as  such  language  seems,  the  Symbols  simply  repeat  here 
the  utterances  of  Scripture,  and  especially  of  the  Savior  himself, 
from  whose  faithful  lips  these  declarations  have  fallen  as  a  solemn 
warning  against  all  sin.  And  when  they  add  that  such  punish- 
ment is  without  end,  and  so  pronounce  the  estate  of  the  wicked 
a  fixed  and  changeless  estate,  they  are  only  repeating  again  the 
teaching  of  him  who  said  :  Their  worm  dieth  not,  and  their  fire 
is  not  quenched. 

Concerning  the  righteous  the  Symbols  in  graphic  and  glowing 
language  declare  that  the  condition  into  which  they  are  judicially 
introduced  at  death,  is  one  of  corresponding  felicity,  instant, 
complete,  eternal.  They  tell  us  (I/.  C,  86)  in  words  already 
quoted,  that  this  condition  is  one  of  communion  with  Christ  in 
glory  ;  that  the  righteous  enter  on  the  enjoyment  of  such  com- 
munion immediately  after  death  ;  that  their  souls  are  at  once 
made  perfect  in  holiness,  and  are  received  into  the  highest 
heavens,  and  that  they  are  permitted  there  to  behold  the  face  of 
God  in  light  and  glory,  while  they  wait  for  the  full  redemption 
of  their  bodies  at  the  resurrection.  The  same  terms  are  employed 
m  the  Confession,   with   an  additional  emphasis  upon  the  im- 


CONFESSIONAL   TEACHING.  785 

mediateness  of  this  wonderful  transition.  While  it  is  intimated 
that  after  the  resurrection  and  the  final  judgment  there  will  come 
to  the  righteous  a  certain  fullness  of  joy  and  refreshing  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord,  not  before  attainable  even  in  heaven,  it  is 
declared  that  true  perfection  in  holiness  is  attained  when  death 
relieves  the  soul  from  the  last  taint  and  trace  of  evil.  In  this 
life  the  will  of  the  saint  is  said  to  act  but  imperfectly,  but  in 
that  estate  of  glory  that  will  is  said  to  be  made  at  once  perfectly 
and  immutably  free  to  good — as  immutably  and  perfectly  free  as 
it  can  be  after  the  resurrection  and  the  final  judgment. 

The  specific  descriptions  of  Hell  and  Heaven  in  the  Symbols 
are  remarkable,  among  all  the  symbolic  statements  of  Protestant- 
ism, on  one  side  for  their  strict  scripturalness  in  form,  and  on  the 
other  for  their  earnest  emphasizing  of  unholiness  as  constituting 
the  basis  of  all  the  misery  of  the  lost,  and  of  holiness  as  the  basis 
of  all  the  felicity  of  the  saved.  While  the  strong  physical 
or  material  imagery  of  the  Bible  is  retained  in  both  directions, 
the  element  of  character  as  evil  or  good,  undeserving  or  worthy, 
is  made  the  central  element  in  their  vivid  delineations.  The 
ground  of  all  that  is  affirmed  respecting  the  awful  estate  of  the 
wicked  is  said  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  they  know  not  God,  that 
they  obey  not  the  Gospel,  that  they  are  reprobate  toward  both 
love  and  grace  ;  their  sin,  in  a  word,  is  their  ruin,  not  only  dur- 
ing the  intermediate  state,  but  in  the  final  judgment  and  forever. 
So  the  felicity  of  the  righteous  is  said  to  lie  not  merely  in  their 
being  received  into  the  highest  heavens,  but  in  their  completed 
sanctification  and  perfection,  and  in  their  being  permitted  like 
the  angels  that  have  never  sinned,  to  behold  the  face  of  God  in 
light  and  glory.  The  language  is  transcendently  beautiful.  The 
redeemed  are  (L.  C,  90)  fully  and  forever  freed  from  all  sin  and 
misery  ;  they  are  filled  with  inconceivable  joys  ;  they  are  made 
perfectly  holy  and  happy  in  both  soul  and  body,  in  the  company 
of  innumerable  saints  and  angels,  but  especially  in  the  immediate 
vision  and  fruition  of  God  the  Father,  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  all  eternity.  The  conception  of  char- 
acter runs  through  the  entire  representation.  The  saints  in  glory 
are  happy  in  this  ineffable  degree  because  they  are  holy.  Char- 
acter rather  than  condition  is  primal,  and  their  condition  is  what 
it  is  because  they  are  what  they  are.  This  fact  is  worthy  of  just 
recognition,  especially  by  those  who  incline  to  criticise  the  severi- 
ties of  speech  manifest  in  the  Symbols,  when  they  describe  the 
torments  of  the  lost.  Like  Christ  himself,  they  rest  every  affirma- 
tion on  the  basis  of  character  as  tested  at  the  judgment. 


786  ESCHATOLOGY. 

The  Confession  is  closed  (XXXIII  :  iii)  with  an  impressive 
injunction  that  we  ought  to  be  persuaded  that  there  shall  be  a 

day  of  judgment,    both  to  deter  all 

14.  The  Ultimate  Consumma-  menfrom  si  and  also  for  the  greater 
tlon :  the  Kingdom  surrendered:  ,  ,.        '  „  .     ,    .      , 

God  supreme.  consolation  oj  the  godly  in  their  adver- 

sity. It  further  teaches  that  Christ 
will  have  that  day  unknown  to  men,  that  they  may  shake  off  all 
carnal  security  and  be  always  watchfid,  because  they  know  not  at 
what  hour  the  L,ord  may  come  ;  and  may  ever  be  prepared  to 
say,  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.  This  sentence  was 
designed  simply  to  confirm  our  faith  in  the  certainty  of  a  day  of 
judgment,  and  to  urge  us  to  thoughtfulness  and  fidelity  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  to  any  one  of  us  judgment  may  come  at  any  hour. 
It  is  by  no  means  to  be  regarded  as  teaching  dogmatically  that 
the  final  coming  of  Christ  to  be  the  Judge  of  mankind  is  immi- 
nent, and  is  therefore  to  be  constantly  watched  and  waited  for. 
It  is  rather  a  personal  exhortation  furnishing  a  fitting  close  to  the 
entire  creed,  than  a  doctrinal  affirmation  framed  to  sustain  some 
type  of  millennarian  belief.  The  sentence  has  its  counterpart  in 
the  closing  words  of  the  Belgic  Conf  :  We  expect  that  great  day 
with  a  most  ardent  desire,  to  the  end  that  all  may  full}'-  enjoy  the 
promises  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

But  have  we  in  the  Symbols,  or  in  other  Protestant  formula- 
ries, any  statement  respecting  what  may  lie  beyond  the  resurrec- 
tion and  judgment,  and  the  entrance  of  our  race  on  an  immortal 
life  such  as  has  just  been  described  ?  Calvin  regards  the  judgment 
as  the  final  act  of  Christ  as  the  incarnate  God — his  Messiahship, 
which  began  with  the  first,  culminating  in  the  second  advent,  with 
its  concomitant  events.  Melancthon  somewhere  says  that  Christ 
Will  at  the  judgment  finish  finally  his  work  as  Mediator,  but  will 
continue  to  reign  as  God,  revealing  the  Deity  to  the  universe 
immediately  and  eternally.  The  Scotch  Conf.  (XXV)  declares 
that  after  Christ  shall  have  completed  the  judgment,  he  shall 
render  up  the  kingdom  to  God  his  Father,  who  then  shall  be,  and 
ever  shall  remain  in  all  things,  God  blessed  forever.  The  Irish 
Articles  (104)  say  that  when  the  last  judgment  is  finished,  Christ 
shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  his  Father,  and  God  shall  be  all 
in  all.  These  statements  simply  reproduce  in  substance  the 
remarkable  declaration  of  Paul  in  that  sublime  chapter  wherein  he 
endeavors  to  describe  through  earthly  imagery  the  mystery  of 
the  resurrection, — the  declaration  not  only  that  Christ  will  then 
deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God  the  Father,  but  that  he  himself 
will  also  be  subject  (or  subject  himself)  to  him  that  put  all  things 


THE   ULTIMATE    CONSUMMATION.  787 

under  him,  even  death  as  the  last  enem)',  in  order  that  God  may- 
be all  in  all — the  Ml  in  all  things.  We  are  not  to  infer  from  this 
mysterious  statement  that  the  Son  as  the  second  person  in  the 
holy  Trinity  becomes  henceforth  subordinate  to  the  Father  as  the 
first  person  :  but  rather  that,  as  the  Son  of  man,  our  Lord  closes 
Up  at  this  point  his  glorious  Messiahship — not  as  by  compulsion, 
but  with  an  ineffable  willingness  and  joy,  while  the  multitude  of 
the  heavenly  host  sing  hosannas  over  the  glorious  consummation 
of  the  kingdom  of  grace. 

Neither  are  we  to  understand  that  God  the  Father  now  assumes 
alone  the  government  of  the  spiritual  universe, — the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  also,  being  henceforth  retired  from  active  connection 
with  the  future  experiences  of  either  the  saved  or  the  lost,  or  of 
the  angelic  world.  Obviously  it  is  the  complete  Deity  who  is 
henceforth  to  become  the  all  in  all  throughout  that  universe,  yet 
not  in  any  such  sense  as  retires  or  terminates  thereafter  the 
Trinity  in  the  divine  constitution.  The  Messiah  finishes  his 
mediatorial  work,  and  is  no  longer  to  act  in  that  capacity  ;  he  has 
at  this  point  established  the  kingdom — the  divine  sovereignty — 
on  eternal  foundations,  and  ceases  therefore  to  wield  that  special 
authority  which  was  vested  in  him  as  our  Mediator.  The  great 
transaction  in  which  the  human  race  has  been  involved  through 
sin  terminates  with  the  final  judgment  ;  the  vast  experiment  of 
grace  and  of  atoning  and  redeeming  love  has  been  successfully 
made  ;  the  career  of  humanity  is  finished  ;  and  God,  Father  and 
Son  and  Spirit,  is  now  seen,  as  the  curtain  slowly  falls,  to  be  the 
supreme  and  absolute  Deity,  ruling  in  indescribable  majesty  and 
glory  over  the  entire  universe  of  spiritual  being. 

One  other  event  already  alluded  to,  mysterious  and  perhaps 
inexplicable  to  mortals,  is  that  which  is  described  in  the  Belgic 
Conf.  (XXXVII)  as  burning  this  old  world  with  fire  and  flame 
to  cleanse  it.  We  recall  at  once  the  graphic  and  terrifying  decla- 
ration of  Peter,  that  the  heavens  and  the  earth  are  kept  in  store, 
reserved  unto  fire  against  the  day  of  judgment, — that  in  that  day 
the  heavens  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved  and  pass  away, — that 
the  earth  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up, — 
that  the  very  elements  (or  heavenly  bodies)  shall  melt  away  with 
fervent  heat.  And  with  this  startling  description  we  at  once  asso- 
ciate the  statement  of  the  Apostle,  derived  from  David  and  Isaiah 
and  seconded  in  the  closing  portion  of  the  Apocalypse,  respect- 
ing new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness, 
to  follow  after  this  sweeping  and  dissolving  conflagration.  Dorner 
suggests  (Syst.  Doct.)   that  such  a  conflagration  does  not  imply 


788     t  ESCHATOLOGY. 

annihilation  but  rather  purification — the  erasing  of  all  traces  of 
sin  in  the  form  and  material  of  the  world.  He  adds  the  striking 
surmise  that  without  any  loss  of  substantiality  matter  may  in  this 
process  exchange  its  darkness,  hardness,  heaviness,  immobility 
and  impenetrableness  for  clearness,  radiance,  elasticity  and  trans- 
parency. It  certainly  is  not  strange  that  in  view  of  the  biblical 
statements,  it  should  be  held,  more  as  a  hope  than  as  an  assured 
belief,  that  there  will  come  through  this  fiery  process  such  a  trans- 
formation and  rehabilitation  of  the  earth  as  shall  make  it  a  worthy 
abode  for  the  multitude  of  the  righteous,  now  themselves  purged 
so  as  by  the  fires  of  the  judgment,  and  dwelling  again  in 
such  bodies  as  would  befit  such  a  purified  world.  It  is  said  that 
there  would  be  eminent  appropriateness  in  making  what  had  been 
the  scene  of  sin  and  of  redemption,  the  scene  also  of  triumph  and  of 
endless  bliss  for  the  redeemed  race.  It  is  said  that  the  fact  of 
the  resurrection  and  restoration  of  a  bodily  life,  and  the  natural 
aptitudes  of  the  purified  body  for  such  a  form  of  life  as  this 
cleansed  earth  would  provide,  furnishes  a  distinct  presumption  in 
favor  of  such  a  hope.  In  the  phrase  of  Augustine,  (Civ.  Dei.  XX) 
as  the  world  itself  is  renewed  through  conflagration  to  some  better 
thing,  it  is  fitly  accommodated  to  men,  themselves  renewed  in 
their  flesh  to  some  better  thing.  It  is  urged  that  such  an  arrange- 
ment would,  in  various  ways,  be  peculiarly  grateful  to  righteous 
humanity,  and  that  God  may  thus  create  for  that  humanity  a 
Paradise  on  this  earth  far  more  glorious  than  the  first  Eden — 
which  would  become  a  heaven  through  transcendent  disclosures 
to  the  redeemed  of  his  abounding  love,  his  immeasurable  perfec- 
tions. Yet  such  presumptions  are  to  be  entertained  with  caution, 
—especially  in  view  of  the  opposite  opinion,  sometimes  held,  that 
this  flaming  orb  may  become  the  abode  of  the  lost,  (Edwards, 
Hist,  of  Redemption)  or  of  the  third  hypothesis,  more  frequently 
received,  that  after  having  subserved  its  purpose  as  the  temporary 
home  of  the  human  race,  it  may  become  henceforth  forever  unin- 
habitable— a  consumed  planet  swinging  in  silence  through  the 
the  sky  forever.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  God  has  all 
spheres,  places,  conditions  throughout  the  universe  at  his  com- 
mand, and  that  he  will  be  sure  to  locate  the  redeemed  in  that 
abode,  wherever  it  be,  which  will  be  best  fitted  to  secure  their 
perpetual  holiness  and  their  everlasting  bliss. 


LECTURE    FIFTEENTH— THE    WESTMINSTER 

ASSEMBLY:    CHARACTER,  WORK, 

INFLUENCE. 

Estimates  of  the  Assembly  :  Its  Work  Reviewed  : 
Specific  Excellences  and  Defects  :  Authority  of  the 
Symbols — Toleration  :  Continental  Relations  and  In- 
fluence :  Their  Permanency  and  Propagation  :  Rule  of 
Subscription  :  Revision  :  Final  Word. 


Clarendon  in  his  History  of  the  Rebellion  speaks  of  the  West- 
minster Assembly  and  its  work  in  terms  of  partisan  bitterness, 

saying  among  other  things  that,  with 

,,  L.         c       ,  .        l.  Estimates  of  the  Assem. 

the  exception  of  a  few  very  reverend     Wy.  its  general  character, 

and  learned  men  appointed  by  author- 
ity of  the  House  of  Lords,  there  were  not  twenty  members  of  the 
body  who  were  not  declared  and  avowed  enemies  of  the  Church 
of  England  ;  many  of  them  infamous  in  their  lives  and  conver- 
sations, and  most  of  them  of  very  mean  parts  in  learning,  if  not 
of  scandalous  ignorance,  and  of  no  other  reputation  than  of  malice 
to  the  Church  of  England  ; — so  that,  as  he  affirms,  that  conven- 
tion hath  not  produced  anything  that  might  not  have  been 
reasonably  expected  from  it.  Hallam  in  his  Constitutional  His- 
tory of  England,  while  denouncing  what  he  describes  as  the 
remorseless  and  indiscriminate  bigotry  of  Presby terianism  during 
the  brief  period  of  its  exaltation  in  Britain,  speaks  more  accurately 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  Assembly  was  appointed  by  Parlia- 
ment, and  more  kindly  of  the  abilities  if  not  of  the  temper  of  the 
body.  Though  this  Assembly,  he  remarks,  showed  abundance 
of  bigotry  and  narrowness,  they  were  by  no  means  so  contemptible 
as  Clarendon  represents  them  ;  and  perhaps  were  equal  in  learn- 
ing, goodness  and  other  merits  to  any  lower  House  of  Convocation 
that  ever  made  a  figure  in  England.  Masson  (Life  of  Milton) 
affirms  that  Parliament  made  the  most  suitable  selection  in  its 
power,  from  the  most  popular  Puritan  divines  it  could  hear  of 
throughout  England,  and  with  an  endeavor  to  distribute  the  selec- 
tion so  far  as  possible  among  the  several  counties  ; — and  the  name 
and  residence  and  known  standing  of  a  large  proportion  of  the 


790  THE   WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

members,  so  far  as  recorded,  certainly  justify  his  statement.  The 
arrogant  criticisms  of  Milton  have  already  been  noted  in  part. 
He  speaks  contemptuously  of  the  Assembly  as  not  chosen  by 
any  rule  or  custom  ecclesiastical,  nor  eminent  for  any  zeal  or 
knowledge  above  those  left  out  ;  and  in  unmeasured  language 
condemns  them  because  of  the  fact  that,  after  they  had  cried 
down  with  great  zeal  the  avarice  and  pluralities  of  bishops  and 
prelates,  they — as  he  alleges — showed  even  greater  boldness  in 
grasping  after  places  of  profit  and  influence.  The  bitterness  of  his 
criticism  is  largely  explained  by  the  fact  that  Palmer,  one  of  the 
leading  divines  of  the  Assembly,  while  preaching  before  Parlia- 
ment, had  denounced  the  unfortunate  treatise  of  Milton  on 
Divorce  as  a  wicked  book,  abroad  and  uncensured,  though  deserv- 
ing to  be  burnt ;  and  by  the  further  fact  that  Milton  himself, 
undoubtedly  through  the  influence  of  the  Assembly,  had  been 
brought  to  account  for  this  treatise  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  had  narrowly  escaped  public  censure. 

More  favorable  estimates  are  abundant.  The  Dissenting  Breth- 
ren, as  they  were  kindly  termed, — members  of  the  Assembly  who 
disagreed  in  matters  of  polity  rather  than  doctrine,  —  while 
emphasizing  and  justifying  their  differences,  spoke  publicly  (Apol- 
ogetical  Narration)  of  the  body  as  comprising  many  able,  learned 
and  grave  divines, — an  assembly,  as  they  said,  where  much  of  the 
piety,  wisdom  and  learning  of  two  kingdoms  were  met  in  one. 
Baxter,  who  knew  well  the  leading  minds  in  the  Assembly,  while 
speaking  frankly  of  his  dissent  in  judgment  as  to  matters  of 
church  government  and  to  certain  clauses  in  the  doctrinal  Sym- 
bols, praised  the  divines  of  Westminster  as  men  of  eminent 
learning  and  ability  and  of  godliness  also,  and  declared  that  in  his 
opinion  the  Christian  world  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles  had 
never  a  synod  of  more  excellent  divines,  taking  one  thing  with 
another,  than  this  and  the  Synod  of  Dort  were.*     Hetheriugton, 

*On  the  base  of  the  statue  erected  recently  at  Kidderminster  in  honor  of 
Baxter  are  recorded  the  words  :  In  a  stormy  and  divided  age  he  advocated 
unity  and  comprehension.  At  its  dedication  Dean  Stanley  spoke  of  the  real 
greatness  of  his  character  as  a  lover  of  peace  and  unity,  and  of  the  noble 
memories  of  him  as  such  that  have  survived  through  the  ages.  The  key  to 
his  mediate  and  conciliating  theological  position  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
quaint  title  page  to  his  chief  theological  treatise  : 

Catholick  Theologie  :  Plain,  Pure,  Peaceable  :  for  Pacification  of  the  Dog- 
matical   Word-Warriors Written   chiefly   for   posterity,    when   sad 

experience  hath  taught  me  to  hate  Theological  Logical  Wars,  and  to  lover 
and  seek,  and  call  for  Peace.  This  treatise  consists  of  three  books  :  I.  Paci- 
fying Principles  ;  11.  A  Pacifying  Praxis,  or  Dialogue  ;  ill.  Pacifying  Dispu- 
tations against  some  Real  Errors.     Its  fitting  motto  is  Ex  Bello  Pax. 


ESTIMATES    FAVORABLE   AND   UNFAVORABLE.  791 

who  ranks  as  the  first  elaborate  historian  of  the  Assembly,  claims 
with  some  exaggeration  that  it  was  composed  of  the  great  master 
minds  of  the  age, — that  its  theological  and  ecclesiastical  products 
were  of  the  highest  value  to  Christianity, — and  that  it  has 
exerted  and  will  continue  to  exert  a  very  wide  influence  upon  the 
civil  and  religious  history  of  mankind.  Stoughton  (Ecclesias- 
tical History  of  England)  testifies  that  the  members  of  the  Assem- 
bly had  learning  enough  and  to  spare, — all  solid,  substantial  and 
ready  for  use  ;  and  adds  a  laudatory  estimate  of  their  remarkable 
perception  and  advocacy  of  what  is  most  characteristic  and  fun- 
damental in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  unique  encomium 
of  Thomas  Manton  in  his  striking  Preface  to  the  Confession 
has  already  been  quoted.  Eater  historians  such  as  Schaff  and 
Mitchell  are  more  discriminating  in  their  estimates  ;  but  while 
unhesitating  in  the  recognition  of  faults  and  failures,  are  equally 
conclusive  in  their  general  commendation.  The  comparison 
between  the  Assembly  and  the  Synod  of  Dort,  suggested  by 
Baxter,  must  give  the  advantage  to  the  former,  whether  either 
the  numbers  in  attendance,  the  time  given  to  deliberation,  the 
scope  of  the  inquiries  and  results,  or  the  impression  made  upon 
the  age  and  on  succeeding  ages,  be  taken  into  account.  That 
Synod  was  indeed  more  general,  more  ecumenical  in  a  sense,  as 
including  representatives  from  most  of  the  Reformed,  though 
of  course  none  from  the  Eutheran  communions  ;  it  may  also 
have  been,  as  Schaff  claims,  equal  to  that  of  Westminster  in 
learning  and  moral  weight  ;  but  in  the  aggregate  of  what  was 
accomplished  and  in  the  results  attained,  it  was  obviously  inferior. 
It  is  certain  that  no  continental  synod  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
or  antecedent  assembly  of  divines  in  Great  Britain,  equaled  either 
in  importance  ;  nor  has  any  subsequent  synod  or  council  been 
held  within  the  limits  of  Protestantism,  whose  products  and 
whose  influence  have  been  so  extensive  or  so  valuable. 

It  is  not  needful  to  repeat  here  what  was  said  in  the  opening 
Eecture  respecting  the  individual  members  of  the  assembly,  the 
manner  of  their  appointment  and  their  support,  their  organization 
and  method  of  procedure,  their  rules  and  requisitions,  the  illus- 
trious Jerusalem  Chamber  in  which  they  met,  or  the  number  of 
their  sessions  and  the  long  stretch  of  time  during  which  they  sat 
so  patiently  and  labored  so  earnestly  in  putting  into  form  the 
lofty  yet  impracticable  scheme  of  establishing  one  national  church 
for  the  British  realm, — a  church  with  a  distinct  system  of  doc- 
trine, a  fixed  polity,  and  a  definite  mode  of  wrorship,  such  as  in 
their  earnest  judgment  the  laud  and  the  age  required.     Nor  is  it 


792  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

necessary  to  refer  further  to  the  specific  difficulties  which  con- 
fronted  them  in  their  arduous  task, — the  struggle  with  the  illicit 
assumptions  of  Parliament,  the  obstructions  interposed  by  the 
Independent  party,  the  rise  of  numerous  sects  and  heresies,  the 
internal  embarrassments  of  various  sorts,  which  during  their  pro- 
tracted period  of  sendee  stood  more  and  more  in  their  way. 

If  it  were  practicable,  it  would  be  interesting  to  contemplate 
the  Assembly  more  at  length  in  its  historical  setting  and  relations; 
— to  pass  in  review  its  vital  connections  with  the  antecedent  devel- 
opments of  British  Protestantism  from  the  age  of  Henry  VIII,  and 
also  with  much  of  the  civil  history  of  Britain  during  the  hundred 
years  preceding  its  convocation; — to  call  to  mind  also  the  diver- 
sified movements  of  the  developing  Protestantism  of  the  continent 
during  this  period,  and  study  the  amazing  revolution  in  belief 
and  experience  which  occurred  throughout  northern  Europe 
between  the  age  of  Euther  and  Calvin  and  the  memorable  day 
when  the  Assembly  held  its  opening  session  in  the  beautiful 
Chapel  of  Henry  VII.  It  would  also  be  interesting,  if  we  could 
contemplate  the  Assembly  in  its  living  connections  with  the  other 
great  Christian  Councils  from  the  era  of  Nicsea  and  Constanti- 
nople down  to  the  memorable  Council  of  Trent, — if  we  could 
compare  its  doctrinal  products  more  specifically  with  those  of 
others  in  that  illustrious  series,  and  estimate  comprehensively  its 
relative  bearings  upon  the  subsequent  theology  and  faith  of 
Christendom.  Such  comparative  studies,  if  they  did  not  stir  us 
to  special  and  reverent  admiration,  would  at  least  make  manifest 
to  us  the  emptiness  of  much  of  the  derogatory  criticism  which  in 
earlier  and  in  later  times  has  been  heaped  upon  that  memorable 
body.  It  would  also  demonstrate  the  fact  that,  if  indeed  the 
Westminster  divines  were  not  individually  notable,  as  unfriendly 
critics  have  alleged,  the  Assembly  itself  was  great, — great  in  the 
magnitude  and  elevation  of  its  aims,  great  in  the  specific  work 
which  it  accomplished,  and  great  in  the  influence  it  has  exerted, 
and  is  still  exerting,  alike  upon  the  religious  beliefs  and  upon  the 
moral  activities  of  millions  who  in  various  lands  speak  the  Eng- 
lish tongue. 

Turning  from  the  Assembly  itself  to  a  general  estimate  of  the 
work  done  by  it,  we  may  properly  confine  our  attention  substan- 
tially  to  its  doctrinal    products. — Its 
2.    Work  of  the  Assembly:     -..      ,  ,       ,T7      ,  .  ,    . 

Directory   tor   Worship   was  not    lin- 
t> eneral  review.  J  .       ,.  .         . 

posed    as   a   strict    liturgy    or   formal 

rule  in  public  devotions,  whose  observance  in  all  particulars  was 


ITS  WORK   REVIEWED.  793 

to  be  required  thereafter  from  the  Presbyterian  ministry.  That 
formulary  was  intended,  like  the  Directory  of  Henderson  from 
which  it  was  largely  derived,  to  instruct  and  guide  rather  than 
to  govern,  and  as  such  it  has  proved  its  value  by  the  salutary 
effect  it  has  had,  and  still  has,  in  securing  both  spiritual  uni- 
formity and  spiritual  liberty  in  the  worship  of  the  sanctuary. 
Departures  from  its  wise  and  moderate  counsels  have  been  rare  in 
any  age,  and  have  been  followed  generally  by  willing  return  to 
its  faithful  guidance.  Substantial  obedience  to  it  has  preserved 
the  Presbyterian  ministry  and  churches  from  the  tendency  to 
ritualism,  with  its  despiritualizing  formalities,  and  as  well  from 
the  antithetic  tendency  to  excessive  enthusiasm  and  lack  of  due 
form  in  devotion,  which  have  characterized  some  other  Protestant 
communions.  It  has  been  urged,  with  some  force  indeed,  that 
the  Presbyterian  mode  of  worship  is  too  sedate,  too  cold,  too 
uninspiring  or  uplifting  to  meet  the  real  needs  of  the  soul  ;  and 
it  may  be  true  that  Presbyterian  churches  have  at  times  lost, 
through  such  characteristic  features  in  their  devotions,  some 
proportion  of  the  power  they  might  have  exerted  upon  the  pop- 
ular mind.  Yet  to  the  vast  majority  of  thoughtful  and  devout 
persons,  the  Presbyterian  mode  is  quite  as  acceptable  as  either 
those  modes  which  are  more  strictly  liturgical  or  ritualistic,  or 
those  which  are  more  demonstrative  and  impassioned  in  expres- 
sion. It  has  stood  for  more  than  two  centuries,  and  still  stands, 
as  an  acceptable  medium  between  forms  of  worship  more  or 
less  extreme,  and  which  are  severally  marked  by  obvious  defects 
as  well  as  by  special  excellencies.  And  it  may  be  added  as 
a  closing  suggestion  on  this  point  that,  if  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters feel  the  need  of  improvement  or  of  increased  power  in  their 
conduct  of  public  devotions,  they  will  probably  find  the  help  they 
desire,  not  so  much  in  the  imitation  of  any  more  enthusiastic 
usages,  or  in  the  restoration  of  some  strict  ritual,  but  rather  in 
the  more  careful  study  and  observance  of  the  instructions  given 
by  the  Assembly — instructions  almost  as  well  fitted  to  our  time 
as  to  the  age  and  country  in  which  they  were  first  promulgated. 
Nor  is  it  needful  to  consider  again  the  excellences  or  the 
defects  of  that  Form  of  Government  and  Discipline  which  the 
Assembly  after  long  deliberation  prepared  for  the  British  churches. 
We  may  regret  the  strong  tendency  of  the  body  to  a  jure  divino 
claim  for  the  polity  which  it  framed  :  we  may  admit  the  defic- 
iency apparent  in  that  polity,  and  emphasize  the  changes  which 
especially  on  this  continent  have  been  made  in  it :  we  may  also 
freely  acknowledge  the  existence  of  some  dangerous  elements, 


794  THE  WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

such  as  the  tendency  to  severe  ecclesiasticisin  or  to  undue  cen- 
tralization of  power,  which  seem  indeed  inherent  in  the  system, 
and  which  are  always  to  be  guarded  against  in  the  interest  of 
spiritual  liberty.  It  may  also  be  true  that  the  Presbyterianism 
of  this  age  or  of  coming  ages  will  discover  by  experiment  the 
need  of  still  further  improvement  or  modification  in  order  to 
protect  the  church  from  perils  of  this  class — perils  which  nothing 
but  practical  experiment  can  either  bring  into  light  or  indicate  a 
way  for  safe  correction.  And  he  is  the  wisest  and  truest  friend, 
not  merely  of  those  who  are  governed  under  this  polity  but  of 
the  polity  itself,  who  is  ever  on  the  watch  against  the  liability  to 
such  perversions.  Still,  after  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  exper- 
ience in  various  countries  and  under  widely  diverse  conditions, 
the  Presbyterian  mode  of  government,  generically  considered, 
has  proved  itself  worthy  of  cordial  acceptance  and  of  loyal  sup- 
port as,  if  not  the  best,  at  least  one  among  the  best  types  of  church 
administration  which  the  wisdom  of  Christian  men,  guided  by 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  New  Testament,  and  by  the 
usages  of  the  Apostolic  church,  so  far  as  these  are  known,  have 
been  able  thus  far  to  devise.  That  polity  harmonizes  well  with 
the  Presbyterian  system  of  doctrine  and  with  the  prevailing  type 
of  religious  experience  among  Presbyterians;  it  also  harmonizes 
well  with  what  we  regard  as  the  best  forms  of  political  govern- 
ment through  elect  representation;  and  in  practice  it  is  found 
to  harmonize  well  with  individual  rights  on  the  one  hand,  and 
with  the  highest  welfare  of  the  general  organism  on  the  other. 
As  such  it  meets  with  public  favor  now,  and  seems  likely  to  meet 
with  public  favor  through  coming  centuries.  And  it  may  properly 
be  added  here  that  much  of  the  current  criticism  upon  it,  and 
much  of  the  disposition  to  revolt  against  even  the  just  and 
gracious  administration  of  it,  is  little  better  than  a  revolt  against 
all  right  regulations  within  the  sphere  of  doctrine  and  order,  if 
it  be  not  indeed  a  sub-conscious  rebellion  against  any  and  all 
modes  of  organized  government  within  the  household  of  faith. 

Without  dwelling  further  upon  either  the  worship  or  the  polity 
of  Presbyterianism  as  they  were  formulated  at  Westminster,  or 
as  they  now  exist  in  the  various  Presbyterian  communions,  we 
may  direct  our  thoughts  exclusively  to  the  theological  labors  and 
the  doctrinal  products  of  the  Assembly.  Here  careful  account 
should  be  taken  once  more  of  the  men  themselves, — specially 
with  reference  to  their  qualifications  for  their  great  task.  It  is 
not  needful  to  claim  with  some  eulogists  that  they  were  men  of 
unparalleled   genius,    divinely    equipped    with    something   like 


QUALIFICATIONS    FOR    ITS   TASK.  795 

inspiration  for  their  high  service, — men  too  profound  and  vast 
:n  their  knowledge  to  be  contradicted  or  even  to  be  comprehended 
dv  the  intellect  of  later  ages.  Nor  is  it  wise  or  just  to  join  with 
Clarendon  and  Milton  in  decrying  them  as  unscholarly,  ignorant, 
or  intellectually  narrow  and  incompetent, — below  even  the  highest 
level  of  their  own  era  and  country,  and  quite  unfit  therefore  to  influ- 
ence largely  the  theological  opinions  of  subsequent  times.  The  lat- 
ter view  certainly  cannot  be  held  by  any  one  who  considerately 
reads  the  story  of  their  labors,  and  fairly  measures  what  they  actu- 
ally did  in  the  way  of  expressing  clearly  and  forcibly  the  best 
doctrinal  beliefs,  the  best  spiritual  experiences,  of  their  own  age. 
Milton  himself  at  one  time  spoke  of  them  as  a  venerable  body  in 
which  piety,  learning  and  prudence — as  he  said — were  housed. 
As  to  general  qualifications  and  equipment,  they  were  obviously 
up  to  the  best  standards  of  their  time  :  Protestantism  in  that  age 
certainly  had  nowhere,  either  in  Britain  or  on  the  Continent, 
abler  or  worthier  representatives.  It  has  been  alleged  that  they 
were  mere  echoes  of  continental  thought — mere  copyists  of  con- 
tinental symbolism.  But  their  debates  show  beyond  all  doubt 
that  they  were  independent  students  of  the  Bible  and  of  Christian 
doctrine  ;  and  were  much  more  anxious  to  know  the  truth  than 
to  conform  to  any  human  standards  of  belief.  It  is  not  to  be 
denied  that  they  were  subject  to  the  limitations  of  their  times, — 
limitations  of  various  sorts,  which  often  embarrassed  both  their 
thinking  and  their  speech.  The  atmosphere  they  breathed  was 
far  from  favorable:  clouds  and  darkness  sometimes  overshadowed 
both  their  mental  and  their  spiritual  vision.  The  record  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  sermons  of  Reynolds  and  of  gracious  little  Palmer, 
as  he  was  called  by  Baillie,  delivered  on  a  solemn  day  of  fasting 
in  the  critical  autumn  of  1645,  show  how  oppressive  their  con- 
sciousness of  the  difficulties  besetting  them  at  times  became. 
Yet  it  is  clear  that  by  force  of  character  and  purpose  they  rose  to 
the  full  level  of  their  occasion,  and  did  their  work  at  least  as 
well  as  any  body  of  men  in  Protestant  Christendom  in  that  age 
could  have  done  it. 

One  special  advantage  which  they  possessed  above  any  who 
had  labored  before  them  in  the  task  of  casting  the  faith  of  Prot- 
estantism into  symbolic  form,  may  once  more  be  mentioned, 
though  it  has  been  a  matter  of  occasional  reference  heretofore. 
That  advantage  lay  in  the  fact  that  they  had  in  their  hands,  not 
only  all  the  antecedent  creeds  in  Britain  from  the  first  Scotch 
Confession  down  to  the  Articles  of  Ussher  and  the  Irish  Synod, 
but  also  most  if  not  every  one  of  the  continental  formularies 


796  THE    WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

which  could  be  in  any  way  helpful  to  them  in  shaping  their  own 
Symbols.  As  early  as  1577,  the  question  of  a  new  creed  to  be 
adopted  by  all  branches  of  Protestantism,  as  an  authorized 
representative  of  the  common  faith,  was  earnestly  discussed  on 
the  continent,  and  in  this  interest  a  number  of  prominent  divines 
compiled  the  important  volume  entitled  the  Harmony  of  the 
Confessions  of  Faith  of  the  Christian  and  Reformed  Churches. 
This  volume  contained,  under  appropriate  heads  of  doctrine, 
quotations  from  eleven  of  the  most  conspicuous  creeds,  Lutheran 
as  well  as  Reformed.  An  English  translation  was  inimediately 
made  and  published  at  Cambridge,  1586  ;  and  a  second  edition 
was  printed  in  Loudon  in  1643.  This  edition  was  doubtless  in 
the  hands  of  the  Assembly  at  the  outset  of  its  deliberations,  and 
unquestionably  stimulated  its  members  in  the  desire  to  compile 
not  merely  a  British  but  an  ecumenical  creed,  in  whose  teachings 
Protestantism  universally  might  rest.  And  there  are  numerous 
evidences  that,  animated  by  this  desire,  they  were  inclined  to 
adhere  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  doctrine,  and  to  adopt  sub- 
stantially the  language  of  these  earlier  creeds,  wherever  this  was 
found  practicable. 

They  were  of  course  familiar  with  the  writings  of  English 
martyrs  like  Hooper  and  Cranmer  and  Latimer,  and  of  British 
divines  like  Knox  and  Melville,  Cartwright  and  Ussher.  They 
also  had  in  their  possession  the  writings,  not  only  of  Luther  and 
Melancthon,  Calvin  and  Beza,  but  also  of  those  who  had  followed 
these  great  leaders  in  the  construction  or  the  development  of 
either  the  Lutheran  or  the  Reformed  theology  on  the  continent. 
The  literature  which  Socinianism  and  other  heresies  had  produced, 
was  likewise  at  their  command.  They  had  doubtless  studied  the 
decrees  and  canons  of  the  famous  Council  of  Trent,  and  were 
familiar  with  the  current  doctrine  of  Rome.  At  least  one  of 
their  number  had  been  a  member  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  and  the 
clear  and  strong  statements  of  that  Synod  on  the  five  points  of 
Calvinism  had  been  well  studied,  as  the  phraseology  of  the  Sym- 
bols plainly  shows.  It  should  be  specially  remembered  that, 
notwithstanding  the  prominence  given  by  many  English  divines 
to  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  to  Lutherauism  generally,  as 
being  more  closely  allied  to  the  Episcopal  creed  and  mode,  the 
influence  of  Calvin  was  evidently  predominant  above  all  others. 
His  occasional  letters  to  the  ecclesiastical  and  the  civil  authorities 
respecting  Protestant  interests  in  England,  though  resented  by 
some  as  an  improper  interference,  were  widely  regarded  as 
weighty  and  valuable  contributions  to  the  general  cause  of  the 


ITS   SPIRIT   AND   PURPOSE.  797 

Reformation.  His  Institutes  had  long  been  in  use  in  the  univer- 
sities, and  some  of  his  Commentaries  had  been  translated  for 
English  readers.  His  masterful  personality  had  thus  made  itself 
felt  almost  as  much  across  the  channel  as  in  the  States  of  northern 
Europe,  and  the  Assembly  had  learned  to  recognize  the  cogency 
and  worth  of  his  theological  system.  How  great  was  the  advan- 
tage of  possessing  such  a  mass  of  helpful  material,  and  how 
diligently  and  thoughtfully  that  material  was  studied  and  utilized, 
it  is  easy  for  us  even  at  this  distance  to  discern.  At  no  date  prior 
to  the  fifth  decade  of  the  seventeenth  century  could  any  body  of 
men,  though  equally  large  in  number  or  great  in  ability,  have  had 
such  resources  or  such  an  opportunity  to  formulate  a  creed  fitted 
to  command  interest  and  secure  approval  wherever  Protestantism 
prevailed.  Nor  indeed  was  there  ever  any  subsequent  hour  in 
the  history  of  the  Christian  church  of  various  names  and  tenden- 
cies in  Britain,  when  the  necessity  for  such  a  creed  could  have 
arisen,  or  when  such  a  creed,  however  desired,  could  have  been 
framed.  The  one  preponderant  moment  came,  and  the  Symbols 
had  their  birth  by  a  conjunction  which  was  nothing  less  than 
providential. 

That  the  Assembly  realized  that  such  a  critical  moment  had 
come,  and  girded  itself  to  meet  the  exigency  in  a  spirit  befitting 
such  a  conjunction,  is  apparent  to  any  student  of  the  Minutes  or 
of  contemporaneous  records,  so  far  as  these  were  written  in  any 
mood  of  consideration  or  of  candor.  There  are  those,  even  at 
this  late  day,  who  denounce  the  Assembly  as  a  band  of  shrewd 
and  energetic  men  who  saw  or  thought  they  saw  an  opportunity 
to  push  both  their  doctrine  and  themselves  into  ecclesiastical  and 
political  ascendency,  and  who  were  animated  by  partisan  or  selfish 
or  dogmatic  incentives  in  all  that  they  did.  It  is  not  indeed  to  be 
questioned  that  earthly  influences  of  various  sorts  crept  occa- 
sionally into  their  minds,  and  in  some  degree  affected  their 
conduct  in  the  peculiar  emergency  in  which  they  were  placed. 
Even  inspired  men  are  described  in  Holy  Writ  as  at  times  wrought 
upon  by  such  lower  incentives,  while  engaged  in  discharging  some 
holy  trust  for  God  or  his  church.  But  there  are  many  evidences, 
not  merely  in  their  formal  avowals  before  the  English  people,  but 
in  their  daily  fellowship  and  discussions,  in  their  prayers  and  dis- 
courses, and  in  their  solemn  days  of  fasting  and  devotion,  to  show 
that  the  Westminster  divines  sincerely  believed  themselves  to  be 
called  of  God  to  a  task  of  transcendent  importance,  and  were 
conscious  of  workirlg  directly  under  the  divine  eye,  and  under 
supreme  responsibility  to  the  great  Head  of  the  church,  and  to 


798  THE    WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

him  only,  for  what  they  should  endeavor  to  do  in  his  name.  The 
impressive  covenant  with  which  each  one  of  them  commenced 
his  share  in  that  work,  binding  himself  to  maintain  nothing  in 
point  of  doctrine  but  what  he  believed  to  be  most  agreeable  to 
the  Word  of  God,  or  in  point  of  discipline  but  what  might  make 
most  for  his  glory  and  the  peace  and  good  of  his  church,  was  not 
an  empty  form,  but  the  expression  of  sincere  conviction  and  of 
honest  and  unswerving  purpose.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  believe 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  not  only  moved  them  individually  to  make 
such  a  sacred  pledge,  but  guided  and  strengthened  them  collec- 
tively in  the  endeavor  to  keep  it.  We  may  fitly  recognize  in  their 
experience,  if  not  a  special  movement  of  Providence  or  of  the 
Spirit  in  a  form  resembling  miracle,  still  a  signal  illustration  of 
that  divine  superintendence  which  is  ever  hovering  over  and 
graciously  guiding  the  earthly  church.  And  in  the  largest  and 
best  sense  their  work,  having  been  thus  divinely  regulated  and 
sanctified,  follows  and  will  follow  them  in  spite  of  all  detraction 
through  the  ages. 

More  specific  examination  of  their  work  in  the  department  of 
doctrine  will  bring  before  us   some  characteristics  of  it  which 

should  command  especial  attention  in 
3.  Characteristic  excellences    this  closing  review.     And  first,   its 
of  their  work;  extent,  order,  ,  ,        .  V^. 

proportion,  moderation ;  spir-     extent  and  comprehensiveness.     The 
itual  and  ethical  quality.  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  first  pre- 

pared by  Bullinger  as  a  personal  dec- 
laration of  faith,  but  subsequently  more  widely  adopted  than  any 
among  the  Symbols  of  the  Reformed  churches,  and  which  bears, 
as  has  been  said,  the  character  of  a  theological  treatise  rather 
than  a  formulary  of  belief,  is  by  far  the  most  lengthy  of  the  Prot- 
estant creeds.  It  is  in  fact  about  twice  as  long  as  the  Confes- 
sion of  Westminster,  though  not  longer  than  that  Confession 
with  the  two  Catechisms  added.  The  Formula  of  Concord  is  also 
a  little  longer  than  the  Confession  ;  but  all  the  other  continental 
creeds  are  shorter, — the  Belgic  Conf.  and  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism about  two-thirds,  and  the  French  Conf.  and  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles  less  than  half  its  length.  Several  of  these  formu- 
taries,  like  the  Symbols,  include  more  or  less  fully  the  three 
divisions  of  doctrine  and  polity  and  worship  ;  but  no  one  of  them 
supplies  any  such  exposition  of  Christian  ethics  as  is  contained 
in  the  Larger  Catechism,  nor  can  we  find  in  any  of  them  so  elab- 
orate an  exposition  of  saving  faith,  of  acceptable  prayer,  of  the 
Christian  life  in  general,  or  even  of  the  church.     Schaff  pro- 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE   SYMBOLS.  799 

nounces  the  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  the  first  among  the  Reformed 
in  respect  to  theological  quality,  as  indeed  it  excels  all  the  Luth- 
eran symbols  in  this  particular  ;  but  he  further  admits  that  in 
logical  clearness  and  precision  it  is  surpassed  (indeed  greatly 
surpassed)  by  the  Confession  of  Westminster.  The  latter  is  not 
only  more  exact  and  clear ;  it  is  far  more  comprehensive  and 
more  practical  than  its  Swiss  rival :  it  includes  more  topics,  and 
more  tersely  and  fully  defines  the  topics  of  which  it  treats.  It 
also  represents  not  only  the  broadened  and  clarified  vision  of  the 
Saxon  mind  and  of  the  seventeenth  century,  but  in  a  remarkable 
degree  anticipates  the  evolution  of  Christian  doctrine  in  subse- 
quent periods,  even  down  to  our  own  times, — occasionally  reaching 
out  beforehand  by  a  species  of  prescience,  and  giving  expression  to 
divine  truth  in  forms  which  meet  with  wonderful  fitness  the  issues 
and  questions,  the  heresies  and  the  unbeliefs  of  more  recent  ages. 
It  has  been  objected,  with  some  force,  that  the  Symbols  are 
too  extensive  and  too  elaborate  to  subserve  well  the  proper  uses 
of  a  church  creed.  There  would  be  grave  weight  in  the  objec- 
tion if  these  Symbols  were  in  any  way  imposed  upon  private 
persons  as  a  condition  of  church  membership,  or  if  they  were 
imposed  on  the  ministry  of  the  church  in  every  particular  and  in 
each  sentence  and  expresssion.  But  it  should  be  remembered 
that  private  members  of  Presbyterian  churches  are  not  required 
to  avow  or  accept  these  doctrinal  formularies,  but  simply  to  assent 
to  the  fundamental  facts  and  tenets  of  the  common  Christianity. 
And  as  to  official  acceptation,  American  Presbyterianism,  as  early 
as  1729,  drew  a  broad  line  of  distinction  between  the  essen- 
tial and  necessary  articles  in  the  Confession — those  which  give 
character  and  quality  to  it  as  both  an  evangelical  and  a  Calvin- 
istic  document, — and  other  articles  which  are  not  necessary  or 
essential,  and  which  may  be  held  or  not  held,  without  impairing  the 
integrity  of  the  general  system  of  doctrine.  On  the  basis  of  this 
distinction,  American  Presbyterianism  has  usually  granted  just 
and  sufficient  liberty  to  its  ministry  and  eldership  as  official  per- 
sons. It  ought  not  to  be  inferred,  however,  that  those  articles 
which  are  neither  primary  nor  fundamental,  are  therefore  of  no 
value  in  the  system  of  which  they  form  a  part.  In  these  studies 
we  have  again  and  again  had  occasion  to  note  the  worth  of  such 
secondary  elements,  both  in  excluding  minor  error,  and  in  enforc- 
ing instruction  respecting  specific  truth  and  duty.  It  is  hard  to 
tell  just  where  a  statement  apparently  secondary  or  incidental 
may  assume  an  unexpected  prominence  in  its  bearings  on  belief 
or  action.     And  if  the  effort  were  made,  as  has  been  proposed,  to 


800  THE   "WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

eliminate  all  such  subordinate  elements,  and  to  reduce  the  Con- 
fession to  what  is  deemed  essential  or  necessary  only,  the  proce- 
dure would  probably  be  unsuccessful  :  it  might  even  occur  that, 
in  tearing  out  these  more  delicate  nerves  and  ganglia,  the  whole 
sreed  would  be  disintegrated  or  destroyed. 

A  second  special  characteristic  appears  in  the  elaborate  order 
and  the  fine  proportion  of  doctrine  exhibited  in  the  Symbols. 
Attention  has  been  frequently  directed  in  these  studies  to  the 
stately  advance  from  one  topic  to  another,  and  from  one  class  or 
group  of  topics  to  another,  until  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  is 
reached  in  the  two  chapters  which  treat  of  the  eschatological 
doctrines.  This  order  is  in  general  that  of  the  antecedent  creeds, 
and  especially  those  among  them  which  are  theological,  like  the 
Second  Helvetic  Conf.  rather  than  religious  and  practical,  like  the 
Catechism  of  Heidelberg.  It  is  also  the  order  observed  in  most 
theological  treatises  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
though  some  authorities  followed  rather  the  example  of  Calvin 
in  constructing  their  s}rstenis  on  the  basis  of  the  three  ancient 
creeds — especially  the  first.  In  the  Confession,  as  we  have 
already  observed,  a  solid  foundation  is  first  laid  in  the  doctrine 
•-especting  the  Scriptures,  respecting  God  in  his  being  and  activi- 
ties, and  respecting  man  in  his  original  constitution,  his  fall,  and 
his  corruption  in  sin.  On  this  broad  basis,  the  great  central 
doctrine  concerning  Christ  and  his  mediation,  with  all  that  is 
involved  in  the  conception  of  salvation  through  him,  is  reared. 
Then  follows  logically,  as  we  have  seen,  the  experience  of  salva- 
tion in  all  the  phases  of  it  made  apparent  in  the  Christian  life  ; 
md  this  is  succeeded  by  the  exposition  of  the  divine  law,  set 
forth  as  the  rule  of  godly  living,  and  applied  in  certain  relation- 
ships of  the  believer  to  others  and  to  human  society.  This  in 
turn  is  followed  by  the  comprehensive  doctrine  respecting  the 
Christian  church,  its  nature  and  organization  and  officers,  its 
sacraments  and  ordinances  and  authority  as  the  representative 
household  and  kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth ;  and  the  whole  is 
concluded  with  the  particular  doctrines  grouped  under  the  head 
of  eschatology.  Such  is  the  order,  quiet  and  firm  and  impressive, 
in  the  Confession  ;  and  in  the  Catechisms  we  may  discern  a 
similar  order,  though  somewhat  differently  stated  in  view  of 
their  more  immediate  aim  as  practical  and  educational  exposi- 
tions. It  may  be  added  that  while  this,  as  has  been  said,  is  the 
order  of  several  of  the  antecedent  creeds,  in  none  of  them  is  this 
order  so  elaborately  and  skillfully  followed. 

The  Minutes  show  that  special  consideration  was  given  to  the 


OKDKR,    PROPORTION,    STYLE.  801 

matter  of  proportion  as  well  as  order, — involving  the  amount  of 
space  to  be  given  to  each  topic  or  group  of  topics  presented,  and 
involving  also  the  relation  and  adjustment  of  each  part  and  sec- 
tion to  all  the  rest.  If  there  be  disproportion  or  superfluity  any- 
where,  it  will  be  found  in  the  large  chapter  on  the  eternal  Decree, 
or  that  on  the  Covenants,  or  in  those  which  treat  of  Oaths  and 
Vows  and  Marriage,  and  the  Civil  Magistracy.  The  statements 
respecting  Christ  and  Salvation,  in  the  various  aspects  of  these 
central  and  most  vital  themes,  could  hardly  be  condensed  into 
smaller  space,  nor  could  much  be  done  to  reduce  the  chapters  on 
the  Church  and  its  institutions  and  ordinances,  without  doing 
serious  damage  to  the  essential  doctrine.  It  would  indeed  be 
hard  to  find  a  really  superfluous  sentence  or  clause  anywhere  in 
either  the  Confession  or  the  Shorter  Catechism,  although  Blunt 
(Diet,  of  Sects)  with  hardly  pardonable  asperity  styles  the  Con- 
fession a  most  voluminous  and  verbose  document,  and  on  this 
ground  among  others  passes  it  by  as  of  small  significance.  The 
Larger  Catechism,  for  reasons  growing  out  of  its  intended  use, 
is  more  expanded, — probably  to  a  point  which  is  undesirable  at 
this  date,  especially  so  far  as  such  expansion  may  lead  to  the 
neglect  of  that  careful  study  which  the  formulary,  in  some  re- 
spects preferable  to  the  Confession  itself,  really  deserves. 

There  should  be  added  to  this  statement  of  the  order  and  pro- 
portion of  the  Symbols  a  proper  recognition  of  the  clearness  of 
their  definitions  and  their  propositions,  the  logical  exactness  of 
the  reasoning,  and  the  dignity  and  commanding  force  of  the 
language  employed.  Marsden  (History  of  the  Later  Puritans) 
after  speaking  of  the  Confession  as  in  many  respects  an  admirable 
summary  of  Christian  doctrine,  adds  that  the  style  is  pure  and 
good,  the  truths  are  selected  with  admirable  skill,  the  arguments 
are  always  clear,  the  subjects  well  distributed,  and  sufficiently 
comprehensive  to  form  at  least  the  outlines  of  a  perfect  system 
of  divinity.  If  we  bear  these  features  well  in  mind,  we  shall 
attain  some  adequate  estimate  of  the  strength  and  worth  of  these 
formularies  as  exponents  of  that  general  scheme  of  doctrine, 
which  proved  to  be  such  a  support  and  bulwark  to  the  Reformed 
churches  throughout  Europe  amid  the  turbulence  developing 
during  the  later  stages  of  the  Reformation.  Documents  con- 
structed as  these  were,  and  so  well  adapted  to  educate  the  young, 
to  enlighten  the  ignorant,  to  direct  and  control  the  teachings  of 
the  pulpit,  to  supply  solid  foundations  of  belief  to  the  church, 
and  to  meet  and  overcome  the  multitudinous  notions  and  heresies 
of  the  age,  were  simply  invaluable. 


802  THE   WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

A  third  characteristic  is  the  Christian  moderation,  which  in  a 
high  degree  marks  the  Symbols.  It  is  to  be  admitted  that  the 
Assembly  were  strongly  prone  to  that  strictness  and  rigidity  in 
thinking,  and  that  positiveness  in  conviction  and  speech,  which 
were  marked  characteristics  of  their  age.  They  were  stern  men 
because  the  times  were  stern  :  they  had  also  inherited  some 
measure  of  the  intolerance  that  had  prevailed  in  Britain  in  ante- 
cedent generations.  Yet,  tried  by  just  standards  they  were  truly, 
genuinely  moderate  men.  Some  of  the  historical  reasons  for  such 
moderation  have  already  been  named.  It  was  absolutely  vital  to 
the  success  of  the  scheme  for  the  establishment  of  one  national 
church  in  Britain,  that  in  the  exposition  of  doctrine  as  well  as 
polity,  the  Assembly  should  so  far  as  possible  conciliate  both 
Episcopacy  and  Independency.  One  index  of  the  earnest  desire 
of  all  parties  to  secure  uniformity  or  at  least  tacit  concurrence  in 
these  matters,  appears  in  the  communication  addressed  at  an 
early  day  by  Parliament  to  the  Assembly,  counseling  it  to  take 
into  consideration  all  differences  of  opinion  respecting  church 
government,  and  to  endeavor  an  union  if  it  be  possible,  and  in 
case  that  cannot  be  done,  to  endeavor  the  finding  out  some  way 
how  tender  consciences,  who  cannot  in  all  things  submit  to  the 
common  rule  which  shall  be  established,  may  be  borne  with  ac- 
cording to  the  Word  and  as  may  stand  with  the  public  peace. 

This  was  as  indispensable  in  doctrine  as  in  government.  If 
the  Assembly  had  emphasized  the  five  points  of  Calvinism  as 
sharply  as  the  Synod  of  Dort  had  done  a  quarter  of  a  century 
earlier,  it  is  certain  that  they  could  have  carried  with  them 
neither  the  Parliament  nor  the  English  people.  They  also  in- 
dulged, as  we  have  seen,  the  hope  that  the  formularies  they  were 
preparing  would  find  acceptance  on  the  continent,  and  possibly 
become  a  doctrinal  basis  so  temperate  and  catholic  that  on  it  all 
varieties  of  Calvinism  could  stand  together.  Nor  is  it  too  much 
to  say  that,  positive  and  stringent  Calvinists  as  most  of  them 
were,  the  Assembly  were  in  the  main  moderate  and  considerate 
in  their  feeling  toward  representatives  of  other  types  of  belief, — 
as  we  know  them  to  have  been  remarkably  conciliatory  toward 
one  another.  Of  the  latter  fact  the  Minutes,  brief  as  they  are, 
furnish  interesting  evidence.  What  Gillespie  described  as  mutual 
endeavors  for  accommodation,  and  Reynolds  as  the  mutual  con- 
descensions of  brethren,  habitually  characterized  alike  the  de- 
bates and  the  fellowship.  Tenacious  as  Baillie  was  of  high 
Augustinianism,  he  declares  in  one  of  his  letters,  that  it  shall  be 
his  endeavor  that  the  Assembly  meddle  not  with  subtle  questions, 


CHRISTIAN   MODERATION.  803 

out  leave  them  to  the  schools.  Gillespie  himself  in  one  of  his 
discourses  before  Parliament  said  with  great  earnestness  :  L,et 
that  day  be  darkness  ;  let  not  God  regard  it  from  above,  neither 
let  the  light  shine  upon  it,  in  which  it  shall  be  said  that  the 
children  of  God  in  Britain  are  enemies  and  persecutors  of  each 
other. 

One  illustration  of  the  prevalent  temper  appears  in  the  signifi- 
cant fact,  that  there  is  not  a  single  reference  in  the  Confession  or 
Catechisms  from  first  to  last  to  any  antagonistic  opinions  found 
in  Protestant  creeds.  The  true  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  and 
especially  of  the  holy  Supper,  for  example,  is  clearly  and  fully 
stated,  and  what  is  styled  the  popish  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  with 
its  correlated  theory  of  transubstantiation  and  of  grace  corpor- 
eally received,  is  positively  condemned  ;  but  no  distinct  allusion 
to  the  Lutheran  view  appears  anywhere,  except  it  be  in  the 
statement  that  Christ  is  not  corporeally  or  carnally  but  spiritually 
present  in  that  sacred  observance.  In  like  manner  the  doctrines 
of  the  deadness  of  the  will  in  the  sinner,  and  of  the  absolute 
necessity  for  the  initial  or  prevenient  grace  of  the  Spirit  in  order 
to  his  restoration  to  spiritual  life,  are  forcibly  stated,  but  with 
no  visible  allusion  to  the  great  Arminian  controversy  in  Holland 
whose  tumultuous  noises  were  still  breaking  like  mad  waves  on 
the  English  shores.  So  the  theologic  conception  of  the  Cove- 
nants is  unfolded  in  simple  phrase,  and  in  the  form  chiefly  of 
practical  application  as  explanatory  of  the  doctrine  of  salvation, 
yet  wholly  without  reference  to  those  disputations  respecting  the 
legitimacy  and  scope  of  that  conception,  which  were  still  raging 
on  the  continent.  It  is  also  noticeable  that  while  the  continental 
formularies  not  infrequently  name  the  errorists  whom  their  doc- 
trines condemned,  (as  in  the  Second  Helvetic  Conf.  where,  in 
addition  to  much  general  condemnation  of  heretical  opinion,  no 
less  than  thirty  heretical  persons  or  classes  are  held  up  specifically 
for  execration,)  no  such  instance  appears  in  the  Symbols,  except 
in  the  references  to  the  church  and  polity  of  Rome.  The  state- 
ment that  the  opinion  that  men  can  be  saved  by  following  the 
light  of  nature,  as  distinguished  from  the  light  of  the  Gospel,  is 
very  pernicious  and  to  be  detested,  is  hardly  an  exception  ;  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  statement  respecting  the  works  done  by 
unregenerate  men,  which  was  designed  to  be  condemnatory  of 
the  erroneous  teachings  of  the  nascent  English  deism. 

The  Assembly  followed  the  wise  rule  of  presenting  the  true 
doctrines,  as  they  conceived  them,  as  clearly  and  fully  as  the  limi- 
tations of  a  confessional  declaration  permitted,  and  then  leaving 


804  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

these  doctrines  to  make  their  way  for  themselves  in  silent  majesty 
against  all  erroneous  or  pernicious  opinion.  They  had  seen  and 
known  enough  respecting  the  issues  of  the  opposite  course,  as 
exhibited  not  only  in  the  creeds  but  in  the  bitter  controversies  of 
Protestants  on  the  continent,  to  make  them  in  general  both  mod- 
erate and  irenic  in  their  doctrinal  affirmations.  It  is  also  to  be 
noticed  that  they  repeatedly  waived  expressions  of  opinion  on 
secondary  points  or  issues  such  as  had  excited  exasperating  and 
alienating  debates  in  other  quarters,  and  contented  themselves 
with  the  presentation  of  what  they  agreed  in  regarding  as  funda- 
mental, or  at  least  as  of  special  importance.  Reynolds  in  his 
discourse  delivered  on  a  day  devoted  to  fasting  and  prayer, 
exhorted  the  Assembly  in  all  matters  merely  problematical  and  of 
private  persuasion  wherein  godly  men  may  be  differently  minded 
without  breach  of  love  or  hazard  of  salvation,  to  set  aside  their 
personal  judgmeut  and  opinions  rather  than  by  them  to  hinder 
the  peace  of  the  church.  This  was  evidently  the  general  desire 
and  purpose.  Golden  silence  was  often  more  precious  in  their 
estimation  than  a  hundred  silvern  expositions. 

A  fourth  characteristic  of  the  Symbols  to  which  occasional 
reference  has  already  been  made,  but  which  deserves  to  be  men- 
tioned again  in  this  concluding  survey,  is  their  spiritual  and 
practical  quality.  Mitchell  justly  says  that  the  Assembly  aimed, 
not  only  to  set  forth  the  whole  scheme  of  Reformed  doctrine 
comprehensively  in  harmonious  development,  in  a  form  of  which 
their  country  should  have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  in  the  pres- 
ence of  any  of  the  sister  churches  on  the  continent,  but  also  and 
above  all  to  present  it  in  a  form  which  would  conduce  greatly  to 
the  fostering  of  Christian  knowledge  and  Christian  life.  One 
illustration,  already  suggested,  must  suffice.  No  such  descrip- 
tion of  genuine  Christian  experience  in  its  various  stages,  can  be 
found  elsewhere  in  Protestant  symbolism  as  appears  in  the  group 
of  nine  chapters,  beginning  with  Effectual  Calling  and  ending 
with  the  Assurance  of  Grace  and  Salvation.  These  chapters  pre- 
sent the  great  theme  in  most  tender  and  impressive  style,  with  a 
measure  of  fullness  which  leaves  no  important  element  untouched, 
with  a  remarkable  profoundness  of  insight  into  the  nature  of 
man  and  the  operations  of  the  Spirit  upon  and  within  man, 
yet  with  a  crystalline  plainness  that  renders  them  intelli- 
gible even  to  a  child, — illustrating  strikingly  the  aphorism  of 
Milton,  that  in  matters  of  religion  he  is  learnedest  who  is  plainest. 
These  chapters  might  be  read  together  as  a  discourse  in  any 
Christian  pulpit,  with  the  expectation  not  only  that  they  would 


SPIRITUAL   AND    ETHICAL   QUALITY.  805 

De  understood,  but  that  they  would  instruct  and  convince,  con- 
vict and  save.  They  constitute  in  fact  what  is  the  substance  of 
the  best  evangelical  preaching  of  this  age  as  of  preceding  ages,  not 
merely  in  Presbyterian  circles,  but  within  all  kindred  Protestant 
communions.  There  may  be  differences  here  or  there  in  minor 
interpretation,  but  in  the  main,  evangelical  Christendom  today 
holds  the  substance  of  these  nine  chapters  as  expressing  the 
essence,  if  not  the  form,  of  its  belief  respecting  the  great  realities 
therein  set  forth — the  true  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Life. 

Fifthly  :  the  practical  ethics  of  the  Symbols, — their  clear  enun- 
ciation of  the  broad  principles  on  which  all  acceptable  morality  is 
based,  and  their  enforcement  of  these  principles,  as  seen  in  the 
exposition  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  may  fitly  be  placed  by  the 
side  of  the  description  of  Christian  experience  just  named.  It  is 
a  fact  not  sufficiently  noted,  that  it  was  their  elevated  ethical 
teaching  almost  as  much  as  their  doctrine  or  polity,  which  gave 
the  Reformed  churches  throughout  Europe  their  marked  influ- 
ence and  their  great  success.  And  it  may  fairly  be  questioned 
whether  it  was  not  the  system  of  ethics  enunciated  by  the 
Assembly  as  much  as  its  theology,  which  gave  the  Presbyterian- 
ism  of  the  age  such  commanding  power  over  the  English  mind 
and  conscience.  What  has  been  said  already  respecting  the  West- 
minster doctrine  of  law  in  its  nature,  scope  and  supremacy,  and 
respecting  the  place  of  law  in  the  divine  economy  of  grace,  in 
both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  need  not  be  repeated  here. 
There  is  no  swerving  in  the  Symbols  from  the  fundamental  truth 
which  natural  theology  as  well  as  Scripture  enforces,  that  God  is 
a  moral  governor  over  mankind  ;  that  he  is  administering  that 
government  in  infinite  equity  and  infinite  grace  ;  that  his  holy 
law  is  a  reality  covering  the  entire  life  and  being  of  every  man, 
and  that  all  who  live,  are  and  must  forever  be  accountable  to  him 
for  their  obedience  or  their  disobedience  thereto.  As  has  alread)^ 
been  said,  there  is  certainly  in  all  Christian  symbolism  no  such 
unfolding  of  the  particular  claims  of  this  law  as  is  found  in  the 
two  Catechisms,  nor  is  there  any  chapter  or  article  in  any  ante- 
cedent creed  which  equals  that  on  the  law  itself  in  the  Confes- 
sion. While  these  remain  in  the  Symbols,  it  can  never  be  said 
with  justice  that  they  are  the  dried  and  dead  expressions  of  a 
dead  and  dried  theology — expressions  in  which  the  Christianity  of 
our  time  need  feel  no  special  interest.  There  may  be  for  the 
hour  a  swinging  away  in  apparent  indifference  from  the  cardinal 
proposition  of  the  Confession,  that  God  is  the  alone  fountain  of 
all  being,  of  whom,  through  whom,  and  to  whom,  are  all  things  ; 


806  THE    WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

and  that  as  such  he  hath  most  sovereign  dominion  over  them,  to 
do  by  them,  for  them,  and  upon  them,  whatsoever  himself 
pleaseth.  But  this  proposition  is  as  eternal  as  Deity  ;  and  the 
pendulum  of  theological  thought  and  interest  will  again  swing 
toward  it  with  full  and  reverent  recognition.  And  in  that  day,  if 
not  in  this,  the  Westminster  doctrine  of  the  divine  government 
and  sway  as  absolutely  supreme  in  human  life,  will  be  seen  to  be 
among  the  most  glorious  and  potential  truths  taught  in  these 
venerable  formularies. 

In  enumerating  these  characteristic  excellences  of  the  Symbols, 
it  is  neither  necessary  nor  legitimate  to  hesitate  in  noting  their 

correspondent  defects.     No  wise  ex- 
4.    Defects  in  the  Symbols:     ponent  or  defender  may  close  his 
Rules  of  interpretation :  special  .     .,   '  .,  ,. 

points  of  objection.  eyes  to  the  fact  that>  as  according 

to  the  Confession  itself  all  councils 

may  err  and  many  have  erred,  so  the  Assembly  made  mistakes  at 
various  points  in  its  exposition  of  the  Christian  faith.  No  doc- 
trinal temple,  constructed  by  the  hand  of  man,  is  to  be  pro- 
nounced complete  or  perfect,  however  substantial  its  material  or 
beautiful  its  proportions.  But  in  examining  such  defects  in  the 
Symbols,  care  must  be  taken  to  deal  justly  with  them,  and  to  test 
them  by  none  but  fair  and  wise  considerations.  First  of  all,  it  is 
an  obvious  rule  of  interpretation  that  the  terms  and  phrases 
employed  in  them  should  be  apprehended,  not  according  to  the 
current  usage  of  this  age,  but  in  the  exact  sense  in  which  they 
were  understood  by  the  authors,  when  used  in  their  definitions 
of  doctrine.  Such  expressions  as  mere  love,  mere  grace,  mere 
good  pleasure,  for  example,  are  not  in  any  degree  depreciative, 
but  imply  simply  that  the  divine  love  or  grace  or  pleasure  referred 
to  are  pure,  unmixed  with  other  elements, — crystalline  and  per- 
fect. Such  words  as  utterly  and  wholly,  when  used  to  describe 
the  entirety  of  sin  in  the  nature,  should  in  like  manner  be  inter- 
preted, not  as  expressing  what  is  often  signified  by  the  uncon- 
fessional  though  theological  phrase,  total  depravity — a  natural 
deadness  of  the  sinful  soul,  often  with  an  implication  that  such 
deadness  renders  the  sinner  as  bad  as  he  could  possibly  be, — but 
simply  as  affirming  that  sin  has  taken  supreme  possession  not  of 
the  will  only,  or  the  affections  only,  but  of  the  whole  or  total  man. 
The  word,  pleasure,  so  often  understood  as  indicating  an  arbitrary 
or  inexplicable  delight  or  some  willful  caprice  on  the  part  of  God, 
Is  in  fact  a  term  borrowed  from  royal  courts  to  indicate  the  behest 
or  decision  of  an  absolute  sovereign.     As  applied  to  the  disposi- 


THE  SYMBOLS   DEFICIENT.  807 

tion  or  action  of  God,  it  designates  a  moral  quality — not  happi- 
ness merely,  but  happiness  regulated  by  infinite  holiness. 

In  like  manner  the  terms,  power  and  sovereignty ,  imply  not  only 
inherent  ability  to  produce  or  to  control  results,  but  such  ability 
coupled  with  infinite  righteousness  and  goodness, — the  sovereign 
power  which  belongs  to  God  as  the  supreme  Being,  and  is  wielded 
by  him  in  all  spheres  with  absolute  equity  and  love.  In  a  similar 
way  such  representative  terms  as  will,  counsel,  decree,  covenant, 
have  unquestionably  become  largely  specialized,  in  some  cases 
broadened  and  in  others  much  narrowed,  and  in  various  ways 
diverted  in  significance,  since  they  were  employed  by  the  divines 
of  Westminster  to  describe  their  philosophical  and  theological 
beliefs.  The  various  divisions  and  subdivisions  of  the  word, 
justice,  introduced  by  later  theologians,  and  especially  as  used  in 
their  recondite  relations  to  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ,  furnish 
a  very  practical  illustration  of  the  same  fact.  We  may  note  also 
such  terms  as  estate,  as  signifying  a  general  condition  rather  than 
a  legal  status  ;  guilt,  not  as  in  all  cases  indicating  penal  culpa- 
bility, but  rather  some  exposure  to  retributive  consequences 
flowing  from  the  acts  of  others  ;  and  good  works,  as  pointing  not 
to  deeds  induced  by  natural  morality,  but  to  such  deeds  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  leads  the  soul  to  perform — works  that  accompany 
salvation.  All  of  these  terms  have  occasionally  been  employed 
by  dogmatizing  expositors  in  senses  which  the  Assembly  would 
have  hesitated  to  accept,  or  possibly  would  have  openly  rejected. 

A  similar  rule  of  interpretation  ought  in  fairness  to  be  recog- 
nized in  the  consideration  of  many  minor  statements  and  declara- 
tions in  the  Symbols.  Obviously,  these  should  always  be  inter- 
preted, not  by  the  standards  of  theological  opinion  or  of  doctrinal 
development  in  some  subsequent  era  like  our  own,  but  in  full 
view  of  the  times  when  and  the  circumstances  amid  which  these 
formularies  were  written,  and  also  of  all  that  had  preceded  them 
along  either  confessional  or  theological  lines  during  the  stirring 
era  of  the  Reformation.  When,  for  illustration,  we  read  their 
statements  respecting  the  civil  magistracy,  the  authority  of  the 
civil  power  within  the  church,  the  obligation  of  magistrates  to 
enforce  church  discipline  by  civil  pains  and  penalties,  we  are 
bound  to  interpret  these  declarations  in  full  view,  not  of  our  own 
times  or  country,  but  of  Britain  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
of  the  special  conditions  which  led  to  and  in  a  degree  justified 
such  teachings.  Again,  when  the  pope  of  Rome  is  said  in  the 
Confession  to  be  the  man  of  sin  and  sou  of  perdition,  or  the  church 
of  Rome  is  contemned  as  a  synagogue  of  Satan,  or  its  adherents 


SOS  THE    WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

are  classed  with  infidels  and  idolaters,  it  is  but  just  to  bear  in 
mind  the  strongly  hostile  relations  of  Protestantism  and  Roman- 
ism throughout  Europe  in  the  age  when  these  declarations  were 
written,  and  also  the  equally  condemnatory  teachings  of  nearly 
all  the  antecedent  Protestant  creeds.  These  are  but  two  out  of 
many  illustrations  that  might  be  named.  The  justice  of  the 
general  rule  suggested — the  injustice  of  any  other  mode  of  treat- 
ment, will  be  readily  acknowledged.  To  estimate  such  incidental 
teachings  by  the  light  which  the  succeeding  centuries  have  shed 
on  the  subjects  discussed,  would  be  equivalent  to  demanding 
that  the  Assembly  should  have  known  in  advance  all  that  has 
been  revealed  by  Providence  or  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  subse- 
quent ages. 

It  is  an  obvious  fact  that  no  small  proportion  of  the  criticism 
made  upon  the  Symbols  relates  to  such  matters  of  language, 
modes  of  expression,  minor  statements  and  declarations, — criti- 
cism which  careful  and  candid  consideration  will  do  very  much  to 
correct.  Defects  in  essential  doctrine,  wherever  they  become 
manifest,  are  of  course  much  more  serious.  So  far  as  any  such 
defects  are  attributable  to  the  Calvinistic  system  in  general,  little 
need  be  said  respecting  them  at  this  point ;  they  have  already  come 
sufficiently  under  our  review.  From  the  days  of  John  Calvin 
until  now,  that  system  has  been  sorely  assailed  on  many  sides  : 
to  detail  such  assaults  even  in  mere  outline  would  require  vol- 
umes. Its  five  points  have  each  and  all  been  resisted  by  argument, 
beclouded  through  misrepresentation,  held  up  to  aspersion  and 
ridicule.  Its  central  truth,  the  divine  sovereignty  dominant  in 
grace  as  in  nature,  has  been  condemned  as  radically  inconsistent 
with  the  correlated  truth  of  human  freedom,  and  as  substantially 
resolving  all  human  experience  within  the  religious  sphere  into 
fatalism.  Its  interpretation  of  the  Gospel  as  a  scheme  of  elective 
grace,  and  its  affirmation  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
exercise  of  his  regenerating  and  sanctifying  power,  are  said  to 
obliterate  all  responsibility  on  the  part  of  man,  and  to  make 
salvation  a  matter  of  destiny  merely.  Its  attempts  to  harmonize 
divergent  elements  in  doctrine,  and  to  bring  antithetic  truths 
into  coherence  and  unity  around  its  central  principle,  have  been 
declared  to  be  failures.  The  effort  to  sustain  such  a  doctrinal 
system  has  been  pronounced  hopeless,  and  the  prophecy  has  been 
made  that  in  some  future  era  not  very  far  distant  Calvinism  will 
cease  to  exist  except  as  an  offensive  memory.  Such  adverse 
criticism  has  also  been  much  excited  and  stimulated,  if  not  in 
some  degree  justified,   by  the  course  of  those  advocates  of  the 


ALLEGED   DEFECTS   IN   CALVINISM.  809 

system  who  have  ignored  its  man}-  vital  relations  to  other  types 
of  evangelical  doctrine,  and  have  found  their  chief  occupation  in 
emphasizing  differences,  and  pressing  into  the  foreground  its 
extremer  elements,  in  violent  antagonism  with  all  other  Chris- 
tian systems.  Indeed  it  has  been  questioned  whether  such  advo- 
cates, in  their  excess  of  zeal  and  their  sweeping  and  exclusive 
claims  in  its  favor,  have  not  been  at  times  almost  as  injurious  to 
it  as  its  avowed  opponents.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  observable 
defects  in  generic  Calvinism,  and  all  exterior  antagonisms  and 
unfortunate  or  misguided  advocacy,  such  has  been  the  inherent 
vitality  of  the  system,  and  such  its  impregnable  foundation  and 
warrant  in  Holy  Writ,  that  it  has  been  able  for  nearty  three 
centuries  to  sustain  itself  successfully  against  opposition  and  hin- 
drance of  whatever  variety.  And  the  supreme  fact  of  present 
moment  is,  that  it  still  lives  as  an  acceptable  form  of  evangelical 
doctrine,  notwithstanding  all  real  or  supposed  blemishes  attaching 
to  it, — that  it  was  never  stronger  or  more  commanding  than  it  is 
now, — and  that  it  bids  fair  to  abide  in  vigor  and  influence,  though 
doubtless  with  further  development  and  improvement,  through 
the  coming  centuries. 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  the  Symbols  have  excited 
Special  objections  above  most  other  Calvinistic  creeds,  by  the 
peculiarly  strong  and  tenacious  mode  in  which  they  set  forth  the 
generic  doctrine  concerning  man,  concerning  the  divine  decree  or 
decrees,  and  concerning  the  plan  and  process  of  grace,  including 
both  election  and  reprobation.  It  has  already  been  admitted  that 
their  delineation  of  man  as  a  sinner,  and  of  his  moral  helplessness 
apart  from  divine  grace,  is  too  sweeping  and  forbidding,  not  only 
in  phraseology  but  also  in  substance.  They  do  not  recognize 
with  sufficient  fullness  those  better  elements  in  fallen  human 
nature,  those  rational  and  ethical  capabilities  surviving  in*  the 
soul,  which  may  and  do  coexist  with  a  spiritual  pravitas  such  as 
no  power  less  than  divine  can  remedy.  And  it  is  unquestionably 
one  of  the  delicate  but  indispensable  offices  of  living  Calvinism  to 
adjust  these  antithetic  conceptions  more  exactly  and  more  in 
harmony  with  the  underlying  verities  in  the  case.  But  even  here 
it  is  hard  for  a  really  considerate,  honest,  conscientious  mind,  after 
careful  scrutiny  of  human  nature  just  as  it  reveals  itself  in  the  life 
of  humanity,  to  say  how  much  subtraction  should  be  made  from 
the  confessional  statements,  or  just  what  addition  is  requisite  to 
secure  exact,  absolute  correspondence  between  these  affirmations 
and  the  profound  and  sad  reality.  The  more  deeply  one  reflects 
in  all  soberness  on  things  as  they  are,   the  more  will  he  probably 


810  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

be  inclined  to  conclude  that,  however  open  to  criticism  the  lan- 
guage employed  may  be,  the  substantial  doctrine  affirmed  is  not 
so  very  far  astray  either  from  the  solemn  teachings  of  Scripture 
or  from  the  equally  solemn  revelations  of  actual  life. 

What  has  been  said  already  respecting  the  eternal  decree,  in  its 
nature  and  scope  and  historic  evolution,  renders  needless  in  this 
final  review  more  than  a  brief  word  of  explanation.  We  are 
familiar  with  the  long  and  earnest  debates  on  this  subject  in  the 
Assembly, — ending  in  the  use,  by  obvious  compromise,  of  the 
singular  term,  decree,  or  the  one  eternal  and  comprehending 
counsel  and  purpose,  free  and  omniscient  and  immutable,  as 
defined  in  the  Confession  ;  and  of  the  plural  term,  decrees,  or  the 
wise,  free  and  holy  acts  emanating  from  that  eternal  purpose, 
but  executed  successively  in  time,  as  set  forth  in  the  Larger 
Catechism.  The  speculative  conception  of  one  such  comprehen- 
sive decree  or  determination,  formed  before  the  existence  of  any 
creature  or  object,  and  slowly  unfolding  itself  through  the  ages, 
with  infinite  wisdom  and  infinite  power,  must  always  retain  a 
place  in  Christian  theology, — partly  because  it  furnishes  the 
necessary  basis  for  philosophic  thought  respecting  God  and  his 
acts,  but  chiefly  because  it  is  so  frequently  suggested  by  the 
phraseology  of  Scripture.  Yet  this  conception,  broadly  stated, 
does  seem  to  include  both  the  natural  or  physical  universe  and 
the  psychical  or  moral  universe  in  one  and  the  same  process  of 
evolution  in  time,  and  thus  to  subject  the  movements  of  winds 
or  planets,  and  the  spiritual  experiences  of  men  and  angels  alike, 
to  the  same  fixed  and  immutable  method,  determined  fundamen- 
tally by  the  eternal  will.  And  in  the  presence  of  such  a  tremen- 
dous verity,  it  seems  hard  to  find  proper  room  for  the  antithetic 
truth  that,  living  and  acting  in  the  very  center  of  such  an  evolu- 
tion, man  is  really  free,  and  is  consequently  responsible  for  the 
part  he  takes  in  the  vast  and  complex  process.  Nor  is  it  strange 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  one  eternal  decree  is  simply  cast  aside  by 
some  on  the  ground  of  its  supposed  antagonism  with  the  doctrine 
of  freedom,  or  that  other  thoughtful  minds,  entangled  in  the  per- 
plexities of  such  a  conception,  should  doubt  whether  man  is  truly 
free,  and  should  even  lapse  into  what  has  been  described  as  a 
Christian  fatalism,  more  depressing  even  than  Islam. 

Later  Calvinism  has  found  relief  in  large  degree  from  both  liabil- 
ities by  describing  the  eternal  counsel  and  purpose  of  God  as 
executing  itself  according  to  Scripture  in  an  historic  series  of 
decrees,  or  of  wise  and  free  and  holy  acts,  occurring  in  chrono- 
logic succession,   always  in  vital  relation  to  each  other  as  ante- 


EXPLANATION   OF  THE   SYMBOLS.  811 

cedent  and  consequent,  but  always  executed  in  harmony  with 
human  freedom  as  well  as  with  the  divine  purpose.  The  creation 
of  man,  the  covenant  of  works,  the  fall,  the  plan  of  salvation,  the 
giving  of  the  law,  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  as  the 
Messiah,  the  redemptive  mission  of  Christ,  are  all  events  or  acts, 
taking  their  eternally  predestinated  place  in  time,  yet  in  their 
historic  occurrence  involving  always  the  activity  of  the  free  will  in 
man  as  truly  as  the  comprehending  and  dominating  will  of  God. 
And  it  is  pleasant  to  note  that  this  associated  fact  is  distinctly 
set  before  us,  even  more  fully  than  in  any  other  Protestant  creed,  in 
the  strong  statement  of  the  Confession  that  God  has  so  endowed 
the  human  will  with  natural  liberty — has  so  far  created  man  in 
his  own  image,  that  he  is  not  forced  or  by  any  absolute  or  con- 
trolling energy  of  nature  determined  toward  good  or  toward  evil. 
Moral  liberty  is  thus  recognized  as  being  as  truly  a  fundamental 
principle  in  the  world  of  humanity,  as  necessity  is  the  funda- 
mental principle  in  the  world  of  nature.  While  God  executes  his 
great  purposes  in  the  physical  universe  by  one  series  of  laws, 
adjusted  to  the  constitution  and  design  of  that  material  organism, 
he  executes  his  greater  purposes  in  the  moral  universe  wherein 
man  lives  and  acts,  by  quite  another  series  of  laws, — laws  no  less 
wisely  adjusted  to  the  spiritual  constitution  of  man,  yet  no  less 
fixed  and  definite  in  their  working,  even  amid  all  the  perplexities 
induced  by  the  fact  of  human  liberty  and  of  human  sin.  This  is 
a  truth  clearly  emphasized  in  the  Symbols,  and  one  which  must 
be  admitted  by  every  thoughtful  student  either  of  Scripture  or 
of  the  acts  and  experiences  of  our  humanity.  The  one  decree 
thus  inevitably  divides  itself  to  our  apprehension  into  two  decrees, 
inasmuch  as  there  are  two  such  universes,  radically  different  in 
their  constitution,  and  as  much  unlike  in  experiment  as  the 
unfolding  of  a  lily  or  rose  is  unlike  the  process  of  regeneration, 
or  the  unfolding  of  character,  blessedness,  aspiration,  worship  in 
the  Christianized  soul.  That  the  Symbols,  while  they  recognize 
both  of  those  modes  of  divine  activity,  lay  the  chief  stress  on  the 
agency  of  God  in  the  moral  sphere,  and  that  within  this  sphere 
they  always  count  the  divine  efficiency  first  and  supreme,  and 
regard  the  human  activity  involved  as  secondary  and  subordinate, 
is  very  obvious.  And  possibly  it  is  true  that  too  much  stress  is 
laid  relatively  on  what  God  does,  and  too  little  stress  relatively 
on  what  man  does  or  ought  to  do,  in  the  matter  of  his  own  salva- 
tion. Yet  such  a  defect  is  after  all  less  perilous  to  religion  and 
to  the  interests  of  the  soul,  than  that  which  regards  man  as 
equally  with  God  the  arbiter  of  his  own  spiritual  destinies. 


812  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

Further  objections  under  this  head  relate  to  the  confessional 
teachings  respecting  the  plan  of  salvation  in  its  design  and  scope, 
the  sufficiency  and  efficacy  of  the  atonement  and  mediation  of 
Christ,  the  particular  and  unconditional  election  and  salvation  of 
those  who  are  embraced  in  that  plan,  and  the  reprobation  and 
condemnation  of  the  rest  of  mankind.  These  objections  have 
already  come  repeatedly  into  view  in  the  progress  of  these  studies, 
and  may  now  be  passed  with  the  single  suggestion  that  they  very 
largefy  lose  their  force,  when  contemplated  in  the  light  of  the 
important  modifications  and  meliorations  of  the  earlier  Calvinistic 
teaching  which  have  been  extensively  accepted  in  more  recent 
times.  The  design  and  scope  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  for  example, 
have  come  to  be  appreciated  by  living  Calvinism  as  they  could  not 
have  been  by  the  divines  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centu- 
ries. The  current  view  of  the  range  and  possible  efficiency  of 
the  atonement  and  mediation  of  Christ,  has  certainly  been  greatly 
broadened,  though  without  any  sacrifice  of  the  essential  doctrine 
as  held  by  the  primitive  Calvinism.  The  scope  of  election  also 
has  been  vastly  widened,  with  respect  at  least  to  infants  and 
imbeciles  and  to  the  heathen  races.  The  divine  sovereignty  in 
grace  has  come  to  be  held  at  various  points  in  closer  conjunction 
with  the  antithetic  truth  that  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to  give 
his  Son  for  its  redemption.  Such  broad  views  were  not  unknown 
even  in  the  Assembly.  Arrowsmith  in  his  noted  discourse  on 
Christ  as  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  declared  that  there  is  no 
man  but  partakes  of  his  light,  his  goodness,  in  one  kind  or  other, 
though  with  much  variety  in  the  success.  Ever  since  his  day 
there  have  been  Calvinists  who  have  held  similar  convictions  as 
to  the  extensive  scope  of  divine  grace  and  the  cosmic  possibilities 
inherent  in  the  plan  of  salvation.  Such  meliorations  of  the  earlier 
doctrine  were  never  so  widely  affirmed  or  so  freely  admitted  as 
now  ;  nor  was  Calvinism  ever  so  conscious  as  now  of  its  spiritual 
affinities  with  other  types  of  evangelical  theology  on  these  points — 
points  where  once  the  fiercest  antagonism  prevailed.  Neither 
does  such  affiliation  involve  any  abandonment  of  what  is  really 
fundamental  in  the  Calvinistic  as  distinct  from  other  theological 
systems  :  essential  Calvinism  is  in  fact  becoming  all  the  stronger, 
loftier  and  more  comprehensive  and  influential  through  this 
meliorating  and  irenic  process. 

In  their  severe  statements  respecting  reprobation,  or  the  final 
condemnation  of  the  wicked  as  determined  in  the  eternal  decree 
or  purpose  of  God,  the  Symbols  are  indeed  peculiar.  No  other 
Reformed  creed,  unless  it  be  the  Synod  of  Dort  or  the  Lambeth 


REPROBATION — PRETERITION.  813 

Articles,  (which  have  rather  an  historical  than  a  confessional 
value, )  contains  any  declaration  so  positive.  The  Synod  defined 
what  was  called  the  decree  of  reprobation,  (Head  I  :  Art.  15)  as 
the  sovereign  determination  of  God  to  leave  some  men  in  the 
common  misery  into  which  they  have  willfully  plunged  them- 
selves, withholding  from  them  the  grace  of  conversion,  and  in 
his  just  judgment  permitting  them  to  follow  their  own  way,  even 
down  to  condemnation  and  punishment.  But  this  final  result 
was  represented  as  turning,  not  on  an  eternal  purpose  to  create 
men  in  order  that  God  might  exhibit  his  justice  in  their  ultimate 
condemnation — as  Calvin  had  held — but  on  their  free  choice  of 
sin  and  evil,  with  its  consequence  in  misery,  temporal  and  eternal. 
It  is  noticeable  that  the  Remonstrant  or  Arminian  party  against 
whom  this  Canon  was  framed,  while  affirming  that  Christ  died 
for  all  men,  and  that  by  his  cross  he  has  actually  obtained  redemp- 
tion and  the  forgiveness  of  sins  for  all  who  will  believe  on  him, 
still  admitted  that  the  incorrigible  and  unbelieving  are  left  in 
their  sin,  and  are  under  divine  wrath  as  alienate  from  Christ. 
And  the  Westminster  Symbols  go  no  further  than  the  Synod  of 
Dort  in  their  statement  respecting  the  cause  and  the  ground  of 
the  condemnation  of  men  :  they  nowhere  proceed  to  the  extreme 
position  of  Calvin,  that  in  the  eternal  purpose  wicked  men  were 
made  in  order  to  be  damned,  in  illustration  of  the  divine  justice. 
The  Assembly  evidently  shrank  from  the  severities  of  such 
an  affirmation,  and  fell  back  upon  the  more  negative  con- 
ception of  pretention,  as  a  substitute  for  the  positive  dogma  of 
reprobation.  Some  of  the  members  held  with  Calamy  (Minutes, 
153)  that  by  virtue  of  the  death  of  Christ  there  is  an  adminis- 
tration of  grace  even  to  the  reprobate,  so  that  they  in  rejecting 
such  grace  do  willfully  damn  themselves  as  a  massa  corrupta. 
It  is  a  fact  of  considerable  significance  that,  in  deference  to  this 
opinion,  it  was  proposed  and  somewhat  debated  in  the  Assembly 
to  omit  any  statement  respecting  reprobation.  This  would  have 
been  in  harmony  with  the  course  pursued  in  the  framing  of  most 
of  the  continental  symbols,  which  are  quite  silent  respecting  the 
relation  of  the  divine  decree  to  those  who  reject  the  divine  grace. 
The  statement  in  the  Confession  finally  agreed  upon,  (Ch.  Ill  :  vii) 
simply  declares  that  God,  in  the  exercise  of  his  sovereign  power 
or  dominion  over  his  creatures  passes  by  the  wicked  and  unbe- 
lieving, and  ordains  them  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for  their  szns,  to 
the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice.  Wherever  reference  is  made 
elsewhere  to  such  final  condemnation,  the  divine  decree  is  repre- 
sented as,  not  absolute  like  the  decree  of  creation,  but  relative 


814  THE   WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

and  conditioned  on  the  antecedent  fact  of  sin.  It  may  be  added 
that  the  modification  proposed  in  the  recent  Revision,  though  not 
wholly  satisfactory,  is  a  manifest  improvement  on  the  original 
section,  since  it  affirms  that  God  hath  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of 
the  wicked,  nor  is  it  his  decree,  but  the  wickedness  of  their  own 
hearts,  which  restraineth  and  hindereth  them  from  accepting  the 
free  offer  of  his  grace  made  in  the  Gospel. 

It  surely  involves  no  disparagement  of  generic  Calvinism  if  we 
admit  the  existence  of  such  deficiencies  as  have  now  been  named  : 
we  may  rather  glory  in  the  fact  that  in  its  historic  evolution  it  has 
shown  such  capacity  to  correct  its  earlier  defects,  and  to  grow 
with  the  ages  into  larger  and  finer  proportions.  A  striking  illus- 
tration of  this  healthful  capability  may  be  seen  in  the  Essay  of 
the  younger  Edwards  on  the  Improvements  in  Theology  made, 
as  he  claims,  by  his  illustrious  father.  It  may  fairly  be  questioned 
whether  his  filial  interpretation  is  in  every  instance  accurate,  yet 
his  claim  is  in  substance  just  and  valid.  These  Improvements 
include  many  of  the  most  central  and  vital  topics  in  Christian 
theology,  such  as  the  end  of  God  in  creation,  the  origin  of 
moral  evil,  the  nature  of  virtue,  liberty  and  necessity,  the  basis  of 
atonement,  imputation,  regeneration  and  conversion,  and  experi- 
mental religion.  It  cannot  be  questioned  that  ever  since  the  day 
of  Edwards  the  term,  Calvinism,  has  had  a  broader,  loftier,  more 
spiritual  meaning  than  it  had  possessed  in  any  previous  age. 
That  further  improvements  have  been  made  since  that  day  is 
manifest  to  every  careful  student  of  Calvinistic  literature  :  that 
still  other  improvements  are  possible,  and  will  in  due  time  be 
gained,  is  not  less  manifest  to  one  who  studies  well  the  current 
trends  and  tendencies  in  theologic  thought.  It  lies  in  the  very 
nature  of  Calvinism,  perhaps  above  any  other  system  of  doctrine, 
to  be  thus  unfolding  itself  continuously — developing  and  maturing 
through  the  centuries  from  its  Pauline  stock  :  were  it  to  pause  in 
such  evolution,  it  would  soon  become  as  dry  and  dead  a  thing  as 
the  metaphysical  dogmatism  of  the  Scholastic  ages.  And  surely 
Calvin  himself  would  have  been  the  first  to  repudiate  the  notion 
that  his  system  was  finished  and  complete  as  it  came  from  his 
master  hand. 

Passing  from  this  final  survey  of  the  excellences  and  the  de- 
ficiences  discernible  in  the  Symbols,  we  naturally  turn  to  consider 
the  closely  related  question  involved  in  the  effort  to  impose 
them  as  authoritative  formularies,  as  the  only  legitimate  exposi- 
tions of  religious  doctrine  and  duty,  throughout  the  British  Isles. 


AUTHORITY   OF   THE   SYMBOLS.  815 

We  are  not  concerned  here  with  the  inherent  right  of  such  system- 
atic and  condensed  statements  of  Christian  truth  to  be  received 

in   virtue  of  what    they  are  in  them- 

,   .        ^  5.    Authority  of  the  Sym- 

selves— an  authoritative  claim  that  bols .  QUesuon  of  toleration. 
is  of  course  primal  and  fundamental. 

We  contemplate  rather  the  type  of  authoritativeness  resident  in 
the  church  as  the  organized  exponent  and  representative  of  such 
truth,  and  the  right  of  the  church  to  require  acceptance  of  its 
confessional  teaching — the  matter,  in  other  words,  of  ecclesias- 
tical jurisdiction  and  ecclesiastical  toleration  in  matters  of  faith. 
Attention  has  already  been  directed  to  this  practical  problem  in 
the  discussion  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Civil  Magistracy,  and  the 
supposed  obligation  of  the  magistrate  to  sustain  the  church  in 
the  enforcement  of  faith  and  duty  by  the  hand  and  authority  of 
the  state.  But  in  the  instance  now  in  question  there  are  some 
other  aspects  of  the  problem  which  call  for  further  consideration 
at  this  point. 

It  may  be  legitimately  claimed  at  the  outset,  though  it  is  often 
denied,  that  the  doctrine  and  polity  and  worship  prescribed  by 
the  Assembly  were  in  reality   framed  in  the  interest  of  religious 
liberty.     The  members  of  that  body  knew  well  the  dark  story  of 
those  days  when  Romanism,  under  the    patronage  of  Mary,  en- 
forced its  sovereignty  in  England  through  persecutions  and  even 
by  martyrdoms.     They  remembered  the  days,   nearer  at  hand, 
when  Episcopacy  under  Laud  had  asserted  its  supremacy,  not 
indeed  in  aspects  so  dreadful  yet  with  marked  severities.     Some 
of  them  had  suffered  in  standing,  in  property  and  in  person,  at 
the  hands  of  prelatist  rulers.     While  they  were  not  seriously 
burdened  by  the  imposition  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  regarded 
as  a  scheme  of  doctrine,  they  had  been  sorely  oppressed  by  the 
demand  for  uniformity  in  order  and  worship,  enforced  by  both 
the  ecclesiastical  and  the  civil  power.    And  since  the  opportunity 
long  desired  had  now  come,  to  frame  a  polity  which  should  con- 
form to  their  deep  convictions  of  human  rights  in  the  sphere  of 
religion,  and  to  devise  a  mode  of  worship  which  would  give  them 
freedom  from  galling  liturgical  bondage,  they  gladly  welcomed 
that  opportunity.     That  they  were  wholly  free  from  the  influence 
of   other   and    less   exalted  considerations,  cannot   be    claimed. 
They  were  men  of  like  passions  with  others,  and  some  measure 
of  personal  pride  and  desire  to  rule,  of  partisan  narrowness  and 
severity  also,  and  of  a  sentiment  of  hostility  if  not  of  vengeance 
toward  those  who  had  dominated  so  haughtily  over  them ,  doubt- 
less mingled  more  or  less  with  their  better  purposes.     Yet  they 


816  THE    WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

consciously  wrought  in  the  interest  of  liberty,  civil  as  well  as 
religious.  Their  enunciation  of  the  sublime  truth  that  God  alone 
is  Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  that  the  conscience  is  therefore 
free  from  the  obligation  to  submit  to  any  doctrines  or  command- 
ments of  men  that  are  contrary  to  his  Word  or  beside  it,  was  a  sub- 
lime step  in  advance  of  anything  that  England  or  Europe  had  ever 
known.  It  was  a  declaration  which  applied  to  the  State  as  well  as 
the  Church,  and  which  if  faithfully  put  into  practice,  would 
secure  to  every  man  in  the  civil  as  well  as  in  the  ecclesiastical 
sphere,  all  those  rights  and  prerogatives  in  belief  and  in  act  which 
belong  to  man  as  man.  That  declaration  carries  with  it  by 
inevitable  inference,  not  only  a  mutual  recognition  of  liberty  on 
the  part  of  all  believers,  but  also  the  living  sentiment  of  brother- 
hood, binding  and  uniting  all  men  by  the  closest  spiritual 
ties.  Toleration,  forbearance,  confidence,  the  sense  of  unity 
amid  diversities  not  fundamental,  all  flow  spontaneously  from 
this  fountain.  To  have  proclaimed  such  a  declaration,  and  to 
have  framed  their  doctrine  and  polity  and  worship  so  largely  in 
harmony  with  it,  is  an  honor  of  which  the  divines  of  Westminster 
can  never  be  justly  deprived. 

It  may  also  be  fairly  affirmed  that,  when  they  had  accomplished 
their  task  so  far  as  practicable,  and  when  through  their  agency 
Presbyterianism  had  been  in  a  sense  established  in  Britain  as  the 
lawful  religion  of  the  realm,  they  were  not  extreme  in  the  spirit 
and  method  with  which  they  pressed  the  claim  of  uniformity. 
Toward  Romanism  they  were  indeed  unflinchingly  severe:  toward 
those  whom  they  regarded  as  in  a  positive  sense  errorists,  such 
as  Socinians  or  Quakers  or  Antinomians,  they  were  disposed  to 
enforce  that  claim  with  much  persistence,  and  even  by  the  arm 
of  civil  power.  We  have  seen  how  strenuous  they  became — more 
and  more  strenuous  as  such  errorists  of  various  kinds  sprang  up 
around  them  in  increasing  swarms — in  endeavoring  to  suppress 
open  heresy  even  by  the  imprisonment  of  heretics,  and  the  burn- 
ing of  heretical  books  and  other  kindred  proceedings.  But 
toward  Episcopalians  on  one  side  and  the  rising  Independents  on 
the  other  side,  they  were  habitually  considerate,  at  least  according 
to  the  standard  and  habit  of  their  times.  The  debates  in  the 
Assembly  repeatedly  show  how  conciliatory  and  how  patient  and 
generous  they  were  toward  the  latter  party,  which  was  so  soon 
to  be  put  in  the  same  civil  position,  and  be  subjected  to  the  same 
moral  tests, — quite  as  conciliatory  and  as  patient  and  generous 
as  Cromwell  and  his  allies  proved  to  be  in  the  brief  day  of  their 
power.     For  it  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that  the  Independents 


QUESTION   OF   TOLERATION.  817 

drew  the  same  lines  of  distinction  against  errorists  which  the 
Assembly  had  drawn,  and  enforced  them  just  as  rigorously. 
The  sixteen  doctrines  named  as  fundamental  by  John  Owen, 
their  most  celebrated  divine,  present  a  standard  of  orthodoxy 
hardly  less  rigid,  if  any,  than  that  of  Westminster  ;  and  the 
record  of  their  brief  supremacy  in  England  shows  how  earnest 
they  were  in  the  maintenance  of  these  doctrines,  even  by  severe 
civil  processes.  Cromwell  himself  at  an  early  stage  in  his  career 
declared  that  Presbyterians,  Independents,  all  have  the  same 
spirit  of  faith  and  prayer,  ...  all  have  the  real  unity,  the 
most  glorious,  being  the  inward  and  spiritual,  in  the  body  and  in 
the  Head.  In  things  of  the  mind,  he  once  added,  we  look  for 
no  compulsion  but  that  of  light  and  reason.  Yet  as  the  conflict 
of  opinion  and  purpose  and  of  political  interest  went  on,  Crom- 
well became  as  dogmatic  and  bitter  against  opposition  as  any, 
and  the  Presbyterians  became  at  last  his  special  aversion. 

Prof.  Mitchell  has  justly  claimed  for  the  Assembly,  that  they 
reclaimed  for  liberty  much  which  had  before  them  been  kept 
under  subjection  to  authority,  both  ecclesiastical  and  civil;  and 
that  in  various  ways,  as  by  limiting  lawful  commands  in  matters 
of  faith  and  worship  to  things  enjoined  in  the  Word  of  God, 
they  helped  forward  the  cause  of  freedom  in  both  church  and 
state,  and  planted  the  seed  from  which,  as  the  divine  Word  was 
better  studied  and  understood,  a  fully  developed  system  of  toler- 
ation could  not  fail  to  grow.  He  also  claims  that,  besides  the 
liberty  thus  secured  within  the  church,  the  Assembly  granted  or 
at  least  acquiesced  in  a  larger  amount  of  freedom  and  of  toleration 
outside  of  the  church,  than  had  ever  been  enjoyed  in  Britain 
before.  Masson  says  that  there  were  three  types  or  grades  of 
toleration  in  England  at  this  period  ;  absolute  liberty  of  con- 
science, with  no  national  church  or  interference  with  religion  by 
the  state  ;  unlimited  toleration  in  and  around  an  established 
national  church  ;  and  limited  toleration  within  such  a  church; — 
all  alike  opposed  by  the  dogma  of  no  toleration,  and  of  absolute 
and  coerced  conformity  within  the  one  religious  establishment. 
It  is  quite  apparent,  though  each  of  these  four  views  had  repre- 
sentatives in  the  Assembly,  that  the  majority,  although  Masson 
thinks  otherwise,  after  long  discussion  accepted  the  mediate 
doctrine  of  an  established  church,  with  limited  toleration  of 
conflicting  beliefs  and  policies.  It  may  be  that,  had  the  doctrinal 
system  of  the  Assembly  been  less  extended  and  elaborate,  and 
had  the  polity  been  less  rigidly  wrought  out,  the  area  of  true 
liberty  for  themselves  and  for  others  would  have  been  considerably 


818  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

broader,  and  practical  toleration  would  have  been  more  fully 
realized.  But  on  the  other  hand  it  should  be  remembered  that  a 
great  multitude  of  sects  and  parties  had  sprung  up  on  English 
soil  during  that  eventful  period,  and  that  among  them  there  were 
some  who  had  wholly  lost  sight  of  the  broad  distinction  between 
liberty  and  license,  and  who  if  they  had  been  suffered  to  have 
their  own  way,  would  have  plunged  both  church  and  state,  and 
the  Christian  faith  with  them,  into  remediless  confusion.  It  was 
as  necessary  therefore,  to  guard  against  destructive  license — 
against  loose  doctrines  and  loose  theories,  clamoring  on  every 
side  for  recognition,  as  against  the  tyranny,  civil  and  ecclesias- 
tical, which  in  the  name  of  religion  had  in  fact  been  driving 
religion  from  the  land.  This  is  the  historic  explanation  of  the 
emphatic  clauses  in  chapter  XX,  declaring  that  those  who  upon 
pretense  of  Christian  liberty  do  practice  any  sin  or  cherish  any 
lust,  and  those  who  upon  the  same  pretense  publish  opinions 
that  are  contrary  to  the  light  of  nature  or  to  the  known  principles 
of  Christianity,  or  destructive  to  the  peace  and  order  of  the 
church,  shall  be  called  to  account  and  proceeded  against  through 
ecclesiastical  and  also  civil  censures.  The  position  of  Luther 
between  the  priesthood  of  Rome  on  one  hand  and  the  Anabaptist 
insurrectionists  on  the  other,  was  substantially  like  that  of  the 
Assembly,  and  their  policy  like  his  was  one  of  mediate  wisdom, 
cautiously  steering  clear  of  two  equally  destructive  extremes. 

It  would  certainly  be  requiring  too  much  to  demand  in  their 
case  a  temper  and  habit  of  toleration  such  as  our  own  age  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  attained.  It  was  necessary  that  there 
sfaeuld  be  some  long  and  sharp  experiences,  some  severe  testing 
©f  the  broad  principle  that  God  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience, 
before  its  real  nature  and  its  proper  scope  and  authoritativeness 
could  be  seen.  That  principle  had  been  in  some  degree  affirmed 
even  from  the  age  of  Luther,  in  the  specific  form  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment  ;  and  in  that  form  had  been  recognized  as  an 
essential  basis  both  of  Protestant  doctrine  and  of  Protestant  life. 
Yet  that  just  rule  had  been  perverted  by  the  Socinians  and  others 
on  the  continent  as  a  justification  of  destructive  license  in  thought 
and  belief,  especially  in  the  interpretation  of  the  divine  Word. 
Similar  peril  accompanied  the  principle  as  enunciated  by  the 
Assembly  in  their  noble  chapter  on  Christian  Liberty  and  Liberty 
of  Conscience.  They  presented  it  in  positive  and  mandatory 
form,  and  faithfully  warned  all  men  against  betraying  such  liberty 
of  conscience,  and  betraying  reason  also,  by  believing  any  dogma 
or  yielding  to  any  practice  upon  human  authority  only.     Yet,  as 


TRUE   CATHOLICITY  SHOWN.  819 

we  have  already  had  occasion  to  note,  they  knew  not  how  to 
apply  their  own  rule  in  all  cases,  and  especially  in  the  very  trying 
circumstances  that  environed  them,  and  in  various  ways  fell 
short  of  their  own  noble  declaration.  But  surely  we  who,  with 
larger  light  and  the  benefits  of  much  recorded  experience,  some- 
times fail  in  such  application,  are  hardly  at  liberty  to  regard  them 
and  their  mistakes  with  severity.  Toleration  is  a  plant  of  slow 
and  difficult  growth  in  the  human  soul ;  as  an  experience  it 
requires  time  and  patience  for  its  evolution.  The  idea  of  tolera- 
tion, says  Masson,  was  born  out  of  pain,  out  of  suffering,  out  of 
persecution  ;  not  pain  inflicted  constantly  on  one  and  the  same 
section  of  men,  but  pain  revolving,  pain  circulated,  pain  distribu- 
ted, till  the  whole  round  of  the  concourse  of  sects  had  felt  it  in 
turn  ;  and  it  was  not  till  then  that  the  only  principle  of  its 
prevention  gradually  dawned  on  the  common  consciousness. 
Forty  additional  years  of  such  experience  were  requisite  in  Britain 
before  the  Toleration  Act  of  1688  could  be  passed ;  and  the 
passage  of  that  celebrated  Act  was  only  one  of  the  early  steps  in 
a  process  which  it  has  required  generations,  even  centuries,  to 
bring  to  its  present  stage  of  development. 

One  marked  illustration  of  the  truly  Christian  moderation  and 
catholicity  prevalent  at  least  in  some  Presbyterian  circles,  may 
be  seen  in  the  Vindication  of  The  Presbyterial  Government  and 
Ministry,  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Provincial  Assembly  of  Lon- 
don, shortly  after  the  Westminster  Assembly  had  completed  its 
doctrinal  work,  but  before  its  final  adjournment.*  This  little 
treatise  argues  against  the  urging  of  uniformity  in  circumstantial 
things,  on  the  ground  that  the  parts,  gifts,  and  graces  of  men 
differ,  and  that  if  there  be  no  forbearance  in  inferior  matters, 
there  must  be  perpetual  conflict  within  the  church.  It  enjoins 
upon  all  Christians  the  duty  of  studying  whatever  may  tend  to 
unity,  on  the  ground  that  unity  is  as  essential  in  religion  as 
purity ;  and  the  further  duty  of  abiding  in  communion  within 

*The  Provincial  Assembly  was  an  ecclesiastical  body  created  by  ordinance 
of  Parliament  to  supervise  for  the  province  of  London  the  interests  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  within  that  province.  It  was  composed  of  represent- 
atives from  the  twelve  minor  assemblies  (presbyterial  bodies)  organized 
within  the  same  territory.  Its  first  meeting  was  held  in  May  1647,  and  it 
continued  to  hold  regular  sessions  twice  annually  until  the  death  of  Cromwell, 
and  the  accession  of  Charles  II  to  the  throne  ;  after  which  event  English 
Presbyterianism  became  a  vanishing  shadow.  One  of  its  most  significant 
acts  was  its  strenuous  Testimony,  in  1647,  against  the  Errours,  Heresies  and 
Blasphemies  of  these  Times,  and  the  Toleration  of  them :  Pres.  Review, 
Jan.  1881. 


820  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

the  one  church  organization,  in  the  temper  of  tolerance  with 
antithetic  beliefs.  It  forbids  all  needless  ruptures  within  the 
church,  protests  against  divisions  among  churches,  or  setting  up 
one  church  against  another,  and  all  schismatic  gathering  of 
churches  out  of  true  churches  because  of  difference  in  small 
matters.  It  declares  that  such  divisive  processes  will  not  only 
disturb,  but  in  time  will  destroy  the  purity  and  power  of  religion, 
ruin  the  peace  of  Christians  and  Christendom,  and  open  a  wide 
gap  for  the  entrance  of  atheism  and  heresy  and  all  manner  of 
wickedness.  And  finally  the  members  of  the  body,  some  of  whom 
were  members  of  the  Assembly  also,  solemnly  pledged  themselves 
to  preach  up  and  to  practice  mutual  forbearance  and  toleration 
in  all  things  that  may  consist  with  the  fundamentals  of  religion, 
with  the  power  of  godliness,  and  with  that  peace  which  Christ 
hath  established  in  his  church.  Certainly  the  men  who  could 
enunciate  such  a  statement  as  this  were  not  the  narrow,  bigoted, 
intolerant  men  whom  Hallam  and  others  decry  them  as  being  ; 
and  so  far  as  they  represented  the  sentiment  of  current  Presby- 
terianism  at  that  painful  juncture  in  English  history,  those  who 
ecclesiastically  are  their  descendants  have  no  occasion  to  blush 
on  their  behalf.  The  boastful  catholicity  of  this  age  has  said  or 
done  nothing  that  is  worthier  of  commendation. 

In  conjunction  with  this  brief  survey  of  the  position  and  author- 
ity of  the  Symbols  on  British  soil,  it  will  be  well  to  glance  once  more 

at  their  relations  to  Protestant  symbol- 
6.  Relation  of  the  Symbols     ism  on  the  continent,  and  their  marked 

toother  Protestant  creeds:  to     .„  ..       4.14.1.       t,*.   ~a 

.  .  _    .    .     . .  _         influence  upon  continental  thought  and 
continental  Protestantism.  r  .  b 

life.      These    relations    have   already 

been  suggested  at  various  points  in  this  series  of  studies,  but 

deserve  some  further  notice  in  this  final  Lecture.     It  has  been 

again  and  again  apparent,  not  merely  that  the  differences  between 

the  Symbols  and  preceding  Protestant  creeds  of  continental  origin 

are  far  less  extensive  or  important  than  the  resemblances,  but 

further,  that  as  to  all  the  essential  elements  of  Christian  doctrine, 

we  may  discern  in  them,  not  merely  similarities,  but  a  broad  and 

grand  unity.     Respecting  the  cardinal  truths  of  revelation,  of  God 

in  his  being  and  activities,  of  man  in  his  moral  constitution  and 

his  lost  condition  through  sin,    of  Christ  in  his  person  and  his 

offices  as  the  Savior  of  the  world,  of  the  nature  of  salvation  and 

its  conditions  and  manifestations,  and  of  the  church  with  its  holy 

ordinances  and  worship  and  mission,  these  creeds  are  essentially 

one — 0ne  and  indivisible  in  the  substance  if  not  in  the  form  of  their 


CONTINENTAL   RELATIONS  OF   THE   SYMBOLS. 


821 


teaching.  We  indeed  discover  in  them  varieties  in  phraseology 
and  statement,  and  in  order  and  grouping  and  fullness,  and  these 
varieties  are  sometimes  so  marked  as  to  distinguish  them  sharply 
one  from  another.  We  also  discover  actual  differences  here  and 
there  in  the  proportion  or  the  emphasis  with  which  certain 
doctrines  are  held,  or  occasionally  in  the  very  matter  of  these 
doctrines.  One  of  the  most  obvious  illustrations  appears  in  the 
antithetic  and  to  some  extent  mutually  exclusive  teachings  of  the 
Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  creeds  respectively  touching  the 
nature  of  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the  eucharistic  feast.  Yet  the 
supreme  fact,  manifest  above  all  such  variations,  is  the  funda- 
mental unity  which  binds  all  these  formularies  together  in  what 
may  in  the  largest  sense  be  styled  a  Book  of  Holy  Concord.  And 
it  is  the  peculiar  glory  of  the  Symbols  of  Westminster  that,  more 
than  any  other  single  creed,  they  represent  and  incorporate  this 
doctrinal  unity  :  for  it  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that 
in  them  as  in  a  mirror  we  may  almost  see  the  entire  doctrinal 
process  of  Protestantism  making  itself  confessionally  manifest. 

It  was  this  fact  that  led  the  Assembly,  or  at  least  some  propor- 
tion of  its  members,  to  entertain  the  hope  already  adverted  to,  that 
the  Confession  they  were  framing  might  win  its  way  to  general 
favor  and  possibly  to  formal  acceptance  in  the  continental  churches. 
There  are  evidences  that  this  hope  was  entertained  by  many  in 
England,  outside  of  the  Assembly.  In  the  Act  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  approving  the  first  nineteen  chapters  of  the  Confession,  it 
was  declared  (Minutes,  291)  that  this  action  is  taken  in  order 
that  the  Protestant  churches  abroad,  as  well  as  the  people  of  the 
kingdom  at  home,  may  know  that  the  Parliament  did  never 
intend  to  innovate  matters  of  faith,— doubtless,  in  other  words, 
did  not  intend  to  depart  in  anything  essential,  from  the  general 
belief  of  continental  Protestantism.  Such  a  hope  must  indeed 
have  been  less  strongly  indulged  with  respect  to  the  Lutheran 
communions.  The  marked  differences  in  the  conception  of  the 
sacraments,  and  especially  the  eucharist,  as  set  forth  in  the 
Lutheran  creeds,  and  also  the  obvious  distinction  between  the 
positive  and  strong  Augustinianism  maintained  by  the  Assembly, 
and  the  mediate  Augustinianism  with  which  the  influence  of 
Melancthon  had  infected  Germany,  stood  in  the  way.  The  affili- 
ations between  Lutheranism  and  the  type  of  Episcopacy  which 
had  prevailed  in  England  for  one  or  two  generations,  proved  a 
still  stronger  barrier.*     But  no  such  hindrance  prevented  the  free 

*An  amusing  yet  painful  illustration  of  the  separation  which  had  grown 
up  between  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  parties  in  general,  and  especially 


822  THE   WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

outflow  of  feeling  and  concord  toward  the  Reformed  bodies.  One 
notable  manifestation  of  the  degree  of  intimacy  and  of  mutual 
confidence  existing,  appears  in  the  Circular  L,etter  prepared  by 
the  Assembly  at  the  suggestion  of  Parliament  in  November,  1643, 
and  addressed  to  the  Belgic,  French,  Helvetian  and  other  Re- 
formed churches — a  communication  to  which  some  at  least  of 
these  churches  responded  with  strong  assurances  of  agreement 
and  sympathy. 

The  primal  reason  for  the  hope  entertained  respecting  the 
possible  acceptance  and  diffusion  of  the  Symbols  on  the  continent 
appears  in  the  fact  just  suggested,  that  there  were  really  no 
extensive  or  serious  differences  between  them  and  the  best  Re- 
formed formularies.  Almost  everything  of  any  moment  in  any  of 
these  had  been  recognized  and  in  some  way  incorporated,  though 
not  always  with  the  same  degree  of  emphasis,  in  the  Symbols. 
The  adherent  of  each  creed  could  find  there,  often  in  brighter 
coloring,  substantially  all  that  had  made  his  own  church  state- 
ment precious  to  him.  Macpherson  affirms  that  the  second 
Helvetic  Confession  was  so  far  the  doctrinal  equivalent,  not  only 
of  the  Scotch  Confession,  but  of  the  Westminster  Confession 
also,  that  those  who  honestly  accepted  the  one  could  not  reason- 
ably decline  to  receive  the  other.  It  must  also  have  been  obvious 
that  there  was  much  more  in  them,  like  the  doctrine  of  the 
Covenants,  which  although  it  had  not  found  expression  in  any 
earlier  symbol,  had  been  set  forth  positively  in  some  of  the 
theologies  of  the  period,  and  was  widely  accepted  as  valuable 
doctrine,  quite  worthy  of  such  confessional  incorporation.  As 
we  now  view  them,  the  Symbols  were  not  indeed  complete  as  to 
contents  or  perfect  as  to  form,  but  in  both  respects  they  excelled 
all  preceding  creeds,  and  must  have  been  so  regarded  by  those 
continental  divines  who  studied  them  with  care  and  candor. 
Their  precision  of  statement,  their  special  exactness  in  definition, 
their  logical  order  and  movement,  and  their  extensive  range  and 

between  continental  Lutheranism  and  the  British  Presbyterians,  appears 
in  the  Minutes  of  the  Assembly.  One  of  the  members  who  had  been 
appointed  to  examine  what  are  described  as  the  last  works  of  Luther 
(last  words,  as  suggested  by  Mitchell,  or  possibly,  latest  publications, ) 
reported  that  there  was  little  good  in  them,  that  many  things  would  not 
advantage  the  work  of  reformation,  and  that  they  were  not  fit  for  publica- 
tion. Another  member  found  some  good  things  in  them,  but  some  of  the 
oddest  conceits  he  had  ever  met  with ;  and  the  Prolocutor  with  several 
others  agreed  that  there  was  nothing  in  them  of  use  to  be  published.  This 
was  in  marked  contrast  with  the  deference  almost  universally  paid  to  the 
writings  of  Calvin. 


CONTINENTAL   INFLUENCE   OF  THE   ASSEMBLY.  823 

comprehension,  must  have  impressed  such  divines  with  a  special 
sense  of  respect.  The  fine  spiritual  tone,  the  deep  religious 
experience  manifest  in  them  must  have  deepened  greatly  the 
impression  made  by  the  other  qualities  just  named.  All  in  all, 
it  would  seem  that  if  any  Protestant  creed  had  merit  and  potency 
enough  to  bear  transplantation,  or  could  take  root  healthfully  on 
any  other  than  its  native  soil,  the  Westminster  Symbols  might 
be  expected  to  attain  such  distinction. 

To  the  attractive  qualities  inherent  in  the  Symbols  themselves, 
there  were  added  other  inducements  to  such  acceptance,  springing 
from  the  marked  character  and  position  of  the  Assembly  itself. 
The  Synod  of  Dort  bore,  as  we  have  seen,  more  of  the  aspect  of 
a  general  or  ecumenical  council,  and  as  being  continental  rather 
than  insular,  would  naturally  exert  a  more  potent  influence  upon 
the  Reformed  communions,  many  of  which  had  been  actually 
represented  in  its  conferences.  But  in  respect  to  numbers  and 
the  prominence  of  its  membership,  and  especially  in  respect  to 
the  variety  and  range  of  the  topics  considered,  that  Synod  clearly 
fell  behind,  even  in  the  estimate  of  the  other  Reformed  bodies 
outside  of  Holland,  the  venerable  council  which  had  sat  for  five 
long  years  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  and  during  that  time  had 
considered  and  acted  upon,  not  merely  the  five  points  of  Calvinism 
but  almost  every  other  doctrine  that  stands  in  any  vital  connection 
with  the  fundamental  belief  of  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth. 
The  supremacy  of  Presbyterianism  in  Scotland,  and  its  ascend- 
ancy for  the  hour  in  England,  doubtless  added  much  to  the 
significance  of  the  Assembly  as  a  national  representative  of  general 
Calvinism.  In  like  manner,  the  desire  for  unity  which  had  grown 
up  in  nearly  all  circles  of  evangelical  Protestantism,  and  espec- 
ially in  the  Reformed  communions,  and  the  increasing  conscious- 
ness that  no  successful  headway  could  be  made  against  Rome 
except  through  closer  confederation  and  more  distinct  doctrinal 
if  not  ecclesiastical  agreement,  tended  strongly  in  the  same 
direction.  The  devoted  labors  of  John  Durie,  a  member  of  the 
Assembly  who  gave  a  large  part  of  his  life  to  the  task  of  unifying 
Protestantism  throughout  Europe,  and  the  kindred  labors  of 
other  men  of  like  spirit,  such  as  Henderson,  also  contributed  to 
give  the  Symbols  very  high  authority  as  confessional  documents 
wherever  Calvinism  had  been  able  to  root  itself.  The  endeavor 
of  Durie  is  described  in  his  treatise,  published  eight  years  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  Assembly  and  entitled,  Negotiations  for 
the  procuring  of  true  Gospel  Peace,  with  Christian  Moderation 
and  charitable  Unity  among  the  Protestant   Churches  and  Acad- 


824  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

emies.  In  that  treatise  he  urges  all  parties  to  forbear  discussion 
of  trifling  differences,  and  to  seek  for  universal  concord,  and 
with  respect  to  the  symbolical  books  to  make  all  practicable 
concessions  in  order  to  secure  deeper  unity  in  faith  and  fellow- 
ship :  Historical  Note,  Presbyt.  Rev.  April,  1887.  Had  such 
unity  been  secured,  if  not  ecclesiastically — which  was  hardly 
possible  under  the  existing  geographic  and  political  conditions — 
yet  doctrinally  and  spiritually,  around  the  Westminster  formu- 
ularies  as  constituting  a  common  creed  sufficient  for  all  the 
Reformed  communions,  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  history  of 
European  Protestantism  would  have  recorded  many  a  brighter 
page  than  we  are  now  permitted  to  read. 

But  the  hindrances  in  the  case  were  many — too  many.  The 
suggestion  of  Durie  and  Henderson,  like  the  scheme  of  the 
Assembly  for  the  unification  of  Protestantism  in  Britain,  was  far 
ahead  of  the  age:  the  times  were  not  ripe  for  either  consummation. 
These  hindrances  are  easily  discerned  :  some  of  them  may  be 
mentioned  here.  The  very  extent  and  copiousness  of  the  Sym- 
bols, required  by  that  effort  after  completeness  which  led  Dean 
Stanley  to  say  that  the  Confession  approached  more  nearly  than 
any  other  creed  to  the  full  proportions  of  a  theological  treatise, 
doubtless  stood  in  the  way  of  its  general  acceptation.  It  was  too 
extensive,  too  elaborate,  too  closely  articulated  logically,  to  be 
easily  apprehensible  to  or  appreciated  by  the  continental  mind. 
It  was  also  distinctively  British,  distinctively  Saxon,  in  its 
terminology,  and  in  the  form  though  not  the  substance  of  its 
doctrines  ;  and  on  this  account  was  the  less  acceptable  outside  of 
Britain.  Differences  of  language  and  usage,  differences  in  minor 
elements  of  church  order  and  in  public  worship,  differences  in 
the  modes  of  handling  and  presenting  sacred  truth  in  the  pulpit 
and  elsewhere,  also  obstructed  the  path  that  led  toward  doctrinal 
unification.  The  vast  distances  between  Britain  and  the  Protes- 
tant kingdoms  such  as  Switzerland  and  even  Holland, — distances 
now  so  easily  traversed,  also  prevented  any  large  measure  of 
fellowship  or  of  general  affiliation.  But  the  most  serious  hind- 
rance of  all  lay  in  the  sad  fact  that  Presbyterianism  could  not 
sustain  itself  at  home,  either  as  a  polity  or  as  a  representative  of 
Calvinistic  doctrine.  After  the  brief  triumph  and  supremacy  of 
English  Independency,  and  especially  after  the  restoration  of 
Episcopacy  as  the  national  church  in  England,  the  influence  of 
the  Symbols  on  the  continent  necessarily  and  rapidly  declined, 
and  the  possible  unification  of  the  Reformed  churches  on  them 
as  a  doctrinal  standard  became  a  vanishing-  dream. 


UNION  OP   PROTESTANTISM    IN   EUROPE.  825 

One  other  interesting  fact  may  properly  be  mentioned  in  this 
connection.  Hetherington  in  his  History  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  refers  to  the  idea  of  an  organized  Protestant  union  or 
confederation  throughout  Christendom,  to  be  established,  not 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  counterbalancing  popery,  but — as  he 
saj^s — to  purify,  strengthen  and  unite  all  true  Christian  churches 
in  the  effort  of  proclaiming  the  Gospel  among  all  nations.  He 
tells  us  that  this  grand  idea  originated  in  the  mind  of  Henderson, 
and  was  suggested  by  him  to  the  Scotch  commissioners.  The 
suggestion  was  afterward  presented  to  the  English  Parliament, 
and  that  body  in  response  directed  the  Assembly  to  send  the 
Letter  of  Greeting  already  mentioned  to  the  various  Reformed 
churches.  The  Assembly  not  only  sent  the  Letter,  but  forwarded 
with  it  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  as  supplying  a  suitable 
basis  for  such  organic  confederation.  The  leading  divines  of  the 
Netherlands  not  only  responded  cordially  to  this  Letter,  but 
expressed  their  willingness  to  unite  with  the  Presbyterianism  of 
Britain  on  that  basis.  How  far  other  Reformed  churches  re- 
sponded to  this  proposal,  the  subsequent  Minutes  of  the  Assembly 
do  not  indicate.  The  disposition  of  Calvin  with  respect  to  such 
unification  of  Protestantism  was  forcibly  expressed  in  his  memor- 
able letter  to  Cranmer,  eighty  years  earlier.  One  of  the  marked 
events  of  the  times,  he  says,  is  that  the  churches  are  so  widely 
separated  from  each  other  that  there  is  not  even  a  temporal  or 
human  intercourse  carried  on  between  them.  .  .  .  The  body 
of  Christ  is  torn  asunder  because  the  members  are  thus  separated. 
When,  he  adds,  our  purpose  is  to  unite  the  sentiments  of  all  good 
and  learned  men,  and  so  according  to  the  rule  of  Scripture  to 
bring  the  separated  churches  into  one,  neither  labor  nor  trouble 
of  any  kind  ought  to  be  spared.  The  noble  dream  of  Calvin 
was  not  to  be  realized,  even  in  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is 
probable  that  the  long  debates  respecting  church  government, 
the  delay  in  the  formulation  of  the  doctrinal  standards,  the 
prolonged  struggle  with  Parliament,  and  the  political  agitations 
and  civil  wars  of  the  period — not  to  speak  of  other  causes — ren- 
dered difficult  if  not  impracticable  any  and  every  scheme  for 
Protestant  unification.  And  when  Presbyterianism  itself  went 
down  in  the  intestine  conflict  in  Britain,  and  its  representatives 
were  deposed  from  authority  and  driven  into  obscurity  or  into 
exile,  the  possibility  of  such  confederation  disappeared  altogether. 
Nor  has  there  ever  been  an  hour  in  the  succeeding  centuries, 
when  the  hope  of  Henderson  respecting  a  Protestant  Union 
throughout  Europe,  mighty  in  its  resistance  to  Romanism  and 


826  THE  WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

unbelief,  and  mightier  still  in  its  missionary  efficiency  as  an  agent 
in  bringing  the  world  to  Christ,  could  even  approach  realization. 

Passing  out  beyond  the  century  in  which  the  Symbols  were 
written,  and  beyond  the  question  of  their  authority  and  influence 

in   Britain   and   on   the   continent  of 
7.    Permanence  and  prop-     Europe  during  that  eventful  century, 
agation:  ecumenical  quality  .M1 ,        ,  , 

and  adaptation.  we  come  uP°n  a  stlU  broader  and  more 

intensely  practical  inquiry, — the  in- 
quiry whether  these  Symbols  contain  in  themselves  the  elements 
and  potencies  requisite  to  an  enduring  life  and  to  continuous  and 
cosmic  propagation.  The  permanent  vitality  and  ecumenical 
influence  of  the  three  ancient  creeds,  and  especially  of  the  earliest 
among  them,  have  often  been  noted  as  remarkable.  To  this  day 
they  are  not  merely  monumental  records  of  the  Christian  faith 
in  the  early  ages  :  they  are  the  testimony  and  paean  of  the  living 
church,  and  are  likely  to  be  such  through  the  ages  to  come. 
But  all  creeds  do  not  possess  such  vitality  or  wield  similar  influ- 
ence. Some  of  the  Protestant  Confessions  have  largely  ceased 
to  represent  living  churches,  and  are  valuable  chiefly  as  mementos 
of  the  eras  and  the  conflicts  which  produced  them.  Even  the 
Second  Helvetic  Confession,  which  Hagenbach  describes  as  truty 
a  theological  masterpiece,  can  hardly  be  regarded  now  as  a 
living  or  potential  formulary.  Some  of  these  creeds,  though  still 
living,  have  remained  within  their  own  provincial  domain,  and 
have  had  little  appreciable  effect  on  the  developing  thought  of 
other  lands  or  times.  The  Lutheran  creeds,  as  incorporated  in 
the  Book  of  Concord,  still  retain  a  measure  of  authoritative 
influence,  notwithstanding  widely  variant  interpretations  and 
much  indifferentism,  but  are  in  a  degree  anachronistic  in  con- 
tents, and  make  comparatively  slight  impression  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  single  nationality  that  produced  them.  Gieseler  is 
indeed  quoted  by  Krauth  (Conservative  Reformation)  as  claiming 
that  among  all  the  Protestant  formularies  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion is  the  one  best  fitted  to  become  the  theological  foundation 
for  union  or  confederation  among  the  Protestant  churches.  That 
claim  might  have  significance  if  Protestantism  were  always  to 
remain  a  mere  Protest  against  the  errors  of  Rome  ;  but  the 
Protestantism  of  this  age,  especially  as  represented  in  the  Re- 
formed communions,  with  its  marked  enlargement  in  experience 
and  activity,  and  its  newer  and  fresher  conceptions  of  the  Gospel, 
could  no  more  readily  accept  the  Augsburg  basis  than  it  could 
stand  on  the  narrow  foundation  supplied  by  the  earliest  Christian 


PERMANENCE   OF   THE   SYMBOLS.  827 

creed,  with  its  simple  recitation  of  a  few  essential  facts  only. 
Practically  useful  as  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  still  is,  and  win- 
ning in  its  presentations  of  dogmatic  truth,  it  was  framed  for  a 
comparatively  small  sphere,  has  never  traveled  except  in  America 
far  beyond  its  primitive  boundaries,  and  in  its  present  form  could 
hardly  gain  more  than  a  limited  acceptance  anywhere.  Surveying 
the  whole  field,  we  are  almost  led  to  conclude  that — the  Symbols 
of  Westminster  excepted — the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  in  their 
Episcopal  and  eminently  in  their  Wesley  an  form,  are  the  only 
creed  which  has  stood  exceptionally  the  tests  of  time,  which  is 
yet  a  living  and  influential  exponent  of  Christian  belief,  or  which 
seems  likely  to  retain  in  the  future  the  position  it  now  holds  in 
the  land  of  its  origin  and  in  other  lands  whither  it  has  been 
transplanted. 

These  references  emphasize  the  strong  statement  of  Dean  Stanley 
(Memorials  of  Westminster)  that,  in  spite  of  what  he  describes 
as  its  sternness  and  narrowness,  the  Confession  of  Westminster 
alone  of  all  Protestant  formularies  still  retains  a  firm  hold  on  the 
minds  of  its  adherents, — a  hold  to  which,  he  adds,  its  fervor  and 
its  logical  coherence  in  some  measure  entitle  it.  It  is  surprising 
that  so  catholic  a  scholar  should  not  have  noted  those  other 
qualities  which  have  combined  with  logical  coherence  and  relig- 
ious fervor  to  give  the  Confession,  even  above  his  own  ecclesias- 
tical symbol,  the  peculiar  eminence  which  he  assigns  to  it, — 
especially  that  depth  of  theological  insight  in  which,  as  he  says  in 
another  connection,  the  Confession  is  far  in  advance  of  every 
other  Protestant  creed.  It  cannot,  however,  be  claimed  that, 
tenacious  as  the  hold  of  the  Confession  has  generally  been  on 
those  who  have  once  cordially  received  it  as  an  adequate  expres- 
sion of  their  personal  faith,  such  eminence  has  been  everywhere 
and  invariably  maintained.  We  are  obliged  to  confess  that  there 
was  a  time  in  the  history  of  British  Presbyterianism  when  that 
hold  was  sadly  relaxed,  and  when  even  the  most  distinctive  and 
essential  articles  in  the  Confession  were  rejected,  or  at  least 
ignored,  by  men  who  still  called  themselves  Presbyterian.  The 
history  of  Christian  doctrine  has  repeatedly  shown  that  funda- 
mental articles  of  faith  which  are  held  at  first  as  glowing  veri- 
ties, warm  and  invigorating,  may  harden  by  degrees  through 
intellectual  familiarity  or  continuous  use  until  they  change  at 
length  into  merely  scholastic  dogmas,  dry  and  impotent — dogmas 
which  may  still  elicit  a  certain  formal,  perhaps  litigious,  species 
of  loyalty  though  they  are  no  longer  the  living,  glorious,  poten- 
tial realities  they  were  when  originally  discerned  and  embraced. 


828  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

Even  the  central  article  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  only, 
which  all  Protestants  agreed  at  first  in  accepting  as  Luther  and 
as  Calvin  stated  it,  afterwards  became  in  some  minds  a  technical 
dogma  merely,  to  others  a  flaunting  banner  around  which  zealots 
shouted — in  some  cases  a  matter  of  disputation  rather  than  faith, 
and  in  others  an  empty  sound,  of  scarcely  more  significance 
spiritually  than  the  papal  error  which  that  grand  truth  had  sup- 
planted. 

The  rise  of  Moderatism  in  Scotland,  originating  largely  in  the 
Marrow  Controversy  respecting  the  place  and  function  of  law  in 
Christianity,  is  a  painful  illustration  of  such  retrogressive  ten- 
dencies. The  very  ardor  and  positiveness  of  some  in  the  advo- 
cacy of  the  strong  Westminster  doctrine  especially  at  this  point, 
by  degrees  led  others  to  hesitate  and  question  :  enthusiastic 
repetition  in  some  quarters  induced  satiety  and  dislike  in  others  ; 
spiritual  indifference  degenerated  into  opposition,  and  loyalty  to 
the  truth  gradually  declined  and  died  away,  until  within  less  than 
a  hundred  years  from  the  time  when  the  Symbols  were  unani- 
mously adopted  in  Scotland  as  representing  the  national  faith,  a 
considerable  body  of  men  had  appeared  who  have  been  justly 
described  as  latitudinarian  in  doctrine,  Erastian  in  policy,  and 
worldly  in  life — preachers  not  of  saving  truth  but  of  the  very 
morality  against  which  the  divines  of  Westminster  had  spoken 
so  strenuously.  A  similar  phenomenon  appeared  in  England, 
but  in  a  form  still  more  painful.  Some  important  doctrines  of 
the  Symbols  came  by  degrees  to  be  widely  ignored,  and  others 
were  openly  rejected  :  questioning  and  speculation  led  on  gradu- 
ally to  positive  heresy  in  matters  of  most  vital  moment,  until  at 
length — as  was  said  by  an  ancient  historian  concerning  the  early 
church  just  prior  to  the  Council  of  Nicaea — English  Presbyter- 
ianism  woke  up  during  the  eighteenth  century  to  find  itself  in 
substance  Arian,  though  still  retaining  its  ancestral  name.  It  is 
difficult  to  account  for  such  lapses  from  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  vigor  which  characterized  alike  the  framers  of  the 
Symbols  and  their  times.  Yet  certainly  the  development  of 
Scotch  Moderatism  in  the  presence  of  a  theological  system  so 
strong  and  so  animating,  was  no  accident.  Nor  can  such  a  phe- 
nomenon as  the  cold  and  dry  Arianism  that  came  like  a  blight 
upon  so  many  of  the  churches  of  England — churches  which  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  and  their  associates  had  planted  and 
nourished  into  fruitfulness — be  regarded  as  accidental.  These 
results  have  been  explained  by  some  by  reference  to  the  very 
strength,  firmness,  cogency  of  the  Symbols,  or  perhaps  the  rigid 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   MODER ATISM .  829 

rule  of  adherence  required,  as  inducing  strong  aversion  to  sub- 
scription and  leading  on  to  positive  neglect  of  it.  They  have 
been  interpreted  by  others  as  simply  a  revolt  of  sinful  human 
nature,  under  cover  of  a  Christian  profession,  against  a  type  of 
doctrine  which  exalted  God  and  made  him  awful  in  his  decretive 
sovereignity,  while  it  humbled  man,  the  sinner,  in  the  very  dust. 
Possibly  we  discern  here  only  a  vivid  illustration  of  that  general 
declension  in  religion,  of  that  worldliness  and  formalism  and  low 
indifference  to  God  and  duty  and  the  interests  of  the  soul,  which 
made  their  appearance  in  the  British  Isles  during  the  first  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  against  which  the  uprising  of 
Methodism  was  such  a  magnificent  spiritual  protest.  However 
explained,  the  pitiable  fact  must  be  confessed  that  British  Pres- 
byterianism  did  suffer  such  a  lapse  within  a  single  century  after 
its  grand  formulation,  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical,  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  no  more  signal  evidence  of  the  in- 
herent vitality  and  recuperative  energy  of  the  doctrinal  system 
there  enunciated,  can  be  named  than  appears  in  the  fact  that  it 
not  only  survived  through  all  the  trials  that  came  upon  its 
representatives  during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
but  lived  and  lived  on  through  the  retrogressive  tendencies  and 
developments  just  described.  It  was  a  grave  disaster  to  be  hurled 
so  suddenly  from  the  throne  on  which  Presbyterianism  had  hoped 
to  sit  as  the  lawful  church  of  the  three  realms,  and  to  be  cast 
down  and  trodden  under  foot,  first  by  Cromwell  and  his  followers, 
then  by  the  restored  Episcopacy  in  England.  But  it  was  a  far 
graver  disaster  to  find  its  own  adherents  becoming  indifferent  to 
its  name  and  claims,  in  some  instances  lukewarm  in  its  defense, 
in  others  abandoning  its  essential  principles, — to  see  some  among 
them  even  forsaking  the  Lord  that  bought  them,  and  becoming 
recreant  to  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  sin  and  depravity  by  nature, 
and  of  redemption  through  the  grace  and  mediation  of  a  Divine 
Christ.  Yet  in  Scotland  at  least  the  lapse  was  not  to  be  contin- 
uous or  total :  the  heart  of  the  Scotch  people  still  rested  on  the 
old  Symbols,  as  it  had  once  rested  on  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant.  Moderatism  could  not  flourish  long  or  extensively  in 
an  atmosphere  which  still  was  redolent  with  the  fragrance  of  the 
names  of  Knox  and  Melville,  Henderson  and  Rutherford.  Cal- 
vinistic  Presbyterianism,  though  suffering  from  such  deteriorating 
influences,  has  never  been  cast  down  from  its  high  seats  of  power 
in  Scotland,  and  now  seems  likely  never  to  be  thus  deposed. 
The  firm  hold  of  which  Stanley  spoke,  is  a  firm  hold  still ;   and 


830  THE   WESTMINSTER    ASSEMBLY. 

notwithstanding  the  enormous  losses  which  have  followed  from 
division  after  division  around  issues  subordinate  if  not  unimport- 
ant, there  is  small  reason  to  fear  that  the  doctrine  and  polity 
which  have  been  supreme  so  long,  will  ever  be  supplanted  by 
Moderatism  or  by  any  kindred  defection  from  the  ancestral  faith. 
Nor  is  it  an  unwarrantable  expectation  that  in  England  also  the 
Presbyterianism  of  Westminster,  now  substantially  restored  to 
its  original  quality,  and  already  strong  through  the  adhesion  of 
a  multitude  of  intelligent  and  conscientious  supporters,  may  yet 
become  in  fact,  though  never  through  ecclesiastical  supremacy, 
as  great  a  spiritual  and  uplifting  force  as  it  was  at  the  hour  when 
a  blinded  Parliament  proclaimed  it  the  lawful  religion  of  the 
British  Isles. 

The  historic  transplantation  of  Presbyterian  Calvinism  to 
America,  and  its  development  here  in  various  types,  was  briefly 
sketched  in  the  introduction  to  these  studies.  No  more  marked 
illustration  of  the  propagative  potency  of  that  system  can  be 
imagined  than  is  contained  in  the  wonderful  story  of  that  trans- 
plantation. The  fact  of  present  interest  is  that  Presbyterianism 
has  never  lost  the  hold  thus  secured.  It  rather  has  increased 
steadily  with  the  national  growth,  has  proved  itself  capable  of 
continuous  and  continental  diffusion,  has  become  in  form  and 
temper  native  to  the  soil,  has  multiplied  rapidly  in  spite  of  suc- 
cessive schisms  and  of  debilitating  separations,  has  been  capable 
of  adjusting  its  belief  and  teachings  to  the  demands  of  its 
environment,  has  outrun  in  its  vigorous  movement  the  progress 
of  the  country  and  the  age,  until  it  has  become,  if  not  in  numbers 
still  in  standing  and  influence,  one  of  the  most  important  elements 
in  the  religious  life  of  this  young  continent.  The  explanation 
of  such  a  development  would  require  the  enumeration  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  causes,  personal,  social,  political  as  well  as 
religious,  which  have  been  combined  providentially  in  producing 
the  result.  It  is  enough  in  this  connection  to  advert,  in  a  word, 
to  the  power  inherent  in  the  adopted  Symbols,  as  one  of  these 
efficient  causes, — to  the  system  of  doctrine  as  held  substantially 
from  the  beginning  onward,  though  with  degrees  of  variation 
and  with  some  measure  of  conflict.  American  Presbyterianism 
has  always  been  essentially  Calvinistic  rather  than  Lutheran  or 
Armiuian :  its  prevalent  type  of  Calvinism  has  always  been 
British  more  than  Continental.  Yet  while  receiving  the  original 
Symbols  as  containing  the  essential  substance  of  its  belief,  it  has 
from  the  first  assumed  the  right  to  adjust  or  modify  their  state- 
ments according  to  its  own  convictions,   and  to  express  these 


THE  SYMBOLS   IN  AMERICA.  831 

convictions  in  its  own  tongue.  It  has  cherished  and  emphasized 
whatever  in  the  ancestral  system  could  be  made  available  in  its 
practical  mission,  and  has  freely  set  aside  whatever  was  not 
found  experimentally  to  be  of  value.  Its  relations  to  other 
branches  of  evangelical  Christendom,  and  also  to  that  great  work 
of  continental  evangelization  in  which  with  other  denominations 
it  has  been  engaged,  have  compelled  it  to  hold  none  but  a  preached 
and  a  preachable  Calvinism — a  Calvinism  always  supremely  con- 
cerned with  spiritual  rather  than  ecclesiastical  interests,  ever 
addressing  itself  directly  to  the  intellect  and  heart  and  conscience 
of  men,  and  applying  the  truths  embodied  in  it  to  the  one  grand 
end  of  human  salvation.  But  its  ancestral  Symbols  have  always 
been  its  glory,  and  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  its  remarkable 
influence.  Without  such  a  scheme  of  doctrine,  intelligently  set 
forth  and  earnestly  commended,  it  could  never  have  gained  that 
influence,  or  won  to  its  banner  such  a  concourse  of  thoughtful 
and  earnest  minds.  And  certainly  it  is  to  its  credit  that,  what- 
ever else  may  have  befallen  it,  it  has  never  thus  far  suffered 
appreciably  from  the  dry  rot  of  Moderatism,  or  been  poisoned  by 
the  influx  of  Arian  or  humanitarian  corruptions.  It  has  been 
true  always  and  still  is  true  to  the  substance  of  its  Confession, 
and  herein  in  a  word  has  lain  the  central  secret  of  its  growth  and 
power. 

But  Presby  terianism  has  not  been  British  and  American  merely  : 
it  is  in  a  .special  degree  catholic  and  ecumenical.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  frequent  asseverations  and  prophecies  as  to  its  decadence, 
and  notwithstanding  the  historic  fact  that  it  has  not  retained  the 
position  it  once  held  in  certain  sections  of  central  Europe,  it  still 
is  true  that  no  other  type  of  Protestantism  has  been  more  widely 
diffused,  has  become  rooted  and  prevalent  in  more  countries,  or 
is  more  nearly  cosmopolitan  in  its  movements  and  conquests.  It 
has  been  the  boast  of  Rome,  that,  as  the  last  Vatican  Council 
declared,  it  is  the  only  type  of  Christianity  which  has  circum- 
navigated the  globe,  and  established  itself  in  all  the  lands  and 
continents  of  earth — the  universal  Mother  and  Teacher  of  the 
nations.  It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  Presbyterian 
Calvinism  is  but  little  less  ecumenical  than  Romanism  in  the 
range  of  its  activities.  This  is  not  due  simply  to  the  fact  that, 
in  the  order  of  time,  it  was  the  first  in  the  triad  of  polities,  and 
first  in  the  three  types  of  doctrine,  which  emerged  during  the 
Reformation.  It  is  due  rather  to  the  intellectual  and  moral 
vitality  inherent  in  the  system,  and  to  its  quickening  effect  upon 
the  beliefs  and  lives  of  men  in  many  lands.     Unquestionably 


832  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

there  are  propagative  forces  in  it,  not  only  doctrinal  and  ecclesi- 
astical but  spiritual,  which  specially  empower  and  qualify  it  for 
wide  transplantation  and  for  cosmic  effectiveness.  There  is  both 
truth  and  force  in  the  admission  of  Dorner,  (in  his  Letter  to  the 
Presbyterian  Council  of  1875)  that  the  Presbyterian  churches 
represent  the  muscular  system  in  the  great  body  of  evangelical 
Christendom — the  principle  of  powerful  movement  and  initiative. 
Surely,  prophecies  that  such  a  type  of  doctrine  and  order,  ani- 
mated by  such  a  spirit  and  purpose,  will  decline  and  die  out  as  the 
Church  of  Christ  moves  on  toward  its  millennial  maturity,  cannot 
be  entertained  by  intelligent  and  candid  minds. 

As  we  approach  the  close  of  these  studies  in  the  Symbols  of 

Westminster,  and  take   this   final   survey   of  their  remarkable 

career  and  capabilities,   we  may  well 

,*  *  «.U,SCr*   °n  ~a„,„>L      pause  for  a  moment  to  consider  two 
alty:  their  nature  and  claim.    *  . 

practical    questions — the    question  of 

subscription  and  loyalty  to  these  historic  Symbols,  and  the  ques- 
tion of  revision  and  emendation.  In  the  introduction  to  these 
Lectures  these  two  questions  were  briefly  discussed  with  reference 
to  the  claims  of  creeds  in  general :  at  this  point  they  justly 
demand  closer  consideration  in  their  special  relation  to  these 
venerable  formularies,  as  constituting  the  broad  and  firm  basis 
of  doctrine  on  which  Presbyterianism  in  all  its  varieties  is  con- 
sciously founded. 

The  general  nature  of  confessional  subscription,  as  required 
not  from  the  private  membership,  but  from  those  who  hold 
official  position  within  the  church  and  are  its  recognized  repre- 
sentatives, is  easily  seen  to  be  a  significant  and  serious  matter. 
There  is  implied  in  it  a  personal  acceptation  of  the  essential  truth 
expressed  in  the  Symbols,  and  also  a  voluntary  pledge  to  teach 
and  inculcate  that  form  of  truth,  so  far  as  the  official  position  of 
the  person  subscribing  may  afford  opportunity.  It  also  involves 
an  obligation  to  stand  by  the  doctrine  thus  avowed,  in  positive 
loyalty,  as  against  both  assault  from  without  and  heresy  and 
treachery  within  the  church.  The  covenant  is  in  the  nature  of 
an  oath  or  vow,  and  like  other  oaths  or  vows  is  to  be  taken — to 
quote  the  language  of  the  Confession — in  the  plain  and  common 
sense  of  the  words,  without  equivocation  or  mental  reservation;  and 
being  thus  taken,  it  binds  to  performance ,  and  is  to  be  observed 
with  like  religious  care  and  faithfulness.  Such  is  the  general 
nature  of  the  subscription  required  from  those  who  accept  office 
in  any  Presbyterian  communion.     It  is  of  course  to  be  granted 


RULE    OF   SUBSCRIPTION.  833 

that  such  covenant,  though  formal  in  character  and  binding  in 
force,  does  not  require  that  the  allegiance  pledged  shall  manifest 
itself  in  partizanship  or  sectarian  zeal,  or  in  any  other  way  that 
is  inconsistent  with  that  spiritual  comit)^  which  binds  all  Christian 
churches  in  loving  union,  however  widely  they  may  vary  in  their 
expositions  of  the  essential  doctrines  embodied  in  the  Gospel. 
It  is  also  obvious  that  this  covenant  cannot  invade  the  proper 
domain  of  conscience,  or  involve  control  over  personal  liberty  or 
conviction  in  matters  of  faith.  Confessional  subscription  is  never 
compulsory,  but  is  always  the  free  act  of  a  willing  mind — a  mind 
which  has  first  of  all  cordially  believed  what  it  professes,  and 
then  truly  pledges  itself  to  uphold  and  promulgate  what  it  has 
professed  :  Innes,  Law  of  Creeds. 

The  right  of  the  Presbyterian  church  to  require  such  subscrip- 
tion to  its  avowed  creed  from  those  who  seek  to  become  teachers 
or  governors  within  its  domain,  is  a  just  corollary  from  its  right 
and  its  obligation  to  formulate  openly  and  before  all  men  its 
cherished  beliefs.  An  an  organized  witness  for  God  and  his 
saving  Truth — appointed  under  the  commission  of  Christ  to  teach 
all  nations  in  his  name,  it  is  not  only  justified  in  bearing  but  is 
sacredly  bound  to  bear  its  testimony  to  the  truth  in  all  available 
forms.  What  was  said  in  the  outset  of  these  studies  respecting 
the  nature,  functions  and  values  of  church  creeds  has  especial 
significance  here.  Nor  is  it  to  be  claimed  that  this  function  and 
duty  should  be  limited  to  the  expression  of  only  such  biblical 
doctrines  as  are  held  substantially  by  all  evangelical  communions 
alike.  Presbyterianism  owes  it  not  only  to  itself  as  a  matter  of 
interior  conviction,  but  also  and  eminently  to  the  common  Chris- 
tianity, to  hold  forth  openly,  without  fear  or  question,  that 
special  system  of  Calviuistic  or  Augustinian  doctrine  to  which  it 
adheres  as  being  in  its  judgment  the  best  human  expression  yet 
discovered  of  the  essential  teachings  of  Holy  Writ.  It  cannot 
pursue  any  other  policy  without  proving  both  false  to  its  cherished 
belief,  and  unfaithful  to  the  best  development,  the  broadest  cul- 
ture, of  the  whole  Church  of  Christ.  And  it  may  therefore  justly 
demand  that  those  who  minister  at  its  altars  or  bear  rule  within 
its  fold,  shall  be  true  and  loyal  in  their  acceptance  of  that  system, 
and  shall  so  far  as  they  are  able  become  its  messengers  in  both 
proclamation  and  defence.  This  right  is  in  fact  very  rarely 
challenged  except  by  persons  who,  while  desirous  of  enjoying 
the  position  or  advantages  which  official  station  within  the  church 
may  bestow,  are  more  or  less  conscious  of  lack  of  adequate,  loving 
faith  in  the  doctrines  which  they  have  formally  covenanted  to 


834  the;  Westminster  assembly. 

uphold.  The  church  assuredly  has  the  right  not  only  to  inscribe 
its  cherished  belief  over  the  door  of  admission  to  its  administra- 
tive fellowship,  but  also  by  that  sign  to  test  the  loyalty  of  all  who 
wish  to  become  its  teachers  or  its  representatives  in  government. 
It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  there  are  no  limits  to  the  exercise  of 
such  a  prerogative  ;  due  regard  to  circumstance,  occasion,  indi- 
vidual claims  and  convictions,  is  of  course  requisite.  But  the 
general  right  and  duty  are  beyond  question.  And  in  their 
enforcement  the  church  puts  no  constraint  upon  the  individual — 
compels  no  one  to  serve  it  officially  ;  the  entire  transaction  on 
both  sides  is  a  transaction  in  liberty.  And  he  who  is  unwilling 
to  submit  to  the  just  condition  imposed,  is  free  to  go  forth  in 
peace,  and  find  elsewhere  some  other  formulary  of  faith  to  which 
he  can  in  good  conscience  subscribe. 

Granted  the  general  right  to  impose  such  subscription,  it  may 
be  further  noted  that  considerable  variety  exists  in  the  various 
Presbyterian  communions,  with  respect  to  the  degree  of  strict- 
ness with  which  this  ecclesiastical  requisition  is  enforced.  The 
Appendix  to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Alliance 
(1880)  contains  an  extensive  and  valuable  account  of  the  form- 
ulas of  subscription  adopted  by  the  various  churches  represented 
in  that  organization.  In  some  of  the  smaller  and  imperfect^ 
constituted  churches,  especially  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
where  Calvinism  itself  is  but  inadequately  received  and  cherished, 
such  subscription  seems  little  more  than  a  ceremonial  act.  In  the 
Reformed  Church  of  Geneva,  for  example,  ministers  sitting  in 
the  very  chair  of  Calvin  are  required  only  to  pledge  themselves 
to  teach  and  preach  conscientiously,  according  to  their  light  and 
faith,  the  Christian  truth  contained  in  the  Scriptures.  Other 
communions  might  be  named  which,  taking  the  opposite  extreme, 
maintain  that  the  Symbols  should  be  received  and  held — as  the 
reactionary  Synod  of  Philadelphia  affirmed  in  1736 — without  the 
least  variation  or  alteration.  But,  to  hold  so  comprehensive  and 
complex  a  Confession  as  that  of  Westminster  in  this  way,  has 
been  found  to  be  wholly  impracticable,  and  the  ipsissima  verba 
rule  has  given  way  therefore,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  require- 
ment that  the  system  of  doctrine  contained  in  the  Confession  — 
its  essential  Calvinism — shall  be  honestly  and  cordially  received 
as  expressing  the  substance  of  sacred  doctrine  derived  from  Holy 
Scripture.  Two  special  facts  should  be  thoughtfully  noted  here  : 
first,  that  the  spirit  of  the  present  age,  in  Presbyterian  circles  as 
elsewhere,  as  contrasted  with  the  temper  of  the  seventeenth  or  even 
the  eighteenth  century,  is  irreconcilably  adverse  to  all  narrow  or 


HONEST   IX>YAI/TY   REQUISITE).  835 

dogmatic  domination  by  the  church,  as  well  in  subscription  as  in 
belief.  And  secondly,  that  some  broadening  of  the  rule  becomes 
more  and  more  needful  as  any  branch  of  the  church  like  our  own 
grows  in  numbers  and  area,  comprises  a  wider  variety  of  material 
and  machinery,  becomes  continental  rather  than  insular  or  provin- 
cial in  its  activities. 

Yet  honest  loyalty  to  the  Symbols  is  no  less  requisite  now  than 
in  the  era  of  the  Assembly,  and  in  the  larger  as  well  as  the  smaller 
Presbyterian  communions.  Such  loyalty  while  it  does  not  call 
for  blind  devotion  or  morbid  reverence  for  the  Symbols,  or  justify 
a  disposition  to  enforce  their  claim  to  the  letter,  even  with  the 
power  of  the  keys,  obviously  excludes  on  the  other  hand  all  incli- 
nation to  regard  subscription  with  indifference  as  a  mere  form,  all 
disposition  to  treat  the  covenant  of  allegiance  with  levity,  all 
readiness  to  criticize  or  oppose,  and  all  exaltation  of  personal 
opinion  or  personal  prerogatives  in  any  temper  of  egotism.  True 
loyalty  not  only  embraces  and  appropriates  the  doctrine  accepted, 
but  commends  it  by  argument  and  influence,  defends  it  against 
both  heresy  and  outward  assault,  and  upholds  it,  as  the  soldier 
carries  high  his  banner,  without  fear  and  without  shame.  And 
surely  it  is  no  discredit  to  the  Presbyterianism  of  this  age  that, 
following  the  example  of  the  faithful  divines  of  Westminster,  it 
is  animated,  perhaps  appreciably  more  than  any  other  section  of 
Protestantism,  by  this  believing,  loving,  loyal  temper  toward  its 
revered  Symbols, — even  though  that  temper  should  sometimes 
show  itself  in  excessive  or  even  offensive  form.  There  is  force 
at  this  point  as  at  many  others  in  the  counsel  of  the  Apostle  to 
the  Galatian  church  :  It  is  good  to  be  zealously  affected  always 
in  a  good  thing — zealously  sought  in  a  good  matter. 

The  second  practical  question  waiting  for  consideration  relates 

to  the  revision  or  emendation  of  these  cherished  Symbols,  together 

with  the  justifying  grounds  for  such 

,  .i  ,  .•  •     -         9.    Revision  of  the  Symbols : 

revision,  and  the  regulative  prmci-     grQUnds  and  Umltatlons> 

pies  involved  in   it.     Amendments 

to  the  three  ancient  creeds  of  Christendom,  notwithstanding  their 
intrinsic  incompleteness  and  their  obvious  inadequacy  as  expres- 
sions of  the  belief  of  living  churches  in  this  age,  is  manifestly 
impossible  for  the  reason  that  no  authority  competent  to  enact 
amendments  now  exists.  Explanations,  such  as  those  appended 
to  the  clause,  He  descended  into  hell,  may  be  supplied  by  any 
ecclesiastical  body  that  feels  the  need  of  such  comment ;  but  the 
nature  of  these  primitive  creeds  and  their  ecumenical  relations 
forbid  all  attempts  at  structural  change,   whether  by  omission  or 


836  THE   WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

addition.  The  symbols  of  Rome  are  also  irreformable,  excepting 
through  the  superaddition  of  such  affirmations  as,  for  example, 
the  immaculacy  of  Mary,  for  the  reason  that  the  papal  church  is 
by  its  own  traditions  forever  disqualified  to  change  any  dogma 
once  enunciated  by  its  supreme  authorities,  acting,  as  is  claimed, 
under  the  direct  guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Protestantism  has 
in  some  instances,  as  in  early  L,utheranism,  explained  one  creed 
by  the  formulation  of  another,  designed  for  the  definition  or  the 
expansion  of  the  doctrines  contained  in  the  first  symbol.  In 
other  instances,  as  in  the  United  and  the  Free  churches  of  Scot- 
land, the  desired  end  has  been  secured  through  the  introduction 
of  interpretative  declarations,  modifying  or  expanding  the  original 
formulary.  For  the  most  part,  the  Protestant  churches,  while 
recognizing  somewhat  the  need  of  emendation  in  some  form,  have 
preferred  to  let  their  creeds,  lustrous  still  with  the  glories  of  the 
Reformation,  stand  as  originally  framed, — tacitly  allowing  modi- 
fications or  divergences  to  exist  without  challenge  so  long  as 
these  were  not  subversive  of  their  cherished  formularies  as  at 
first  received. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Westminster  Assembly  itself 
began  its  doctrinal  procedure  by  an  attempt  to  reconstruct  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles,  and  gave  up  the  task  only  when  it  became 
apparent  that  the  formulating  of  a  new  creed  was  preferable. 
American  Presbyterianism  assumed  from  the  first  the  right  to 
revise  the  original  Symbols,  and  in  the  Adopting  Act  of  1729 
did  change  materially  so  much  of  the  Confession  as  affirmed  the 
right  or  duty  of  civil  magistrates  to  exercise  control  in  ecclesias- 
tical affairs,  and  also  so  much  of  the  Larger  Catechism  as  related 
to  the  toleration  of  false  religions.  The  Synod  of  1758  endorsed 
this  action,  and  the  first  General  Assembly  formally  incorporated 
these  amendments  in  the  revised  Symbols.  Extensive  alterations 
were  also  made  in  the  Form  of  Government  and  the  Directory 
for  Worship,  in  the  interest  of  greater  equity  in  ecclesiastical 
administration,  and  of  liberty  in  public  devotions.  It  was  also 
made  a  constitutional  rule  that  further  revision  might  be  made 
at  any  time  thereafter  under  certain  prescribed  conditions  ;  and 
various  instances  of  emendation,  in  pursuance  of  this  prerogative, 
appear  in  the  subsequent  records  of  the  church. 

The  right  of  the  Presbyterian  communions  to  modify  or  alter, 
or  even  to  expunge,  their  doctrinal  formularies  is,  like  the  right 
to  interpret  the  Scriptures,  a  cardinal  prerogative — a  right  inher- 
ent and  unchallengeable.  It  is  like  the  right  to  form  an  entirely 
new  creed,  whenever  in  the  judgment  of  the  church  such  a  creed 


REVISION   OF    THE   SYMBOLS.  837 

should  become  necessary  as  a  formal  declaration  of  existing 
belief.  Rainy  (Development  of  Christ.  Doctrine)  justly  maintains 
that  revision  ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  singular  and  revolu- 
tionary step,  but  rather  as  something  belonging  to  the  ordinary  and 
recognized  responsibilities  of  the  church.  But  on  the  other 
hand  he  emphasizes  the  obvious  truth,  that  tenderness  and  rever- 
ence are  justly  due  to  the  Symbols  in  themselves, — due  also  to  the 
feelings  with  which  they  are  regarded  on  account  of  the  interests 
connected  with  them,  and  due  to  the  sacred  verities  which  the}7 
have  been  the  mouthpiece  to  express.  He  further  admits  that  the 
proposal  to  revise  the  Symbols  would  be  regarded  by  most  of  the 
Presbyterian  bodies  in  Britain  as  a  revolutionary  measure,  opening 
the  way — as  he  says — to  unimaginable  possibilities.  It  will 
readily  be  granted  that  the  right  of  revision  is  one  which  from 
the  nature  of  the  case  cannot  be  exercised  frequently,  or  for 
slight  reasons.  Casual  or  miscellaneous  changes  could  not  fail 
to  weaken  the  hold  of  the  Symbols,  both  on  those  who  publicly 
adhere  to  them,  and  on  those  who  from  the  outside  are  disposed 
to  regard  them  with  favor.  Reckless  and  persistent  agitation  in 
the  interest  of  emendation,  even  where  such  improvement  is 
confessed  to  be  desirable,  could  result  only  in  disorder  and  dis- 
loyalty, and  might  end  even  in  denominational  disintegration. 
Yet  the  dangers  of  revision  cannot  annul  the  inherent  right  of 
the  church  to  determine  just  when  and  how,  and  to  what  extent 
it  will  investigate,  supervise,  modify,  reconstruct,  or  even  cast 
aside,  its  creed. 

Respecting  the  extent,  conditions  and  temper  of  such  revision, 
no  universal  rule  or  principle  can  be  prescribed.  Revision  may 
be  limited  simply  to  the  alteration  or  elimination  of  language 
which  in  the  process  of  time  has  assumed  an  equivocal  or  illusory 
meaning,  or  is  suggestive  of  some  speculative  or  practical  error. 
It  may  extend  to  the  striking  out  of  particular  statements  which 
in  their  substance  or  in  their  confessional  form  are  not  in  fact 
held  or  taught  by  the  living  church.  It  may  include  such  new 
combinations  or  adjustments  of  the  received  truth  as  shall  be 
fitted  to  produce  other  and  better  impressions  on  the  popular 
mind.  It  may  involve  additions  less  or  more  extensive,  which 
shall  modify  or  broaden  that  creed,  and  make  it  a  more  influential 
exponent  of  the  doctrines  held  by  the  church.  And  further, 
whatever  ■  the  form  or  reach  of  such  revision,  success  in  it 
must  in  any  given  instance  depend  largely  on  a  variety  of  special 
conditions.  The  church  may,  for  example,  be  so  circumstanced 
that  discussion  in  the  interest  of  change  might  precipitate  mis- 


838  THP.    WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY. 

chiefs  more  serious  than  any  which  the  recognized  confessional 
imperfections  may  involve.  Just  as  there  are  many  men  who  see 
and  deplore  evils  personal  or  social  which  they  still  feel  themselves 
incompetent  to  correct,  so  the  church  though  admitting  the 
deficiencies  of  its  creed,  may  yet  be  conscious  of  incompetency  to 
face  the  extraordinary  task  of  emendation.  It  is  not  given  to 
every  age  to  improve  upon  the  ages  that  have  preceded  it,  even 
though  it  be  able  to  discern  their  imperfections  or  to  lament  them. 
There  must  also  be  such  a  measure  of  conscious  agreement 
beforehand  in  respect  to  the  amendments  suggested  as  shall  render 
it  probable,  if  not  certain,  that  unity,  strength,  fresh  inspiration 
rather  than  disagreement,  conflict,  ultimate  rupture,  shall  follow 
upon  the  effort.  And  it  may  well  be  added  that  so  delicate  and 
difficult  a  task  as  the  amending  of  a  venerated  creed  requires  in 
those  who  make  the  attempt,  not  only  large  philosophic  ability, 
adequate  theological  and  historical  knowledge,  and  thoughtful 
appreciation  of  the  nature  of  the  work  imposed,  but  also  such 
depth  of  spiritual  experience,  such  a  degree  of  maturity  in  the 
Christian  life,  such  a  sense  of  special  communion  with  God,  and 
such  intimacy  with  his  Word,  as  shall  qualify  them  personally  to 
perform  that  task  with  success  to  the  edifying  and  enlargement 
of  the  church. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  these  statements  comes  into  view 
in  the  recent  attempt  at  revision  within  our  own  communion. 
This  attempt  is  the  more  notable  as  being,  aside  from  certain 
Declaratory  Acts  previously  adopted  in  Scotland,  the  first  effort 
of  any  section  of  Protestantism  since  the  Reformation  to  scrutinize 
throughout  its  venerable  creed,  with  a  view  to  improvement  at 
all  points  where  improvement  might  seem  to  be  demanded.  The 
motives  and  intentions  of  parties  interested  in  the  effort  were 
somewhat  varied.  It  may  be  that  there  were  some  among  the 
advocates  of  that  revision,  who  were  animated  by  more  or  less 
conscious  hostility  in  general  to  the  Calvinism  so  strongly  im- 
bedded in  the  Symbols.  There  were  some  who  regarded  the 
Confession  in  its  present  elaborate  and  dogmatic  form  as  repressive 
of  free  thought,  and  as  a  ready  instrument  of  ecclesiastical 
tyranny,  and  on  such  grounds  sought  its  emendation.  Others 
preferred  a  less  extensive  and  complex  creed,  and  desired  simply 
such  omissions  and  abbreviations  as  would  both  reduce  the  Con- 
fession in  bulk  and  increase  its  practical  usefulness  as  represen- 
tative of  the  present  belief.  Many  sought  emendation  in  order 
to  secure  thereby  the  correction  of  objectionable  language  or 
expression,  or  the  elimination  of  certain  parts  or  aspects  of  the 


FUTURE   EMENDATION.  839 

system  of  doctrine  to  which  they  were  in  conscience  opposed. 
Many  more  desired  the  revision  for  the  purpose  of  adding  to  the 
Confession  important  truths  not  sufficiently  recognized  in  it,  and 
of  such  improvement  at  all  needful  points  as  would  bring  it  into 
more  manifest  harmony  with  the  actual  faith  and  teaching  of  the 
church. 

The  story  of  the  process,  profoundly  interesting  as  it  is,  cannot 
be  recited  here.  Under  the  rigid  constitutional  rule  imposed,  by 
which  even  a  distinct  majority  of  the  judicatories  of  the  church 
are  unable  to  secure  confessional  change,  the  effort  was  unsuc- 
cessful, and  the  Symbols  therefore  remain  as  aforetime.  Yet  it  is 
clear  that  the  interpretations  given  to  them  in  that  revision,  and 
the  additions  suggested,  and  the  fresh  and  generous  temper 
which  diffused  itself  throughout  the  revised  statement,  have 
much  more  than  compensated  the  denomination  for  the  agitation 
and  the  labor  which  the  movement  involved.  Our  beloved  church 
will  always  be  broader  and  freer,  more  practical  and  earnest  and 
spiritual,  more  irenic  in  its  teaching  and  more  friendly  in  its 
relations  to  all  other  evangelical  sections  of  Protestantism,  for 
the  experience  and  the  lessons  which  that  noteworthy  effort  taught 
it.  Other  divisions  of  the  Presbyterian  family  in  America  and 
on  other  continents  cannot  fail  to  be  aided  and  stimulated  by  the 
new  conceptions  of  the  essential  Calvinism,  embodied  in  the  revision 
proposed.  And  it  may  even  be  anticipated  that  this  introductory 
effort,  though  for  the  time  a  formal  failure,  may  become  the 
precursor  of  an  ecumenical  emendation  on  the  part  of  universal 
Presby  terianism,  which  shall  remove  existing  defects  in  the  Sym- 
bols, and  shall  present  them  to  coming  ages  as  a  Holy  Confession 
in  which  evangelical  Christendom  of  whatever  name  shall  in  spirit 
if  not  in  exact  form  be  heartily  conjoined. 

A  final  word  :  For  those  who  bear  office  in  any  Presbyterian 
communion,  and  especially  for  the  ministry,  the  only  wise  and 
just  attitude  toward  the  Symbols  and  the  system  of  doctrine  con- 
tained in  them,  is  one  of  considerate,  mediated,  comprehend- 
ing loyalty  and  service.  Their  course  must  be  marked  by 
thoughtful,  scholarly,  just  conservatism  on  one  hand,  and  by 
cordial  and  free,  though  careful  movement  along  the  true  historic 
line  of  progress  on  the  other.  On  one  side  they  are  bound  to  be 
in  loving  sympathy  with  the  noble  heritage  they  have  received, — 
firmly  to  hold  the  truths  established,  diligently  to  study  and  pro- 
claim them, — free  alike  from  blind  devotion  and  from  presumptu- 
ous conceit  and  an  ambitious  desire  for  innovation, — veering  and 
swerving  with  no  transient  gusts  of  popular  opinion,   but  ever 


840  THE    WESTMINSTER    SYMBOLS. 

standing  firm  and  strong  on  the  solid  foundation  of  the  ages. 
On  another  side  they  are  bound  to  be  quick  always  in  discerning 
the  truth  in  fresh  lights  and  in  larger  relations,  to  welcome  new 
truth  in  whatsoever  aspect,  to  be  diligent  in  studying  all  possi- 
ble adjustments  or  improvements  of  sacred  doctrine,  and  in 
giving  to  such  doctrine  nobler  form,  completer  expression, — ever 
remembering  that  the  Truth  of  God  is  too  great  to  be  fully  com- 
prehended in  any  creed  or  by  any  human  mind,  and  that  the 
worthiest  attitude  of  Christian  wisdom  is  the  attitude  of  thought- 
ful reverence,  of  adoring  faith.  The  original  Directory  for  Wor- 
ship, springing  from  the  heart  as  well  as  brain  of  the  Assembly, 
happily  describes  that  attitude  in  language  which  might  well  be 
written  in  letters  of  gold  for  the  guidance  of  the  Presbyterian 
ministry  in  all  lands  and  times  : 

It  is  presupposed  that  the  minister  of  Christ  is  in  some  good  meas- 
ure gifted  for  so  'weighty  a.  service,  by  his  skill  in  the  original 
languages,  and  in  such  arts  and  sciences  as  are  handmaids  unto  divin- 
ity ;  by  his  knowledge  in  the  whole  body  of  theology,  but  most  of 
all  in  the  holy  Scriptures  ;  having  his  senses  and  heart  exercised  in 
them  above  the  common  sort  of  believers  ;  and  by  the  illumination 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  other  gifts  of  edification  vjhich  (together 
ivith  reading  and  studying  of  the  Word)  he  ought  still  to  seek  by 
prayer  and  an  humble  heart, — resolving  to  admit  and  receive  any 
truth  not  yet  attained,  whenever  God  shall  make  it  known  unto 
him. 


INDEX. 


Ability  of  will,  natural,  243,  290 ;  moral, 
292  ;  mutable  254  ;  gracious,  379  ;  gift  of  the 
Spirit,  423,  472. 

Absolution,  priestly,  forbidden,  487  ;  Zwin- 
gli,  Calvin,  L,uther  on,  487 ;  not  a  sacra- 
ment, 670. 

Acceptance,  how  distinct  from  pardon,  442  ; 
person  as  well  as  acts  involved,  442;  medi- 
ation of  Christ  imputed,  443;  evangelical 
obedience  not  the  ground,  443  ;  creed  state- 
ments respecting,  443 ;  Sum  of  Saving 
Knowledge  on,  443. 

Adam,  public  or  representative  person,  259  ; 
the  Adamic  headship,  260. 

Adopting  Act,  58 ;  subsequent  division  re- 
specting, 59  ;  final  basis,  60,  836. 

Adoption  defined,  sonship  through  grace, 
449  ;  relations  to  justification,  450  ;  privi- 
leges and  spirit  of,  451 ;  Owen,  Watson  on, 
450. 

Adoptionism,  on  person  of  Christ,  316. 

Adultery,  prime  ground  of  divorce,  594. 

Advent  Second,  see  Christ,  final  Advent. 

Agape,  not  a  biblical  ordinance,  692. 

Agnosticism  defined  ;  varieties  of,  144  ;  an 
unwarrantable  hypothesis,  144. 

Allseosis,  Zwinglian  theory,  316. 

Amending  church  creeds,  when  justified,  14  ; 
amending  the  Symbols,  835. 

American  Presbyterianism,  its  implantation, 
58  ;  doctrinal  basis,  58  ;  conflicts  respecting 
subscription,  59;  alterations  in  the  Sym- 
bols, 59,  572  ;  divisions,  varieties,  60  ;  re- 
markable growth,  830;  present  position 
and  influence,  831. 

Anabaptist  errors,  respecting  kingship  of 
Christ,  310  ;  liberty,  559. 

Angels,  their  creation,  number,  endow- 
ments, 205  ;  fall  of  angels,  205 ;  employ- 
ment of  holy,  206;  reprobate,  777;  arraigned 
at  final  judgment  777  ;  their  condemnation, 
778  ;  see  Satan. 

Annihilationism,  745  ;  error  shown,  746  ;  Ed- 
wards on,  747. 

Anselm,  on  the  origin  of  souls,  250 ;  Cur  Deus 
Homo,  satisfaction  of  Christ,  336. 

Anselm,  Abelard,  Aquinas,  on  justification, 
447  ;  defects  in  their  conception,  448. 

Anthropology,  lecture  Fifth,  237-301. 

Anthropomorphism,  Anthropopathism,  bibli- 
cal, 141. 
Antichrist,  biblical  allusions  to,  .3;  the  papa- 


cy as  antichrist,  656 ;  other  antichrists,  657; 
overthrow  of,  731. 

Antinomian  error,  554. 

Antiquity  of  the  human  race,  2-10 ;  biblical 
chronology,  how  estimated,  240 ;  signs  of 
antiquity  considered,  240  ;  present  state  of 
the  question,  241. 

Apocryphal  books,  their  claim,  95  ;  Roman 
view  of,  96  ;  Protestant  rejection,  reasons, 
97  ;  confessional  teaching,  97 ;  Augustine 
on,  95. 

Apollinarianism,  doctrine  respecting  Christ, 
317. 

Apostles,  their  office;  temporary,  635;  apos- 
tolical succession,  635. 

Apostles'  Creed,  24  ;  Augustine  on,  24  ;  its 
Christology,  311  ;  unchangeable,  835. 

Apostolicity,  a  test  of  Scripture,  103. 

Aquinas,  on  the  origin  of  souls,  250 ;  on  cer- 
tainty of  salvation,  496. 

Archer,  John,  his  book  burned,  536. 

Argyle,  on  primeval  man,  247. 

Arius  and  Arianism,  person  of  Christ,  306; 
English  Presbyterianism  once  Arian,  8l'8. 

Arminiauism,  30 ;  its  developments,  179  ;  on 
moral  state  of  infants,  281  ;  divine  ground 
of  election,  389;  perseverance  unto  life, 
495 ;  assurance  of  salvation,  501  :  see  Re- 
monstrance. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  on  power  working  for 
righteousness,  296. 

Arrowsmith,  on  the  extent  of  grace,  812. 

Ascension  of  Christ,  347 ;  his  entrance  into 
heaven  ;  estate  of  exaltation,  349. 

Assurance  of  final  salvation,  498  ;  false  views 
guarded  against,  500  ;  not  obtained  by  reve- 
lation, 500  ;  true  and  sufficient  grounds,  501. 

Athanasian  Creed,  (Quicunque)  24. 

Atheism,  incredible,  127  ;  condemned  in  first 
commandment,  525. 

Atonement,  not  a  confessional  term;  see  Sat- 
isfaction. 

Attributes  of  God  defined,  constitutional, 
142;  moral,  142 ;  may  be  known,  143. 

Auburn  Declaration,  36 ;  on  original  sin,  275; 
infants  as  sinful,  282 ;  election  tested  by 
fruits,  393. 

Augsburg  Confession,  29  ;  general  character 
and  value,  39,  826 ;  influence  in  England, 
796  ;  Gieseler  on,  826  ;  on  the  Scriptures,  82; 
God  defined  in,  125;  freedom  and  sin,  224; 
origin  of  sin,  264;  the  fall,  267;  civil  right- 
eousness,  279;   infants    dying  in  infancy, 


842 


INDEX. 


280;  freewill,  293;  Christology,  303;  Holy 
Spirit,  411  ;  saving  faith,  474 ;  repentance, 
483  ;  good  works,  489  ;  obedience  to  the  law, 
511  ;  civil  rule  of  popes,  575  ;  celibacy,  593  ; 
marks  of  the  true  church,  603 ;  church 
membership,  626 ;  prayers  to  saints,  704; 
millennarianism  condemned,  726;  final 
consummation,  726;  purgatory,  753. 

Augustine,  on  the  Apostles' Creed,  24  ;  inspir- 
ation, 89  ;  polytheism,  132  ;  our  knowledge 
of  God,  143;  the  trinity  in  man,  162;  the 
six  creative  days,  202 ;  origin  of  souls,  250 ; 
origin  of  sin,  255  ;  original  sin,  274  ;  repro- 
bation, 335 ;  salvability  of  heathen,  425  ; 
justification,  447  ;  the  commandments,  521 ; 
church  invisible,  606  ;  sacraments,  669  ;  pur- 
gatory, 753  ;  spiritual  presence  of  Christ, 
766  ;  self-condemnation  at  the  final  judg- 
ment, 778  ;  the  earth  purified  by  fire  for  the 
holy,  788. 

Authenticity  defined,  102. 

Authoritativeness  of  Scripture,  104  ;  divinely 
ordained  rule  of  life,  106 ;  contrasted  with 
churchly  tradition,  108  ;  Roman  and  Prot- 
estant doctrine  contrasted,  109. 

Baillie,  Betters,  on  the  Jerusalem  Cham- 
ber, 44  ;  on  the  debates,  54  ;  religious  char- 
acter of  the  Assembly,  54  ;  version  of  Rous, 
715 ;  personal  temper  in  discussion,  802. 

Ball,  covenant  of  grace,  259,  361. 

Bannerman,  on  uses  of  creeds,  9  ;  scriptural 
doctrine  of  the  church,  649. 

Baptism,  definition  of  the  sacrament,  674  ;  its 
significance,  inward  and  outward,  675  ;  con- 
fessional statements,  675 ;  its  spiritual 
nature,  676 ;  how  related  to  regeneration, 
677. 

Baptism,  question  of  mode,  677;  what  is 
essential  in  mode,  677  ;  superadded  forms 
forbidden,  677;  baptism  by  heretics  invalid, 
677  ;  Roman  baptism  valid,  677  ;  varieties 
of  mode  legitimate, — position  of  the  As- 
sembly, 678;  biblical  argument  as  to  mode, 

679  ;  primitive  church  usage,  679 ;  historic 
testimonies  ;  Protestant  usage,  679  ;  Calvin 
on,  679  ;  administered  but  once,  679;  church- 
ly observance,  679  ;  may  not  be  neglected, 
680. 

Baptism,  subjects,  680 ;  in  adults,  personal 
faith  requisite,  6s0  ;  ingrafting  into  Christ, 

680  ;  applicable  to  infants  of  believers,  681 ; 
not  because  of  saving  efficacy,  681 ;  Ro- 
man and  earlier  Protestant  error,  682 ; 
parental  faith  essential,  683 ;  the  sanctified 
family  recognized,  683  ;  Abrahamic  cove- 
nant,— illustrated  in  circumcision,  683 ; 
Christ  blessing  little  children,  683  ;  Paul  on 
federal  holiness,  683 ;  general  Protestant 
doctrine,  684  ;  values  of  the  observance,  684. 

Baptismal  regeneration,    436 ;    Roman   and 

other  error,  676. 
Barclay,  on  the  church,  604. 
Baxter,  his  estimate  of  the  Assembly,  790  ;  his 


theological  position,  790 ;  Stanley,  tribute 
to,  790. 

Beattie,  values  of  Presbyterianism,  651. 

Begotten,  meaning  of  the  term,  167  ;  applied 
to  Christ,  306. 

Being  of  God,  130  ;  being,  distinguished  from 
attributes,  143. 

Belgic  Confession,  30 ;  on  the  Scriptures,  83 ; 
the  Apocrypha,  97  ;  creation,  197  ;  fallen 
angels,  206 ;  man  as  created,  247 ;  two 
natures  in  Christ,  317  ;  election,  384  ;  pre- 
terition,  396  ;  saving  faith,  475  ;  uses  of  the 
moral  law,  516  ;  marks  of  the  true  church, 
605 ;  sacraments,  672 ;  final  consummation, 
727  ;  the  earth  purified  by  fire,  788. 

Belief,  see  Faith,  Saving  Faith. 

Bellarmine,  on  justification,  459 ;  marks  of 
the  church,  605. 

Bernard,  progress  of  doctrine  in  the  N.  T.  367. 

Best,  Paul,  trial  for  heresy,  536. 

Bible,  Protestant  estimate  of,  66;  British 
Prot.,  67  ;  a  truly  divine  book,  89  ;  a  book 
for  humanity,  104  ;  its  own  interpreter,  110; 
Bible  and  the  church,  114  ;  Holy  Spirit  in- 
terprets, 119  ;  both  history  and  prophecy, 
722  ;  all  past  and  all  future  included,  722. 
See,  Scripture  Holy. 

Blackstone,  on  the  civil  Sabbath,  535. 

Briggs,  religious  character  of  the  Assembly, 
55. 

British  Confessions,  39  ;  their  general  char- 
acter, 41. 

Burnet,  on  the  inerrancy  of  Scripture,  88. 

Bushnell,  on  union  with  Christ  through  faith, 
477  ;  Christian  nurture,  662. 

Butler,  on  the  limits  of  reason,  72  ;  possibility 
of  miracle,  220 ;  divine  providence,  221 ; 
moral  government,  235, 294,  514  ;  Christ  as  a 
teacher,  330  ;  necessity  for  mediation,  337  ; 
providential  election,  385 ;  future  punish- 
ment, 780. 

Calamy,  provisions  of  grace  universal,  378; 
reprobate  contemplated,  813. 

Call,  external,  424 ;  effectual  call,  428  ;  call  to 
the  ministry,  631,  698. 

Calvin,  his  character,  155,  351,  607 ;  gener- 
osity, 155  ;  interest  in  sinners,  155  ;  loyalty 
to  truth,  435;  catholicity,  825;  influence, 
607  ;  in  Britain,  796  ;  his  theological  system, 
155,  559,  565,  808. 

Calvin,  on  the  divine  benevolence,  154 ;  the 
persons  in  the  Trinity,  164  ;  God  as  provi- 
dential ruler,  180  ;  the  eternal  decree,  194  ; 
image  of  God  in  man,  243  ;  origin  of  souls, 
250 ;  original  sin,  272 ;  sin  as  rebellion 
against  God,  287 ;  the  incarnation,  309 ; 
three  offices  of  Christ,  325;  Christ  as  supreme 
teacher,  330  ;  his  kingship,  340  ;  aim  of  the 
Gospel,  369;  election,  395;  reprobation, 
397 ;  potency  of  Gospel  truth,  435  ;  accept- 
able repentance,  483  ;  auricular  confession, 
487  ;  law  of  God  defined,  514  ;  uses  of  the 
moral  law,  516;  law  of  the  tabbath,  532; 


INDEX. 


843 


reverence  to  parents,  538  ;  Christian  liberty, 
559 ;  liberty  of  conscience,  560 ;  religious 
vows,  583 ;  priestly  celibacy,  592 ;  church 
visible  and  invisible,  catholic,  606  ;  church 
membership,  626 ;  Christian  ministry,  631, 
698  ;  apostacy  of  Rome,  657  missions,  664  ; 
baptism,  mode,  679;  definition  of  a  sacra- 
ment, 688 ;  eucharist,  its  meaning,  688 ;  lit- 
urgy, 720;  psychopannychism  719;  spirit- 
ual presence  of  Christ,  767;  resurrection, 
770  ;  final  Messianic  act,  786  ;  «.n  the  unifi- 
cation of  Protestantism,  825. 

Calvinism,  as  a  system,  823  ;  its  strength,  808  ; 
development,  814  ;  diffusion,  831  ;  its  future, 
809. 

Cambridge  Platform,  basis  of  church  govern- 
ment, 647. 

Canon  of  Scripture,  92  ;  O.  T.  canon,  93;  N. 
T.  canon,  94  ;  Councils  of  Hippo  and  Car- 
thage on,  93 ;  canonical  books  of  Protes- 
tantism, 93  ;  question  still  in  a  sense  open, 
93. 

Canonicity,  tests  of,  98  ;  external  and  inter- 
nal, 99  ;  Roman  assumption,  98  ;  definition, 
102. 

Canons  of  belief,  7  ;  see  Creeds. 

Carlstadt,  on  the  ministry,  698. 

Carlyle,  on  evolution,  131  ;  value  of  Shorter 
Catechism,  177;  immanence  of  God,  210. 

Catechisms  of  the  Reformation,  629,  663  ;  of 
Britain,  Bonar,  64  ;  Iyonger  and  Shorter,  50; 
Mitchell,  Schaff  on,  64  ;  their  scope  and 
value,  177,  663. 

Catholicity  illustrated,  819  ;  of  Calvin,  825. 

Cause  and  Causes,  148  ;  second  causes,  nature, 

190,  221 ;  variety,  191 ;  human  will,  as  cause, 

191,  811. 

Celibacy,  abstinence  from  marriage,  590 ; 
origin  in  false  views  of  marriage,  591 ;  sup- 
posed religious  privilege,  591  ;  imposed  as 
a  duty,  Roman  dogma,  591  ;  Protestant  con- 
demnation, confessional  testimony,  592. 

Ceremonial  law  prefiguring  Christ,  515  ;  ab- 
rogated under  the  Gospel,  515. 

Chalcedon,  Council  of,  on  the  two  natures  in 
Christ,  315  ;  reproduced  in  the  Confession, 
315. 

Chalmers,  on  sin  as  a  disease,  and  its  cure, 
403. 

Channing,  on  the  nature  of  salvation,  353. 

Charnock,  on  the  divine  holiness,  157. 

Children,  fifth  commandment,  536  ;  duties  to 
parents,  537. 

Christ  the  Mediator,  lecture  Sixth,  302- 
351. 

Christ,  Son  of  God,  eternal  existence  of,  305  ; 
eternal  sonship,  307  ;  proofs  of  full  deity, 
307  ;  two  natures  in  Christ  incarnate,  308 ; 
one  person  only,  313 ;  creeds  on,  314  ;  vari- 
ous errors,  Arianism,  306  ;  IJutychianism, 
314  ;  Nestorianism,  315  ;  Adoptionism,  316. 

Christ,  as  Mediator,  322  ;  prophet,  328  ;  priest 
and  sacrifice,  332  ;  king,  337  ;  his  humilia- 


tion, 344  ;  exaltation,  347  ;  as  intercessor, 
349;  his  resurrection,  evidences  of,  771. 

Christ,  final  advent,  764 ;  always  present 
spiritually,  765  ;  always  coming  to  believ- 
ers and  the  church,  766;  a  final  coming  in 
visible  form,  767  ;  at  the  end  of  the  world, 
768  ;  as  judge,  348,  768  ;  surrendery  of  the 
kingdom,  786. 

Christian  doctrine,  a  mighty  power,  434: 
teaching  of  the  Reformers,  Calvin,  435. 

Christianity  and  the  State,  598  ;  mutual  rela- 
tions and  duties,  599  ;  compared  with  natu- 
ral faiths,  371  ;  mission  to  and  in  society, 
665 ;  its  ultimate  triumph  in  the  world,  729. 

Christianized  manhood,  603  ;  same  in  all 
ages,  504  ;  coronation  of  humanity,  553. 

Christian  Liberty,  liberty  toward  God,  557  ; 
secured  in  and  through  Christ,  557;  enlarged 
under  the  Gospel,  558 ;  not  license,  ana- 
baptist error,  559  ;  Calvin  on,  559. 

Christian  Worship,  its  elements,  702  ;  adora- 
tion, nature  and  duty,  703  ;  Trinity  to  be 
adored,  703  ;  conditions  of  acceptable  adora- 
tion, 704 ;  adoration  of  saints  and  angels 
forbidden,  704  ;  where  offered,  social  wor- 
ship enjoined,  705  ;  elements  of  worship  ; 
fasting,  thanksgiving,  offerings,  706  ;  read- 
ing of  Scripture,  preaching,  707 ;  right 
hearing  of  the  Word,  I<uther  on,  711 ;  con- 
fessional injunctions,  712 ;  prayer  in  wor- 
ship, its  elements,  713  ;  confession  of  sin, 
713  ;  giving  of  thanks,  713  ;  singing  in  wor- 
ship, 714;  Rous,  version,  715;  adopteJ  in 
Scotland,  715. 

Christian  Year,  721. 

Christocentric  theology  ;  person  of  Christ, 
central  and  regulative  fact,  350. 

Christology  of  the  Reformation,  303  ;  ancient 
doctrine  affirmed,  303  ;  Protestant  formu- 
laries on,  303  ;  Socinian  and  other  aberra- 
tions, 304. 

Christus  pro  nobis,  407,  459  ;  in  nobis,  459. 

Chronology  of  the  Bible,  240. 

Church  of  God,  lecture  Twelfth,  601-666. 

Church,  definition  of,  602 ;  Roman  and  Prot- 
estant conceptions,  602 ;  signs  or  marks 
of  the  true,  according  to  Rome,  605;  to 
Protestantism,  605 ;  catholic  or  universal, 
606;  I,uther,  Calvin,  on,  606;  visible  and 
invisible,  Augustine  and  Calvin,  607;  marks 
of  the  church  invisible,  607  ;  of  the  visible 
church,  607  ;  not  two  churches,  but  one,  610. 

Church,  historic  development,  612  ;  a  super- 
natural institution,  612  ;  constructively  in 
human  nature,  612 ;  essential  to  preserva- 
tion and  diffusion  of  religion,  613 ;  God 
glorified  in  and  through  the  church,  6i3 ; 
church  founded  at  creation,  613  ;  three  eras 
in  its  history  ;  Patriarchal,  614;  Hebraic, 
615 ;  Christian,  615 ;  one  and  the  same 
organism  throughout,  615;  providential 
care  of,  in  all  ages,  227. 

Church    administration,    its    warrant,   636; 


844 


INDEX. 


three  general  ends  in,  637. 

Church  Censures,  defined,  641  ;  right  to  in- 
flict, ends  to  be  sought  in,  641  ;  grades  in 
penalty;  suspension,  excommunication, 
042  ;  restoration  to  church  privileges,  642. 

Church  Councils,  Protestant  teaching,  643 ; 
their  proper  sphere,  644  ;  how  appointed, 
645  ;  uses  and  dangers  of,  645. 

Church  growth,  promise  of,  660 ;  specific 
features  of,  661 ;  forces  and  agencies  in, 
662;  two  laws  of  growth  ;  interior,  spiritual 
propagation,  662  ;  Roman  and  Protestant 
methods,  663 ;  exterior  law,  spiritual  con- 
quest, 664  ;  Roman  error ;  Protestant  effi- 
ciency, 664  ;  church  a  missionary  agency. 

Church  membership,  624;  in  the  early  church, 
625 ;  in  the  Roman  communion,  625 ; 
Protestant  churches,  626  ;  Calvin,  Edwards, 
on,  627  ;  membership  of  baptized  children, 
627  ;  based  not  on  baptism,  but  on  family 
relation,  628 ;  constructive  and  prepara- 
tory, 629 ;  right  and  duty  of  the  church 
toward,  629 ;  conversion  requisite  to  full 
communion,  630. 

Church  and  state,  47,  568  ;  early  Protestant 
view,  569  ;  discussion  and  action  in  Britain, 
569  ;  conflicts  in  the  Assembly,  570  ;  Amer- 
can  Presbyterianism,  572  ;  mutual  duties  of 
church  and  state,  599. 

Cicero,  on  the  origin  of  souls,  249  ;  laws  as 
the  nerves  of  states,  514  ;  immortality,  741. 

Civil  Magistracy,  567  ;  nature  and  scope  of 
the  authority,  569  ;  confessional  statements, 
569  ;  American  doctrine,  572. 

Civil  Relations  and  Duties,  Lecture 
Eleventh,  556-600. 

Clarendon,  estimate  of  the  Assembly,  789. 

Coke,  on  false  swearing,  579. 

Coleridge,  on  faith  and  reason,  479. 

Common  Grace  ;  the  outward  call,  424;  its 
range,  425  ;  why  not  effectual,  428  ;  human 
treatment  of,  428  :  see  Grace. 

Communion  of  Saints,  616  ;  Pearson,  Eeigh- 
ton  on,  617  ;  limited  to  fellowship  in  this 
life,  618  ;  mutual  privileges  and  duties,  618  ; 
community  of  goods  not  required,  619  ;  ex- 
tent of  communion,  universal,  619. 

Communion  with  the  Spirit,  473  ;  liability  to 
error,  474. 

Comparative  symbolism,  its  value,  2,  36;  com- 
parisons of  creeds,  25,  31,  799,  826. 

Concubinage  in  whatever  form  sinful,  590 ; 
corrupting  influence  of,  590. 

Concupiscentia,  Roman  and  Protestant  view, 
546 ;  Greek  church  on,  547. 

Conditional  Immortality ;  soul  not  intrins- 
ically immortal,  745  ;  immortality  for  the 
righteous  only,  745 ;  the  wicked  annihi- 
lated, 745 ;  false  interpretations  of  Scrip- 
ture, 746  ;  philosophic  objections  to,  746 ; 
no  warrant  in  the  creeds,  747. 

Confession  of  sin,  484 ;  Roman  dogma, 
auricular  confession,  487  ;  confessional  un- 


warranted, 486  ;  Moehler,  Calvin  on,  487 ; 
Protestant  doctrine  of  confession,  487,  713  ; 
confession  an  element  in  worship,  715. 

Confessions  of  the  Reformation  defined,  see 
Creeds.  Lutheran,  29  ;  Reformed,  29  ;  Brit- 
ish, 30;  later,  30;  compared  with  ancient 
creeds,  25;  compared  with  one  another,  31, 
799. 

Congregationalism,  Amer.;  adoption  of  the 
Symbols,  60  ;  recent  declarations  of  faith, 
36;  agreements  with  Presbyterianism,  650. 

Conscience,  liberty  of,  560 ;  fundamental  in 
Protestantism,  560;  God  alone  Eord  of ,  561 ; 
involves  responsibility,  561 ;  never  to  be 
compromised,  562 ;  conscience  and  the 
state,  562. 

Conversion  described,  431 ;  correlative  to  re- 
generation, 432  ;  man  not  passive  in,  433  ; 
truth  an  instrument,  433  ;  other  instrumen- 
talities, 435 ;  fancied  substitutes  for  con- 
version, 371. 

Consummation,  the  ultimate,  786 ;  surren- 
dery  of  the  kingdom,  787. 

Conviction  of  sin,  nature  and  signs,  482  ;  false 
conviction,  Judas,  483. 

Cotton,  John,  Covenant  of  grace,  361. 

Councils,  see  Synods,  642. 

Covenant,  meaning  of  the  term,  255 ;  Coc- 
ceian  doctrine  of  the  covenants,  258. 

Covenant  of  works,  or  life,  253  ;  its  purpose, 
256 ;  its  condition,— the  test  imposed,  257  ; 
relations  to  the  race,  259. 

Covenant  of  grace,  361 ;  origin  of  the  doctrine, 
361 ;  Ball,  John  Cotton,  on,  361 ;  made  with 
believers,  in  Christ,  364. 

Covenant  of  redemption,  358 ;  Father  and 
Son,  in  the  interest  of  salvation,  358  ;  error 
of  excessive  analysis,  359  ;  deficiency  in  the 
conception,  360. 

Coveting  forbidden  in  all  varieties,  543. 

Creation,  false  views  respecting,  195^  re- 
ferred to  the  triune  God,  170,  196";  father- 
hood specially  revealed  in,  197 ;  confes- 
sional statements,  198 ;  process  of,  199 ; 
word  of  power,  199  ;  from  nothing,  200  ;  six 
creative  days,  202  ;  extent  of  creation,  203  ; 
its  quality,  208  ;  end  of  God  in  creation,  211. 

Creation  of  man,  204  ;  of  angels,  205  ;  of  both 
the  material  and  the  moral  universe,  207 ; 
divine  glory  revealed  in  all,  212. 

Creationism  defined,  248;  its  claim  exam- 
ined, 249. 

Credibility  of  Scripture,  its  basis,  105. 

Creeds  defined,  6 ;  necessity  for,  exterior,  in- 
terior, 7  ;  formulation  of,  9  ;  limitations 
involved,  9  ;  imperfections  in,  12 ;  emen- 
dation, 14;  authoritativeness,  15;  law  of 
loyalty,  17;  objections  to,  18;  tyrarfny  of. 
20.  Also,  right  of  Presbyterian  church  to 
frame  its  Symbols,  833 ;  to  require  loyalty 
to,  834  ;  to  amend,  835. 

Creeds,  historic,  20 ;  creed  element  in  Scrip- 
ture, 21 ;  first  creed  period,  23  ;  second,  29  ; 
creedless  period,  first ;  causes,  26  ;  second  ; 


INDEX. 


845 


explanation,  35  ;  the  three  ancient  creeds, 
24  ;  contents  and  limitations,  25 ;  creeds  of 
the  Reformation,  four  groups,  29;  their 
confessional  value,  31  ;  hierarchal  creeds, 
Greek,  Roman,  33 ;  erratic  and  heretical 
creeds,  33  ;  see  Confessions. 

Cudworth,  on  mediation  of  Christ,  321. 

Cumberland  church,  on  the  divine  decree. 
400;  election  and  pretention,  401. 

Cunningham,  on  the  unity  in  God,  161  ; 
supremacy  of  Scripture  in  the  church,  653  ; 
Roman  error  as  to  the  eucharist,  685. 

Curse,  the,— generically,  death,  269;  four- 
fold aspect,  269 ;  on  Adam,  on  Eve,  on 
Satan  and  the  serpent,  270;  on  the  earth, 
271. 

Cyril  lAicaris,  faith  universal  in  man,  478. 

Cyprian,  sphere  of  the  Spirit,  416  ;  salvation 
through  the  church  only,  609  ;  the  Chris- 
tian ministry,  631. 

Death,  bodily,  269  ;  spiritual,  270 ;  physical 
death,  its  features,  737  ;  relations  to  sinful- 
ness, 269,  737;  universal,  738;  death  of 
infants,  of  the  heathen,  of  the  impenitent, 
738 ;  of  Christians,  739 ;  naturalistic  views 
of,  740. 

Decalogue,  519  ;  see  Ten  Commandments. 

Decree  and'Decrees,  defined,  181 ;  synonyms, 
181 ;  the  decree  eternal,  182 ;  unconditioned 
and  unchangeable,  183 ;  all-inclusive,  su- 
preme, 184;  expresses  the  divine  perfec- 
tions, 185. 

Decrees,  plural,  defined,  185  ;  order  of  the, 
187;  supralapsarian,  sublapsarian,  state- 
ment, 187;  various  modes  of  executing, 
190  ;  divine  purpose  and  temper  in  execut- 
ing, 193  ;  moral  quality  of  the  decrees,  193  ; 
permissive  decree  respecting  sin,  192 ;  re- 
marks on  the  doctrine,  810. 

Deism  defined  ;  values  and  defects,  72. 

Depravity,  not  a  confessional  term,  276 ; 
caution  needful  in  defining,  277 ;  in  what 
sense  total,  utter,  universal,  277;  Roman 
dogma,  confessional  teaching,  279;  objec- 
tions considered,  279. 

Descensus  ad  Inferos,  various  interpreta- 
tions, 346 ;  perplexity  and  mystery  of  the 
phrase,  347 ;  close  of  the  humiliation  of 
Christ,  547. 

Dickson,  see  Truth's  Victory  Over  Error. 

Digest,  Presb.,  1898,  on  religious  liberty, 
573  ;  making  oath,  578  ;  divorce,  597  ;  dis- 
cipline, 641 ;  removing  censures,  641 ;  Pres- 
byterian polity,  647. 

Design,  the  argument  from,  128. 

Directory  for  Worship,  formulation,  47,  56 ; 
instructions  on  sacraments,  674  ;  elements 
of  worship,  706 ;  reading  of  Scripture,  707  ; 
preaching710 ;  prayer,  229,  714  ;  praise,  714  ; 
general  value,  793. 

Discipline,  nature,  638;  ends  sought  in,  scope 
of,  640 ;  proper  spirit  in,  641 ;  censures, 
nature  aud  extent,  641. 


Dispensations,  the  three,  367 ;  dispensation 
of  the  Spirit,  416. 

Divine  truth,  in  conversion,  433  ;  its  intrinsic 
potency,  434  ;  Spirit  in  and  with,  435. 

Divorce,  defined,  593;  not  private;  both 
church  and  state  involved,  593  ;  legitimate 
grounds  of,  594 ;  adultery,  willful  deser- 
tion, 595 ;  other  grounds  recognized  in  civil 
law,  596 ;  flagrant  errors,  596  ;  duty  of  the 
church,  597  ;  Woolsey  on,  594. 

Doctrine  defined,  3  ;  primary  and  secondary 
meanings,  4  ;  History  of,  to  be  studied,  5  ; 
its  relations  to  symbolic  theology,  5. 

Dominion  of  God  absolute,  137;  its  founda- 
tions, 138 ;  dominion  of  man  over  nature, 
244. 

Dorner,  on  the  canonical  books,  92  ;  the  cov- 
enant theology,  259 ;  infants  dying  in  in- 
fancy, 280;  the  kenosis,  313;  the  three 
offices,  325  ;  future  of  the  earth,  788 ;  on  the 
efficiency  of  Presbyterianism,  832. 

Dort,  Synod  of,  30;  character  and  influence, 
791,  823 ;  Baxter,  on,  791 ;  on  salvation  of 
infants,  281  ;  predestination  unto  life,  357  ; 
sovereignty  in  election,  389 ;  preterition, 
396;  regeneration,  431;  perseverance  of 
saints,  496 ;  Sabbath  observance,  532  ;  spread, 
of  the  Gospel,  661  ;  right  hearing  of  the 
Word,  712  ;  preterition,  812. 

Dualism,  simplest  form  of  polytheism,  132. 

Durie,  treatise  on  the  unity  of  Protestant- 
ism, 823  ;  his  active  efforts  toward,  824. 

Duty,  obligation,  defined,  299 ;  supremacy  of 
the  law  of,  519. 

Earth,  future  of  the,  728,  787 ;  Van  Ooster- 
zee,  Dorner,  Edwards  on,  788. 

Edwards,  on  end  of  God  in  creation,  212 ; 
divine  providence,  222  ;  original  sin,  274  ; 
satisfaction  of  Christ,  337  ;  election,  384  ; 
qualifications  for  church  membership,  627  ; 
acceptable  praise,  713 ;  conversion  of  the 
world,  730;  duration  of  the  millennium, 
732;  annihilation  of  the  wicked,  747;  future 
of  the  earth,  788. 

Edwards,  Jr.,  on  Improvements  in  Theology, 
made  by  his  father,  814. 

Effectual  Calling,  defined,  428;  its  elements. 
429 ;  work  of  the  Spirit,  429  ;  Protestant 
creeds,  430 ;  Irish  Articles,  431 :  see  Regen- 
eration. 

Election,  its  place  in  the  divine  decree,  382  ; 
predestination,  foreordination,  384  ;  a  fact 
in  providence,  385  ;  in  the  religious  sphere. 
385;  biblical  teaching  respecting,  386;  its 
motive  in  God  alone,  387 ;  originating  in 
love,  387  ;  its  equity  and  sovereignty,  3*8  ; 
not  conditioned  on  foreseen  faith,  389  ;  its 
end  or  object  in  holiness,  390 ;  in  useful- 
ness, 391 ;  value  of  the  doctrine,  391 ;  per- 
versions of  it,  392  ;  human  relations  to,  393. 

Elect  infants  dying  in  infancy,  280  ;  Synod  of 
Dort  on,   281 ;  how  saved,  282 ;  all  infants 


846 


INDEX. 


dying  in  infancy  elect,  282 ;  other  elect 
persons,  283. 

English  Synod,  (Presbyt.)  on  the  Holy  Spirit, 
415  ;  adoption,  452  ;  good  works,  492  ;  per- 
severance, 498;  obedience  to  divine  law,  513; 
scope  of  the  Gospel,  379,  736. 

Errancy  of  Scripture  defined,  85  ;  the  phrase 
misleading,  86  ;  Scriptures,  essentially  iuer- 
rant,  89. 

Eschatology,  lecture   Fourteenth,  722-788. 

Eschatology,  defined  ;  sources  of  interest  in, 
723 ;  sources  of  the  doctrine,  724  ;  Protes- 
tant teaching,  725;  Confessions  on,  726. 

Eternal  State,  779 ;  form  of  existence  for 
all,  780  ;  separation  in,  780  ;  hell,  a  state  of 
punishment,  781 ;  heaven,  state  of  reward, 
782;  everlasting  in  duration,  783. 

Eternity  of  God,  139. 

Ethical  quality  of  the  Symbols,  805 ;  their 
ethical  influence. 

Eutychianism,  on  the  person  of  Christ,  314. 

Eusebius,  three  offices  of  Christ,  325. 

Evangelists,  how  far  authorized,  635. 

Evidences  of  inspiration,  external,  99,  105 ; 
internal,  99,  105;  Revision,  on  the  external, 
100. 

Evil,  existence  of,  208  ;  elements  of  the  prob- 
lem, 209 ;  theories  of  natural  and  moral 
necessity,  209 ;  glory  of  God  manifest 
through,  210. 

Evil  angels,  206  ;  their  doom,  778  ;  see  Satan, 
266. 

Evolution  of  doctrine  in  the  Scriptures,  91 ; 
of  the  plan  of  salvation,  in  O.  T.,  365 ;  in 
the  N.  Test.,  365  ;  complete  in  Christ,  366  ; 
evolution  of  law  in,  544. 

Exaltation,  the  estate  of,  347  ;  its  glories. 

Excommunication,  when  called  for,  642. 

Expiation,  see  Satisfaction. 

Faith,  trust,  defined  ;  Saving  faith  474  ;  defi- 
nitions, 475  ;  how  distinguished,  476 ;  natu- 
ral to  man,  478  ;  saving  faith  reasonable, 
478  ;  its  power  in  character,  479. 

Fall  of  Man,  261 ;  the  record  historic,  265 ; 
the  original  temptation,  266  ;  incidents  of, 
268  ;  the  consequent  curse,  269. 

Falling  away  from  grace,  497  ;  supposed  bib- 
lical examples,  497 ;  Arminian,  Wesleyan 
view,  498  :  see  Perseverance. 

False  swearing,  see  Oath,  576. 

Farrar,  on  eternal  hope,  758. 

Fatherhood  of  God,  in  creation  and  provi- 
dence, 170 ;  in  redemption,  171 ;  Pearson, 
Crawford  on,  197. 

Fifth  commandment,  reverence  to  parents, 
536  ;  various  duties  involved,  537  ;  rever- 
ence toward  all  superiors,  537  ;  the  promise 
appended,  538. 

Federal  theology,  see  Covenants,  255. 

Filioquein  Nicene  Creed,  168. 

First  Table  of  the  I^aw,  duties  toward  God, 
524  :  its  comprehensiveness,  525  ;  three  pri- 


mal sins  forbidden,  526;  three  obligations 
enforced,  527;  reasons  for  obedience  ap- 
pended, 528. 

Fisher,  on  Apostles'  Creed,  23. 

Foreknowledge  of  God,  146. 

Foreordination  unto  salvation,  384. 

Form  of  Government,  orignal,  47, 56 ;  Amer- 
ican changes,  572,  836 :  value  of,  793. 

Formula  of  Concord,  29 ;  on  supremacy  of 
Scripture,  82 ;  man  as  created,  247 ;  the 
origin  of  souls,  250;  fall  of  man,  268;  in- 
fants dying  in  infancy,  280  ;  free  will,  293  ; 
Christology,  303 ;  two  natures  in  Christ, 
314  ;  predestination  unto  life,  357  ;  accep- 
tance through  Christ,  443  ;  good  works,  489: 
obeying  the  commandments,  512;  concu- 
piscence, 547. 

Fourth  commandment,  law  of  the  Sabbath, 
531 ;  not  an  O.  T.  ordinance  merely,  532 ; 
I^uther,  Calvin,  on,  532 ;  obligation  univer- 
sal and  perpetual,  533. 

Free  agency,  see  Ability,  Free  Will. 

Free  Church,  Scotland,  on  depravity,  277; 
natural  virtue,  280;  salvation  of  infants, 
282 ;  of  the  heathen,  284 ;  universality  of 
the  Gospel,  379 ;  reprobation,  400  ;  religious 
liberty,  573. 

Free  grace  in  justification,  339. 

Free  Will,  defined,  290;  four  moral  spheres, 
290 ;  Confessions  on,  290 ;  Augustine  on, 
293  ;  effect  of  sin  on  freedom,  292. 

French  Confession,  30;  on  the  Scriptures, 
83  ;  God  defined  in,  125  ;  original  sin,  275  ; 
free  will,  293 ;  Christology,  303  ;  the  incar- 
nation, 312 ;  pretention,  396 ;  on  the  use  of 
the  moral  law,  516 ;  on  civil  magistracy, 
569  ;  on  church  membership,  626. 

Future  punishment  and  reward,  see  Hell. 
Heaven. 

Gardner,  intellectual  quality  of  Puritan- 
ism, 49. 

Genesis,  two  records  of  creation ,  204. 

Genuineness  of  the  Scriptures,  102. 

Genevan  Confession,  351. 

Gentiles  brought  in,  731. 

Geology  and  Scripture,  202. 

Gieseler,  on  Augsburg  Conf.  826. 

Gillespie,  evidences  of  Scripture,  101 ;  mutual 
accommodation,  567  ;  Christian  liberty  and 
toleration,  803. 

God  in  His  Activities,  lecture  Fourth, 
178-236. 

God  in  His  Being,  lecture  Third,   124-177. 

God,  definitions  of,  125;  existence,  126; 
proofs  of,  127;  from  nature,  128  ;  from  man, 
130  ;  unity  of,  131.    Can  God  be  known,  143. 

God  a  Spirit,  133  ;  characteristics  as  Spirit, 
134;  life  of  God  as  Spirit,  136;  absolute 
Spirit,  137  ;  infinite,  eternal,  unchangeable 
Spirit,  139 ;  constitutional  and  moral  quali- 
ties, 142 ;  see  Attributes. 


INDEX. 


847 


•iod  as  cause,  first  and  final,  148 ;  as  will, 
supreme  and  absolute,  149 ;  consequent 
sovereignty,  149;  as  essentially  active,  178; 
relation  to  second  causes,  see  Providence. 

tiood  Works,  483 ;  Roman  doctrine  of,  488 ; 
Protestant,  489;  commended,  490;  evidences 
of  living  faith,  491 ;  supernatural  agency 
in  producing,  491  ;  acceptable,  but  not  sal- 
vatbry,  492  ;  works  done  by  unregenerate 
men,  493. 

Goodness  of  God,  153  ;  his  fatherhood,  154. 

Gospel,  defined,  367  ;  system  of  saving  truth, 
368 ;  contents  and  worth,  368  ;  also  a  divine 
offer,  374  ;  its  universal  adaptation.  374  ; 
progressive  unfolding,  376 ;  confessional 
declarations  as  to  scope,  378  ;  Calamy, 
Marshall  on,  378  ;  proposed  chapter  on,  379 

Gospel,  compared  with  other  schemes  of 
salvation,  371  ;  human  energy  inadequate 
to  save,  371 ;  divine  love  and  help  requisite, 
373 ;  this  scheme  reasonable  and  effectual, 
374  ;  duty  of  all  men  to  receive,  380 ;  of  the 
church  to  proclaim,  380. 

Government  of  God  in  providence,  216 ;  prov- 
idential and  moral  distinguished,  235 ; 
moral  government  described,  295. 

Grace  prevenient,  its  extent,  425;  spiritual 
significance,  426 ;  Augustine,  IyUther  on, 
427 ;  sovereignty  of  the  Spirit  in,  428 ;  see 
Common  Grace. 

Grace  efficacious,  453  ;  eventuates  in  conver- 
sion, 453;  in  sanctification,  456;  in  what 
sense  irresistible.  457. 

Grace  and  law,  how  related,  553  ;  faith  and 
obedience  conjoined,  inseparable,  553;  anti- 
nomian  error,  554  ;  James  and  Paul  in  har- 
mony, 554. 

Greek  (oriental)  Creeds,  33;  God  defined  in, 
133 :  Christology,  311 ;  priesthood  and  sac- 
rifice of  Christ,  333 ;  the  descensus  ad  in- 
feros, 347  ;  the  authority  of  tradition,  347  ; 
the  Holy  Spirit,  413 ;  faith,  478 ;  concupis- 
cence, 547  ;  marks  of  the  true  church,  605. 

Gregory  Nazianzen,  existence  of  God  proved 
from  nature,  129. 

Guizot,  on  the  Reformation,  461. 

Guilt,  various  meanings  of  the  term,  273,  807. 

Guyon,  Madame,  485 ;  Wesley  on,  584. 

Hades,  meanings  of  the  term,  752 ;  its  ana- 
logue in  Sheol. 

Hagenbach,  on  the  formation  of  dogma,  5  ; 
the  trias  of  Revelation,  172  ;  origin  of  souls, 
250  ;  on  the  Sec.  Helv.  Conf.,  826. 

Hall,  Harmony  of  Protestant  Confessions, 
557,  796. 

Hallam,  on  F,rastianism  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  571 ;  estimate  of  the  Assembly, 
789. 

Hamilton,  on  the  argument  for  God,  134 ; 
mental  action  not  limited  by  space,  140  ; 
on  an  axiom  of  Augustine,  162 ;  our  un- 
pictureable  notions,  526. 

Harris,  on  the  moral  government  of  God,  295. 


Harmony  of  the  Reformed  Confessions,  vol- 
ume on,  796. 

Headship  of  Adam,  natural,  272 ;  federal, 
273  ;  Calvin,  Hodge  on,  275. 

Headship  of  Christ  in  his  church,  651 ;  Prot- 
estant emphasis  on,  652  ;  nature  and  ex- 
tent, 653  ;  his  word  the  supreme  law,  653; 
controversies  respecting  this  headship,  654  : 
see  Kingdom. 

Hearing,  duty  of  conscionable,  711  ;  quali- 
ties of  acceptable,  712  ;  results  in  spiritual 
fruitage,  712 ;  neglect  of,  714. 

Heathen,  moral  condition  of,  283  ;  salvability 
of,  284,  425  ;  attitude  of  early  Protestantism, 
283 ;  Zwingli,  on  salvability,  284 ;  recent 
declarations,  284  ;  Augustine  on,  425. 

Heaven,  the  universe  of  reward,  782 ;  employ- 
ments of,  782 ;  elements  of  blessedness,  783  ; 
faith  of  the  universal  church  in,  784  ;  sym- 
bolic descriptii  -ns,  785. 

Heidelberg  Catechism,  30  ;  its  quality  and 
value,  827  ;  on  providence,  217  ;  providence 
and  sin,  225  ;  prayer,  230  ;  man  as  created, 
247  ;  the  fall  of  man,  268  ;  inborn  and  actual 
sins,  285  ;  the  two  natures  in  Christ,  314 ; 
the  three  offices,  326  ;  the  Gospel,  370 ;  re- 
pentance 483  ;  good  works,  493 ;  obeying 
the  commandments,  512;  concupiscence, 
547  ;  infant  church  membership,  629  ;  defi- 
nition of  the  sacraments,  668  ;  of  baptism, 
675  ;  on  immortality,  744. 

Hell,  the  universe  of  punishment, 780  ;  natu- 
ral theology  teaching  its  existence,  780; 
Butler,  Jackson  on,  780  ;  punishment  must 
follow  sin,  even  eternally,  781 ;  fact  and 
duration  revealed  in  Scripture,  782  ;  creed 
affirmations,  784. 

Helvetic  Confession,  First,  29  ;  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, 83  ;  man  as  created,  247  ;  Christology, 
303  ;  the  ministry,  631 ;  immortality,  744. 

Helvetic  Confession,  Second,  30;  its  theo- 
logical value,  798,  826 ;  on  the  trinity,  169  ; 
the  creation,  196 ;  angels,  good  and  evil, 
206  ;  providence  and  sin,  225  ;  man  as  cre- 
ated, 247  ;  the  origin  of  sin,  264  ;  the  fall  of 
man,  268 ;  Christology,  303;  the  Gospel, 
370;  the  Holy  Spirit,  411  ;  saving  faith,  475; 
repentance,  483 ;  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath, 532 ;  the  civil  magistracy,  569 ;  the 
church,  603;  infant  church  membership, 
628  ;  church  councils,  643  ;  eschatology.  726. 

Hetherington,    estimate   of   the    Assembly, 
790 ;  on  possible  union  of   Protestantism, 
825 ;  Assembly  action  respecting,  826. 
Hickok,  on  the  fall  of  angels,  267. 

Historical  Introduction,  Lecture  First, 
1-65. 

Hobbes,  church  in  the  state,  612. 

Hodge,  Ch.  on  inspiration,  79;  alleged  erran- 
cies in  Scripture,  79  ;  sublapsarianism  in 
Symbols,  188;  primitive  temptation,  257; 
headship  of  \dam,  260  ;  original  sin,  275 ; 
covenant  of  redemption,  360. 


848 


INDEX. 


Holiness  in  God,  157 ;  intrinsic  worthiness, 
157  ;  moral  completeness,  158  ;  Charnock, 
Schliermacher  on,  158 ;  holiness  in  man 
through  grace,  390. 

Holy  days,  except  fasts  and  thanksgivings' 
forbidden ;  also,  canonical  hours,  721 ; 
Christmas  recognized,  721 ;  Christian  year, 
721. 

Holy  Scripture,  Lecture  Second,  66-123. 

Boly  Spirit,  a  divine  person  ;  proof  of,  410  ; 
ancient  and  confessional  statements,  411 ; 
recent  developments  of  the  doctrine,  413  ; 
proposed  chapter  in  Revision  on,  414 ;  its 
values,  415 ;  his  claim  to  worship,  415 ; 
equality  with  Father  and  Son,  417  ;  erro- 
neous views  of,  Socinian,  418 ;  objections 
answered ;  the  doctrine  cardinal,  419 ; 
proves  Christianity  divine,  420. 

Holy  Spirit  in  his  activities,  282,  415 ;  au- 
thor of  Scripture,  78,  418 ;  makes  no  new 
revelations,  110;  supreme  interpreter  of, 
119  ;  active  in  the  spiritual  sphere,  416 ;  be- 
fore the  advent,  and  after,  417;  in  the 
church  and  the  world,  418. 

Holy  Spirit  and  the  Christian  life,  469 ;  its 
author,  469  ;  its  conditions,  trust  in,  470 ; 
obedience  to,  471 ;  communion  with,  473 ; 
helping  to  obey  law,  517  ;  rendering  church 
agencies  effectual,  633. 

Hooker,  on  incarnation,  315  ;  majesty  of  law, 
506  ;  power  of  the  keys,  638. 

Hooper,  on  salvation  of  infants,  281 ;  liberty 
of  conscience,  560. 

Howe,  on  Bible  as  a  rule  of  life,  108  ;  man  as 
fallen,  277  ;  method  of  divine  government, 
394. 

Hume,  argument  against  miracles,  220. 

Humiliation  of  Christ,  estate  of,  344  ;  its  ele- 
ments, 345 ;  its  close  with  death,  346. 

Huxley,  theory  of  creation,  199. 

Idolatry,  forbidden,  132 ;  first  command- 
ment on,  526. 

Image  of  God  in  man ;  natural,  in  person- 
ality, 242  ;  moral,  in  character,  243  ;  power 
to  obey  law,  243  ;  Calvin  on,  243. 

Images,  worship  of ,  135 ;  Greek  and  Roman 
error,  135 ;  Protestant  teaching,  134 ;  for- 
bidden, 527. 

Imbecile  and  insane  salvable,  283. 

Immanence  of  God  in  the  universe,  140,  214. 

Immersion  not  necessary,  678. 

Immortality,  defined,  740;  speculative  evi- 
dences, 741 ;  biblical  proofs,  O.  T.,  742;  N. 
Test.,  743;  creeds,  ancient,  743;  Protes- 
tant, 744. 

Immortality  on  earth,  251 ;  tree  of  life,  251 ; 
death  in  the  world  before  sin,  252. 

Immutability  of  God,  140  ;  anthropomorphic 
descriptions. 

Imputation,  general  definition  ;  cognate 
terms, — reckon,  account,  440 ;    of  Adamic 


sin,  immediate,  273  ;  mediate,  274  ;  of  right- 
eousness of  Christ,  justification,  439. 
Inability,  see  Ability,  natural,  moral,  Sin. 

Incarnation,  an  inexplicable  fact,  308 ;  neces- 
sity for,  nature  of,  309  ;  biblical  proofs  of, 
310  ;  supernatural  concomitants,  310 ;  spir- 
itual significance  of,  311 ;  historic  verifica- 
tion, creed  statements,  311 ;  two  natures 
revealed  in,  314. 

Inerrancy  of  Scripture,  83 ;  term,  error,  de- 
fined, 83;  hypothesis  of  errancy  considered, 
85 ;  mistakes  in  transcription,  86 ;  obscura- 
tions of  time,  87 ;  sound  exegesis  requisite,  88. 

Infallibility,  papal  claim,  14,  109. 

Infants  corrupted  by  original  sin,  282;  dying 
in  infancy,  282;  elect  infants  saved,  all 
dying  infants,  282  ;  gracious  work  wrought 
in  them. 

Infinitude  in  God,  139. 

Inner  light  insufficient,  120. 

Innes,  on  creed  subscription,  573,  833. 

Inspiration,  general  description,  77  ;  distin- 
guished from  revelation  and  illumination, 
77  ;  Symbols  affirm  only  the  fact,  78  ;  theo- 
ries of  ;  certain  errors  excluded,  79 ;  divine 
and  human  agencies  in,  80 ;  involves  lan- 
guage, 80  ;  varieties  of,  80  ;  Revision  on,  89. 

Intercession  of  Christ,  nature  and  scope,  348. 

Intermediate  Life,  748:  no  sleep  of  the  soul, 
749  ;  life  conscious,  active,  750  ;  moral,  retri- 
butive, 751 ;  separation  of  righteous  and 
wicked  in,  752  ;  no  limbus  patrum,  or  infan- 
tum, 752 ;  three  false  theories  respecting, 
753. 

Intermediate  life;  purgatorial  dogma  ground- 
less, 753 ;  Protestant  testimonies  against, 
753  ;  naturalistic  theory  unwarranted,  754  ; 
its  mischievous  influence,  756. 

Intermediate  life  ;  theory  of  salvation  after 
death,  757  ;  various  forms,  757 ;  evidences- 
adduced,  758  ;  Scripture  conclusive  against, 
758 ;  also,  symbolism  and  theology,  759 ; 
and  Christian  consciousness,  760. 

Interpretation  of  Scripture  by  Scripture,  110; 
right  and  duty  of  private,  112 ;  church  in- 
terpretation, 114;  Roman  qjlaim,  115;  rules 
of  interpretation,  118  ;  Spirit  interpreting 
Scripture,  119. 

Intuitive  knowledge  of  God,  143 ;  its  insuffi- 
ciency. 

Irish  Articles,  30 ;  close  relations  to  the 
Symbols,  40;  on  the  trinity,  169;  creation, 
198;  providence,  217;  providence  and  sin,  225; 
the  Gospel,  370 ;  reprobation,  397  ;  saving 
faith,  475;  the  civil  magistrate,  569;  civil 
rule  of  popes,  575  ;  the  papacy,  659  ;  particu- 
lar judgment,  763. 

Jesuits,  their  moral  delinquency,  580. 
Jews,  conversion  of,  730  ;  restoration  to  Holy 

I,and,  731 ;  relation  to  spread  of  the  Gospel, 

731. 
Judaic  opinions,   millennarian.  condemned. 

726. 


INDEX. 


849 


Judge,  Christ  as  final,  348,  777. 

Judgment,  Particular,  of  souls  at  death,  761 ; 
the  separation  judicial,  762 ;  impressiveness 
of,  763. 

Judgment,  General,  of  the  race,  at  the  end  of 
the  world,  774 ;  evidences  of,  reasons  for, 
775  ;  biblical  teaching  decisive,  776  ;  Christ 
as  judge  ;  circumstances  of,  777  ;  persons 
judged,  men  and  angels,  777 ;  basis  and 
grade  of  judgment,  778  ;  formal  issue  ;  two 
universes  of  souls,  778  ;  confessional  teach- 
ing, 779. 

Jus  divinum  theory  of  the  church,  47,  636,  647. 

Justice  of  God,  151 ;  internal  and  external, 
152;  varieties  in  manifestation,  153. 

Justification  defined  437 ;  ground  in  Christ 
only,  438 ;  his  grace  imputed,  439 ;  Roman 
error,  439 ;  main  elements  of,  pardon  and 
acceptance,  440  ;  biblical  proofs,  446  ;  doc- 
trine final  in  Christianity,  446  ;  historic  evo- 
lution of,  447 ;  Owen,  Buchanan,  Ritschl 
on,  447. 

Justin  Martyr,  preaching  in  the  early  church, 
708. 

Kant,  on  prayer,  228. 

Kenosis,  biblical  term,  312 ;  the  kenotic 
process,  312 ;  no  depotentiation  involved, 
313  ;  Christ  truly  divine  therein,  313  ;  Dor- 
ner  on,  313. 

Kent,  on  marriage,  586. 

Keys,  see  Power  of  the. 

King,  Christ  as,  Protestant  doctrine,  339; 
biblical  testimonies  to,  341 ;  earthly  and 
heavenly  aspects  of  his  kingship,  342. 

Kingdom  over  nature,  343;  over  humanity, 
343  ;  over  the  believer,  342  ;  over  the  church 
risible,  342,  651 ;  his  authority  supreme  and 
final,  654  ;  the  kingdom  surrendered,  786. 

Knox,  pastor  in  Geneva,  351 ;  on  value  of 
schools,  682  ;  observance  of  sacraments,  689. 

Krauth,  salvation  of  infants,  280  ;  Augsburg 
Conf.  826. 

Lactantius,  on  the  divine  nature,  141. 
Lambeth  Articles  on  reprobation,  400. 

Law  of  God,  Lecture  Tenth,  506-555. 

Law  written  on  the  heart,  68;  law  and 
light  of  nature,  68,  514  ;  place  of  law  in 
Christianity,  506 ;  the  Sinaitic  law,  519 ; 
evolution  of,  in  the  O.  T.,  544;  in  the  N. 
Test.,  545 ;  area  of  duty  widened,  546  ; 
greater  authority,  547 ;  added  sanctions, 
548 ;  Christ,  the  supreme  revealer  of  law, 
548 ;  law  and  morality,  550  ;  law  and  grace, 
553 ;  see  Moral  Law. 

Laws  of  Nature,  221. 

Leibnitz,  on  miracle,  219. 

Leighton,  on  communion  of  saints,  617. 

Lessing,  on  the  unity  in  God,  162 ;  the  nature 
of  faith,  478. 

Liberty  of  Conscience,  [560 ;  conscience  re- 
sponsible to  God  only,  561 ;  submission  to 


man  forbidden,  562  ;  Symbols  on,  564  ;  state 
church  theory,  564  ;  see  Toleration, 
Liddon,  prayer  the  characteristic  act  of  relig- 
ion, 231. 

Life,  The  Christian,  Lecture  Ninth,  461- 
505. 

Life,  the  Christian,  prominence  in  Protestant- 
ism, 462 ;  deficiencies  in  Roman  doctrine, 
463 ;  general  conception  of,  465 ;  super- 
natural in  origin,  466  ;  its  ideal,  Christ ;  its 
motive,  love,  467  ;  its  authority  and  fruitage, 
468. 

Life,  the  Christian ;  relations  of  the  Spirit 
to,  469  ;  dependence  and  trust,  470  ;  obedi- 
ence and  communion,  471 ;  manifestations 
of  this  life,  see  Faith,  Repentance,  Good 
Works,  Perseverance. 

Life  of  God,  its  nature,  136. 

Light  of  nature,  defined,  08  ;  its  insufficiency, 
71,  573. 

Lightfoot,  on  mode  of  baptism,  677 ;  on  set 
forms  of  prayer,  719. 

Liturgy,  Assembly  protest  against,  718;  its 
manual  of  worship,  719  ;  liberty  in  use  of, 
720;  its  value,  793;  general  question  re- 
specting liturgies,  720;  Luther,  Calvin, 
prepared,  720;  free  worship  preferable, 
721. 

Locke,  definition  of  error,  83  ;  definition  of 
person,  164. 

Lord's  Day,  see  Sabbath. 

Lord's  Sapper,  Roman  and  Protestant  doc- 
trine contrasted,  686  ;  error  of  transubstan- 
tiation,  687;  of  opus  operatum ;  other 
errors,  687 ;  Protestant  interpretation  of 
the  sacrament,  687  ;  Zwinglian  view,  687 ; 
Lutheran  consubstantiation,  688 ;  general 
Reformed  view,  688;  analysis,  689;  papal 
mass  condemned,  689 ;  spiritual  benefits 
derived,  690;  duty  of,  qualifications  for, 
observance,  690 ;  minor  details,  691. 

Lotze,  on  the  origin  of  the  soul,  251. 

Love,  its  central  place  in  religion,  467. 

Loyalty  to  avowed  creeds,  17  ;  proper  limi- 
tations, 17  ;  loyalty  to  the  Symbols,  obliga- 
tions involved,  832. 

Luthardt,  on  prayer,  228. 

Luther,  foremost  place  in  the  Reformation, 
29,  406  ;  English  estimate  of,  822  ;  on  the 
apocrypha,  97  ;  the  divine  omnipresence, 
139  ;  providence,  216 ;  efficacy  of  prayer, 
230 ;  prevenient  grace,  427 ;  ministries  of 
the  Spirit,  474  ;  on  absolution,  487  ;  obey- 
ing the  commandments,  513 ;  command- 
ments to  be  valued,  523 ;  regarding  the 
Sabbath,  531 ;  the  tenth  commandment 
543  ;  religious  vows,  582  ;  priestly  celibacy. 
592;  baptism,  675;  need  of  schools,  682; 
thanksgiving,  714. 

Lutheran  Confessions,  29. 

Lutheranism,  general  character  and  tenden 
cy.  667,  826  ;  affinities  with  Episcopacy,  39, 
821. 


850 


INDEX. 


Macaolay,  on  theology  a  finished  product, 
13  ;  the  personality  of  Christ,  331 ;  fidelity 
of  Puritans  to  duty,  509  ;  religious  liberty, 
567. 

Macpherson,  on  sublapsarianism  in  the  As- 
sembly, 188  ;  on  community  of  goods,  619  ; 
agreement  of  the  Protestant  creeds,  822. 

Maine,  on  Jesuit  casuistry,  581. 

Man,  lecture  Fifth,  237-301. 

Man,  biblical  record  of  creation,  238  ;  a  single 
act,  by  divine  fiat,  239  ;  theory  of  evolution 
excluded,  239  ;  unity  of  the  race,  239  ;  ques- 
tion of  antiquity,  240 ;  original  endow- 
ments, physical,  intellectual,  moral,  241 ; 
image  of  God,  243. 

Man  under  law,  294  ;  this  law  defined,  297  ; 
responsible  for  his  acts,  299  ;  his  failure, 
299  ;  still  a  salvable  being,  421 ;  corrupt,  yet 
conscious  and  accountable,  422 ;  needing 
gracious  aid,  422. 

Wanton,  estimate  of  the  Assembly,  43. 

Marriage,  defined,  585  ;  ordained  of  God,  586; 
not  a  sacrament, — Roman  view,  587  ;  duties 
involved,  587 ;  legal  regulation  requisite, 
588 ;  limitations,  as  to  blood  relationship, 
568 ;  recent  declarations  respecting  588 ; 
marrying  in  the  L,ord  enjoined,  589. 

Martensen,  the  three  offices  of  Christ,  325  ; 
inextinguishable  capability  of  good,  755. 

Mary,  worship  of,  forbidden,  704  ;  her  im- 
maculacy, 836. 

Materialism,  130  ;  Carlyle  on,  131. 

McCosh,  on  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  231  ;  prov- 
idential discipline  of  man,  271. 

Means  of  Grace,  means  of  salvation,  695 ; 
the  word,  the  .sacraments  and  prayer,  696  ; 
religious  feasts,  also,  696 ;  fasting  as  a 
weans  of  grace,  697  ;  enlarged  conception 
under  the  Gospel,  697  ;  variations  in  Prot- 
estant usage,  698. 

Mediation,  defined  ;  illustrations,  319  ;  its 
necessity  and  ground,  320 ;  both  internal 
aad  external,  321  ;  full  conception  of,  322  ; 
Cudworth  on,  326. 

Mediator,  Christ  as,  generic  view,  322  ;  con- 
fessional use  of  the  term,  322  ;  his  qualifi- 
cations, personal,  official,  323 ;  doctrine 
vital  in  Christianity,  324  ;  Christ  the  only 
mediator,  324  ;  his  three  offices,  325. 

Melancthon,  invited  to  England,  39  ;  on  the 
argument  for  God,  128  ;  synergistic  teach- 
ing, 279;  free  will  in  man,  291 ;  close  of 
Messiahship,  787. 

Melchizedek,  type  of  Christ,  334. 

Membership  in  the  particular  church,  624  ; 
proper  tests  and  conditions  ;  conversion 
requisite,  625  ;  credible  evidence  needful, 
£27  ;  low  views  pernicious,  628. 

Messianic  promises  ;  the  first,  271 ;  the  four 
primary,  365  ;  in  the  Psalms  and  prophet- 
ical books,  365  ;  Messiahship  fully,  clearly 
disclosed,  366. 


Methodist  Articles  of  Religion,  36 ;  on  the 
need  of  grace,  423. 

Mill,  on  creation,  199  ;  miracle,  219 ;  use  of 
reward  and  penalty  in  moral  government, 
549. 

Millennarianism,  729  ;  creeds  against,  Judaic 
opinions,  726  ;  church  testimony,  737 ;  no 
premillennial  advent  revealed,  765. 

Millennium,  general  view,  727  ;  theories  as 
to  the  future  of  humanity,  728 ;  endless 
movement  without  progress,  728  ;  advance 
through  natural  agencies,  728 ;  ultimate 
decline  and  ruin,  728  ;  biblical  doctrine,  in 
contrast,  729  ;  humanity  complete  through 
the  Gospel,  729. 

Millennium,  time  when,  not  revealed,  730  ; 
three  events  antecedent,  730  ;  conversion  of 
the  Jews,  730  ;  overthrow  of  Antichrist,  731; 
universal  spread  of  the  Gospel,  732  ;  three 
events  to  follow,  731  ;  the  resurrection,  731; 
the  general  judgment,  731  ;  final  coming  of 
Christ,  732  ;  duration  of  the  millennial  era, 
732  ;  Edwards  on,  732  ;  Symbols  on,  734  ; 
current  Presbyterian  opinion,  736. 

Miller,  argument  for  church  creeds,  20. 

Milton,  on  selfhood  as  the  sin  of  Satan,  287  ; 
the  intolerance  of  the  Assembly,  568;  papal 
claim  to  civil  authority,  574 ;  on  schism, 
622  ;  church  discipline,  640  ;  estimates  of 
the  Assembly,  790. 

Ministry,  an  ordinance  of  God,  698  ;  papal 
corruption,  Protestant  restoration,  698 ; 
Westminster  position,  699 ;  the  three  or- 
ders set  aside,  699  ;  how  related  to  other 
ordinances,  700 ;  relation  to  the  sacraments, 
700  ;  qualifications  for  the  office,  701;  special 
demand  of  Presbyterianism,  701 ;  parity  of, 
702 ;  Assembly  as  a  Board  of  Triers,  702. 

Minutes  of  the  Westminster  Assembly; 
Introduction  by  Mitchell,  42,  44. 

Miracle,  defined,  77;  occurring  in  providence, 
218  ;  necessity  of,  218  ;  attestational  value, 
100,  219;  Butler,  Mill,  Hume  on,  220;  miracle 
at  Sinai,  Augustine  on,  521. 

Missions,  Roman  under  IyOyola,  654  ;  early 
English,  Continental,  654  ;  Synod  of  Dort 
on  missions,  655 ;  church  a  missionary 
agency,  664. 

Mitchell,  on  the  Assembly,  43,  791 ;  on  the 
Catechisms,  64  ;  Westminster  view  of  in- 
spiration, 78  ;  canonicity,  102  ;  sublapsa- 
rianism in  the  Assembly,  188  ;  doctrine  of 
the  covenants,  361 ;  liberty  of  conscience, 
568,  817. 

Moderatism  in  Scotland,  in  England,  828. 

Moehler,  on  the  Apocrypha,  96  ;  Roman  doc- 
trine of  justification,  444  ;  confession  and 
absolution,  486  ;  communion  of  saints,  617  ; 
the  intercession  of  the  saints,  617  ;  purga- 
tory, 753. 

Monarchianism  on  the  person  of  Christ,  317. 

Monasticism,  584 ;  Roman  rule,  591  ;  con- 
demned  by    Protestantism,    592;    Jeremy 


INDEX. 


851 


Taylor,  Zwingli,  Luther,  Calvin  on,  592. 

Moral  inability,  in  the  disposition,  278  ;  see 
Ability,  Sin. 

Moral  Government,  defined,  234  ;  distinction 
between  providential  and  moral,  235,  295  ; 
God  as  moral  Governor,  295 ;  principles  in- 
volved, 296  ;  Butler,  Taylor,  Harris  on,  295. 

Moral  Law,  existence  of,  252  ;  source  in  God, 
297 ;  characteristics,  298 ;  supremacy  of, 
298  ;  penalties  of  disobedience,  300  ;  varie- 
ties of  ;  law  of  nature,  written  on  the  heart, 
in  Scripture,  514  ;  uses  of  the  revealed  law, 
516  ;  how  interpreted,  518  ;  Calvin,  Dickson 
on,  514. 

Moral  nature  in  man  as  created,  241 ;  capac- 
ity for  righteousness,  243  ;  innate  or  con- 
created  holiness,  243  ;  image  of  God  in  man, 
243. 

Moral  responsibility  of  man,  297  ;  his  obliga- 
tion to  law  inevitable,  298;  duty  his  supreme 
rule,  297  ;  personal  disobedience,  ground  of 
condemnation,  300.  • 

Morality  and  law,  how  related,  550  ;  law  re- 
quires morality,  550  ;  natural  and  biblical 
compared,  551 ;  highest  type  of  morality  in 
Christianity,  552. 

Mosaism,  its  twofold  mission,  333 ;  purpose 
and  uses  in  redemption,  365. 

Muller,  on  pre-existence,  248. 

Mysticism,  interpretations  of  Scripture,  117. 

Mystery  in  revelation  and  inspiration,  76 ; 
the  being  of  God,  134;  the  trinity  in  God,  175; 
providence,  221 ;  person  of  Christ,  314  ;  his 
mediation,  350 ;  regeneration,  428  ;  resur- 
rection, 769. 

Name  of  God,  significance  of,  529  ;  how  die- 
honored,  530. 

Natural  liberty,  defined,  292. 

Nature  and  Revelation,  how  related,  70  ;  tes- 
timony of  nature  to  God,  128. 

Natural  Theology,  sphere  and  contents,  70. 

Natural  Religion,  possible,  71  ;  contents  and 
nature,  71  ;  its  insufficiency.  71,  112. 

Neal,  revision  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  46. 

Neander,  on  the  Trinity  in  the  early  church, 
172. 

Necessity  the  ruling  law  in  nature,  811. 

Need  of  creeds,  exterior,  7  ;  interior,  8. 

Nescience,  see  Agnosticism. 

Nestorianism,  on  the  person  of  Christ,  315. 

Nicene  Creed,  2jl ;  Filioque  in,  108 ;  on  the 
Father  in  creation,  197  ;  extent  of  creation, 
203  ;  communion  of  saints,  616  ;  resurrec- 
tion, 773. 

Oaths,  576  ;  oath  and  vow  how  distinguished, 
577  ;  making  oath  a  religious  act ;  impreca- 
tory element  involved,  577  ;  various  classes 
of,  577  ;  right  to  require,  obligation  to  make, 
578 ;  limitations,  cannot  oblige  to  sin,  579  ; 
mental  reservation  forbidden,  580 ;  not  to 
he  violated,  580;  Pascal,  on  Jesuit  casuistry  ; 
Maine  on,  581. 


Obedience,  required  of  Adam  and  Eve,  its 
qualities,  253 ;  required  of  all,  personally, 
perpetually,  297,  471 ;  responsibility  for  dis- 
obedience, 297;  miseries  involved,  in  this 
life,  299  ;  obedience  to  the  Spirit,  472. 

Obligation,  moral,  see  Duty,  Uw. 

Oehler,  on  progress  of  doctrine  in  O.  Test., 
367  ;  on  the  fifth  commandment,  537. 

Old  Catholic  creed,  36;  the  minor  sacra- 
ments, 670. 

Omnipotence  of  God,  148 ;  working  through 
secondary  causes,  149  ,  working  without  or 
above  means,  150;  possibility  of  miracle 
implied,  218. 

Omnipresence  of  God,  three-fold  sense,  139. 

Omniscience  of  God,  145  ;  qualities  of  his 
knowledge,  146;  comprehends  all  things 
actual  or  possible,  147  ;  complete  wisdom 
implied,  147. 

Oracles  of  God,  the  Scriptures,  632. 

Ordinances,  Christian,  692 ;  how  related  to 
sacraments,  693  ;  their  number  and  value, 
694  ;  the  Sabbath,  the  sanctuary,  694  ;  means 
of  grace,  695. 

Ordination  to  the  ministry  prescribed,  700  ; 
Assembly,  an  ordaining  Board,  702. 

Origin  of  souls,  247  ;  Cicero,  Augustine  on, 
249;  scholastic  opinion,  Anselm,  Aquinas, 
250 ;  Calvin,  T,otze  on,  251. 

Original  righteousness,  243;  Pelagian,  Ro- 
man view  unsound,  243  ;  true  holiness  in- 
volved, confessional  statements,  244. 

Original  Sin,  transmission  of  sin,  272;  Cal- 
vin, definition  of  the  phrase,  272;  natural 
headship,  272 ;  federal,  273;  immediate  im- 
putation, 274 ;  mediate  imputation,  275  ; 
confessional  teaching,  Hodge  on,  275. 

Owen,  on  justification,  449;  adoption,  460; 
sixteen  standard  doctrines,  817. 

Paley,  definition  of  an  oath,  577 ;  on  mar- 
riage, 586. 

Pantheism,  defined,  135  ;  its  deficiencies. 

Papacy  arraigned  by  Calvin,  656;  an  anti- 
biblical  system,  658  ;  injurious  and  corrupt- 
ing, 659  ;  Pope  not  a  vicar  of  Christ,  658; 
has  no  civil  authority,  573. 

Paradise,  the  original,  244  ;  vocation  of  man 
in,  245 ;  paradise  forfeited,  272 ;  regained 
through  grace,  402. 

Pardon,  under  the  Gospel,  440;  how  related 
to  forgiveness,  440  ;  divine  disposition  in, 
441 ;  its  extent  and  permanence,  441 ;  not 
based  on  human  merit ;  its  ground  in 
Christ  and  his  work,  441 ;  not  the  whole  of 
justification,  442. 

Parents,  duties  of,  538;  see  Membership,  Bap- 
tism. 

Particnlar  Church,  its  constituents,  624; 
membership,  true  and  defective  views,  625; 
general  Protestant  usage,  626 ;  Calvin,  Ed- 
wards on,  626. 

Particular  church,  its  endowments.  630 ;  min- 
istry as  an,  630;  oracles  and  ordinances, 


852 


INDEX. 


631  ;  ministry  and  the  Word,  632 ;  endow- 
ments made  effectual  through  the  Spirit, 
633 ;  ends  secured  through  endowments, 
633. 

Particular  church,  its  organization  and  gov- 
ernment, 634  ;  officers  extraordinary,  now 
ceased,  635 ;  ordinary  and  perpetual,  636 ; 
need  of  such  officers;  Presbyterian  pro- 
vision, 636  ;  ends  to  be  sought  in  ^organiza- 
tion,  637. 

Particular  Judgment,  at  death  ;  distinguished 
from  final  judgment,  761 ;  involves  separa- 
tion of  good  and  evil,  761 ;  this  separation 
judicial,  based  on  character ;  Christ  the 
judge,  762 ;  permanent  in  its  results,  763  ; 
testimony  of  the  creeds. 

Particular  Symbolism  defined,  1,  37. 

Pascal,  on  Jesuitic  casuistry,  580. 

Pearson  on  doctrine  of  the  Spirit,  412  ;  com- 
munion of  saints,  617. 

Pelagianism  on  the  primitive  character  of 
man,  243  ;  on  the  corruption  induced  by  sin, 
276  ;  on  divine  grace, ?433. 

Penance,  Roman  doctrine  of,  485 ;  no  substi- 
tute for  repentance,  486. 

Perfection  in  God,  157  ;  the  divine  character 
complete,  159. 

Perfection  in  man,  whether  possible  on  earth, 
501 ;  different  conceptions  of,  502  ;  Roman 
view  ;  Wesley  on,  |502';  sanctification  com- 
pleted only  at  death,  502. 

Permission  of  sin,  261  ;  the  permissive  de- 
cree, 262  ;  sin  not  independent  of  God,  263  ; 
confessional  statements,  264 ;  theories  re- 
specting, 264. 

Perseverance,  permanence  of  the  Christian 
life,  494 ;  Roman  perversion,  Arminian 
error,  495  ;  not  dependent  on  the  renewed 
will,  496;  but  on  divine  election,  mediation 
of  Christ,  work  of  the  Spirit,  497 ;  saints 
falling  away,  498. 

Person,  the  term  defined,  164 ;  its  theologic 
limitations,  164  ;  IyOcke  on,  Calvin  on,  164  ; 
differentiating  properties  in  the  divine  per- 
sons, 166 ;  confessional  definitions,  169. 

Personality  in  Christ  single  ;  two  natures  in, 
313;  neither  divine  nor  human  nature  to 
be  excluded,  316. 

Place  of  man  in  nature,  244 ;  his  dominion 
over,  his  moral  stewardship,  245. 

Plan  of  Salvation,  L,ecture  Seventh,  352- 
404. 

Plan  of  Salvation,  decree  from  eternity, 
356,  401 ;  sovereign,  free,  unchangeable, 
357,403;  perfect  and  complete  ;  creed  state- 
ments, 358,  402  ;  historically  unfolded,  382  ; 
effectual  in  application,  403. 

Plato,  on  redemption,  402 ;  laws  the  souls  of 
states,  514. 

Plumptre,  on  biblical  term,  destruction,  746. 

Polity,  how  far  defined  in  Scripture,  647  ; 
'liversities  at  the   Reformation,  648  ;  three 


types  of  polity  developed,  649  ;  resulting 
conflicts  ;  how  far  agreed,  650. 

Polygamy,  patriarchal  usage  noted,  589; 
Council  of  Trent  on';  Protestant  condem- 
nation of,  589. 

Polytheism  in  all  varieties  forbidden,  132, 525. 

Pope,  civil  rule  of,  573  ;  Protestant  opposi- 
tion, Milton  on,  574  ;  creed  statements,  575 ; 
Syllabus  Errorum  on,  576;  claim  wholly 
invalid,  576 ;  see  Papacy. 

Positivism,  valuable,  yet  inadequate,  72; 
Christianity  the  universal  religion,  404. 

Power  of  God,  in  creation,  199  ;  in  grace,  373, 
omnipotent. 

Power  of  the  Keys,  right  of  discipline,  638, 
hierarchal  usurpation  of,  638 ;  vested  in 
the  church  ;  Protestant  view,  639  ;  elements 
of,  640  ;  see  Discipline. 

Praise  to  God,  its  nature  ;  Edwards  on,  713  ; 
elements  of  public  praise,  713  ;  Directory 
on,  714. 

Prayer,  its  constituents,  228  ;  Kant,  I,uthardt, 
Tyndallon,  228;  answered  in  providence  ; 
theories,  229  ;  ford's  Prayer,  exposition  of, 
231 ;  confessional  definitions,  231. 

Prayer  in  worship,  elements  of,  713 ;  Protes- 
tant belief  in  prayer,  716  ;  constituents  and 
range  of,  717 ;  prayer  for  the  dead  forbid- 
den, 717  ;  in  foreign  tongues  ;  carelessness 
in  prayer  rebuked,  718. 

Preaching,  part  of  public  worship,  707  ;  from 
the  earliest  ages,  Justin  Martyr  on,  708  ;  re- 
stored at  the  Reformation,  708 ;  qualifica- 
tions requisite  ;  method  and  spirit  in,  709  ; 
Directory,  rules  to  be  regarded,  710. 

Predestination,  defined,  involved  in  the  idea 
of  God  as  Spirit,  137  ;  unto  life,  357. 

Pre-existence  of  man,  theory  of  ;  Muller  on, 
248. 

Presbyterian  Alliance,  on  communion  of 
saints,  619  ;  fetter  of  Dorner  to,  832. 

Presbyterian  polity,  646  ;  constitutional  ele- 
ments and  features,  647 ;  general  warrant 
in  Scripture,  648 ;  reasons  in  its  favor,  648  ; 
its  development  at  the  Reformation,  649  ; 
agreemetits  with  other  polities,  650 ;  its 
proved  value,  793  ;  its  diffusion,  831. 

Presbyt.  Review,  case  of  Best,  536 ;  John 
Durie  and  his  work,  824. 

Preservation,  see  Providence. 

Preservation  of  Scripture  providential,  101. 

Preteritiou,  194,  395  ;  confessional  statements, 
396,813;  Calvin  on,  396;  later  Calvinism, 
812. 

Priest  and  Sacrifice,  Christ  as,  332;  uni- 
versal Protestant  recognition  ;  Roman  and 
Greek  belief  in,  333  ;  qualities  of  Christ  as 
priest,  333  ;  qualities  as  our  sacrifice,  334  ; 
Christ  both  priest  and  sacrifice,  335. 

Primeval  man,  erroneous  theories,  246;  his 
glorious  place  in  nature,  246;  Argyle  on, 
247. 

Private  interpretation,  right  and  duty,  112. 

Probation,  man  under  law  ;  its  nature,  252  ; 


INDEX. 


853 


involving  the  race  in  effect,  259  ;  all  men 
under  probation,  297. 
Probation,  after  death,  757;  in  what  form, 
for  what  classes,  757  ;  arguments  urged  in 
support,  758  ;  witness  of  Scripture  against, 
758  ;  theology  and  symbolism  against,  759. 

Process  of  Salvation,  Lecture  Eighth,  405- 
460. 

Process  of  Salvation,  complex,  personal, 
407 ;  various  conceptions,  410  ;  variety  in 
aspect,  436. 

Procession  of  the  Spirit,  168,  416  ;  from  the 
Father,  from  the  Son,  417  ;  not  secondary 
to  either,  360,  417. 

Profanity  in  all  forms  forbidden,  529 ;  civil 
legislation  ;  offense  against  society,  531. 

Profession  of  faith  required,  625 ;  qualities 
of,  626  ;  false  profession,  627. 

Progress  of  doctrine  in  the  Bible.  366  ;  Oehler 
on,  in  O.  T.,   Bernard  on,  in   N.  T.,  367. 

Progress  in  the  Symbols,  405. 

Property,  crimes  against,  in  all  varieties  for- 
bidden, 540. 

Properties,  differentiating  in  the  trinity,  167; 
begotten  and  proceeding,  167,  169 ;  Christ, 
only  begotten,  306. 

Prophecy,  defined  ;  evidential  uses  of,  100 ; 
ceased  under  the  Gospel,  635. 

Prophet,  Christ  as  ;  biblical  conception,  328 
as  the  LjOgos,  prophet  by  nature,  329 
supreme  teacher,  supreme  foreteller,  330 
value  of  his  teachings,  his  prophecies,  331 
his  example  as  prophet,  331. 

Protestant  Confessions,  comparative  view,  31, 
798,  826  ;  confessional  value,  32. 

Providence,  defined ;  preservation  included 
in,  214  ;  also  government,  216  ;  method  of 
God  in,  217  ;  providence  and  miracle,  218  ; 
relation  to  second  causes,  221 ;  vastness, 
minuteness,  complexity  of,  222 ;  how  re- 
lated to  freedom,  to  human  sin,  222. 

Providence  over  saints,  226  ;  over  the  church, 
227  ;  over  the  Scriptures,  227  ;  providence 
and  prayer,  228 ;  over  the  wicked,  231  ; 
divine  tenderness  and  patience  in,  232 ; 
chastising  the  incorrigible,  232  ;  sometimes 
retributive,  233  ;  dealing  with  fallen  angels, 
233. 

Punishments  of  sin  in  this  life  ;  inward,  ex- 
ternal, 300;  future  punishment  certain,  780; 
Butler,  Jackson  on,  780  ;  see  Hell. 

Purgatory,  Council  of  Trent  on,  752  ;  practi- 
cal mischiefs  of  the  dogma,  753 ;  Protes- 
tant creeds  against ;  no  biblical  foundation 
for,  754. 

Purity  of  the  church,  655  ;  church  exposed  to 
error,  to  corruption,  655  ;  churches  may  de- 
generate, 656 ;  church  of  Rome  styled  a 
svnagogue  of  Satan,  656  ;  better  estimate 
oossible  :  Calvin  on,  659. 

Race  Human  :  origin  of,  238  ;  unity,  239  ; 
antiouity.  240 


Rainy,  on  revision  of  the  Symbols,  837. 

Rationalism,  72;  see  Reason. 

Reason,  an  insufficient  guide,  71  ;  Butler  on, 
72  ;  reason  and  Scripture,  117  ;  reason  not 
an  ultimate  authority,  118. 

Reconciliation  between  God  and  man,  why 
needful,  319,  354  ;  how  secured,  373  ;  com- 
plete in  Christ,  324,  374. 

Redeemer,  redemption,  see  Mediator,  Salva- 
tion, 353  ;  covenant  of  redemption  defined, 
358. 

Reformation,  The,  its  formal  principle,  64;  its 
complex  character;  Guizot  on,  461;  its 
contribution  to  the  Christian  life,  462. 

Reformation  in  Britain,  its  general  charac- 
ter, 38  ;  earlier  British  creeds,  38  ;  develop- 
ments prior  to  the  Assembly,  40. 

Reformed  Churches,  their  pronounced  Cal- 
vinism ;  their  substantial  unity,  822. 

Reformed  Confessions,  29. 

Reformed  Episcopacy,  Articles  of,  36. 

Regeneration, defined,  Holy  Spirit  its  author, 
430 ;  biblical  descriptions  ;  Synod  of  Dort 
on,  431 ;  relations  to  conversion,  432 ;  to 
sanctification,  438. 

Regula  Fidei,  Rule  of  Faith,  7. 

Religious  usages  not  enjoined  in  the  New 
Test.;  agape,  anointing,  kiss  of  peace, 
washing  of  feet,  692. 

Remonstrance,  Arminian;30;  on  the  divine 
potency,  150  ;  on  the  status  of  infants,  281 ; 
the  eternal  purpose  to  save,  389  ;  persever- 
ance, 495;  assurance,  505  ;J  just  condemna- 
tion on  account  of  sin,  813. 

Repentance.  481 ;  how  related  to  faith,  481 
distinguished  from  regret,  from  remorse 
482  ;  from  false  conviction,  penitence,  483 
Calvin  on  ;  creed  statements,  483  ;  two  ele 
ments  in  ;  contrition,  renunciation,  484 
Roman  definition,  its  serious  defects,  484 
doctrine  of  repentance  to  be  faithfully 
preached,  484. 

Reprobation,  defined,  194,395;  preterition.a 
cognate,  meliorating  term,  396  ;  creed  state- 
ments, 397  ;  severities  of  the  doctrine  miti- 
gated, 399,  813  ;  later  Calvinistic  statements, 
400,  813  ;  recent  Revision  on,  401,  814. 

Responsibility,  nature  and  extent,  298,514. 

Restorationism,  see  Probation  after  death. 

Resurrection,  universal  fact  yet  to  occur, 
769 ;  at  the  final  advent,  other  views  un- 
warranted, 769;  mysterious,  yet  not  incred- 
ible, 770;  presumptions  for  and  against,  770  ; 
belief  fully  warranted  by  Scripture  ;  im- 
portance of  the  doctrine,  771. 

Resurrection  of  Christ,  evidences  in  proof, 
77i;  sustains  belief  in  universal  resurrec- 
tion, 772  ;  the  raised  body,  nature  of  iden- 
tity, 772;  testimony  of  the  Christian  creeds, 
773;  relation  of  resurrection  to  the  final 
judgment,  773. 

Revelation,  defined,  72 ;  objections,  73  ;  God 
determines  the  question  of  need  ;  also  of 
contents    and    modes,    74  ;    sin  and  grace 


854 


INDEX. 


necessitate,  74  ;  process  of,  75 ;  universal  in 
scope  and  aim,  75  ;  progressive,  complete, 
final,  91  ;  false  revelations  to  be  rejected, 
111. 

Revelations  of  Christ  before  the  incarnation, 
307. 

Reverence  to  parents  enjoined,  538. 

Revision  of  creeds,  right  and  duty  ;  condi- 
tions of,  14  ;  revision  of  the  Symbols  ;  his- 
toric illustrations,  836;  extent,  conditions, 
spirit  of,  837. 

Revision,  The  Proposed,  on  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  89  ;  external  evidences  of, 
100  ;  creation,  204  ;  modifying  definition  of 
depravity,  278;  unrenewed  persons,  their 
works,  280,  493  ;  salvability  of  infants  dy- 
ing in  infancy,  282  ;  of  other  elect  persons, 
of  the  heathen  284  ;  natural  liberty,  free- 
dom of  the  will,  293;  chapter  on  the  Gos- 
pel, 379 ;  analysis,  380 ;  reprobation  and 
pretention,  401;  chapter  on  the  Holy  Spirit, 
analysis,  413 ;  extensiveness  of  common 
grace,  426 ;  marriage  with  unbelievers, 
589  ;  the  pope  not  the  vicar  of  Christ,  658. 
Omissions  proposed  ;  the  term,  testament, 
364  ;  the  eternal  decree,  in  part,  401  ;  anti- 
christ as  applied  to  the  pope,  658  ;  the  sin 
unto  death,  prayer  respecting,  718  ;  melior- 
ating influence  of  the  Revision,  810,  839. 

Reward,  and  penalty  in  moral  government, 
547  ;  Mill  on,  549  ;  Christ  on,  549. 

Reynolds,  on  ingenerating  religious  knowl- 
edge, 663. 

Righteousness  in  God,  151  ;  not  impugned  by 
sin.  153,  399  ;  righteousness  of  Christ,  439  ; 
how  imputed,  442. 

Ritual,  see  I,iturgy. 

Rome,  church  :of,  how  to  be  viewed,  659  ; 
Calvin  on,  658. 

Roman  Creeds,  34 ;  see  Trent,  Council  of, 
Vatican  Decrees,  Syllabus  Errorum. 

Rous,  version  of  the  Psalms,  715. 

Sabbath,  threefold  enactment;  at  creation, 
at  Sinai,  at  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  533  ; 
change  of  day  justified,  534  ;  foundation  in 
nature,  534  ;  works  of  necessity  and  mercy 
permitted,  534  ;  civil  legislation  respecting, 
535  ;  particular  questions,  535. 

Sabellian  doctrine  of  Christ,  317. 

Sacraments,  Ordinances.  Worship  ;  lec- 
ture Thirteenth,  667-721. 

Sacraments,  definitions  of,  668  ;  divinely  in- 
stituted, primary  and  secondary  design, 
669 ;  Roman,  Greek,  Protestant  doctrine 
respecting,  670  ;  Protestantism  accepts  two 
only,  reasons,  670  ;  real  meaning  and  value 
of,  671 ;  the  five  minor  sacraments  unwar- 
ranted, 671  ;  Tridentine  dogma,  Moehler, 
in  defense  of,  672  ;  origin  of  the  sacraments 
in  Hebraism,  672;  churchly  ordinances,  673  ; 
efficacy  not   dependent   on   officials,  673 ; 


duty  of  faithful  observance,  435,  674;  yet 
not  necessary  to  salvation,  674. 

Sacred  times,  canonical  hours,  721. 

Sacrifice,  its  primal  design,  333,  365;  Christ 
as  sacrifice  ;  his  perfection,  334. 

Salvation,  described,  353  ;  need  of,  354  ;  its 
comprehensive  nature,  355 ;  Roman,  Prot- 
estant doctrine,  356;  Socinian,  humanita- 
rian error,  Channing  on,  355. 

Salvation  a  process  ;  objective  and  subjective 
elements,  407 ;  biblical  language  used  to 
describe,  408 ;  the  Spirit  supreme  in,  410; 
his  special  activities,  416  ;  human  soul  en- 
gaged throughout,  421  ;  how  far  obtained 
in  and  through  the  church,  609. 

Salvation  after  death,  see  Intermediate  I<ife. 

Sanctification,  defined,  452  ;  the  whole  man 
involved  ;  a  divine,  human  work,  453  ;  the 
image  of  God  reproduced  in,  454  ;  progres- 
sive dying  unto  sin,  living  unto  righteous- 
ness, 454  ;  the  two  processes  simultaneous  ; 
human  responsibility  for,  455 ;  may  be  ar- 
rested or  impaired,  456 ;  completed  only 
at  death,  456  ;  Protestantism  substantially 
agreed,  457. 

Sanctuary,  Christian  ;  its  value  to  religion, 
694. 

Satan,  a  real  being,  the  original  tempter,  205; 
symbolic  testimonies  respecting,  206 ;  earl- 
ier and  later  theology  on,  206  ;  confederacy 
of  fallen  angels,  207  ;  Satan,  his  nature  and 
fall,  266;  his  agency  in  the  first  temptation, 
267 ;  confessional  affirmations,  268 ;  ar- 
raigned at  the  judgment,  777  ;  condemned 
with  reprobate  men,  778  ;  see  Angels. 

Satisfaction  of  Christ,  335  ;  equivalent  terms; 
atonement,  expiation,  substitution,  merit, 
336;  elements  of  this  satisfaction,  337; 
Anselm,  Edwards,  Butler,  on,  337 ;  pro- 
found mystery  involved  ;  the  essential  fact 
clear,  337 ;  extent  of  application  ;  its  com- 
pleteness, 338. 

Saving:  Faith,  confessional  definitions,  474  ; 
other  varieties  of  faith,  476 ;  saving  faith 
reasonable,  478  ;  an  active  grace,  479  ;  pow- 
erful in  effect,  480  ;  essential  to  Christian 
manhood,  480  ;  Edwards,  Bushnell  on,  477  ; 
see  Faith. 

Saving  Knowledge,  how  gained,  119  ;  obli- 
gation to  seek  it,  121. 

Savonarola,  on  the  true  church,  625. 

Savoy,  Council  of,  55 ;  doctrinal  and  ecclesi- 
astical basis,  56;  testimony  to  the  times,  53. 

Savoy  Declaration,  on  Christian  liberty, 
559  ;  on  the  ministry,  699  ;  standard  of  or- 
thodoxy, 817. 

Saxon  Articles  on  baptism,  675. 

Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  31 ;  on  Augs- 
burg Confession,  39  ;  on  Shorter  Catechism, 
64  ;  on  Westminster  doctrine  of  the  will, 
291 ;  church  end  state,  573  ;  communion  of 
saints,  617 ;  Synod  of  Dort,  791 ;  Second 
Helvetic  Conf .,  799. 


INDEX. 


855 


Schism,   forbidden,  622  ;  wherein  it  consists, 

623. 
Schleiermacher,  on  the  holiness  of  God,  158. 
Scholasticism,  as  related  to  creeds,  27  ;  its 

function  and  weakness,  28. 
Schools,  lather  on,  682  ;  Knox  on,  682  ;  Prot- 
estantism on,  683. 
Scotch.  Confession,  30,  39  ;  on  the  authority 
of  Scripture,  67  ;  its  sufficiency,  119  ;  unity 
of  God,  124  ;  providence,  217  ;  man  as  cre- 
ated, 247  ;  the  fall,  268  ;  salvation  of  infants, 
281 ;  Christology,  304 ;  two  natures  in  Christ, 
317  ;  his  three  offices,  326  ;  the  kingship  of 
Christ,  340 ;  the  Gospel,  370 ;  deadness  of 
the  sinner,  432  ;  acceptance  through  Christ 
only,  443 ;  good  works,  499 ;  obeying  the 
commandments,  512;  the  civil  magistrate, 
569  ;  civil  rule  of  popes,  575 ;  church  coun- 
cils, 643  ;  eschatology,  726  ;  psychopanny- 
chism,  750 ;  resurrection,  779 ;  universal 
judgment,  779. 
Scripture,    The   Holy,    Lecture   Second, 

6&-123. 
Scripture,  supremacy  of,  66 ;    place  in  the 
Symbols,  68;  inerrancy  of,  83  ;  transmission, 
86 ;  obscuration  of  time,  87 ;  errors  in  in- 
terpreting, 88;  alleged  errors  considered,  89. 
Scripture,    contents    of,    92;     Canon,    par- 
ticular  books,    93 ;    completeness   of,    99 ; 
preservation,  101 ;  duty  of  translating  and 
diffusing,  102. 
Scripture,  creed  elements  in,  21 ;  Bible  the 
supreme  law  within  the  church,  053 ;  the 
end  of  all  controversies,  654. 
Second  Advent,  see  Christ,  final  Advent. 
Second  Causes,  as  necessary,   190  ;  as  free, 

191  ;  as  contingent,  192. 
Second  Table  of  the  I,aw,  duties  toward  man, 
539  ;  four  primal  sins  forbidden,  539  ;  four 
obligations  enjoined,  540  ;  comprehensive- 
ness of  these  commands,  541  ;  biblical  ref- 
erences  appended,    541 ;    civil   legislation 
correspondent,  542. 
Sects,  how  far  justified,  620 ;  geographic  dis- 
tribution of  churches,  621 ;  other  principles 
of   distribution,     621 ;     sectarianism     and 
schism  forbidden  622 ;  uses  of  denomina- 
tions,  623;    spiritual    communion    funda- 
mental, 623. 
Selfhood,  the  root  of  all  sin,  287. 
Sermon  on   the    Mount,    an    exposition   of 

moral  law,  546. 
Servetus,   his  humanitarian  view  of  Christ, 

315  ;  his  fate,  565. 
Shedd,  theories  as  to  the  origin  of  souls,  250  ; 
the  headship  of  Adam,  261  ;  on  the  phrase, 
other  elect  persons,  283 ;  covenant  of  re- 
demption, 360;  procession  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  417  ;  particular  judgment,  762  ;  on 
the  doctrine  of  future  punishment,  781. 
Sheol,  see  Hades,  752. 

Sin,  origin  of,  210,  262;  divine  permission; 
overruled  for  good,  210,  261 ;  its  existence 


no  reflection  on  God  ;  Confessions  on,  224; 
problem  of,  263  ;  not  a  natural    necessity, 
265  ;  see  Original  Sin. 
Sin  personal,  four  aspects,  285;  transgres- 
sion, 285  ;  want  of   conformity  ;  rebellion 
against   God,    286;    selfhood,    287;   in   all 
forms  voluntary,   invariable  guilt  of,  288 ; 
defective  and  false  conceptions,  289. 
Sinner,    spiritual    deadness   of,  421 ;  nature 
and  extent  of,  422  ;  diverse  views  respect- 
ing, 422,  432  ;  liabilities  to  error,  424. 
Singing,  as  an  ordinance   in  worship,  714; 

Rous,  version  of  Psalms,  715. 
Sinlessness  of  Christ,  331. 
Six  days  of  creation,  202  ;  Augustine  on  ;  re- 
cent ecclesiastical  declarations,  202. 
Slander  in  all  forms  condemned,  540. 
Sleep  of  the  soul,  see  Psychopannychism. 
Smalcald    Articles,    29;    on   supremacy    of 

Scripture,  66. 
Smeaton,  on  doctrine  of  the  Spirit,  412. 
Smith,   H.   P..,   definition  of  decree,  181  ;  on 
the  covenant  of  works,  260  ;  responsibility 
for  sin,  299  ;  the  incarnation,  309  ;  the  par- 
ticular judgment,  762. 
Smith,  J.  Pye,  on  spiritual  influence  of  trini- 
tarianism,  176  ;  execution  of  the  divine  de- 
crees, 190. 
Socinianism,  317  ;  see  Christology. 
.Socrates,  on  need  of   divine  help,  373, 421 : 

immortality,  741  ;  future  judgment,  781. 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  adopted  by 
Parliament  and  Assembly,  46  ;  proposed  as 
basis  of  Protestant  union,  825  ;  at  the  Res- 
toration burned  by  public  hangman,  48; 
its  denunciation  of  papacy  and  church  of 
Rome,  595. 
Son  of  God,  305;  only    begotten,  306;  Arian 
and  humanitarian    error,   306;  sonship  aw 
eternal  fact,  307. 
Soul,   not  pre-existent.   248 ;  in  man  as  cre- 
ated. 241  ;  origin  of  s-ouls,  247. 
Sovereignty  of  God,  137  ;  basis  in  his  nature, 
138  ;  and  in  his  relations  to  his  creatures, 
149;  shown    in  providence,  216;  in  grace, 
357. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  proof  of  God,  129. 
Spirit,   God   a    spirit,   133  ;  his  attributes  a= 
spirit,  139  ;  spirituality  a  fundamental  fact, 
142. 
Spirit,  Holy,  see  Holy  Spirit. 
Spiritualism,    condemned.    111  ;    all  alleged 

revelations  to  be  rejected,  111. 
Sprecher,  on  Lutheran  view  of  the  Supper, 

688. 
Stanley,    on    Westminster  Article  on  Scrip- 
ture,  122;  Ten   Commandments,    523;   oit 
Baxter,  790  ;  on  the  Symbols,  their  texture, 
logical  quality  ;  their  firm  hold,  827. 
State   and   Church,    see    Civil    Magistrate: 

Christianity  in  the  state,  598. 
Stillingfleet,  on  the  trinily,  167. 
SuDlapsariarjism,    in    the    Assembly.    187; 
Macpherson,  Mitchell,  Ilodgeon,  188. 


856 


INDEX. 


Subordinatiotiism  in  the  Trinity,  168,  360. 

Subscription  to  creeds,  rule  of,  58  ;  conflicts 
respecting,  59  ;  subscription  to  the  Sym- 
bols, its  nature,  832  ;  true  loyalty  involved, 
835. 

Suffering,  as  related  to  sin,  252,  737. 

Sam  of  Saving  Knowledge,  on  sin  as  self- 
hood, 287 ;  Christology,  305 ;  the  three 
offices,  325  •  Christ  as  prophet,  329  ;  accep- 
tance, 443;  faith  and  obedience,  555;  on 
the  use  of  Christian  doctrine,  465. 

Supererogation,  works  of,  583. 

Supralapsarianism  in  the  Assembly,  187. 

Suspension  from  church  privileges,  642. 

Syllabus  Errorum,  on  the  church  and  the 
the  state  576,  602 ;  marriage  a  sacrament, 
587. 

Symbolism,  defined,  generic  and  particular, 
1 ;  symbolic  theology,  sphere  and  relations, 
1 ;  values  of  symbolic  study,  2,  36  ;  spirit  to 
be  cherished,  37. 

Synagogue  of  Satan,  Roman  church  so  de- 
scribed, 659, 

Synergistic  Controversy,  291. 

Synods  and  Councils,  desirable,  642  ;  sphere 
of  synodical  action,  644;  liability  to  error, 
645 ;  variety  in  composition  and  aim,  645  ; 
authority  of,  646 ;  Tertullian,  on  early 
Councils,  644. 

Tables,  The  Two,  of  the  I<aw  ;  earlier  and 
later  divisions  ;  Roman,  Reformed,  523. 

Taylor,  Isaac,  on  growth  of  celibacy  in  the 
early  church,  590;  the  intermediate  life, 
750  ;  experience  after  death,  762. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  on  the  evils  of  celibacy,  591 . 

Taylor,  N.  W.,  on  Moral  Government,  295. 

Teleological  argument  for  God,  128. 

Temptation,  the  original,  265;  Satan  the 
tempter,  266 ;  his  nature  and  fall ;  tempta- 
tion universal,  268;  temptation  of  our 
J^ord,  268. 

Ten  Commandments,  519 ;  relation  to  moral 
law  in  general,  519 ;  when  and  how  en- 
acted, 520  ;  supernatural  origin  and  quality, 
520 ;  miracle  at  their  announcement,  521 ; 
the  record  historically  true,  521 ;  certain 
special  characteristics,  522 ;  variations  in 
language  of  records,  523;  division  into 
two  tables,  523;  obligatory  on  all  men,  525; 
warnings  against  disobedience,  527;  corres- 
ponding promises,  538. 

Tenth  Commandment,  its  unity,  542;  its 
transitional  nature,  542;  its  spiritual  test- 
ing, 543  ;  I^utheron,  543;  introductory  to  the 
law  of  Christ,  544  ;  Ursinus  on,  544. 

Tertullian,  on  the  early  Councils,  644. 

Testaments,  (covenants)  Old  and  New,  364. 

Thanksgiving,  public,  enjoined,  713  ;  nature 
and  extent  of,  714. 

Theology,  progressive,  12  ;  exists  under  lim- 
itations, 13 ;  error  of  Macaulay,  13 ;  theol- 
ogy never  complete. 

Thirtv-Nine  Articles,  30;  in  substance  Cal- 


vinistic,     39 ;     revised     by      Westminster 
Assembly,  46 ;  their  enduring  quality  and 
influence,  827  ;  on  supremacy  of  Scripture, 
67,  116;  the  apocrypha,  97;  God  defined  in, 
125  ;  the  depravation  of  the  race,  279  ;  Chris- 
tology, 303  ;  sinlessness  of  Christ,  323  ;  elec- 
tion, 384 ;  spiritual  value  of  this  doctrine, 
392 ;  acceptance  through  Christ,  443  ;  good 
works,  493  ;  perseverance,    496  ;  obedience 
to  divine  law,  512  ;  concupiscence,  547  ;  the 
civil  magistrate,  570 ;  civil  rule  of  popes, 
575;   celibacy,    593;   the  church,  604;   the 
church  of  Rome,  659  ;  definition  of  the  sac- 
raments,   688  ;'  purgatory,   753  ;   American 
revision  of,  643. 
Three  Offices  of   Christ   as    mediator,  324; 
grounds  of  this   distribution,  325;  history 
of  the  analysis,  325 ;  Eusebius  on,   Calvin 
on,  325 ;  objections  to,  326  ;  all  analytic  de- 
scriptions inadequate,  327. 
Toleration,  imperfectly    apprehended,  564; 
the  Westminster  doctrine  of,  561,815;  two 
instances  of    intolerance,  566 ;   toleration 
gradually    developed;     Mitchell,    Masson 
on,  817  ;  plea  of  the  Provincial  Assembly, 
819 ;  Toleration  Act  of  1689,  573 ;   further 
improvement ;  present  doctrine,  574. 
Tradition  rejected  by  Protestantism,  115. 
Traducianism    defined,  248 ;   its  claim  con- 
sidered, 249. 
Transubstantiation,  686. 
Trent,  Council  of,  its  Canons,  34,  122,  458 ; 
on  the  apocrypha,  96 ;  church  interpreta- 
tion of   Scripture,    115 ;    the   salvation  of 
infants,  280;    Christology,  311;  the  priest- 
hood and  sacrifice  of  Christ,  333 ;  the  des- 
census ad  inferos,  347;    justification,  439, 
458;  saving  faith,  476 ;  churchly  absolution, 
486;  good   works,    489;  obedience   to   the 
commandments,  510  ;   the  priesthood,  631 ; 
the  power  of  the  keys,  638  ;  purgatory,  753. 
Tridentine    Catechism ;    Tridentine    Profes- 
sion, 34,  625. 
Trinity  in  God  defined,  160 ;  internal,  166 ; 
external,  170;  proofs  adduced,  172;  objec- 
tions noted,  174  ;  spiritual  effect  of  the  doc- 
trine,  174 ;  Confessions  on,   Chalcedonian 
statement,  166. 
Trinity  in  salvation,  171  ;  functions  of  the 

divine  Persons,  172,  360,  410, 
Tritheistic  tendency  among  trinitarians,  163. 
Trust  in  God ;  Father,   Son  and  Spirit,  470  ; 

trust  in  the  Spirit,  its  basis,  471. 
Truthfulness  of  God,   its  nature,  156  ;  mani- 
fest in  providence,  in  Scripture,  in  the  Gos- 
pel, 156. 
Truth's  Victory  Over  Error,  (Dickson)  on 
the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  79;  human 
activity  in  conversion,   433 ;    perseverance 
of  the  saints,  494  ;  Christian  perfection,  503; 
moral  law  identical  in  all  forms,  515. 
Two  Estates  of  Christ,  humiliation  and  ex- 
altation, 314  ;  humiliation  beginning  in  the 
kenosis,  continued  through  life,  culmiuat- 


INDEX. 


857 


mgiu  death,  345;  the  descensus,  the  point  of 
transition,  346;  exaltation,  in  resurrection 
and  ascension,  347  ;  ruler  over  his  people, 
earthly  and  heavenly,  348  ;  judge  over  all, 
individual  and  general,  348. 

Tyndall,  prayer  answered  in  providence,  230. 

Types  and  promises  realized  in  Christ,  361. 

Ultimate  Consummation,  following  resur- 
rection and  judgment,  786 ;  kingdom  of 
redemption  ended,  786  ;  combustion  of  the 
earth,  787. 

Unitarian  conception  of  Christ,  318 ;  see 
Christ. 

United  Church,  Scotland,  on  salvability  of 
the  heathen,  284  ;  universality  of  the  Gos- 
pel, 378  ;  reprobation,  400 ;  works  of  the 
unregenerate,  493  ;  religious  liberty,  573. 

Unity  of  the  race,  natural  evidences,  239  ; 
moral  unity  described,  240  ;  biblical  proofs, 
239. 

Universalism,  restorationism,  unwarranted. 
353,  374,  751,  757,  780. 

Universe,  material,  its  magnitude,  203. 

Urim  and  Thummim,  Shechinah,  pre-Chris- 
tian fcvms  of  revelation,  76. 

Ursinus,  on  interpreting  the  commandments, 
.r)18  ;  on  tenth  commandment,  544. 

Uses  of  the  moral  law,  512  ;  to  all,  516  ;  to  the 
unregenerate,  516  ;  to  Christians,  517. 

Ussher,  on  justification  and  adoption,  450. 

Van  Oosterzee,  on  the  three  offices  of 
Christ,  326  ;  the  future  of  the  earth,  728. 

Vatican  Council,  on  papal  infallibity,  109  ; 
definition  of  God,  125  ;  creation,  207. 

Virtue,  nature  of,  see  Duty,  L,aw,  Morality. 

Voluntaryism  in  America,  572. 

Vow  defined,  581 ;  inferior  senses,  582  ;  mon- 
astic vows,  Protestant  Confessions  on,  583  ; 
limitations  of  vows ;  must  be  voluntary, 
in  conscience,  with  biblical  warrant,  583  ; 
not  works  of  supererogation,  584;  L,uther, 
Calvin  on,  582. 

Vulgate,  Roman  estimate,  96;  Protestant,  103. 

Warburton,  development  of  law  in  Scrip- 
ture, 520. 

Warfield,  on  salvation  of  infants,  281. 

Watson,  on  falling  from  grace,  498. 

Wesley,  on  election,  387  ;  on  the  corrupt  state 
of  man,  423  ;  falling  away,  498  ;  Christian 
perfection,  502;  estimate  of  Madame  Guyon, 
584. 

Westminster  Assembly,  The  ;  l,ecture 
Fifteenth,  789-840. 

Whateley,  on  the  constitution  of  primitive 
churcb  :s,  6t8  ;  slumber  in  the  intermediate 
state,  750. 

White,  on  conditional  immortality,  746. 


Westminster  Assembly;  producing  cau-<  s 
and  origin,  40;  composition  and  organiza- 
tion, 42  ;  character  and  qualifications  of  its 
membership,  43,  795  ;  its  sessions  and  pro- 
cedure, 44  ;  its  ecclesiastical  and  liturgical 
labors,  45;  its  doctrinal  work  and  products, 
49,  797  ;  difficulties,  political  and  religious, 
encountered,  52,  795;  its  consecration,  re- 
ligious temper  and  purpose,  54,  797 ;  its 
final  dissolution,  55. 

Westminster  Assembly,  estimates  of  it  and 
its  work  ;  Manton,  43  ;  Winer,  51  ;  Briggs, 
55 ;  Milton,  568,  790,  795  ;  Clarendon,  Hal- 
lam,  Masson,  7S9  ;  Baxter,  Hetherington, 
790;  Stoughton,  Schaff,  Mitchell,  791; 
Blunt,  Marsden,  801 ;  Stanley,  824,  827. 

Westminster  Symbols,  when  and  how 
framed,  49  ;  general  quality,  61,  797  ;  ac- 
ceptance, in  England,  in  Scotland,  56  ;  in 
America  ;  the  Adopting  Act,  58 ;  approved 
in  New  England,  60;  subsequent  career  in 
Britain,  827  ;  prized  by  continental  Protes- 
tantism, 822  ;  their  cosmic  diffusion  and  in- 
fluence, 831. 

Westminster  Symbols,  their  general  struc- 
ture, 62,  237,  405,  556 ;  system  and  order, 
352,  462,  800  ;  theological  completeness,  799 ; 
spiritual  quality,  804  ;  compared  with  other 
Protestant  creeds,  61,  798,  826. 

Will,  theories  respecting  freedom,  294;  see 
Ability,  Free  Will. 

Will  of  God  supreme,  resistless,  149 ;  its 
nature,  150. 

Willful  absence  as  ground  of  divorce,  595. 

Winer,  on  value  of  Westminster  Symbols,  ",1 ; 
notes  of  the  church,  Roman,  Protestant, 
605. 

Wisdom  of  God,  its  nature,  145  ;  its  charac- 
teristics as  intelligence,  146  ;  as  wisdom  in 
the  moral  sense,  147. 

Wittsius,  on  the  revealing  L,ogos,  425. 

Woolsey,  divorce  and  divorce  legislation,  594. 

Word,  The,  Scriptures;  reading,  706;  preach- 
ing, 707 ;  hearing,  711. 

Works  of  creation  and  providence  revealing 
God,  70  ;  works  of  man,  see  Good  Works. 

Worship  enjoined,  second  commandment, 
526;  worship  of  false  gods  forbidden,  527  ; 
worship  of  images  and  pictures,  527,  704  ; 
nature  of  true  adoration,  703 ;  grounds  of 
worship,  704  ;  duty  of  social,  705  ;  elements 
of  true,  706  ;  see  Ordinances,  Praise,  Prayer. 

Zwingli,  on  salvation  of  infants,  281;  of  some 
heathen,  284,  425;  the  allseosis,  316;  good 
works,  490  ;  civil  magistracy,  569  ;  celibacy, 
592  ;  the  church,  603 ;  true  ministry,  631 ; 
the  papacy,  657  ;  purgatory,  753. 


ADDITIONAL  REFERENCES. 


General  Histories :  Hume,  Hallam,  Claren- 
don, Maeaulay  (Introduction)  Froude, 
Green,  Gardner. 

Church  Histories:  Fuller,  Burnet,  Strype, 
Heylin,  Stoughton,  Hardwick,  SchafT, 
Fisher. 

Special  Histories  :  Neal,  History  of  the  Pu- 
ritans ;  Marsden,  Early  and  Later  Puritans ; 
McCrie,  Annals  of  English  Presbytery ; 
Masson,  Life  of  Milton. 

Histories  Of  Doctrine:  Smith,  H.  B.,  Histor- 
ical Tables;  Hagenbach,  edited  by  Smith  ; 
Cunningham  ;  Shedd  ;  Fisher  ;  Dorner, 
Hist,  of  Protestant  Theol.;  Moehler,  Sym- 
bolism. 

Creeds,  Collections  of :  Dunlop,  Hase, 
Niemeyer,  Winer,  Swainson  ;  Hall,  Har- 
mony of  Protestant  Confessions ;  SchafT, 
Creeds  of  Christendom. 

Westminster  Assembly  :  Minutes,  edited 
with  Introduction  by  Mitchell ;  Baillie, 
letters  and  Journal ;  Lightfoot,  Journal  ; 
Gillespie,  Notes ;  Hetherington,  History 
Of  the  Assembly ;  Mitchell,  Westminster 
Assembly  ;  Reid,  Memoirs  ;  Briggs,  Docu- 
mentary History,  (Presbyt.  Review);  Ter- 
centenary Vol.  1843;  Memorial  Vol.  1897; 
Anniversary  Addresses,   (General  Assem- 


bly) 1898;  Stanley,  Memorials  of  Westmin- 
ster Abbey. 

Commentaries  on  the  Confession  of  Faith  ; 
Dickson,  (Truth's  Victory  Over  Error); 
Shaw,  Hodge,  A.  A.,  Macpherson,  Beattie. 

Commentaries  on  the  Catechisms :  Willard, 
(Body  of  Divinity);  Ridgley,  (Body  of  Di- 
vinity); Watson,  (Body  of  Practical  Divin- 
ity), Vincent,  Fisher,  Paterson,  Green 
Hall,  Boyd,  Whyte. 

Authors  of  the  Period,  illustrative ;  Cart- 
wright,  Ussher,  Henderson;  Twisse,  Palm- 
er, Arrowsmith,  Marshall,  Gillespie,  Cala- 
my,  Rutherford,  Goodwin  ;  Leighton,  Bax- 
ter, Owen,  Howe,  Charnock ,  Episcopius, 
Cocceius,  Ursinus,  F.  Turretin. 

Later  Authorities,  for  special  reference: 
British,  Butler,  Warburton,  Pearson,  Wes- 
ley, Hill,  Dick,  Wardlaw,  Watson,  Chal- 
mers, Smith,  J.  Pye. 
American,  Edwards,  Dwight,  Richards,  L- 
Beecher,  Hodge,  Ch.,  Smith,  H.  B.,  Breck- 
enridge,  Shedd,  Hickok,  Dabney. 

American  Presby terianism :  Gillett,  His- 
tory of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ;  Webster, 
same  title ;  Hodge,  Ch.,  Const.  History  ; 
Briggs,  Amer.  Presbyterianism ;  Thomp- 
son, Hist,  of  the  Presbyt.  Churches  ;  Pres- 
byterian Digest,  1898. 


